James (BBGJPW) in Everette, WA. and the rest of forum members that responded above. Please don't take offense at the remarks above. No one has accused you personally of being anything other than a first class police officer. I have no doubt that this is the case. I further see you as a young man in his twentys with less than five years service. You remind me of me when I started out at an early age. My attitude then was that either you were right or you were wrong. There was no middle ground. As I grew older, I realized that there were shades of grey moving in between the black and white. You often hear that ignorance of the law is no excuse but I take exception to that. In many cases, if I felt that the person, while in violation, had no idea or INTENT to break the law, I cautioned and warned them of their mistake and let them go on their way. Of course, I am not talking about felonys.
Now, to the Kalifornia case, here is what really bothers me as an officer. First, ALL his weapons were taken as opposed to just the AR-15, 50 cal. and whatever else was alleged to be illegal. He took them all. Nothing I read above indicates he was arrested or charged with any offense. Why was he not charged? Was there a police report made of the confiscation? An inventory? Was he given a receipt with serials for what was confiscated? If this incident violated Kalifornia law, why wasn't he arrested? I have to agree that FROM WHAT I KNOW this smells to high heaven. I hope the victim had serials on all his weapons for verification.
We have rotten police all over the country in all areas of law enforcement from a lowly county constable to the head of the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover should have been indicted on multiple felonys but..........well you know why he wasn't.
So, to wind this up, let me say what I would have done had I been called to his accident. I would have called him a tow truck and another truck to load up his belongings. My vision is not so good sometime so I doubt I would have seen the weapons.
I would have further made arrangements to store his personal property in a secure place till he could claim it and would have taken the family to a decent motel and pointed out a restaurant until they could get their wits together and dispose of their property. When you look at a husband, wife, child and dog, it is pretty apparent they are not "criminals" and have no criminal intent.
Under other circumstances, I might have acted differently.
So, James, as I said when I started, no one on this forum has anything but the highest esteem for you and your values. But, don't be so quick to defend your fellow officers because there are
quite a few out there that don't share your values. That, my friend, is known as REALITY.
I wish you nothing but the best in your career and I commend you but remember, there are shades of gray in your line of work.
Best regards to you,
Joe Hill
Kentucky State Police (Ret'd)
12 years as road trooper
21 years in criminal investigation
Last 13 years in glorious retirement
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