The Rights of the People Read Online Free Page A

precinct.
    “Anybody here ever chased a person with a gun?” asked one of the detectives, Curt Sloan. Nearly all raised their hands. “What’s the first thing they do?” Grab it, several said. Yes, Sloan noted: Even police officers unconsciously touch their guns a hundred times a day, although those guns are safe in holsters. Someone with a pistol tucked in his waistband is going to touch it much more often, adjust it, make sure it’s secure and accessible. Watch the hands. Figure out which is the dominant side: Wristwatches are usually worn on the weak side; a right-handed person usually smokes a cigarette with the right hand and begins walking by pushing off with his right foot, leading with his left. Over 90 percent of people are right-handed, so the right hand will touch the waistband.
    When the gunman walks, the instructors explained, his gun hand doesn’t swing as far from his weapon as his other hand, and the asymmetry increases with the speed of his gait, until, running, he’s holding on to the gun in the waistband. If he suddenly begins to run normally, both arms pumping identically, he’s probably thrown down the gun. Look near the place where his running becomes symmetrical.
    “Crap games offer an excellent opportunity to spot individuals who are carrying firearms,” said a handout distributed to the class. “Because the participants bend over during the game, and stand after each roll of the dice, a loosely worn firearm will have a tendency to move. These subjects will be constantly attempting to turn from view to make the adjustment, and will also tend to pull their pants up constantly.” 6
    Clothing can be a good tip-off, Neill and the others explained. A jacket with a gun in a pocket hangs in a lopsided way, the wrinkles and folds askew, the empty side’s fabric clinging to the front of the pants. The side holding the firearm hangs away from the trousers and swings like a pendulum when the gunman walks. A bag with a gun may tilt markedly in one direction.
    Look for clothing that seems designed to conceal a weapon, the class was told: a tailored shirt that’s not tucked in, a baggy coat too warm for the weather, a loose windbreaker over unmatching garments such as suit pants and tie, a belt around pants with no belt loops. Someone who wears only one glove may be keeping his gun hand bare for quick action.
    And watch the reactions when you arrive on a scene, Neill said. The guys standing on a corner may all turn to look at the guy with a gun, who may walk away or run. The gunman may turn one side away, if there’s aprotrusion where he’s stuck the firearm. He may hold his girlfriend tightly against his weapon—Sloan happily demonstrated with a female officer—or lean on that side against his vehicle, or turn his gun side away during a pat-down.
    With that technique, Neill told me later, he saved his life in Iraq, where he spent a year as a first sergeant in an army reserve intelligence unit. A report that someone had thrown a grenade led American soldiers and Iraqi policemen to search the house of a man who struck Neill as uncommonly bold as he walked past four infantrymen. Neill stepped toward him. The man turned a side away and put a hand on his pocket. “I thought it was a grenade,” Neill said, “and I grabbed it, and as his hand was goin’ to grab it, my hand got underneath his hand, and I felt the grenade in his pocket, pushed him up against the wall, and the last guy in the infantry squad helped me secure him, and we got a couple of more grenades out of his house, some AK-47s and some currency, some powder to make the grenades hotter, some BBs to fill it up with more pellets. So in that instance the police work came in good.” He won a bronze star.
    In other ways, too, he transported tactics from Washington to Baghdad. “I was teaching the same thing to the guys who were teaching the soldiers, and also to my soldiers,” he said. “When you ride up the street, look for the guys