HFA WP member thrown in back of police car for no reason.

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He did everything wrong. We have a lot of lawyers in my family (and I'm pre-law myself) and she has more than substantial grounds for a case. You do not have to talk to ANY police officer. If one stops you to ask you questions, you ask if he is detaining/arresting you. If he says no, you have EVERY RIGHT to continue. If he is arresting you/putting you in his car, he had better have read you your rights. She needs to take this piece of crap to court - I am SICK and TIRED of the USA turning into a police state that tases and abuses the people it's sworn to protect.

That reminds me of one thing that really makes me angry. When they know the law is on your side and you don't, or can't quite quote line and verse, they will still play games with your head.

You are not required to carry ID on you when you are walking.
You have to give your name to the officer when he or she asks you. It is not a crime to refuse to answer an officer's questions by politely telling him or her: "Officer I have nothing to say. Am I free to leave?" But it is a crime to deliberately lie to police.

This is exactly why I mistrust police and security forces. I don't hate them, and two of my adult friends/mentors are student resource officers at my school. I just don't trust them blindly like i would someone else. My guard is always up even around mall security. And like what happened to LabPet, security and law officers tend to look at me suspiciously because i usually study my surroundings whenever i'm in a public place, because of my training in martial arts. Of course, they imagine that as me figuring out the best place to plant a bomb for mass casualties. And when they stop me and im on the defensive because I don't trust officers of the law in general, they imagine my defensiveness is because of a guilty conscience. Thankfully, I've never had to answer to an actual officer before, and have been stopped only once by airport security, while passing through Boston on vacation. The officer scanned me with a handheld, rummaged my carry-on a bit, and then told me to have a pleasant flight. No nosy questions. I guess this was only because i was a minor traveling with my family at the time. I was very polite to her, if a little puzzled by the fact that she asked to search me, as I hadn't been stopped by airport security since 9/11 and wasn't sure what the proper protocol was. Anyways, that's my story.

Damn Straight. US cops think that they are the end of the law. They need some people on benches to remind them that they are NOT. I hate the fact that the cops in the US take advantage of the fact that citizens don't know their fourth amendment rights, rights to habeas corpus, etc.

/endrant

Have your friend file the complaint and then contact the ACLU.

Unless your friend was under arrest, in which case they had to read her her rights and inform her that she was under arrest, they had no authority to tell her to get in the car. In fact, I believe it's kidnapping. However I'm not a lawyer. The ACLU is full of lawyers.

At the very least, your friend should file a complaint, and maybe a law suit.

<shrug>

I used to enjoy museums, but not anymore. They watch you so closely, that you can't enjoy looking at things with intricate details with any real pleasure. Same in the stores. If you are taking your time, looking various things, they start to hassle you - "Can I help you?" I usually say, "It's alright, I'm fine, and then they stick close, pretending to look busy. Great pretenders, they are...

In many places it's actually illegal to not carry ID; my dad's friend was walking down the street one day and a cop car stopped next to him and the cops asked him for ID, saying he fit the description of someone they were looking for. He didn't have ID, so they grabbed him. At the station, they confirmed that he wasn't the fugitive but he was fined $300 for not having ID on him!

Last edited by Ana54 on 04 Jan 2008, 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

in my country it's always illegal

UPDATE: She's decided not to file a complaint because it would be too time-consuming.

Police are scum of the worst sort. Period.

Then she's basically giving a big old "f you" to the next people these cops think they can abuse. Our government needs CONSTANT checking from its citizens or else this sh*t happens. She is basically now a part of the problem, and for a reason as stupid as "it's time consuming".

My father has a statement about police:

"All cops are as*holes; but not all as*holes are cops"

It has something to do with the power trip. Even if they start out fine or are that way out of work; while on duty they're asses. Yes, part of it is the fact that they put their lives on the line but not all of it by any means.

Most of it is the fact their day in, day out lives are a continual reinforcement that might makes right. It's the basic principle all government is based on.

Actually, that sort of attitude sickens me far, far more than anything else said on this thread, including the treatment of the lady who was detained. Yes, some of them abuse their powers, and some should never have been put on the job; unfortunately, this happens with every sort of job in the world.

But, you know, they do a hell of a lot of good, and just because some are bad does not mean all are bad. That would be like saying all aspies are bad; ah, no, not all of them are, just as not all of them are good - they're human, just like every other person on this planet. They also can help a lot of people, and they do help a lot more people than the average person does.

And yeah, I'm kind of biased, because there's been multiple times when we've had to have the cops out here, and they've never been anything but polite. Honestly, I would much rather there be a police officer in my backyard instead of a couple of robbers in the shed. And I would much rather have them come help slice up the trees that are blocking our road after the tornado in case there were injured people. When you live in a forest and there are a good dozen trees blocking the road that only has about six families on it, most of the population consisting of elderly women and pretty young children, it ain't going to be cleared any time soon without some outside help. There are more encounters I've had with them, but that's enough for now.

So, yeah, there are some bad ones, but there are good ones too. If you truly, totally, never will change don't like them all, don't ever take help from them; if someone should bust into your house or something, remember how you feel about them.

And on that note, the USA is not and has never been a police state. It's doing a great disservice to those who have lived in a true police state to compare our system to theirs. It's plain insulting to everyone involved.


I'm not saying that I'm not sorry for the woman who was detained; I'm sure it was bad for her.