Long story but could use some advice. A couple days ago I was walking late at night with a group of friends in downtown Westerly, RI. One of those friends basically has PTSD from an interaction with police and gets nervous every time we go outside. An officer pulled over, so I told everyone in the group everybody walk away, we arent doing anything wrong. He shouted at us to stop as we continued walking. We arent doing anything wrong, we can walk away legally if wed like to I said. He yelled back at me I can arrest you for obstructing justice which, in all the research Ive done, seems to be incorrect. I absolutely do not have to interact with an officer if I am not being detained. To avoid confrontation, we turned around and stopped so he could speak with us. A mostly civil conversation, and they did justify it by saying we just like to get everyones info walking around late at night. I understand, but ask again if we are free to avoid that conversation if we do choose to walk away. Get out of here with all of that lawyer bullshit he said to me. I still remained civil and explained that Im just curious at this point and like to know my rights. He asked for identification (which I believe you also dont have to give) from all of us, and ignored me when I said I dont think we have to give him that either. We walked away 10 minutes later with no issue, and my friend was only slightly shook up from the encounter luckily, but I would like our officers to be accountable and know what laws they are enforcing. Im headed to the Police Station today to file a complaint, but is there anymore action I can take to make efforts on correcting this (and other) officers training?
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:02:32 +0000
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