"Sure, maybe the guy got hassled, and if not doing anything wrong, then, no harm - no foul."
Oh how I disagree with that statement. It has been my experience, that anytime you encounter the police, it is a negative experience. You may be walking your dog, but the police are looking for a "suspicious" person who might try to kill them. They are probably not going to pull up and say; good evening sir, we were just wondering if anything was wrong since you are out here so late tonight. I don't know about where you live, but if the police were stopping someone at 0300, odds are that they would at least have their hands on their guns, possibly have their guns drawn. You would be placed with hand on the hood and frisked. After your wallet was taken from your pocket, you would then be checked out by computer. If they were in a good mood, they might put you in the back of the car (the same back of the car where some wino threw up and a junkie blead all over the seat). If you gave them any lip at all about you having the right to walk on the public streets, odds are you would be handcuffed until they hear back on the check of your records. If everything is OK, I am sure they would appologize and explain that they had to do all this because of their own personal safety, and hope you understand.
That is best case senario, this isn't far fetched in the least, I would bet my next paycheck on it; I run calls with the police every day and have done so for the last 20 years (I work as a firefighter/paramedic). I am not pulling this out of the air, I have seen this senario played out a hundred times if I have seen it once.
Now, you may be an understanding fellow if you went through this when you were just trying to unwind; most people wouldn't. And if that guy happened to be one of your neighbors that you didn't recognize in the dark, I guarentee you he is going to be pissed. If it happened to be a bad guy and they couldn't hold him for anything, I would put good money on the fact that you are going to get a visit from him.
Now let's introduce some other senarios that arn't as rosy. Let's say I was walking my dog at night in this same senario. The police pull up and tell me to show them my hands. My dog has been genetically programmed for a thousand years to protect me. He doesn't understand that the police are my friends. He doesn't understand if these police officers feel threatened in the least, they will shoot him without a second thought. And, I know my dog, if a stranger aggressively approached me, he would go for them. Ordinarily this isn't a bad thing, but in this case, he will die. So, no harm no foul ?
How about if I am in town visiting my sister. She lives in the eastern time zone and I live in the pacific time zone. So, I roll into town at midnight (but my internal clock says it's 2100). I watch a little TV, but I got a headache from the stress of traveling and I don't feel all that great from breathing that stagnant air on the plane, so around 0300 local time or 0000 "my" time, I decide to take a little walk. Being the prepared guy that I am, I go to my checked luggage and get out my carry piece and put on the holster. I am walking around and see a guy out with his dog. I don't want to get the dog worked up, he will start barking and wake up the neighborhood, and since I don't have anywhere specific to go, I just turn around and walk the other way. He, being the "good citizen" that he is, calls the police on me. I go through the little hassle at the top of the post and the police discover that I have a gun, and a large pocket knife that opens real fast when it comes out of my pocket, and I am not from around here in fact my ID says I live in Nevada - I certainly don't belong in this neighborhood (all the while I am looking more and more suspiscious). Nevada ? Isn't that where all the gangsters are ? I saw that movie Casino. And all the crazies live out there, they let you gamble, and drink all night, and even have whorehouses out there. This guy is definitely a snake in the grass. Needless to say, since I live out of state I don't have a valid CCW. In the end, I explain that I am visiting my sister who lives right over there, they wake up their family to confirm this while all their neighbors look out their windows to see why the police are over there. Then I get charged with possession of a concealed weapon etc. In some juristictions, this is a felony. Yes, it was my choice to protect myself, and I may have even taken the time to research the consequences but thought the risk of protecting myself to be worth it, after all, the only way anyone is going to know is if I have to use it to defend myself right ? Wrong. I get a felony conviction and I kiss my job goodby. All because I was taking a walk and some guy called the police on me for doing absolutely nothing other than "looking suspicious" and being in a neighborhood where there are women and children.
No harm no foul ?
Now just imagine the original senario, only he doesn't call the police. Would anything have changed ? Not that we know of. The outcome wouldn't have been any better or worse for him, but he could have seriously screwed someone else over by doing what he did.
Anyone who makes a statement like "Sure, maybe the guy got hassled, and if not doing anything wrong, then, no harm - no foul." has obviously never BEEN hasled by the police. It has happened to me twice. Both times I did nothing. One of the times, I was shooting in a very safe place and somebody drove by and said we were shooting mail boxes. There wasn't a mailbox within five miles of where we were shooting. In fact, almost no one in the city of Las Vegas has a conventional single resident mail box. But, the police had to check it out. They are not just going to drive up to two guys shooting and talk about the weather. They got out with guns drawn, made us throw down our guns and we had our hands on the hood of that police car and were told to keep them there. The problem was that there was a hot engine running under that hood and this was in the Nevada desert = result, I got the crap burned out of my hands. Sure, we got it straighted out, no more was said, but it isn't a plesant experience. I can tell you without shame that if I knew who called the police on me, and caused me to get the palms of my hands burnt for doing nothing wrong, I would have gotten even. The harm and the foul would have been introduced to them.
