Yup. Brookfield Sued for Open-Carry Violation

Back in July, the City of Brookfield police detained an openly-carrying citizen.

The City is now being sued.

...On July 4th she was attending church services in Brookfield, WI. After the service, a church member called the non-emergency number of the Brookfield Police Department to inquire as to the legality of open-carry. Brookfield Police responded to the call by sending several officers/squads to the church. On the way to the church the officers were made aware by the dispatcher that our member was not being threatening or creating a disturbance. As our member was leaving the parking lot in her vehicle. A Brookfield Police officer waved her down drew his weapon and ordered her out of her car at gunpoint.

As open-carry is perfectly legal in Wisconsin and the officers were aware our member had threatened no one and caused no disturbance, the officers had no reasonable articulable suspicion, which the law requires, to stop and detain our member against her will. In addition, by drawing their guns on a law-abiding citizen who had done nothing wrong, the officers used an unlawful threat of deadly force during their unlawful detainment of our member. The police proceeded to, without reasonable suspicion or probable cause that any crime had occurred, conduct an unlawful and unconstitutional search of our members person and car. Our member was then unlawfully arrested and taken to the Brookfield Police Department for processing.

Wisconsin Open Carry notes that Racine paid $10K in damages for a similar offense. Madison, WI., will also soon be in Federal Court.