Soo... the law is... ?? "articulable reasonable suspicion", right??
Let's run a few scenarios thru and see how you'd react in these situations...
(A) You're dressed up from a night of fun, carrying nothing in your hand & walking around the block, maybe 70 yards from door to door. At the end of the block, a cop shines his spotlight up and down your body, then keeps it in your face. He jumps out with the evil eye and shouts, "Where are you going?", and then he grits his jaw waiting for your response.
- (1) What do you do?
- (2) Let's say you answer, "Walking home." You don't stop because he didn't ask you to. He then says "Hey, Hey!" You turn around and say, "What's up?" and then he slams his door and chases you down with a taser in his hand, telling you to stop. So of course you stop, because he ordered you to do so. Do you file a complaint because he had no "articulable reasonable suspicion"?
- (3) Let's say you get smart, saying "I do not wish to speak with you officer as that is my right an American citizen."... and he detains you anyway. Can you do anything from that point on to help yourself out? Everybody believes this to be the "shady" response, but is there a way out?
- (4) What is "articulable reasonable suspicion" in your situation? Is it the sweatshirt you're wearing? ... the khakis? Does the time of night really make you that suspicious, even if you aren't carrying a thing? What if there's 3 separate groups of people walking... are you suspicious?
(B) You're in your friend's Chrysler Concord that just had a new motor dropped in is 100% legal in everyway, including seatbelts on passengers, and you're driving around town. You drive thru the "black part of town", turn on one of two major highways in this city. A cop pulls you over because the "tag belongs to a Chevy Astrovan", even tho this is a brand new tag just registered in the past week or two.
- (1) The cop asks your friend to step out, should he?
- (2) A second cop comes to your side and asks you to step out, should you?
- (3) Should you shut the doors? Do the doors being open mean they can search your vehicle?
- (4) The cops proceed to pat both of you down and search the front of the vehicle, and of course shining lights toward the backseat. Is there anything you can do to immediately stop this harassment?
- (5) After searching you and the vehicle, they tell you that you're both free to go even tho the "tag belongs to a Chevy Astrovan" and your buddy had a suspended license. What do you do after the fact to make sure that racial profiling like this doesn't happen again to someone else?
(C) It's your night off from working at the casino. You decide that you and your buddy are finally gonna go to the casino to see what the fun is all about. After having literally 2 1/2 beers, you go to another friend's house close by. You then decide to go to IHOP which is about 3 miles away. You eat an omelet, some pancakes, drink some water and shoot the crap for several minutes. You take a different road home that is windy, completely open, and deserted with a ditch running along one side. You decide that you see if your new 15" rims & tires can handle the road as well as your 17" rims could (BTW... 17" rims on a Corolla would be able to jerk a car from side to side doing 90mph on the Interstate. If you don't like to push the limits of your cars, or don't understand the effects of different size rims... don't assume this isn't a good enough reason or place to speed around this one corner). The tires can't grip and you spin into a muddy ditch. Unable to get enough traction, you both decide to walk 1.5 miles home. As you're a block away from your home, a cop flashes his lights and demands to know what you're doing, where you're going, to see your ID. You oblige because you think the cops are there to help. He confirms your belief that he will help by saying, "I'll help you get your car out of the ditch." As he's chauffeuring you to your vehicle, he asks, about your night. You say you went to the casino, so then his next question is "Have you had anything to drink tonight?" (Notice how he didn't jump straight to "How much did you have to drink tonight?") Thinking that it's not against the law to have a BAC less than 0.08%, you say, "Of course." He asks "How much..?" You say, "Two beers." You pull up to the vehicle, another cop asks why you don't have a hood on your car. You say, "Because I don't need it." After that, the cop that picks you up tells you to place your hands behind your back & that you're under arrest.
- (1) What would you have done differently (besides punching it around the corner... that was a one time test of the tire's capabilities)?
- (2) When you ask the cop how he knew you were drunk and he replies, "Because you were stumbling (1.5 miles of stumbling with an omelet still in my hand? Really?!?), slurring your words, etc."... How do you plan to fight these lies?
- (3) When you go on freeadvice.com, and everybody says that "you don't have a chance in hell" or "get a lawyer"... would you give up trying to fight this misdemeanor charge, even tho you know you weren't close to drunk?
- (4) When you are found not guilty, would you try to sue your municipality for wrongful arrest and/or perjury?!? I should have, but that would be more money out of my pocket that I shouldn't have to pay.
========
OldandTired is right. It's too much trouble to fight cops after they stop listening to you after they hear the words "two beers"... and then throw you in jail for approximately 20 hours because the computers don't work... and then you have to call one member of your family, that calls another family member at 4 or 5 am in the morning.... and then you have to pay a bondsman... and then you have to pay $200+ more to get your car out of the impound because it was there an extended time because the city's computers were down.... and then you have to go to arraignment... and then you have to go trial to prove your innocence... and then you decide rather it's really worth it to file a complaint after all that trouble.
If you guys aren't picking up on a pattern here, I feel sorry for you. Simply being out at 3 am is not "articulable reasonable suspicion". There needs to be something else more suspicious, like some stockings over my head. If I had something in my hands, *maybe*. An omelet, I can understand even... but nothing?? The procedure these cops use to "investigate" is unreasonable. At what point can I walk down the street at 3 am and not have to worry about running into a cop that DEMANDS I explain myself to him?!? In this country... NEVER!
I'd really love to hear how you'd handle my situations besides the obviously lame attempt to "not speed" or "obey his every command". How can I respectfully tell the cop that I would like to exercise my rights? Does doing so make me reasonably suspicious? Does he have the right to detain and search me for not answering his questions, other than what my name is? Does anybody know if I even have to present an ID in Mississippi?
I promise this will be my last post. I'm just trying to explain that I am a law abiding citizen (aka: kid), trying to figure out the best way to sidestep some unlawful (IMHO at least) stop & questioning without getting tased. And if you didn't catch on that I'm not going to shoot the crap with the police under any circumstance... again, I feel sorry for you. If I can assist a cop in solving a crime, I will flag one down or call 911. If a cop wants my help, he better make it known from the get-go that "somebody just pedaled away on a bike with a stolen pressure washer" or the like. I'll know his story is legit, and I'll point him in the right direction if I did see anything. It's not rocket science... these cops are wrong for what they do, and they're trained to act this way.
