So you like felons living next door that the police are looking for? Wonder why they were looking for them, maybe they were just involved in a shooting, drug deal gone bad, missing child but you did real good... not.
Or should I just say OVER REACTION !
OK guys look I am a firm believer in muscle memory.
I SHOULD have answered them honestly and truthfully, and almost all of the time I would have, however with the recent rash of "you didn't do this right and you didnt do that right" I figured that the situation presented an oppurtunity to practice.
I know the female to the extent of I knew she would be stupid enough to come back in the house and open the front door and see if they were still there while they were talking to other neighbors.
I already had background on this as it was conveyed to me through "other neighbors" and verified with an online DOC check. The female is a run away (15 yrs old dating a 30yr old and claiming to be 19) and she has some assault charges on her step father.
I know my response is not the way that I PERSONALLY would have handled it normally, nor is it the way that I SHOULD have handled it, however like I stated previously, this was a picture perfect oppurtunity to practice.
On a side note after they took her away in tears and cuffs, another officer waited with the children for the dad to arrive and we had an EXTREMELY positive, self initiated conversation regarding such subjects as sig vs beretta, XD (P) vs glock, and what type of tac folder was the best.
This officer has seen me before and we have talked before (the cops are here at my complex AT LEAST 3 times a night...) and he stated "I completely understand the way you answered me earlier, I know that sometimes suspects talk so much they end up implicating themselves and this was a good oppurtuniy for you to practice not saying a damn thing." HIS words!
He also asked why I carried during this consensual encouter afterwards and when I gave him the standard seconds minutes police spiel his answer was "you are absolutely right."
There were absolutely no hard feelings on either side of the exchange(s) and even made a new "friend" who I am gonna hand a pamphlet to next time I see him (probably in about 20 mins knowing this complex I live in). And I will try and invite him to the Dennys meet as well.
So all in all the suspect was arrested, I got to practice, the LEO thought I was a nice guy, we had a pleasant conversation, and everything worked out.
(fyi the reason this situation turned into a consensual encouter is because one of the young kids (4 I think) was crying cause his "step mom" had gotten taken away and was trying to touch the cops gun belt and play with all the cool toys. Seeing this I handed the officer one of my MANY pairs of cuffs (all owned for legitimate, non-sexual reasons) and told him the kid could play with it)
So go ahead and yell away, tell me how F-ed up I am, how stupid I was, how much of a friggin moron I am and how much my left arm pit stinks (seems to be alot of this talk going around this forum recently) However I feel that I was able to accomplish MORE than one positive thing throughout this set of encounters...