Arlington Police Arrest Open Carry Activist During Cop Watch Patrol

On Saturday night (12/27/2014) after a previous police accountability event, many of the attendees participated in a cop watch patrol, including some who were open carrying. In spite of the fact that they have a right to peacefully assemble, observe and record people (including the police) in public view, and bear arms, evidence of heavy surveillance by the Arlington police was observed throughout the night. This culminated in several instances of harassment against those involved and the eventual the arrest of two people taking part in the subsequent cop watch patrol, including Jacob Cordova, which can be seen in the embedded video.

Jacob was initially charged with illegally carrying a firearm, based on Texas’ restriction on carrying a handgun outside of your own private property. However, the pistol he was open carrying at the time is an antique pre-1899 black powder pistol, which is exempt from those restrictions. After being kidnapped and held against his will, the charge was changed to “disrupting police business.” That is equivalent to the more common charge of interfering with an officer or obstructing an investigation/justice, which is clearly not the case based on the video evidence included below. That charge and similar charge, such as disturbing the peace, are often used as generic charges whenever the police want to arrest someone, but they haven’t actually done anything.

Details on the arrest of Jacob Cordova, via The Free Thought Project:

In a show of blatant disregard for the law, two officers with the Arlington Police Department arrested cop watcher, Jacob Cordova, for open carrying a civil war era black powder pistol while filming a routine traffic stop. Which, according to Texas law, is completely legal.

As seen in the video below, Cordova is clearly being arrested for open carrying the legal firearm. The officer states, “You are not allowed to have a firearm out here,” to which Cordova replies, “It’s a pre-1899 black powder pistol. Read the penal code.” Cordova then asks to see the officer’s supervisor; a request that the peace officers completely ignore.

Cordova is then arrested.

When taken to jail, Cordova learns that the charges were changed from what he was initially told, and that he was being held with the charge of “disrupting police business.”

In a statement given to The Free Thought Project, Cordova says, “It’s a pending investigation and they ended up changing charges from a fire arm charge to a ‘disrupting police business’ charge that is a class B misdemeanor. We have great evidence and I will fight it till the end.”

Outfit Involved: Arlington, TX. Police Dept.

Ways you can contact them:

• (817) 459-5700
• Aggressor: Ofc. A. Felton Badge#2845; at least one other unidentified officer
• http://www.arlington-tx.gov/police
• https://www.facebook.com/ArlingtonPolice
• https://twitter.com/ArlingtonPD
• http://www.youtube.com/user/arlingtonpolicemedia

Additional background  on the harassment by Arlington PD employees and the arrest, via Kory Watkins of Texas Cop Block and North Texas Cop Block: