At what point do you stop talking to a LEO at home?

[SMMAssociates]

(I'm sure I've mentioned being an old rent-a-cop. As such, casual chat with an LEO isn't anything unusual for me. Except maybe one guy from the City's "IA" who scared the hell out of me.)

One afternoon a black Olds or Buick pulled up and an older guy in a nice suit came to the door. I figured it was an insurance salesman or Jehovah's Witness....

WTH, I answered the door.

FBI!

Big letdown was that he wanted to talk to my wife....

She wasn't home, but the Agent and I had some mutual friends so we chatted a bit. Turned out that the kid's Pediatrician had been involved in what was starting to look like Insurance Fraud and he was checking out the patient list. (The doc had passed away by then but there was enough involved to run it down a bit.)

I arranged for my wife to call the agent. We'd seen some odd looking billing information from the Insurance Company but never heard about any outcome from our questions. Turned out to be fairly extensive across his entire practice.

(One "mutual friend", now deceased, is the only guy who ever "made" me while carrying. Grabbed my snubbie through an overcoat in line at an Arby's! He claimed it was because of the way my pants hung. My vote was 'cause he knew where and what I was carrying .)

All of that said, times have changed.

Regards,

 

[Headless]

With the current state of the laws, they're probably right.

The current thought process in LEO departments is that all citizens are guilty of something, it is up to them to find out what law the citizen broke.

So true it hurts

 

[NukemJim]

Art and Cdaddy with all due respect did you read the starting post of this thread?

And for those who like to think like Pollyanna please Google the names Ricard Jewel, Dennis Fritz, Marion Coakley, WalterTyrone Snyder, Robert Miller, Glen Dale Woodall, Ron Williamson, Gary Dotson , Dennis Fritz, Tim Durham, Donald Reynolds, Marvin Mitchell, Dennis Williams and read up on these real people BEFORE you respond and say obey the law and do not worry nothing bad will happen to you.

If you read about what happened to these people, some of whom where "living in Mayberry" doing nothing wrong when their lives were shattered. Richard Jewel was doing his job and assisting the FBI upon their request.

I say again

the vast majority of cops are good, hardworking, professionals who, in my experience, if treated civily and with respect respond with the same. I would not wnat their job and I frequently thank them for doing it.

However I also say again

However even an honest cops make mistakes (we are all human) or can be ordered to arrest the wrong person due to witness/paperwork/crime lab negligence/error/honest mistake/desire to get a conviction.

You can live in Mayberry be lifelong friends with all the LEOs but if the "evidence" shows you are the one you will be arrested, possibly tried and possibly convicted. Even if you are not convicted people frequently lose years of freedom, tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, lose jobs, lose homes, they and their families may be ostracized by the community etc...
If an elephant steps on you it does not matter if it was intentional or not, the damage is done regardless of the intent.

Just as LEOs train and practice "officer survival" tactics (or they should) for rare but horrendous events, I believe that private citizens should do the same.

And IMHO carrying a gun for self defense is a similar activity i.e. preparing for a potentially

rare but horrendous event

from my understanding that many people on this board do carry guns for self defense.

As for me I hang in Chicagoland. The vast majority of Chicago cops are hardworking, honest, good people trying to do an impossible job with inadequate support. IMHO the average Chicago cop if treated with respect is a true "peace officer" willing to bend rules to make everyonles life a little easier, friendly when they have time, and wants desperatly to stop people from being hurt. When I am at work I alway try to help them if I can. (Hospital)

However a quick google search will turn up all kinds of stories about bad Chicago cops in IL and elsewhere. In IL before the death penalty moritorium was put in place the state had executed (IIRC) 13 people during that same time period 12 people on death row were found to be "not guilty" some by legal nitpicking some because they actually were innocent i.e. they did not have anything to do with the crime. Considereing the death penalty cases are the most heavily investigated and automaticly appealed those are NOT good odds.

I hope I've expressed myself a little better, I am NOT anti LEO I am pro me.

NukemJim

PS This is a sad point of view for me, my grandfather was a Buffalo NY LEO and I was raised to respect and help LEOs

PPS For those who commented on a 19 year olds thought pattern, that was more than 3 decades ago for me.