I'm going to disagree. Calls come into the police all the time. Its the duty of police to gather facts surrounding the event to determine if an officer is required. Not all PD's do this, but in the interest of resources and priority, it's something they should be doing. It also would prevent these types of situations from ever developing.TexasTornado wrote:I probably would agree except for the call made to police. ...<snip>>
Additional questions would be "is he pointing the gun at anyone?", "is he threatening anyone?", etc....anything that would indicate a crime is afoot. If we subscribe to the idea that all calls to police should result in an officer response, then any report, regardless of how facetious, would require a police officer to intervene, even when the citizen activities are completely legal. Swatting would take on a whole new meaning and the privacy of the citizens would be eliminated completely. The police could stop you and demand "papers" at any time. That's not the society we envisioned.
I'm not for any criminal escaping punishment for a criminal transaction, but this ruling actually protects law-abiding citizens from governmental overreach. No crime had occurred or suspicion of a crime been witnessed, IMHO. That's what makes the stop a violation of the 4th amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
LabRat