to do a quick job and as I used to work there I was looking forward to it.  Had to stop at one of the Capitol Hill Police checkpoints and ask directions to a specific parking garage.  Officer approaches my truck from the front and says he'll be glad to help so pull over there and be with you in a minute.  So I pull out of the lane and wait about 15 seconds while he lets several cars through.  As I'm looking in the side view he comes up to the back of the truck, unsnaps the thumb break on his holster, puts his hand on the gun, and then doesn't get any closer than the B pillar of the truck while giving directions.

I know its text book SOP blah, blah, blah.  I just hate this "anything goes since 9/11" BS.  Plus I really hate when COPs put their hand on their gun when they talk to people, especially when their talking to me.


Rest of visit/work was as I remembered the Senate to be which was/is effusively friendly and courteous to all.

had a police officer draw on me* after i told him i was carrying a concealed weapon and it was down above my wallet.

told me to take it slow and get the wallet...

****maybe "draw on me" is a bit too much...he drew his handgun out of the holster and held it between me and the ground...

Quoted: had a police officer draw on me* after i told him i was carrying a concealed weapon and it was down above my wallet. told me to take it slow and get the wallet... ****maybe "draw on me" is a bit too much...he drew his handgun out of the holster and held it between me and the ground...

WTF?

Where was this?

I went to DC a year and a half ago, place looks like something out of that dysfunctional-future Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man."  Had the steps of the Capitol building blocked off with fencing, bodybuilder security guards with rifles on the balconies.  There wasn't a specific threat; it was business as usual, post-9/11.  

My british guests asked one of the guards about it, he was polite, but basically he was like "everyone is a threat these days, the Capitol could be attacked at any minute, yadda yadda."  

You know, people joke about survivalists wishing for a Red Dawn scenario to come true.  Sometimes, I think government has their own SHTF daydreams in which they impose martial law and boss everyone around.  Sadly, since 9/11, they are a helluva lot closer to implementing their daydream than the wannabe-Wolverines.

Sorry, rant off, and the above is not intended to be cop-bashing so please don't take it that way.

As to Capital Hill - things seemed to kick into overdrive when Terrance Gainer, the former DC Assistant Police Chief, took over as Chief of the Capital Hill Police after 9/11.  He is an intelligent man and I believe he is well intentioned however, the people he works for, Congress, think they are the most powerful, influential, and most important people in the world.  They may be.  And they may be so important as to deserve their own para-military forces paid for with tax dollars.  I just hate feeling like I'm making a trip through "Check Point Charlie" to do a little work.

If Congress is that afraid of the people they represent then perhaps they should relocate to a safer environment.  I hear Baghdad has a very nice neighborhood called the "Green Zone".