Walked out of my door this morning to a police cruiser in my driveway...

[SacredCow]

blocking me in. My roommate had left hours prior, as he had to travel for work today. The cop gets out and asks my name. I inquire what this was all about, and he replied that he had an arrest warrant for someone at this address. Feeling fairly confident that I've done nothing to interest the authorities, I produce my ID and he proceeds to ask me if I know a Jason Somebody... I truthfully tell him that I recognize the name as someone who lived in the house a while back (we still get some of his junk mail) but that I'd been in the house for 6+ months and had never laid eyes on the dude. He asks me where he could find this Jason person, and I say (again) that I don't know anything about him- never met him; never spoke to him; couldn't pick him out of a lineup to save my life. He asks me if anybody else lives there, and I tell him yes- that I have a roommate. Incredibly, he asks me if my roommate is named Jason Somebody... At this point I can no longer NOT be irritated, and I inform him that I'm quite certain that my roommate of 6 months (and a friend for many years) is certainly NOT named Jason Somebody, and that I was getting very tired of repeating myself. "So one more time: I am NOT Jason Somebody; I do not know Jason; Jason used to live here, but does NOT anymore; I don't know where Jason lives; I don't know his phone number; I don't know if he wears boxers or briefs; I DO NOT KNOW *ANYTHING* ABOUT HIM!!!!!111!!"

"Sir, I do not appreciate your attitude...."

:banghead:

Where did they find this idiot, and why didn't they flunk him out of the police academy?

[geardaddy]

1. From the cast of "Idiocracy?"

:shrug:

[SacredCow]

4. It's either that....

or he thought I was lying, and he was trying to "break" me....

But I suspect idiocy.

[Aristus]

22. Ha! "This particular individual spoke all faggy and said he didn't know the particular individual

named Jason." :rofl:

[SacredCow]

24. That's what I SHOULD have done....

I should have totally queened out... Maybe asked him out on a date or something...

:rofl:

But really- he was SO not my type....

[arcadian]

2. Here is what you should have done:

Cop: "You Jason Somebody?"
You: "Nope!"
You: walk away

[SacredCow]

3. Except he had me blocked in.... eom

[MorningGlow]

5. Does he moonlight for a collections agency?

Those are the same tactics collections agents use on me when they call my house (and come to the door) looking for a person who used to live here more than three years ago, when my house was a rental. Apparently the chick defaulted on a student loan (letters--that I never opened, but could figure out anyway--first came from the community college, then from a local bank, then from progressively larger and larger collections agencies). The sick thing is I looked her up in the phone book and she lives about a minute and a half from me.
:banghead:

[SacredCow]

6. Perhaps.... It does sound similar....

I had collection agents calling my wireless phone left and right some years ago, looking for some guy that wasn't paying his car note. The the repo agency started calling and they just flat-out refused to believe that I wasn't who they said I was. I ended every call with, "Just go reposess the damn car and stop calling me about it!!!"

[TZ]

10. I've had collections agencies call me...

Wanting me to leave a note on a neighbors door! Considering at that time my neighbor was a batshit crazy lady I avoided like the plague, there was no fucking way I was doing that...:crazy:

[SacredCow]

14. Oh, yeah....

let me run right out and do your job for you.... :eyes:

[MorningGlow]

15. Depending on my mood, and how polite the vultures are,

sometimes I share the chick's current address and phone number with them. I just can't believe that these people are incapable of looking up her most recent information, which is PUBLICLY available, instead of just insisting on sending letters to an address she lived at three years ago and calling the phone number that was never hers--it's just tied in with the address. Ya see, collections people, there's this thing called the interwebs...it's a series of tubes...and you can look up people's addresses and phone numbers on it! It's a miracle, I tell ya! Close the damned hard-copy file and go to WhitePages.com! :eyes:

[TZ]

16. Oh they knew her phone number, I know.

She just wasn't answering her phone...THEY EVEN TOLD ME THAT! :crazy:

[hunter]

50. I've got calls like that too.

Not recently, but I'm still hoping to answer, "No, but where do you live? I'd like to leave, um, ah, a note on your door."

[HopeHoops]

7. I hate when that happens - third time this week for me.

[SacredCow]

8. This better not become a routine....

I guess I'd better set aside some bail money, just in case....

[HopeHoops]

11. Nah, just keep fresh coffee and doughnuts handy - solves any such problem.

[SacredCow]

17. Not when I'm trying to get to work on time....

that'd just compound the problem...

[HopeHoops]

54. Just throw the coffee and doughnuts out the window - that will stop the cops

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. Unfortunately, cops do not have to pass an IQ test - that is obvious even way up here

.
.
.

Last time I was involved with our cops, OPP, I refused to talk with them unless they provided me with a lawyer for the 4 hours they held me in lockup

Despite having over 500 bucks in cash, and a fast-food place across the road, and numerous requests and willingness to pay for some food, they refused to feed me

I won't deal with our OPP next time - It'll be our RCMP

Police Occurrence Reports will show how lax the OPP are in handling local disputes

I'm not sure what our OPP's mandate is, but in reality, it sure doesn't have much to with PREVENTION of crime.

[TrogL]

52. deleted - it'll just get me in trouble - again

[jobycom]

12. Your answers are exactly the ones they would get if you were Jason Wasshisface.

You got to understand that 90% of the people cops talk to every day are lying to them, claiming they are not who they are, did not do what the cops just saw them do, don't know anything about something they know about, were really trying to get to the hospital to see their dying mother, etc.

Cops are trained to try to trip you up. They ask the same question over and over, in different ways, to see if you waiver. It's easy to lie obliquely, it's more difficult to lie directly, so saying "I don't know anyone named Jason whatever" is easy, but saying, "No, my roommate Jason Whatever is not really Jason Whatever" is harder, and it trips some people up. Also, people realize that if they lie directly to the cop in such a provable manner, they can be in trouble, so they are more hesitant to lie.

And there's also the chance you don't know your roommate that well, or that you know him as Jay instead of Jason, so by asking if he is your roommate, he is just ruling out that option.

Believe it or not, that's what the training tells them to do. Keep asking. I used to work with cops, and I've seen that work. I've watched convincing stories change when the same question is asked differently.

It's just his job. If he's not beating you or arresting you for no good reason, he's alright. It's not a comment on you, nor an indication of his intelligence. It's a commentary on the majority of people he has to deal with every day.

[SacredCow]

13. All well and good....

except that I showed him my ID- He knew good and well that I wasn't the person in question already. I thought I was being helpful by letting him know that I recognized the name as someone who had lived in the house prior (because I really didn't have to do that), but if it happens again I think I'll keep my mouth shut- it'll probably get him out of my hair sooner.

[jobycom]

18. Actually, it would probably trigger his alarms, and he might hang out longer.

Cops are usually fairly educated, and they take training courses on arguing and recognizing lies from speech patterns and body language, as well as from evasive habits. If you stonewall him, he'll think you're hiding something.

What he was doing was just making sure you weren't covering for a roommate or friend, so he was asking you enough questions to get firm answers and make sure you wouldn't start sweating or squirming. It's their job, and they'll do it no matter what you think of them doing it. After that, they'll go handle a domestic dispute where some 17 year old wife with bruises on her face and blood pouring out of her nose swears she fell down, and the shouting was on the television, and she does not know where her 38 year parole-breaking husband is, but those are definitely not his shoes sticking out from behind the curtain and the cop had better not step into the room without a warrent, etc.

I've got a lot of sympathy for cops doing an honest job. I lose it very quickly when they start trying to profile or trap innocent people or bash skulls because they want to. I've seen them do both.

[SacredCow]

25. I grant you that they have a thankless job....

and I was cooperative, albeit snarky towards the end of the conversation... Had I resisted showing him my ID or anything like that, I could have understood being interrogated. Or, if this were something as you described where there was some clear problem.

Since I made the original OP, I've talked to my roommate (who is related to the person we rent the home from) who got a little background info of this Jason person. The word is that he moved back to California, and that some time before he left, he was hit with a DUI. Chances are, the warrant was a failure to appear in court kind of thing.

And, On Edit.... My car and my roommate's car (he took a state vehicle for his trip today) were in the carport, and I would be shocked to find out that he hadn't run the plates while he was waiting for me to come out- So he HAD to have known that I was telling the truth from the get go...

[jobycom]

33. The biggest jerk cop I knew told two stories whenever he got the chance.

I didn't really like him much as a cop, though as a person he had a strong self-sacrificing side that made him hard to have a firm opinion on one way or the other.

Anyway, here's his two stories: Once a guy pulled a gun on him at a traffic stop and he struggled through the car window with a gun two inches from his face for about five minutes. He couldn't call anyone, he couldn't get away, he couldn't defeat the guy. For five minutes he knew if he lost he was dead, and no one could help him. So you can guess why he was overly-assholish every time he approached a car after that.

Second, he responded to a house call with a sick infant. He was first on the scene, and dicovered an unresponsive infant--about the same age as his own child at the time--and an hysterical mother. He picked the child up and felt her die in his hands. So for about ten minutes he gave the child CPR and mouth to mouth, knowing it would do no good, but not wanting to face the mother's grief by telling her her child had died. Finally the paramedics showed up and he handed the body to them and left as quickly as he could. He could tell this story in a flat tone of voice.

He told other stories about severed heads and murdered children and slipping on brain matter... the usual daily stuff. But those two had gotten to him.

So that's where these guys come from. Their daily routine sees things most of us experience a couple of times in a lifetime. Doesn't excuse what the worst of them do, of course, but still, it's a tough job.

I had a homocide detective friend who told stories... God almighty, there are evil people in this world.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. jobycom's right. The cop was doing a pretty standard query. Commenting on your attitude was dickish

and was done in the pseudo-polite cop way, but cops don't understand (or don't care in some cases) how it sounds from the other person's perspective.

That's a typical interaction that is off-putting to the very people who might otherwise be inclined to help.

[jobycom]

29. Yeah, that's a good point, cops don't usually take attitudes personally like that.

Maybe he was trying rattle the OPer by being confrontational, but it does sound like he lost his cool.

[SacredCow]

31. I won't say he lost his cool.... He made that one comment and that was pretty much it.

When he left, he thanked me for my cooperation and I was polite in turn.

It's just that what should have taken 2 minutes, tops, had me standing there for closer to 10.

[SacredCow]

30. I was trying to be helpful- that's why it sticks in my craw....

again- I know that this is part of their job and all... but after he (more than likely) ran the license plates of my car and my roommates car and I show him my ID- it should have been pretty obvious that I'm on the up and up.

[jobycom]

34. Fair enough. Understandable that you got annoyed.

I was just pointing out he wasn't necessarily doing anything that wouldn't have positve results in other situations.

[LeftinOH]

19. Nice attitude, Jason.. just shown them where you buried the corpses...n/t

[SacredCow]

27. They can have my machete....

when they pry it from my cold, dead hands....

[Tommy_J]

20. He was probing inconsistent answers

Maybe he hated it as much as you did - but had to try anyway?

[flvegan]

23. I'd have tasered your ass.

:rofl:

[SacredCow]

26. At no point in the conversation with this officer...

did I turn around and bend over... It would have been MOST difficult for him to taser my ass.

:silly:

[jobycom]

35. Why not his chest or some other part of him?

:shrug:

[begin_within]

28. belongs in a Coen bros. movie

[rug]

32. Of the five times I was arrested, three were preceded by "I don't like your attitude."

[jobycom]

36. I've gotten out of close scrapes by kissing ass.

:) Attitude is everything. Well, it won't get you past a bloody knife in the trunk, but it will get you passed fighting in a vacant lot with underage girls in your car.

The underage girls were my sister and her best friend, that probably helped.

[SacredCow]

39. Read my response immediately below....

That was one of my worst run-in's with the law... I was VERY officer-unfriendly for a while after that!

[jobycom]

48. Ig. Understandable. nt

[rug]

40. I just can't do it. Two of them began as parking tickets.

[jobycom]

46. My ego ends sometime before incarceration.

Just a little priority of mine. :)

[SacredCow]

49. Mine, too.....

I'm gay as a goose, but that doesn't mean I want to be anybody's bitch.

:scared:

[SacredCow]

37. That's a little scary.... I'm glad that it went no further in this case....

The only time I ever came close to being arrested was at Mardi Gras.... I had walked down the street from my group to visit a friend and was on my way back to our spot. I was behind some people (about 5 of them, I think) who decided to jump over a barricade to make a shortcut through a private alleyway. My group was, literally, less than 10 feet away and facing my direction. Next thing I know, I'm thrown over the hood of a car and being manhandled and yelled at for trying to jump over their barricade. Just the shock of it all put me WAY on the defensive, so some heated words were exchanged. Fortunately, my friends saw the whole thing and corroborated that I was with THEM- not the group that jumped the barricade. They let me go, but I could tell that the one whom I'd called a "fat-assed prick" was SO wanting to throw me in a wagon....

[rug]

41. Jeez.

[SacredCow]

43. But like I said- That was at Mardi Gras....

And this happened on Mardi Gras day, which is the last of probably 5 days straight of sheer pandemonium. By then, most of the cops are frazzled and on edge... As a rule, I don't fuck with them during Mardi Gras- If they tell me to do something, I won't question it (no matter how stupid). But being thrown on the hood of a car was a bit of a shock. These days, I probably could have sued the city for a fortune if somebody had filmed it...

[bluesbassman]

38. Hey SC, did he look like this? You weren't trying to pull any shenanigans were you?

You might have got pistol whipped. :rofl:


Edit to add the clip from Super Troopers for those who have not seen the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok85BmPyl_I

[SacredCow]

45. What are "shenanigans," and why would I want to pull on them?

:shrug:

Is that like a "pull my finger" kind of joke?


:rofl:

[bluesbassman]

47. Because they're cheeky and fun.

And yes, I suppose the "pull my finger" joke could fall into the shenanigans category. 'Course with your cop that might have definitely got you pistol whipped.:rofl:

[VaYallaDawg]

42. Down here they like to start out with :

"Boy, doncha gimme no sass." (Leers at you over mirrored sunglasses).

[SacredCow]

44. Ha! I'm more "down here" than you!!!

(Louisiana)... But he wasn't like that, really- I mean, he did call me "sir" before he said I had a bad attitude.

[Javaman]

51. They do this purposely to see if they can trip you up. sadly it usually results

in irritation when you're telling the truth.

[Deep13]

53. He was trying to trip you up.

I understand your point completely, but the truth is the cops expect people to lie about this things.

[uppityperson]

55. Well, tell Jason hi for us when he gets home.

sorry

[PfcHammer]

56. Should've kicked him in the nads.