Earlier today, news broke that NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to disarm his security detail in the interests of gun control. The answer came when journalist Jason Mattera confronted him and asked him to disarm, while the mayor was visiting Washington DC for the US Conference of Mayors on January 18.
Bloomberg answered, “Uh, we’ll get back with you on that.” Then later, after Mattera had left the area, an Officer Stockton followed him down the street.
Officer Stockton asked Mattera to present his drivers license. Mattera refused, and asked Stockton if he had jurisdiction to ask him any questions.
Stockton replied that he had “security jurisdiction.” Click to enlarge.
I asked PJ Media’s legal experts, Hans A. von Spakovsky, and Christian Adams, about this question of “security jurisdiction.” Both formerly worked as lawyers in the United States Department of Justice.
Spakovsky replied:
Police officers who are outside of their normal jurisdiction but who are acting as protection for a public figure like Bloomberg certainly have the ability to act to protect their principal from a threat of imminent harm. But no such officer has “security jurisdiction” that allows him to harass a member of the press or a member of the public who is not physically threatening his principal. There is no law justifying what the NYPD officer was doing.
Even a Washington, D.C. police officer assigned to help protect Bloomberg while he is in Washington would have no right to engage in such harassment. And it is clear from the video that Mattera wasn’t doing anything other than asking Bloomberg a legitimate question about a political issue that Bloomberg has taken up publicly in a very pronounced way. The NYPD officer was acting far beyond his authority.
And you can quote me on that.
Adams’ reply regarding “security jurisdiction” was a bit more succinct:
No such thing.
Officer Stockton had no legal authority to pursue Mattera. He was out of his jurisdiction. As you can see at the very end of the video, Stockton continued pursuing Mattera long after he had left the scene of the brief conversation with Mayor Bloomberg. He even asked Mattera for his date of birth while pursuing him down the street in Washington.
Had the incident happened in Virginia the NYPD officer might have found himself on the other side of the cage.
If they were actively planning to give a mini-demonstration of why law abiding citizens should not give up their guns, could they have come up with better?
Well, we knew Bloomberg was an authoritarian. Cities are just like that. No liberty, just do what the Man says or else.
I’m sure Rahm of Chicago is claiming “financial jurisdiction”.
On a more serious note, this is why you need a tribunate, untouchable by the police.
Just curious – Is Bloomberg’s security detail required to get clearance from DC’s Metro Police in order to carry while in DC? And why in the world would a political minnow like Bloomberg “need” that many big body guards while in Washington DC – a city with some of the nation’s strictest gun laws? I’ll even bet that hotel was a gun free zone, so he was completely safe.
ps – Outside of pursuing Mattera, most of the detail seemed to be doing a professional job of shielding Bloomberg from the common rabble.
He feels he needs his army to surround him because he is a scared little boy that feels he has to protect his toys from the bullies that used to ridicule him. Now that he has the national stage and all that money he feels he can publically harass people and bend them to his will without consequence. He is going to show the bullies in the NRA who they are messing with in an effort to gain closure on those repressed childhood issues he yet suffers.
Why would the security dude want to go on youtube (eg) looking like a foo’? He knew he was being recorded. Sometimes it’s like the heat has been on too long and the brain pan has boiled dry.
thats actually something I now wonder about, knowing he was being recorded and yet did this anyways when everyone else didn’t.
is it possible he knows how much of a hypocrite bloomberg is and wanted this to happen ?
There’s nothing called “security jurisdiction” but most every state firearms laws have “official business” exceptions for law enforcement from other jurisdictions -state and federal.
Bullies, nothing more.
Stockton knew what he could and couldn’t do. File a civil rights lawsuit against Stockton. Let it be put on his record whether he wins or loses.