Kilted encounter with my city's finest

[McFarkus]

Well done! You struck a balance between politeness and insisting on your rights.

[Wolfhawk]

I feel the same way. I would require the officer to produce his reason for approaching me. Eating at the same location, day in and day out, would not cause a need to be investigated. If this cop had been observing this for days in and days out, then he has already lost some reasons for questioning the situation. It sounds like this has been going on for quite sometime (eating and sitting at that location. Once this person has not done anything after quite some time, when is this person allowed to do his legal right without question.

It is important to allow the police to do only what they are allowed to do, within reason. Once their is not a reasonable cause, the police would be no longer able to be intimidating. My wife has her car stopped all the time because it has flames on it and the police are always shocked that a 40-something is driving this car. But their only reason is to stop her because she has flames on her car. This is abusive and past the point of anything but profiling.

[hospitaller]

This is abusive and past the point of anything but profiling.

yeah, the nerve!

how dare they profile THE kilted one.

ith:

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[LANCER1562]

I have worked in the Public Safety/ Private Security field for the past 25 years and have approached several people, especially at the apartment complexes that I patrol, the same way as Streetcar's hypothetical library employee and very rarely have I gotten a rude or defensive response. On the rare occasion that I did receive attitude from the person I explained that I was trying to keep everyone on the property safe including the person I was contacting.

I have found it's all in the approach. I try to treat people the way I would want to be treated if the roles were reversed.

LEOs have a very dangerous job and unfortunately it's very easy for them to fall into the attitude of "everyone's a suspect until proven otherwise".

[Paul]

It's ashame that police seem to question the most innocent people - simply because they have nothing better to do.

[dfmacliam]

Let's be real honest now, I have been in law enforcement, and I know those of you who are in the field know that not all officers have the same approachment style... We all know the easy going guy, the looking for a situation guy, the over anxious guy, even the pick up the chicks guy. There are so many personalities who wear the badge. Sometimes we encounter the more ethusiasism than needed guy..
Sometimes the guy had a fight with a co worker/wife/sgt/ whoever, and he had attitude.. afterall, police are people too.. He could have been a rookie.. or the possibilities are endless.. It's all possible. The civilian is not always the aggressive one, I am not assuming he was... I frankly do not know... I was not there.. But because I worked the field.. I know you cannot assume the cop was right, and the civilian is wrong. I am not going to assume that the civilian warranted that kind of approachment.. all I can say is... there are two sides of every coin.

sorry for the way my original post was all spread out... I was on my phone and my thumbs kept hitting my enter key....LOL

[Bigkahuna]

Heck, I got pulled over by a police officer in Time Square for a " routine Security Check". I was surprised but cooperative and as a New Yorker slightly impressed. He checked my license and registration, looked in my car at my big greyhound fast asleep in the back and said I could go. That was it.

[ChubRock]

Innocent until proven guilty. Sounds like communication breakdown between gentlemen. It is amazing how quickly things like this turn into arrests with trumped up charges. Cool heads prevail.

Will you eat lunch there tomorrow? Filet O'Fish or the new Mushroom and Swiss Angus Burger from MCDs?

[EagleJCS]

Hospitaller, was it a Metro officer or Anchorage PD? The Anchorage guys are generally known to be a little more aggressive in general, although the newer Metro officers also tend to be on the aggressive side. There have been times I've been in my Scout uniform and had police officers stop and ask what I was doing in a particular place (just supervising a group of Scouts doing a community service project).

I don't want to start an argument or imply anything with the following, just making some observations.

Since there's a police sub(?)station in the immediate vicinity, they will be more likely to take note of vehicles/persons making a regular appearance and pay more attention to those vehicles/persons.

It could be that someone else (maybe the restaurant manager/employee, or a library employee, or a library patron, or just Joe Citizen) took notice and became concerned about your sitting in your car nearly every day, and asked the police to check you out. Some people have gotten very skittish about such things post 9/11, and some people are skittish due to other events in their lives (maybe a past stalking victim, etc.).

Without hearing your tone of voice and seeing your facial expression, it is difficult to determine whether you were simply making civil replies to their questions, being circumspect (evasive?), or being flippant. The words you used could be interpreted differently based on the non-verbal cues we lack in this medium. Since they don't know you, or your job, or anything else about you, they have to be cautious, and some of the language you used, while made in a civil/courteous tone of voice, could be misinterpreted as being circumspect and/or hostile.

[Wolfhawk]

Well, I took this conversation to a friend of mine who I see at the pub often whose his wife and he works for the police. He was a past police officer and his wife was also. I bought them both a beer and sat with them and showed them the info I had from this 'conversation' and this topic. The info I received was basically like this. In fort worth Texas , you are not required to have any official documentation on you if you are not in your car. If I am walking down the sidewalk and an officer asks me for info, all I have to give him is my name and address. Nothing more. If we wants more; tuff. This approach will get you more grief but it is all you are required to provide. On the problem that Hector is having with the Police harassment while kilted in front of the McDonald, they think someone at the McD reported you and that is where this comes from. If you are not doing anything wrong, make the city waste its money and let them be a a**, according to the people who work for the police here in Fort Worth. If you got the time and effort to put toward it, I was told to make them work for it. Best Case, you might build a case against them. They are wasting taxpayers money harassing you; especially a kilted you. It might be construed as profiling against kilts.