[SanPedroShooter]

I didnt think that one all the way through... There would be know way to know your neighbor called, hence no time "hide". If you had a loud argument with your wife, and the cops where called by a third party, you'd answer the door just like any other time someone knocked.

I recall some years ago my dad and my teenage sister where driving in the car on the freeway. There where having a heated argument about my sisters expenditure for the senior prom. He was refusing to pay so much money and she was extremely pissed Anyway, they where yelling at each other etc... and some helpful citizen follwed them for a while and called the police.

Now I will admit, my dad has temper, I have the same one, "the Colonel" my grandfather had it too, so some mild mannered person may have had cause for concern. But that said, my sister is no pushover when she wants something from my dad. But I can say that my father would never lay a hand on a women, especially not my teenage sister, no matter what a ***** she is being. So here they are driving down the road, basically having a screaming match. Someone in a car saw them, tailled my dad for a while and called 911.

As it turns out, during the time it took for the police to show, they hade made it up, gotten home and my dad says he was going to get in the shower. He hears a knock at the door and goes to answer it, sans shirt (now my father is a resaonably big man, much bigger than I am). There's a female cop there demanding to see my sister. "Produce her"! the cop says. My dad gets the distinct impression that this cop does not like him. She is giving him the kind of look reserved for men who beat on there teenage daughters...

So hears my dad, shirtless, confronted by this representitive of the law demanding to phyisicaly see my sister. He says, "what do you want her for", having no idea he had been tailed by a concerned citizen. She says, "we have a report of domestic violence."

At this point, he thinks this cop must be at the wrong house or something, so he goes to get my sister and brings her outside (I will add that this entire time the cop did not demand entry) The cop, being very concerned and sympathetic, starts asking questions.

My sister and dad are trying to explain that they had been having an argument in the car and they hade made up and every thing was fine. The cop, not being 100% convinced, pulls my sister aside and says in a low voice, "you can tell me, just tell me if he hit/abused you and we'll take you somewhere safe (and take him somewhere not so safe I assume)"

So the whole thing hangs in the balance, the money, the prom, the argument and she has complete power for a second. The sun still shines, the earth still spins, but time has slowed to that one microsecond when she makes up her mind to say, "yes or no"....


Of course she says, "no officer, it was just an argument, but thank you for your concern."
Well, there's not much the cop can do at that point, so she gives my dad a dirty look and leaves.

So thats it. Ambigous domestic violence calls, where there's no evidence of violence, can give a woman immense power to decide a mans fate. Of course I heard all this second hand and after the fact, but I have it on authority, from the horses mouth, that for one split second, my sister felt like letting the police take him down...

This was in Washington state not California, so YMMV