of all the random things

In my partial-snow-day browsing around the internet, this was not the news story I was expecting to find:

A Petaluma man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of impersonating a police officer after he allegedly pulled over a female driver near Sonoma, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.

The 22-year-old woman was driving on Napa Road around 11 p.m. Feb. 2 when she was pulled over by an unmarked vehicle with a red light, Lt. Chris Spallino said.
A man not wearing a uniform then flashed what appeared to be a badge and asked her for identification, Spallino said.

The woman became uncomfortable and asked the man to have a marked vehicle respond. The man then became uncomfortable and drove away and the woman called police, Spallino said.

Detectives from the sheriff’s office’s violent crimes unit identified 29-year-old Benjamin Philip Cannon as a suspect. After the woman identified him as the man who pulled her over, Cannon was placed under surveillance, Spallino said.

Cannon was arrested Thursday at his residence in the 1100 block of East Sunnyslope Road for impersonating a police officer and false imprisonment, Spallino said.

Detectives seized Cannon’s silver 2001 BMW and found a police scanner, strobe light, handcuffs and a siren inside, Spallino said. Cannon was booked into the Sonoma County jail and has since posted $10,000 bail.

In case that name does not ring an immediate bell with you, Mr. Benjamin Cannon is the proprietor, CEO, and chairman of GunPal – the PayPal-alternative (since PayPal sucks) of transferring money around the internet.

In response to the news article, Mr. Cannon has released this statement:

A news article is circulating alleging that I “Impersonated an Officer”. I have not been charged with a crime. These allegations are untrue, and I expect to have my good name, and reputation, fully restored in short order. In the interim, I have determined that it is in the best interest of Calguns.net, and The Calguns Foundation, that I immediately, and temporarily, resign from my positions with both entities. I have assembled a legal team that is in the process of investigating identity theft and defamation attempts.

Based on advice from my attorneys, I am unable to make further comments or statements at this time.

The thread where that statement was posted lasted 181 comments before it was locked, but the CalGuns community is almost completely united in support behind Mr. Cannon.

So what do I think? Well, personally, I do not put a whole lot of stock into allegations, or even charges – once all of the facts, testimony, and evidence of the case have been brought forward, and the court has decided one way or the other, then we can start making some determinations about Mr. Cannon and the businesses he supports, owns, and runs. For the time being, though, my GunPal-provided donation link (visible on the left column) will remain.

Regarding the allegations in specific, however… Well, nothing found in the car surprises me a great deal, or are technically illegal – a police scanner could be anything from an actual scanner to a HAM radio; a strobe light, so long as it is not a color that is limited to police officers only, is not a problem (hell, my flashlight can strobe); handcuffs are a bit odd, but, hey, some people have interesting tastes; and a siren could be anything from a leftover airhorn from a sporting event to a bullhorn. As for his car and identifying him, Mr. Cannon has not lead an exactly low-profile life, especially with the work he is doing to support and defend Americans’ Constitutionally-protected natural rights, so digging up enough information to implicate him for anything would not be that hard.

For the time being, “wait and see” seems to be the order of the day – more information should come to light as the investigation and legal wrangling goes on, and we will eventually have a full picture of what transpired. If the allegations are false (as Mr. Cannon states, and I have no cause to doubt his honesty), I sincerely hope the woman is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If they are true, then I will definitely have to re-evaluate my opinion of Mr. Cannon. Never a dull day in the pro-rights side of the house, is there?

(Courtesy of Everyday, No Days Off.)