Inspired by Why I hate cops…
I’ve never been subject to abuse, harassment, or intimidation by the police. The worst thing that comes to mind was when I was sitting in the basement watching TV with my geriatric pug Lucy. Unknown to me at the time, one of my next door neighbor’s dogs was hit by a car and crawled back home, seriously injured. Neighbor saw what had happened, got his shotgun, and did the right (IMO) thing. This is a rural neighborhood with big yards and long driveways. I didn’t hear a thing. Someone else did, and called the police reporting a gunshot.
Meanwhile, I decided to take Lucy outside. I carried her into the front yard and while she was sniffing around a police car pulled into my driveway with its lights on. That’s kind of weird, so I walked over to see what was going on. It was a chilly night so I was wearing a fleece and had my hands in my pockets. As I approach the car the officer leaps out…
“Hands out of your pockets!”
“Hands in the air!”
“Turn around!”
“Hands on your head!”
I’m not into any freeman of the land crap or anything so I complied, and I got frisked. In my front yard. Taking my geriatric pug Lucy out for a pee. I was absolutely furious. My wife and the neighbors who saw the whole thing came over laughing and explained to the officer that he had the wrong driveway. Before I could say anything my wife saw my face and sent me in the house. For some reason I complied and left without saying anything.
In retrospect I decided it is bad to approach an officer with your hands in your pockets.
Epilogue: A couple of years later I was on the deck with my 2 year old son when a state police officer came in the gate with his weapon drawn and told me to get inside. He was approaching the same neighbor’s house. It turns out the neighbor wanted to kill himself but instead of attempting anything sat around threatening to attempt suicide with stepkids in the house. Local police, sheriff deputies, and state police put a perimeter around the place.
Moral of the story: if an officer tells you to get off your own deck, do it. Sort it out later.
Thankfully neighbor moved.