imported post
Guess I'll go ahead and spill the beans since I have (loosely) decided on a course of action. The other person involved in the incident wishes to remain anonymous at this time, and will be referred to as 'Tim'. Feel free to comment,
On April 17, at 1:30 AM I was awoken by knocking on my door. It was one of THOSE knocks. My wife got to the door first, looked out the peephole, recognized the person as a police officer, and opened the door enough that I could see out as I approached it. Due to the apartment layout, the door was open about 90 degrees. A female LMPD officer, accompanied by an unidentified civilian (Person X from now on) who was definitely not on the force, held up an ID and asked if we knew this person. It was a friend of ours who we were expecting to stop by, who was spending the night at our place. The officer stepped into the apartment while explaining her version of what was transpiring out in the parking lot. Tim was apparently out-of-control, on a cocktail of narcotics and alcohol, driving recklessly enough as to almost hit the building, passed out in the drivers seat for over an hour, and was probably going to be taken to jail. (In real life it was no, no, impossible, no, no, and didn't happen, respectively)
After being in the apartment for at most a few minutes, she spotted my XD sitting in a Serpa holster on the piano bench. She reached down, picked it up, and said that she needed to secure it for her safety. As she moved toward the door with it, I objected. She ended up placing it on a bookshelf. My wife informed her that there was another one sitting there. A little more chatter transpired before my wife left with the officer to go check on Tim.
My wife reported that a male officer who was outside told her that our place was the worst apartment complex in the area and something about this being expected, and when she objected he added that it was probably a little bit better closer to the road. They searched Tim's car with consent and berated him for having a prescribed (non-narcotic) medication in the vehicle that he didn't tell them about when the police asked if he had narcotics. Tim was ordered by the officer to not drive before 1PM that day, and threatened with arrest if the officer saw him out driving again that night. Person X was present for all of this. We have no clue where she came from, or where she went to afterwards.
I didn't stop to think until everyone was back in the apartment. I told my wife, as I was thinking about how upset it made me that the officer felt it prudent to re-arrange my house, that I didn't remember giving her permission to come in. She surely didn't ask, because I would have said no (wouldn't have been the first time that I've declined a search). My wife confirmed my suspicions, she didn't give consent either. Unless I'm mistaken, an open door is not permission to enter, and neither is (unintended) lack of denial of entry. There are 3 witnesses to the entry, Me, my wife, and Person X. Which leads me to my next problem...
Who is Person X? This person now knows where I live, and what I have in my apartment. Did the officer who brought her to my front door just set me up for a robbery at a later date? I have already moved all but carry pieces to a place more "undisclosed" than the Vice President's panic room, just as a precaution.
I've got to start getting audio/video of all this stuff... you guys wouldn't believe the crap that goes on in front of me that others just see as police officers doing their job, or the rights that people sacrifice just to make them go away faster. My wife often wonders why I end up in the situations that I do all too often. Truth is, when I meet an officer that knows and respects my rights, there's no reason to commit that interaction to memory. I might not even know that the interaction took place if it's just a glance in my direction (like I'm sure happened at Thunder). That's the way it is most of the time, and that's the way it should be. Now it's time to work towards that goal...
Guess I'll go ahead and spill the beans since I have (loosely) decided on a course of action. The other person involved in the incident wishes to remain anonymous at this time, and will be referred to as 'Tim'. Feel free to comment,
On April 17, at 1:30 AM I was awoken by knocking on my door. It was one of THOSE knocks. My wife got to the door first, looked out the peephole, recognized the person as a police officer, and opened the door enough that I could see out as I approached it. Due to the apartment layout, the door was open about 90 degrees. A female LMPD officer, accompanied by an unidentified civilian (Person X from now on) who was definitely not on the force, held up an ID and asked if we knew this person. It was a friend of ours who we were expecting to stop by, who was spending the night at our place. The officer stepped into the apartment while explaining her version of what was transpiring out in the parking lot. Tim was apparently out-of-control, on a cocktail of narcotics and alcohol, driving recklessly enough as to almost hit the building, passed out in the drivers seat for over an hour, and was probably going to be taken to jail. (In real life it was no, no, impossible, no, no, and didn't happen, respectively)
After being in the apartment for at most a few minutes, she spotted my XD sitting in a Serpa holster on the piano bench. She reached down, picked it up, and said that she needed to secure it for her safety. As she moved toward the door with it, I objected. She ended up placing it on a bookshelf. My wife informed her that there was another one sitting there. A little more chatter transpired before my wife left with the officer to go check on Tim.
My wife reported that a male officer who was outside told her that our place was the worst apartment complex in the area and something about this being expected, and when she objected he added that it was probably a little bit better closer to the road. They searched Tim's car with consent and berated him for having a prescribed (non-narcotic) medication in the vehicle that he didn't tell them about when the police asked if he had narcotics. Tim was ordered by the officer to not drive before 1PM that day, and threatened with arrest if the officer saw him out driving again that night. Person X was present for all of this. We have no clue where she came from, or where she went to afterwards.
I didn't stop to think until everyone was back in the apartment. I told my wife, as I was thinking about how upset it made me that the officer felt it prudent to re-arrange my house, that I didn't remember giving her permission to come in. She surely didn't ask, because I would have said no (wouldn't have been the first time that I've declined a search). My wife confirmed my suspicions, she didn't give consent either. Unless I'm mistaken, an open door is not permission to enter, and neither is (unintended) lack of denial of entry. There are 3 witnesses to the entry, Me, my wife, and Person X. Which leads me to my next problem...
Who is Person X? This person now knows where I live, and what I have in my apartment. Did the officer who brought her to my front door just set me up for a robbery at a later date? I have already moved all but carry pieces to a place more "undisclosed" than the Vice President's panic room, just as a precaution.
I've got to start getting audio/video of all this stuff... you guys wouldn't believe the crap that goes on in front of me that others just see as police officers doing their job, or the rights that people sacrifice just to make them go away faster. My wife often wonders why I end up in the situations that I do all too often. Truth is, when I meet an officer that knows and respects my rights, there's no reason to commit that interaction to memory. I might not even know that the interaction took place if it's just a glance in my direction (like I'm sure happened at Thunder). That's the way it is most of the time, and that's the way it should be. Now it's time to work towards that goal...