my state is massachusetts, and i have been trying to seek justice on the police for unlawful arrest/imprisonment/unseen injuries. I will post my ENTIRE story as i should it to my student legal advisors. Bear in mind that it is very long, as the police were "investigating vandalism" at the time.
+++++++++++scroll down a few comments for a VERY short version
Don't let this fool you, they ultimately paid me a visit because someone felt threatened, so i dont even know how plausible their investigation immunity is.
This is long, but it all ties in to what ultimately happened
Almost a week before arrest-I was following a duck on campus out of boredom, and a man was upset because the duck did not want to be followed. He threatened me (by guessman lab), and so I walked away to the library and called the police station. An officer showed up, and I explained everything to him. He discovered that I had no identification on me, and so he began to turn the situation around. He ended up pretty much laughing at me and recording something about animal cruelty on my record (I was not charged with anything, but when I was arrested the police saw something about animal cruelty under my name)
The next day, I was with my friend who does not live on campus and we were walking from Worcester dining commons towards sylvan through the woods. We saw a fire in the woods, and were curious as to whether or not a hobo was living there. We approached, and two college students (at least I think) invited us to sit with them. We noticed another fire near the end of the woods by sylvan. Shortly after, the two kids left with the fire still ablaze. Me and my friend stayed to watch it burn out, and eventually saw police taking care of the other fire (whoever was there must have ran when the police approached). Having done nothing wrong, my friend and I reached a consensus to stay and talk to the police as opposed to leaving the woods in danger. The police approached, and first asked where the third fire was. Then they began interrogating us about a bag of alcohol. Finally, they asked if we were carrying weapons and I hesitated, in order to think about what could be classified as a weapon. In the end, I said no and a thorough search by the police agreed with me. They discovered I was the “duck” person and proceeded to ridicule and laugh at me.
After the fire, my roommate asked me what happened. I told him we were almost in trouble for things we didn’t do, etc.
The next day, police came to my dorm to run an investigation. They wanted to question my friend about internet wires being cut and vandalism at the library. I went with him to assure his innocence. After being interrogated, the iinvestigator realized that he was just a friend who overstayed his visit. Nonetheless, he was given a notice of trespass and that was the end of that.
Being finals week, I spent the remainder of my time studying and falling asleep outside of my dorm. I had a free night to sleep back at my dorm, and so I did. My roommate asked me how’s it going, and I told him my friend was kicked out. I also told him I’m not in trouble, and everything is still going as planned<----this is where I think he felt threatened or more likely told other suitemates who felt threatened, or went on to tell the RA.
*One of my suitemates is a psychologist, like myself. So we have quite interesting conversations about motives and how society can mold people. A popular debate we always had involved around school shootings and their motives. I always ended up arguing that they occur because of the impact society and difficult upbringings have on people, whereas he would always argue that they are born with something wrong in their heads. Usually everyone would express their opinions in these conversations, so I believe this is where the resentment arose. One suitmate pointed out he hates psychologists. And I guess no one liked my way of viewing how the mind works. This was usually an ongoing thing, but no one really was involved in the conversations until days before my arrest*
About a day before my arrest, I was talking about Lebanon and how my uncle owns an M16 because he is in the army. I think whoever was offended by my view on how life works thought this to be a realistic threat, and either told the police that I was endangering everyone or told the RA who told the police, the RA being less informed of how my suite interacts with each other, so she would be more likely to feel scared about what she hears.
May 10-When I came back to clean my dorm and move out, police entered my room uninvited (my door was open because I was moving things to my car). They began to question me about threatening people. They said people were scared, and they issued me a trespass. One officer asked if I had any weapons in the room rather randomly (the same officer from the fire incident), and I hesitated before i said no. they placed me in handcuffs and were going to search the room. They asked where the knife was and I pointed to a plastic bag on my drawer. I was escorted into the police car, and I noticed the officers all talking amongst themselves. I believe they were debating on whether or not they could arrest me.
They took me to the station and locked me up. 2 hours after they received bail, the clerk magistrate finally appeared and I was let out. Before I left the station, one of the officers made it clear that if I mess up before my court date, he would take my green card, fold it into a plane, and fly into the library. This obviously made me feel like he associated me with the working of al Qaeda, a group who terrorized millions of people. He was relating to 9/11 and I felt very discriminated against. I was cussed at several times at the station, but I figured it was normal police conduct. However this comment made it clear that they did not like me.
They were hypocrits in their actions when the man threatened me and they laughed, and yet I “threaten” the safety of those around me and I am arrested.
I went to court for the knife case. I felt pressure from the court to proceed without a lawyer, as if they knew something was fishy. I knew something was wrong, and decided I would wait until I found a lawyer. Raymon Smith represented me shortly after, on the same day, free of charge. He suggested I plea guilty and have it converted to a civil case instead of criminal. I pointed out that I was arrested for Carrying a Dangerous weapon, though I was not carrying one.
I believe that the officers had no right to arrest me, and they tried to dress up their error. They made it clear that they arrested me for carrying a dangerous weapon while at the same time providing evidence for finding it in a bag in my room.
On top of that, they never took me seriously like they would have anyone else, potentially because of my race. The man who threatened me should have been in trouble. Instead I got in trouble for calling the police. This experience made it clear to me that I cannot turn to police for justice, as they will never help me.
So, after talking to my campus lawyer, he said that i have a 50/50 shot at winning a court case with a highly experienced lawyer. he also said the benefits of winning are not worth having a lawyer for, and without having a lawyer i would be looking at a 10% chance. my family is below the poverty line, hiring a lawyer would be impossible. But i will never forgive those monsters for abusing me. I plan on pursuing this without hiring a lawyer. This is where i need help from someone with experience.
In court, my battle plan is to explain the state my suitemates are in (they enjoy abusing drugs, hardcore) which lead to their poor judgement of feeling threatened by me. im pretty sure it was this one guy who was constantly on acid who didnt like me, and i told him about my m16 in lebanon so he figured id shoot up the school, and thats what brought the cops to my door.
I will focus on the fact that i was in no way engaging in endangering behavior, and that the weapon they took from me is not illegal to own. it is illegal to carry outside one's residency, but the fact that they took it off my computer desk does not merit me carrying a weapon. further, it has a complex, unaided opening mechanism (more difficult to open than a swiss army knife) so that even if i intended on hurting anyone this weapon would be most impracticle. a kitchen knife (which was in my roomates computer desk) would be a much better option. And by the way, kitchen knives are equally as illegal to carry, for their blades are too long.
So, if the police were to search every dormitory, i would conclude that by their actions the entire school would be arrested for doing nothing wrong. THIS KNIFE ALSO HAD NOTHNG TO DO WITH ANY INVESTIGATION, other than my suitemate feeling threatened i would shoot up the school.
Any advice as to what i do next? im looking at going to a law library and figuring out what to do hopefully
+++++++++++scroll down a few comments for a VERY short version
Don't let this fool you, they ultimately paid me a visit because someone felt threatened, so i dont even know how plausible their investigation immunity is.
This is long, but it all ties in to what ultimately happened
Almost a week before arrest-I was following a duck on campus out of boredom, and a man was upset because the duck did not want to be followed. He threatened me (by guessman lab), and so I walked away to the library and called the police station. An officer showed up, and I explained everything to him. He discovered that I had no identification on me, and so he began to turn the situation around. He ended up pretty much laughing at me and recording something about animal cruelty on my record (I was not charged with anything, but when I was arrested the police saw something about animal cruelty under my name)
The next day, I was with my friend who does not live on campus and we were walking from Worcester dining commons towards sylvan through the woods. We saw a fire in the woods, and were curious as to whether or not a hobo was living there. We approached, and two college students (at least I think) invited us to sit with them. We noticed another fire near the end of the woods by sylvan. Shortly after, the two kids left with the fire still ablaze. Me and my friend stayed to watch it burn out, and eventually saw police taking care of the other fire (whoever was there must have ran when the police approached). Having done nothing wrong, my friend and I reached a consensus to stay and talk to the police as opposed to leaving the woods in danger. The police approached, and first asked where the third fire was. Then they began interrogating us about a bag of alcohol. Finally, they asked if we were carrying weapons and I hesitated, in order to think about what could be classified as a weapon. In the end, I said no and a thorough search by the police agreed with me. They discovered I was the “duck” person and proceeded to ridicule and laugh at me.
After the fire, my roommate asked me what happened. I told him we were almost in trouble for things we didn’t do, etc.
The next day, police came to my dorm to run an investigation. They wanted to question my friend about internet wires being cut and vandalism at the library. I went with him to assure his innocence. After being interrogated, the iinvestigator realized that he was just a friend who overstayed his visit. Nonetheless, he was given a notice of trespass and that was the end of that.
Being finals week, I spent the remainder of my time studying and falling asleep outside of my dorm. I had a free night to sleep back at my dorm, and so I did. My roommate asked me how’s it going, and I told him my friend was kicked out. I also told him I’m not in trouble, and everything is still going as planned<----this is where I think he felt threatened or more likely told other suitemates who felt threatened, or went on to tell the RA.
*One of my suitemates is a psychologist, like myself. So we have quite interesting conversations about motives and how society can mold people. A popular debate we always had involved around school shootings and their motives. I always ended up arguing that they occur because of the impact society and difficult upbringings have on people, whereas he would always argue that they are born with something wrong in their heads. Usually everyone would express their opinions in these conversations, so I believe this is where the resentment arose. One suitmate pointed out he hates psychologists. And I guess no one liked my way of viewing how the mind works. This was usually an ongoing thing, but no one really was involved in the conversations until days before my arrest*
About a day before my arrest, I was talking about Lebanon and how my uncle owns an M16 because he is in the army. I think whoever was offended by my view on how life works thought this to be a realistic threat, and either told the police that I was endangering everyone or told the RA who told the police, the RA being less informed of how my suite interacts with each other, so she would be more likely to feel scared about what she hears.
May 10-When I came back to clean my dorm and move out, police entered my room uninvited (my door was open because I was moving things to my car). They began to question me about threatening people. They said people were scared, and they issued me a trespass. One officer asked if I had any weapons in the room rather randomly (the same officer from the fire incident), and I hesitated before i said no. they placed me in handcuffs and were going to search the room. They asked where the knife was and I pointed to a plastic bag on my drawer. I was escorted into the police car, and I noticed the officers all talking amongst themselves. I believe they were debating on whether or not they could arrest me.
They took me to the station and locked me up. 2 hours after they received bail, the clerk magistrate finally appeared and I was let out. Before I left the station, one of the officers made it clear that if I mess up before my court date, he would take my green card, fold it into a plane, and fly into the library. This obviously made me feel like he associated me with the working of al Qaeda, a group who terrorized millions of people. He was relating to 9/11 and I felt very discriminated against. I was cussed at several times at the station, but I figured it was normal police conduct. However this comment made it clear that they did not like me.
They were hypocrits in their actions when the man threatened me and they laughed, and yet I “threaten” the safety of those around me and I am arrested.
I went to court for the knife case. I felt pressure from the court to proceed without a lawyer, as if they knew something was fishy. I knew something was wrong, and decided I would wait until I found a lawyer. Raymon Smith represented me shortly after, on the same day, free of charge. He suggested I plea guilty and have it converted to a civil case instead of criminal. I pointed out that I was arrested for Carrying a Dangerous weapon, though I was not carrying one.
I believe that the officers had no right to arrest me, and they tried to dress up their error. They made it clear that they arrested me for carrying a dangerous weapon while at the same time providing evidence for finding it in a bag in my room.
On top of that, they never took me seriously like they would have anyone else, potentially because of my race. The man who threatened me should have been in trouble. Instead I got in trouble for calling the police. This experience made it clear to me that I cannot turn to police for justice, as they will never help me.
So, after talking to my campus lawyer, he said that i have a 50/50 shot at winning a court case with a highly experienced lawyer. he also said the benefits of winning are not worth having a lawyer for, and without having a lawyer i would be looking at a 10% chance. my family is below the poverty line, hiring a lawyer would be impossible. But i will never forgive those monsters for abusing me. I plan on pursuing this without hiring a lawyer. This is where i need help from someone with experience.
In court, my battle plan is to explain the state my suitemates are in (they enjoy abusing drugs, hardcore) which lead to their poor judgement of feeling threatened by me. im pretty sure it was this one guy who was constantly on acid who didnt like me, and i told him about my m16 in lebanon so he figured id shoot up the school, and thats what brought the cops to my door.
I will focus on the fact that i was in no way engaging in endangering behavior, and that the weapon they took from me is not illegal to own. it is illegal to carry outside one's residency, but the fact that they took it off my computer desk does not merit me carrying a weapon. further, it has a complex, unaided opening mechanism (more difficult to open than a swiss army knife) so that even if i intended on hurting anyone this weapon would be most impracticle. a kitchen knife (which was in my roomates computer desk) would be a much better option. And by the way, kitchen knives are equally as illegal to carry, for their blades are too long.
So, if the police were to search every dormitory, i would conclude that by their actions the entire school would be arrested for doing nothing wrong. THIS KNIFE ALSO HAD NOTHNG TO DO WITH ANY INVESTIGATION, other than my suitemate feeling threatened i would shoot up the school.
Any advice as to what i do next? im looking at going to a law library and figuring out what to do hopefully
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