[HandgunWorld]

Paul Lathrop host of the Polite Society Podcast was arrested last February. He was accused of brandishing a firearm and making terroristic threats at a Nebraska truck stop. All charges were dropped earlier this week, but he went through a tremendous ordeal to get his name cleared because of an anti gun prosecutor, clearly with an agenda. Also, the police seem to be at least part of the problem.

Paul Lathrop is my friend. He drives a truck for a living. He was also instructing a student driver when this happened. Unfortunately, his accuser won the race to call 911 and Paul spent 5 days in jail for no good reason. After spending literally thousands of dollars and 6 months clearing his name, there is a huge lesson to be learned.

Now that Paul can talk publicly, I was the first to interview him, to tell his story. It's well worth the listen.

Handgun World Podcast | Episode 381- Falsely Charged: Paul Lathrop Tells Story Publicly For The First Time

 

[Mike1956]

Anything shorter than an hour-and-ten minute podcast to give us an idea of what happened?

 

[HandgunWorld]

His accuser, got angry at him and told the police he brandished a firearm. Video tape showed that wasn't true, charges were eventually dropped. But Paul spent a tremendous amount of money out of his own pocket and endured a lot of grief over it.

I hope you think it's worth 1hr and 10 minutes to learn a very valuable lesson. Far too detailed to write it here.

Paul lost the race to call 911.

It was a mistake because the irate driver later called police and claimed that Paul threatened him and “waved a silver revolver out the window of the truck”. Even though the truth is, he had a Glock and it never left his truck. But, the accuser, established himself as the victim, even though he wasn't. Security video showed otherwise. The testimony of Paul and his student matched the video. The state only dropped the charges after Paul spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring a lawyer and repeated trips out of state to work through our legal system. Paul’s lawyer had the truck stop video to exonerate Paul. But there are also other lessons, that he explains very clearly in the interview.


http://www.handgunworld.com/episode...l-lathrop-speaks-publicly-for-the-first-time/

 

[HandgunWorld]

Anything shorter than an hour-and-ten minute podcast to give us an idea of what happened?

It's worth your time.

 

[Mike1956]

It's worth your time.

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but I'm not listening to anything over about ten minutes or so. There are only so many hours in the day...

Again, could we get a synopsis of the original incident?

 

[Cannibal]

Again, could we get a synopsis of the original incident?

A quick Google search will show he has several fundraising sites setup, with a basic version of the story. Here is one example from GoGetFunding:

Human Rights Advocate Paul Lathrop urgently needs your help. Paul is a longtime advocate of the people’s right to self-defense. He is the Creator and Co-Executive Producer of The Polite Society Podcast which is, downloaded thousands of times each week. Paul is about as “salt of the earth” as you can get. A long-haul truck driver and driving instructor by trade, he and his loving wife Susan are two of the finest people on the planet. Over the weekend, Paul was in Nebraska training a student driver when the following situation unfolded.

The student driver had stopped at a station to refuel. As the student pulled away from the pump, another driver apparently felt that the student was too close to his rig. Although there was no collision, the irate driver of the other truck rushed over to the driver’s side of Paul’s rig and aggressively approached the student. The student felt that he was about to be assaulted and told the aggressor to back off. Paul also demanded that the driver back off. After some back and forth, the other driver finally went back to his vehicle and the student drove off. Unfortunately, the other driver decided to call the police and accused Paul of threatening him with a gun. The student swears that he never saw a gun at any time during the confrontation, but the police stopped them and Paul was arrested. Paul has been accused of making “terroristic” threats. Many of you are aware that this is one of the latest ploys used by ambitious prosecutors all over the nation. In addition, they included “Possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony”. Of course the “felony” is the trumped up charge of making terroristic threats. I find that to be a self-referencing, catch-22 type of charge.

In any event, many of you know Paul and those of you who don’t but who know me (Frank Jack Fiamingo - Founder of New Jersey Second Amendment Society) can feel confident that he deserves our help and support. Paul is going to need money for bail and for a defense attorney. I am asking you to please consider joining me to support this very deserving, hard-working advocate of our rights. Paul’s resources are modest and he really needs the help of the 2A and human rights community.

You can help Paul by making a donation in any amount at the below. Thank you in advance for your kind generosity for a fellow 2A advocate.

 

[Rhinoman]

I'm "cubically challenged" and can't watch video at work. Most sights are blocked, including you tube.

 

[Mike1956]

I'm "cubically challenged" and can't watch video at work. Most sights are blocked, including you tube.

That's OK, you can still Google it or go the fundraiser pages.

 

[HandgunWorld]

I'm "cubically challenged" and can't watch video at work. Most sights are blocked, including you tube.

It's an audio podcast, no video to watch.

 

[Rhinoman]

It's an audio podcast, no video to watch.

Doesn't matter. It's blocked from work. Even if it wasn't, it would take me three days to load the file. We have serious bandwidth issues and a firewall that blocks everything by default. It's a government office and the firewall even blocks many government sites.

 

[Mike1956]

It's an audio podcast, no video to watch.

It's still an hour-plus long, and he's at work, probably not the best place to be listening to stuff on the internet.

 

[Fallsrider]

I just listened to the first 45 minutes while driving around town for work. That tells the story. He was facing up to 55 years in prison if convicted. The Flying J video surveillance agreed with his and his student's story and saved him.

He candidly admits his mistake was not dialing 911 during the aggressive actions of the other trucker. The race to call 911 is no joke.

 

[KimBobTex]

My CHL instructor pounded into everyone in the class, repeatedly ... "Whenever you have to draw your gun in public, he who calls 911 first, wins".

Don't just re-holster & move on if nothing happened, someone will be calling the cops on you.

 

[Mike1956]

So, did he draw down on the guy or not? Search as I might, the only references I find on my good friend Google are assertions of his innocence, the ensuing attack upon him by the legal system, and pleas for contributions to his defense funds.

 

[gasmitty]

Spoiler alert: No.

 

[Mike1956]

Spoiler alert: No.

Thanks.

 

[HandgunWorld]

So, did he draw down on the guy or not? Search as I might, the only references I find on my good friend Google are assertions of his innocence, the ensuing attack upon him by the legal system, and pleas for contributions to his defense funds.

No, but you should hear what the other guy told the police. If you have an anti-gun zealot running the city or county, it doesn't matter. Tyranny exists everywhere and this is an example.

 

[Mike1956]

No, but you should hear what the other guy told the police. If you have an anti-gun zealot running the city or county, it doesn't matter. Tyranny exists everywhere and this is an example.

Confirmation bias is everywhere, for sure. Has his false accuser been charged?

 

[StevePVB]

Are we supposed to call 911 every time we don't draw/brandish? I'm not sure what the lesson is here. If it was me I can't see why I would have called 911 to get my non-story in first.

 

[MAJOkie]

Are we supposed to call 911 every time we don't draw/brandish? I'm not sure what the lesson is here. If it was me I can't see why I would have called 911 to get my non-story in first.

Whew.. thanks, for a second there I thought I was the ONLY one that was scratching my head about the "Should have called 911 first". What was there to call them about? He didn't actually draw his gun or brandish it. It was basically an argument about 'you drove too close to my rig you Blankety-Blank!!" What exactly should he have called 911 and reported? "911, what's your emergency?" "Hi, I just had an argument with some idiot and I'm afraid he might call you and report me, claiming I drew a gun when I didn't"?