I have a follow-up to the "citizen stops unmarked cop car" story
A few days ago there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth because a self-described "liberty speaker" named Gavin Seim pulled over a Grant County, Washington, sheriff's car that was unmarked and read the deputy inside the riot act because the car didn't have Grant County Sheriff's Office markings. He threatened to arrest the deputy if the deputy made any arrests while driving this car.
I'll freely admit I don't like this man. He pulls a lot of stupid stunts based on his erroneous readings of the law. Example: sometime before the primary election he was in, he went to the Grant County Courthouse to protest the fact there was no lockbox at the front door to the facility for people to deposit guns in. They had one, but it was in the sheriff's office down the hall - if you are one of those guys who can't be without a gun for even a second you give it to the nice lady at the door, she takes it to the sheriff's room, and when you get ready to leave they give it back. It worked for everyone else and it was legal, but Seim made such a stink they wound up moving the lockbox out by the door to please him.
(By way of comparison, they do not have similar lockboxes in Idaho; you leave your gun in your locked car, and bringing a gun into the courthouse building if you're not a sworn law officer is a misdemeanor.)
This is from the Columbia Basin Herald, who doesn't post things like this on their website.
According to Sheriff Tom Jones, the section of the Revised Code of Washington dealing with vehicle marking is not a civil or criminal statute. It is one "that would be handled internally by an agency head." The car Seim pulled over was new. It arrived at the county motor pool before the vinyl to mark it, which had been ordered before this incident happened, did (which has been installed, BTW), and the sheriff decided the public safety would be best served by using the car.
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