East Palo Alto cop takes heat for Facebook remarks

 

 

By Jessica Bernstein-Wax

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: 02/09/2010 03:00:00 AM PST

Updated: 02/11/2010 11:21:11 AM PST

An East Palo Alto police detective is taking heat in online forums for allegedly posting comments from his Facebook account that advocate shooting Open Carry gun advocates.

Detective Rod Tuason apparently made the remarks in response to a friend's status update, which joked that gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons in plain view as a political statement should start doing so in places such as Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto "and not limit themselves to hoity toity cities."

"Haha, we had one guy last week try to do it!" Tuason replied, referring to a Redwood City man who strolled into the Mi Pueblo Food Center in East Palo Alto on Jan. 27 with a gun on his hip. "He got proned out and reminded where he was at and that turds will jack him for his gun in a heartbeat!"

After several more comments in the thread, Tuason apparently joked that officers should shoot the advocates, who have made recent headlines throughout the Bay Area for sipping coffee at cafes and performing other everyday acts with visible weapons.

"Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!"

It's unclear when Tuason made the comments, but they attracted the attention of gun rights advocates after blogger and lawyer Kevin Thomason posted a screen grab of the thread and a link to Tuason's Facebook page on his Web site Sunday.

"East Palo Alto, CA Detective Roderick Tuason didn't realize that actual PRO-GUN people also read Facebook," Thomason said in the post. "Amazingly, he posted the following comment about law abiding gun owners on a friend's page. Basically, he's saying 'prone them out' (on the ground), and if anyone moves, kill them."

Thomason urged his readers to contact East Palo Alto council members to complain. Reached by phone Monday, Thomason said he wanted to comment but couldn't because he works with a nonprofit foundation that wouldn't want him to speak publicly on the matter.

California Penal Code bars carrying concealed weapons without a county-issued license but says it isn't a crime to openly display a firearm in a belt holster. However, it remains illegal for the gun to be loaded in most cases.

While residents who carry unloaded, registered guns in plain view aren't breaking any laws, police have said the practice is dangerous because officers can't tell whether a gun is loaded and what an armed person's intentions are.

Tuason didn't return a phone message seeking comment Monday. But East Palo Alto police Capt. Carl Estelle said the department's professional standards division is looking into the Facebook remarks to see if they violate any rules or policies.

"We have to be careful because they're on his own personal private Web page," Estelle said. "We have to be careful not to violate his First Amendment rights."

The department hasn't taken action against Tuason, and the detective was working in uniform Monday, he said.

"In no way are his personal comments reflective of any policies or procedures here at the department, nor does he speak for the police department," Estelle said.

Meanwhile, Tuason's Facebook comments had sparked a 45-page thread on the Web site Calguns.net Monday afternoon. A user with the handle .45shooter claiming to be either Tuason or the detective's Facebook friend who posted the original status update — the identity wasn't clear from the post — apologized to site members and said he was a Second Amendment advocate himself.

"Sometimes sacastic or off color humor should be best kept in the confines of those you can confide in," the poster wrote. "I forgot the golden rule of whos watching and listenting to you! I know i ruffled alot of feathers by making that comment! But as a person i did not mean no harm to anyone. Those that know me know my form of humor after all i'm a former Marine!"

Mark Hudson, a San Mateo resident and Second Amendment supporter, said that while he isn't part of the Open Carry movement, he saw the post on Calguns and Tuason's comments offended him.

"The reason people are open carrying is because in San Mateo County they're unable to get concealed carry permits," Hudson said. "This East Palo Alto policeman basically said he would shoot you in the back — a law-abiding citizen exercising their Second Amendment rights. ... You're going to invite law enforcement into your life when you open carry. That's why I don't do it."

 

Open carry of an unloaded gun is legal in California?  Why would anyone in their right mind carry an empty gun?