So Baton Rouge is in a fight w/ New Orleans on who will be the leader in the number of murders in the state of LA. So, you are driving and made an 'erratic' move by turning "at the last minute" w/ no signal. As a former law enforcement officer, I would have pulled you over just like him.
Approaching a vehicle with a subject in the truck, which has a handgun in plane view, I would have done the exact same thing. What was going through his head? Were you a felon? Were you impaired by drugs or alcohol? Are you a mental case riding around w/ a gun on in plane view?
Hope this helps you understand why you are not getting a bunch of sympathy here! And to be even more candid, had you been a "smarta**" with me, your warning would have been a small sheet of paper with a citation number on it. I carry multiple weapons and none are in "plain view". Yours should not be either, mainly because they lead to theft of said firearms from criminals!!! Use your head young man.
As far as Dink saying not to allow a search. If you have something to hide in the vehicle, that is a sure way to get it located by law enforcement. I had numerous encounters when I was working the roads by people just like him that thought they were "roadside lawyers". Fact of the matter was, I always had the last laugh. They would yank my chain and not allow me to search the vehicle if we had a reason to think something was inside. Most of the time it was people we were "familiar" with from drug deals. They would refuse, I would detain the vehicle until I got a search warrant. They would get more anal, I would laugh. They would preach about their "rights" and I would confirm those rights and tell them they were free to leave. At that point in the conversation they would get a smirk on their face and think they "won". That was until I told them they were free to leave - WITHOUT their vehicle. See, you as a human have rights, but the vehicle has none. I can hold that car there until that warrant got there, but you were free to walk wherever you wanted. So in the end, they realized that either way, they lose. Funny thing is, when I woke a judge up in the middle of the night to get a warrant, and found nothing, the judge always seemed to find out that the driver was jerking my chain. At that point, it now ticks off the judge and it's like they have a special little note book that keeps those names fresh in their mind. Guess you eventually has to see the judge, sometimes years later - yep, you guessed it! The jerk that tried jerking my chain! As they say "Karma is a *****".
I know lots of guys on here are anti law enforcement/pro mary-jane, because we have had that topic before. The fact of the matter is, these men & women that people bash for being on a "power trip" are the same ones that will be the first to arrive when your wife or child is in need of someone to save them. Sometimes we need to think about what it is like to live your life, wondering if today is the day you get shot and your wife becomes a widow.
|