Mr.Skellington wrote:I have had a little more time to process what has been posted. I think I understand your point, and the point that Boots has been trying to make as well. I sincerely respect your, and Boots, position and desire to see the constitution be followed by those who seem to abuse it sometimes.fdegree wrote:Reasonable articulable suspicion of what exactly? If you know what RAS means then you know that it must always be linked to the suspicion of a particular crime that the officer specifically suspects you have, are in the process of or about to commit and backed up by more than a hunch (ie articulable).
A frantic call that says "There is a MWAG at XYZ store!!!" and ends with an abrupt hang-up, sounds like reasonable suspicion to me.
fdegree wrote:The officer is welcome to observe or ask questions however he at this point, having no RAS, has no power to overstep the 4A. The subject can choose to not participate in the officers 'investigation' as he is not obligated to. The officer can not legally detain him (lack of RAS remember) for that.
We don't know what the caller said to the 911 operator, nor what was relayed to the officer by the 911 operator. We know there was no wrongdoing by jslacker, but the officer may not have known that as he was pulling up to the store.
But, I also think some of us are occasionally too quick to vilify the police officers without knowing all of the details behind the situation/accusation. While the officers are occasionally wrong, and some act as though they are above the law, it doesn't mean we should jump to conclusions before we know all of the facts.
I know what I'm about to say may be far fetched, but stranger things have happened. We don't know exactly what the caller said to the 911 operator. Perhaps the caller to 911 exaggerated the actions of jslacker and made it sound as though he was waving the gun around at people. Would the officer have RAS if the caller made the situation sound scary and dangerous? Or, am I somehow confusing things?
I'm trying to understand where the line is between RAS and the abuse of the 4th amendment.
Violence, when there is an alternative, is immoral.
Violence, when there is no alternative, is survival.
-Unknown-
A battle avoided cannot be lost.
-Sun Tzu-
Violence, when there is no alternative, is survival.
-Unknown-
A battle avoided cannot be lost.
-Sun Tzu-