Madison police may owe open carry advocates an apology. Nik Clark with the open carry advocacy group Wisconsin Carry says Madison cops were out of bounds when openly carrying members stopped to eat a Culvers in Madison. “It wasn’t expected that the police would show up,” says Clark. “It was five guys that went to have dinner together. We do that all the time and most of the time the police don’t even show, and we don’t expect that they would.”
But eight Madison Police officers arrived and demanded I-D. Two of the Wisconsin Carry members refused to comply and were issued citations for obstructing. Clark says case law is clear: they didn’t have to show I-D since they weren’t doing anything illegal. Clark expects the citations will be dropped. “Certainly there’s an expectation of an apollogy from the police department for the innapropriate actions of their officers.” Clark says if the men had been arrested, there might be grounds for a lawsuit, but Wisconsin Carry may seek an injunction against Madison police detaining their members in the future.