imported post
ProShooter wrote:
ok, I watched the entire video, and then went back and watched selected parts again.
Was the officer illegally parked? Yes. But was there a reason? Sometimes, a police car may be parked at an intersection to passively enforce traffic laws, like stopping at stop signs or speeding. Perhaps there was drug activity at the corner and the officer parked the car there to ward off potential customers. We see the officer come from a house quite a distance from the parked car. If it was my cruiser, I'd have it parked in front of my house (to keep an eye on it) rather than halfway down the block. Sometimes the police do things that we may not as civilians understand, nor is it any of our business if its an ongoing investigation/attempt to prevent crime.
The responding Lt. was very polite and cordial. He spoke to the citizen in a professional manner, and identified himself by name and with a business card. He even said that OC was fine when advised that the man was carrying.
The second section of video appears that the OC'er was waiting for the off duty officer, in fact, standing in his path. The off duty officer was walking and talking on his phone when the OC'er engaged him in conversation. The off duty officer ended his phone conversation and carried on a polite conversation for quite a while with the man. I didnt hear any raised voices or profanity. After the conversation ended, the OC'er continued to run tape of the off duty officer walking around his own neighborhood.
Aside from the OC'er being a bit of a stalker and borderline instigator (imo), what was the problem? And really, what does this have to do with OC or firearms?
It seemed the officer was parked on his street, not trying to curb traffic violations, etc. He stated later that the OCer knew where he lived, so he obviously was coming out of his house, not on an active investigation. The corner could be overrun with drug trafficking, but somehow I doubt that.
The responding officer was indeed polite and cordial, but if the illegally parked car was there only out of convenience, it should have been ticketed.
How can you call the OCer a stalker? sure, he stuck around to see if anything would come of his complaint. I don't see that as stalking. And, the officer clearly was following him around. He didn't even try to hide that fact with his "it's a beautiful day" routine.
Do you think off-duty officers (which he appeared to be, otherwise he wasted far too much time on the clock "observing" a law-abiding citizen) should get a pass when it comes to small violations such as this? I don't. If they know citizens are monitoring their actions, it may help to curb some of the "I
AM the police" attitude that some officers have.
(I just watched Lakeview Terrace [do not recommend it], sorry.)
ETA: Sheesh, work gets in the way for a minute typing a reply and you guys point out all of what I had written.