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Harley rider 55 wrote:He left you in the open to load and holster your weapon? The cop TOLD you to break the law.

I'm surprised this thread is still going but yeah pretty much.

Well guys I've been going back and forth on whether or not this deserves a follow up. On one hand it was maybe just 15 minutes and over with and pursuing it will cost more time. On the other hand people should be held accountable for their actions. If I filed a complaint in the next day or two do you think it would loose any credibility along the lines of "well, if you were so concerned then why didn't you report it right away?"

I don't think I would be contacting the ACLU or any attorney, just an account of the events to the department hoping they see things my way and take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. One thing I def. don't want to happen is the ACLU to jump on this and try to make a big case out of it with my name ending up in the papers.

I don't get the feeling he was a "bad cop". With things like leaving my gun on the ground and instructing me not to retrieve it until they pulled away, I just think he doesn't know proper procedure. (Not to say I know LEO proper procedure I'd put money on that not being part of it).


KRM45 -- So I can just call the PD and ask why I was pulled over and they'll look it up and tell me?

Follow ups to questions:

It was north of ben white a block west of south first.

I was walking on the sidewalk on the right hand side of the street. It was a two way street, and I was facing the cop car approaching me from the other direction.

No he did not ask for my wallet. First thing he asked was are you carrying a weapon -- maybe i was printing with my shoulder holster, it was a large XD -- but then why did he ask where it was? I replied in a single motion "yessir, I'm chl" as i proceeded to hand him my info. I dunno, i just thought that's what you were supposed to do.

For those that say "they'd better get whole force down there if it were me, no way I'm going in cuffs..." Let me know how well that works out for you.

He was alone when he cuffed me, the other cop was pulling around the corner just as he was sitting me on the curb.

As an aside I noticed some more "unusual" cop activity in the area tonight. Driving home tonight north bound on south 1st there was a car pulled over on the southbound side. It just seemed odd, IMO, they stopped him on a main street like that instead of going over to a side street. Also the car wasn't pulled all the way over but just in the lane as if he were driving down it. In front was one cop car at an angle making it look like he pulled in front of him and two cop cars more to the side behind. From what I could see it was just a single person they were questioning. (They didn't have him sitting on the curb in cuffs though )

Maybe I'm just over reacting about it being unusual and still just feeling a little jaded about my encounter.

I don't know that there was anything illegal about how I was treated. We all know the officers are allowed to disarm you. When I was cuffed he specifically said I was not under arrest, just being detained.

Aside from the general concept of the situation, to be fair they were as friendly as could be I suppose. It's not like I was slammed on the pavement or anything like that.

Time for another round of getting this out of my head so I can try and get some sleep.

I was thinking those same things. I guess I could have demanded a lawyer or what not but then I'd still not be half way through things being over.

At the same time he did say why I was being stopped "it's a drug area and they question everyone..."

As for leaving the gun on the ground for me to reload and have it known that I was carrying for any eyes watching, I thought they'd at least stick around with their lights until until my weapon was secured. Nope they just took off before I could even pick up my wallet.

So I figured I'd step away from the computer and TV and take a nice walk around the block in the crisp air. It was going to be a quick route, out the front of my apartment, circle around the immediate block and back up through the back entrance.

So I'm about half way down the side street and I see a car pulling up. I see it's a cop and I nod continuing on my way. Then I see him out of the corner of my eye start to veere around and knew he was coming back my way. I kept walking a couple more steps until he flashed his lights, I turn around while pulling my wallet and other hand out of my pockets so they were in clear view.

He walks up and I proceed to pull out my IDs. "Do you have any weapons on you?" "yessir, I'm chl" as I hand him my ids and wallet. He tosses them to the ground. "What are you carrying?" "Springfield XD .40 front pocket". I probably could have better communicated it was in my shoulder holster on my left side but I was a little nervous at this point just because it was the first time I was stopped while carrying and he seemed to have an attitude I was up to something walking around in the middle of the night. He fumbled around for a second trying to find it in the coats outer front pocket and then had me clarify.

Apparently he claims my neighborhood is a high gang, drug area which is why they were patrolling. That seriously surprised me as the folks in my complex seem normal enough and I never notice "thugs" out and about. (Hell if I did i wouldn't be walking around at 10:30 at night.

Of course by this time I'm disarmed and sitting on the curb handcuffed while he runs my stuff and his partner continues to question me. At one point I was asked "I can tell you've been smoking or drinking, I can smell it one you" ... What!? I think to myself. Now I had a beer with dinner but that had to have been a good hour hour and a half ago. And I certainly had not been smoking the reefer. "No, well I had a beer with dinner". Which I while I felt compelled to tell the truth I had this feeling of famous-last-words. "Oh yeah, why's your eye so red". Well my eye still isn't completely healed from that time I was attacked on halloween that I posted about and there's still some blood collected around the iris.

The cop running my stuff comes back out "So, you've ever been arrested?" "No." "Just a victim, eh?" I look at him a second thinking what? "Of robbery and domestic violence". (My apt had been robbed back in 2003 or so, and I wanted to laugh when I learned I'm on the record as being a victim of "domestic violence". ) "Yeah if you want to call it that"

At some point I was also grilled about why I was out walking around. "I just wanted to go for a walk..." and couldn't come up with anything better than that because really that's all there was to it.

I guess they didn't really suspect me of being intoxicated after all as I was given no sobriety test or breathalyzer. I guess the whole "I can smell it" thing is to try and get you to admit something.

At anyrate everything matched up with what they had on file and I was just a block away from where I live so they decided to cut me loose. Not before giving me a lecture about walking around and putting myself in dangerous situations. Hey I totally agree with all that, I just seriously did not make my area out to be as dangerous as they were acting.

He also gave me advice for how to act when encountered by an LEO while carrying. He said "The first thing to do is say you have a gun" I explained this was my first encounter and I've talked with others that had varying schools of thought and the one I subscribed to was I figured it would not be a good idea for the first words to come out of my mouth "I have a gun.".

He left my gun with mag out and slide locked back on the sidewalk next to my wallet and instructed me to not pick it back up until they pulled away.

I made it back home through my apparently dangerous neighborhood safely.