txinvestigator wrote:An example; If I am smoking (I don't, but we'll pretend) in an area that is not illegal to smoke in, and a LEO orders me to put it out because he wants to talk to me, I don't have to and there is nothing he can charge me with if I don't.
Peace Officers in Texas do not have Parental Authority, and cannot make you do as they please simply because they say so. ;)
I understand that. I'll give you some examples of what I'm talking about:
I was walking past a traffic stop once, in daylight. The driver opened the car door. The cop, still in his car, used the loudspeaker to say, "Stay in the car." The citizen continued to get out, and the cop repeated the order more emphatically. The citizen got back in.
(I almost wish he had gotten out, so I could see what would happen.)
Stopping to watch some kind of incident, the police often say something like, "Please move along." Citizens who disobey that order and take photos often find themselves arrested for something. They probably are not convicted of a charge in the long run, but they are arrested.
Crossing police lines at a public event where some space has been roped off, for example, the mayor's reviewing stand. Busted.
In one of those cases in Galveston, the guy was either pepper-sprayed or tasered and charged with numerous offenses. He sued the police. All the charges and counter-charges eventually died out.
- Jim
