A little reminder from the MPD

If a police officer shows up at your house or place of business unless you are under arrest you have the right to ask questions, if you are not the owner you have the right to call the owner, if you are shown a warrant you will be given a copy of said warrant and be asked to sign off on any searches done if you give PERMISSION for them to search when they don't have a warrant.

Just like the army there are stores that sell police equipment out there so just because it looks like a cop and gives you that "I'm a person of authority don't question me demeanor" doesn't mean it is a cop. It could just be someone casing your house or place of business for a later break in attempt.  Yes many of us complain about the attitudes of police officers and some of them can be a little harsh(remember this is my non cursing blog so I know the joke about what most police officers were in high school, just can't say it here) but they are not above the law. As a matter of fact if YOU didn't call the police and the "police" show up at your establishment from an officer I was talking to yesterday while I was creating an incident report for a break in "call 911 so that the police can really show up", if you have an alarm press that, have one of the employees, family members, guests walk away and dial.  And if your english is a little weak DEFINITELY DIAL 911. Now I'm not saying get all up in the "officers face" and be belligerent, nah if it is a cop you'll probably end up in hand cuffs if it isn't a real police officer you may end up in hand cuffs and hurt somewhere, because if someone is running a scam on you the authority of the police is what they were counting on to keep you and the others around you in line, if you threaten that they'll need to subdue you in order to keep the facade going.

During a search you have rights, if they seize property you have rights(you have to sign off on what it is they took) there is no such thing as an "open ended warrant": a warrant must tell you WHAT it's for, WHERE they can search for it, WHO it is for(now if it's a gang member it may be for said gang or affiliated tatts/aliases), and WHY they are looking for said item or person. Yes you can get damn good REAL badges but not be a police officer, but you can't get damn good fake warrants that won't get the real police all up in that backside if you leave a copy.  And if it just so HAPPENS to be a real police officer who is overstepping the authority of his office, that is called a lawsuit(again from the officers mouth) because now he/she, the city and possibly the county are on the line for their wild west activities.

Now I know being darkly complected and looking at the news one might say "how can you say that police aren't above the law when we see some get away with heinous acts", because it wasn't that the police were above the law, many times they had their day in court, they had to plead their cases, and they had to wait for the juries decision. What failed wasn't the law it was the people who were supposed to make them accountable to it.  The law is clear, the people can be fallible. Sometimes our fellow human beings can be biased, petty, scared and unthinking when it comes to another human life or persons property.

Justice is supposed to be blind, but unfortunately PEOPLE can be biased and many times those biased people skew the distribution of justice.