When I first read the article, I noticed that it said that Roberts was served with the first summons on October 21st for disorderly conduct. Then it said that he fired the siren again on October 22nd. He probably could have gotten the first summons thrown out by a judge if he had not repeated the offense the day after being served. Also, his quote about his noise being bad and the gun fire noise being good was a huge indicator that this had more to do with being annoyed at the sounds rather than safety. Furthermore, there was no mention of a complaint on the officer who told him if he did not turn off the siren he would take him to jail and refused to tell him why. If I honestly thought I was within my legal rights, then I would have contacted the department supervisors to file a complaint. Not that I would not hate the noise of living next to a firing range, but getting into a peeing contest with the police and refusing to obey the law will not provide the results Roberts is looking for. Also, if he is using children's safety as an excuse not a legitimate reason, I guarantee this will bite him in the end.

I have known Mr. Roberts and his family for years and he has told us and many other people he only sounds the siren when they are shooting because he is tired of hearing the noise. The shooting range isn't even aimed near his home or his field. He brags all the time that he will keep sounding the siren until they move the range. All of the neighbors and even people that live on the other side of the hill can hear this commotion every other day. I don't blame him for being fed up with the gun blasts, but as far as him being worried about his grandchildren and residents is not the case. Should they move this away from a residential area, yes. But is it putting anyone in harms way, no. I believe they need to resolve this on both sides, but he needs to stop using "fearing for the saftey of others" as an excuse. He needs to be more fearful of what goes on in his "community". They all believe they are above the law and trust me they let it be known.

Way to go Mr. Roberts! We need more people like you in the world that cares!

Arthur Stanley Roberts Sr. is a hero.

The range of said weapons far exceed a mile with lethality. If the shooting range is poorly designed or constructed then the only way to safeguard the public is to close the range until remediation has occurred. I will be placing a call to the TBI in the morning to open an official investigation into this matter. The last thing anyone needs is an innocent civilian being killed or wounded by an errant round from a police officer's weapon. This range should have been certified! Why was it not?

I would suggest that Roberts file a civil rights violation with the FBI as this is obviously excessive use of local police powers. The proper course of action would have been for the police department to file a civil injunction to stop his alarm while waiting for a court hearing to determine the merits of the case. As Mr. Roberts did not violate any noise regulations and was not directly hindering a police investigation, his arrest is definitely a civil rights violation.

https://tips.fbi.gov/

Bravo, Mr. Roberts! You are a credit to your community.

So the police want to be able to create a "hazardous or physically offensive condition" by shooting off hundreds of rounds, making "unreasonable noise" and preventing citizens from "carrying on lawful activities," and be able to jail and/or fine someone else for the same thing? No one has proven the range is safe or not. No one has proven whether stray bullets could indeed injure or kill citizens in that area. I would hate to think that someone would be allowed to put in a firing range and NOT be required to test/prove it's safety. Do we have a major loophole, greased pocket, or turned head!!

Being fair to both sides, there is a lot we do not know. Did Mr. Roberts ever contact the chief prior to using his siren to address his cocerns? Did he ask if he could be notified when the range was going to be used? Or did he just take it upon himself to resort to using the siren? Also, if the siren was truly an attempt to make children aware of the gun fire, why did he have to continue to sound it off? If the siren was loud enough to prohibit communication at the range, then would a couple of honks not got the point across? Nobody wants a firing range near their property, but lets face it. No matter where it was built, it was going to join to neighboring land. Also, I believe the citizens have a right to know if the firing range was being used on May 19th, when the tractor window was broken. If so, then there may have been a stray bullet. There is a possibility that Roberts' actions were based upon the fact that he was annoyed by the noise from the new firing range and decided to purposely interfere with the use of it. If he is truly concerned about safety, then he should have attempted to maturely handle the matter before it got to this. Which he may have, but I think the citizens need to know a lot more before taking sides.

Cops aren't worried about a bunch of people living in a trailer park. They just shoot and ask questions later and let their buddies cover things up.

Thank you Mr. Roberts! You are an exceptional man for protecting your family and neighbors, like you do. If only everyone could be like you.

Shame on Bristol Police! You inconsiderate heathens! What is it gonna take for you to realize you are wrong? You are supposed to "protect and serve" the public, not shoot guns in an unsafe manner near them. Think about how to remedy this situation before someone is injured.

If this is a public facility, why isn't it safe? Why doesn't it meet ANY kind of safety standards? Why don't WE, the citizens of this state do something about it? Call the mayor, governor, senator, city council, anyone, everyone. Citizens: Do your part! Mr. Roberts can not do it all alone. Thanks.

"Thomas declined to say whether anyone had actually evaluated the range for safety."

Translation: "The range has never been evaluated by qualified experts for safety. But, contrary to my obligations as a public employee, I am not going to admit to that because, drunk on my own power, I feel that I am above public accountability and the law does not apply to me."

"Thomas also declined to allow access to the firing range after a consultation with the police chief and the city attorney."

Translation: "I am personally aware of serious flaws in the design of the range, and I know that a cursory examination by the public would reveal these flaws to even the untrained eye. Therefore, even though I am required to allow the public to inspect this public facility, I have illegally chosen not to allow it because, drunk on my own power, I feel that I am above public accountability and the law does not apply to me."

Keep up the sirens you have just as much roght to protect your trailer park residents as they do shooting their weapons.like someones gonna come up to his place everytime they shoot and practice to raise red flags and its all gonna be hoopla when a kids gets grazed by one of their bullets and then they will say oops its an accident and lets build a bigger bureum up there to stop this. i would venture to say litigation is already in the works for the defendant atleast if it was me i sure would sue the heck out of them,what law says that he can not give warnings to the possibility of stray shots? NONE.

Also, the police are being swaggering egotistical asses here. They are firing their guns and a man's window is shot out. He finds a bullet hole in the window, but the police say that since he did not find the bullet "it proves nothing". What a out of control group of insufferable arrogant twits!

It's also highly outrageous that he is charged for disorderly conduct because he is trying to warn people with a siren, but the police are not charged with disorderly conduct for shooting guns constantly and continually in an area where children play.

He has every right to warn his children as to the presence of stray bullets in the field where they play. The city is not just out of line, but their actions are criminally amoral to be persecuting him. We all know that if one of his children were shot by one of the hot shot lunatic cops that practice at this range, it is he who would be charged with child neglect.

Let's all put on our big boy panties and resolve this peacefully. Bristol police, install red warning signs which indicate when the range is in use in clear view of anyone who might be entering an agreed upon distance in an adjacent area (hhmm, how about based on the range of the weapons being fired?). Even children know what the color "red" means. Roberts, tone down your siren; the neighbors probably like to hear their television over your siren. You guys have to meet each other halfway...