Until policing in our country operates from a set of behavior standards that sees citizens of this country not as enemies immediately but as equal and fellow citizens to those doing the policing and until every Police department the nation over has stricter standards on police conduct I think it's pretty one-sided to ask citizens to be cooperative with police. Perhaps we should be asking police to be cooperative with us because most of us aren't criminals.
The citizens are the ones voting in the city councils, the county commissions, the state reps and senators, no? If you want to change the style of policing in your area, your representatives in office are the ones to be communicating with... and if your cops aren't being "cooperative" with you, you certainly have numerous avenues of redress.
Apparently, some here haven't figured out that when the nice man standing next to your window asks where you're going, it's
not because he (or she) is actually interested or has the need to know where you're going, nor is it some government plot to infringe on your Constitutional rights.
Asking simple questions is a really effective way to (1) gauge someone's compliance level, (2) get an initial indication of whether an individual is under the influence of a controlled substance and/or alcohol, and most importantly (3) get a read on someone's demeanor and possible threat level. Are they visibly nervous? Fidgety? Appear to be concealing something? Should go without saying that if it's 0230 in the morning and you're out in an industrial area that isn't on the way to anywhere and there's no residences or open businesses in the area, you might get asked where you're headed... Do you have a constitutional right to be there? Absolutely.
Should you be there? Especially if you're in an area known for drug trafficking or prostitution, you betcha you'll get asked. Is the cop profiling? Heck yeah, but not because the color of your skin or your sexual preference. Is this legal? Yep.
Not sure what a "DL checkpoint" is because we don't have those up here. I've worked in states with agricultural inspection stations and immigration checkpoints but we don't even do DUI checkpoints here anymore. Guarantee you ask anyone who's worked in any aspect of law enforcement for more'n a minute, none would be in favor of any kind of checkpoints or tell you they wanna work 'em.
A checkpoint where:
We were told if we didn't want to answer questions we could pull to the side and were subjected to a criminal investigation with hands on the head, pat down, more questioning, drug dog and everything
Not buying it.
The OP was asked in his first thread what probable cause the deputy had for "running the serial number" on his firearm and unless I missed something, never really explained how this transpired. Dismissed without having to even get an attorney? There's gotta be more to this story.
