Jacksonville Cop Decided to Take a Legal Firearm from a Driver

Things didn't go well. Jacksonville man suing JSO after being shot in the leg when an officer tried to take his gun during a traffic stop

The incident occurred on Dec. 13, when [Jason] Arrington was stopped after running a red light. Arrington disclosed to the officers who pulled him over — a man and a woman — that he was carrying a firearm.

According to Arrington, officers instructed him to exit his vehicle so the weapon could be removed.

While Arrington complied with being “frisked” and informed the officers of the personal gun ahead of time, a female officer reportedly tugged on his holster from his waistband multiple times, causing his firearm to discharge.

And I'm completely, 100%, absolutely sure that the fact Jason Arrington is black had nothing to do with their decision-making process. I mean, cops aren't racist, are they?

A lawsuit has not been filed, but is in the works. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has updated its policies on concealed carry. Florida instituted Constitutional Carry in July of 2023, but the Sheriff's Office hadn't bothered to rethink how they deal with people carrying concealed. Arrington and his attorney say more needs to be done than issuing a memo, which is what the Sheriff did.

Apparently the sheriff doesn't want to release the bodycam footage.

“Mr. Arrington had violated a traffic law, certainly was not a wanted criminal,” Williams said. “There is no reason the body cam should not be released both to the victim of this situation and his council, and to the general public. So, we are asking JSO, the City of Jacksonville, to release the body cam footage. Because we believe it would in fact support what Mr. Arrington has described to you today, it would show the citizenry, that the officers' actions were in fact unreasonable, and it’s appropriate here...”

Cops need to come to terms with the fact that a lot of law-abiding people are armed. If they aren't used to that idea in Florida, what chance do we have in other parts of the country? If the fact that a lot of people are armed bothers or scares them, perhaps they should consider another line of work.