police
© Paul Sableman
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, Connecticut passed gun laws in April 2013 that made it amongst the most restrictive states in the country. However, residents can still traverse their way through the bureaucratic red tape and legally obtain a permit allowing them to open carry and conceal carry a firearm.

It is the legal right of Connecticut residents to be able to move about freely while open carrying a firearm.

In spite of this legal right and permitting process, Manchester police officers were captured on video unlawfully detaining and handcuffing three individuals. The result is nothing short of infuriating as multiple Manchester police officers are recorded ignoring actual crimes taking place, in order to harass, threaten, and detain three innocent individuals who had committed no crime.


Michael Picard and Dontrell Brown are activists who both have legal permits to open carry firearms in Connecticut. They have both been featured on the Free Thought Project before as they are adamant about flexing their rights.

On May 17, Picard, Brown, and Goodman Brown were getting ready to protest an unconstitutional checkpoint while legally open carrying. However, their legal actions were reported to the police department by an individual who apparently thinks that cops should be the only ones to have guns.

After a citizen saw something, he said something and reported the three men for their lawful actions.

In an interview with the Free Thought Project, Picard explained the incident as it unfolded.

"Dontrell and I were legally and peacefully openly carrying, as we always do, when a caller reported that they were alarmed that we were openly carrying, although, by his own admission, were not threatening, we were 'friends hanging out'," Picard said.

However, instead of just engaging in conversation with the three men who had committed no crime, officers chose to assault them all with deadly weapons.

"We were held at gunpoint, forced to the ground, disarmed, handcuffed, searched, our cell phones were seized, I was knelt on and called by name, making it clear that the officers knew me," explains Picard, noting that the officers already knew these men had permits and were not criminals.

During the middle of the unlawful detainment and harassment, dispatch comes over the radio to report an actual crime in progress, asking these officers to respond. Instead of immediately halting their detainment of innocent men, the cops ignored the call for help and opted to continue their illegal harassment.

"Dontrell's car was searched without probable cause and towed when in actuality it was registered," explained Picard. "We were told we were being arrested and booked for 'breach of peace' and put in the back of an 80-degree squad car, with no windows or doors open."

After being detained for more than an hour, the were then released without charges only to be threatened by the cops who said they were going to sic the state attorney on them.

Police officers acting in a retaliatory manner like the ones in the video above are the reason for so much divide in America today. Instead of protecting the rights of these individuals, the officers threatened their lives and detained them for exercising the very rights they are sworn to uphold.