Enforcing the law????

[M1guy]

This is probably a bit of a rant, but I would love some other points of view on this. Yesterday afternoon one of the guys that works for me was driving a company car back to our company. As he is getting into the turn lane on El Camino he gets cut off by a van. Well, he lays on the horn and shouts out a few choice words. The driver of the van responds back with his own colorful vocabulary. The light turns green and they both u-turn. The guy that works for me gets in the right lane and the van gets in the middle lane. As the guy I work with gets ready to turn into where we work the van pretty much stops and the passenger hangs a handgun out of the window and say to the guy that works for me "What the f**k are you gonna do about it". As soon as the guy I work with gets back to our office he tells me what happened and we call the local police. Now I have to give my co-worker credit, he got the licence plate of the van and a pretty good description of the guys. The cops come down and get all the info and say the will let us know.
Well, by lunch today we haven't heard anything so I call the police and I am told the officer was unavailable and will call me later. About an hour later I hear from the police officer and he seems suprised. He said that he was under the impression we did not want to press charges. I told him that we pretty clearly said the opposite when he came down to investigate!! Then he goes on to tell me that they know who the owner of the van is but his phone is disconected so they can't call him, so they will have to send someone out to his house. He also states the owner of the van lives in the next town, so he has to go through all this red tape or ask the other PD to do it. He ends by telling me that since it was the passenger and not the driver there is not much that they can do anyhow and ultimately it is the word of my employee against the passenger, so do we really want to press charges or just let it go.
Tell me if I am breathing way too much into this, but it seems like a pretty laid back attitude. I am missing something here?

Sorry for being vauge about the city/town this happened in, but since it is still "ongoing" I don't know how much detail is appropriate.

[taloft]

I don't know what city this happened in so I wouldn't be able to tell you if this is the norm there. Take it to the Sheriff. If that don't work try the CHP, the state assemblymember, senator, and anyone else who will listen. As a taxpayer, your business employees shouldn't have to put up with that crap. If you can't get any action. You might consider going to the press. They would love the story, "Local Business Gets The Short Arm of the Law". I would discuss this with your driver, and see how he feels about it since it would involve him.

[Bling Bling]

Hmm maybe we should all just start brandishing now, but make sure to do it in the next town, where you would be untouchable.

What a rip. The guy is probably some sgt.'s son or something and the officer is too scared to do his job. I would take the issue up with the city government if it was a local PD. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear about wreckless gun violence in their SAFE city.

[imported_1911_sfca]

Talk to the supervising officer. Call the town where the van owner lives and repeat the story to them. If you don't get any action, talk to the chief in the town where you live. And you could try the sheriff as well.

[Turbinator]

This crap in California? You're kidding me! And we're supposed to drive around with firearms locked up and inaccessible?

You should pursue with 110% intensity - don't let these 'holes off!!

Good luck, and I hope to hear a GOOD outcome for the good guys.

Turby

[ligamentum flavum]

those bastards (the occupants in the van) need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[trever1t]

[QUOTE]
What a rip. The guy is probably some sgt.'s son or something and the officer is too scared to do his job. QUOTE]

I would wager a year's salary on it!
You, or me, we'd be locked up and our guns confiscated by now.

[rkt88edmo]

Red tape, jurisdiction problems, and a possibly low probability of the DA wanting to try the case? Those could all be true.

[M1guy]

Thanks for the advice. I will keep you all posted as to what happens. Part of what really gets me besides the police attitude, is what Turby and Trevor1t hit on. I am sure if it was one of us coming back from the range, and we got stopped for some traffic reason, we would probably get hassled for our legally transported guns. But this guy.... well its already been said.

[Charliegone]

Have you noticed that ever since it got hotter, drivers have been going nuts? This guy in the van is pretty stupid, no, is stupid, doing that. I hope they catch that idiot.

[dwtt]

Originally posted by ROKIT88:
Red tape, jurisdiction problems, and a possibly low probability of the DA wanting to try the case? Those could all be true.

The bay area cities and counties all have preagreed policies of mutual assistance. This makes it easier for the SJ cops to catch a criminal who lives in San Mateo, but committed a crime in San Jose. All the police have to do is call up their contact in the next town and they'll meet them at the guy's house in several hours. Last week some guy got busted in Daly City for possessing a lot of fireworks when the DC cops visited his house with a warrant to search for a handgun used in an assault in San Francisco. It's not hard for the cops to get the help of a neighboring PD, but it's very hard for them to get the motivation to do so.

[M1guy]

Well, here is the sad ending of this. Decided to give the officer another chance, so I called back into the PD. My driver asked me to handle this since he feels I would be better at it then him. I get the desk officer, and he asks me for the incident #. When I give it to him and tell him my name he gives me attitude and asks why I am calling, and not my driver, since he was the one involved. I calmly tell him that it happened in front of my place of business, the person involved is my employee, I am a concerned citizen and the person involved asked me to find out, that is why I am calling. He tells me that he will have the officer call or stop by. By the end of the day I haven't received a call and the officer never stops by. Well, right before my driver goes home he tells me that he has thought about it and just wants to drop it, feels it wouldn't be worth the hassle, that the PD is just not going to do anything! My driver is a fellow gun owner as well! I give him my point of view, tell him I wish he would reconsider, since the law applies to all of us, that the legal gun owners are not the only ones that should be affected by the law. He says that he is going to think about it over the weekend but is pretty sure he just wants to drop it

[imported_dadoody]

Report it to the media. They will have a field day as there has been many many freeway shootings lately, with no one yet caught.

[1919_4_ME]

So the moral of the story is "Riding shotgun means just that".

[delloro]

Originally posted by >_>:
Report it to the media. They will have a field day as there has been many many freeway shootings lately, with no one yet caught.

I agree. the media should have a field day with this.

[Hopi]

Last week some guy got busted in Daly City for possessing a lot of fireworks when the DC cops visited his house with a warrant to search for a handgun used in an assault in San Francisco.

Wouldn't the cops need a second and seperate warrant to prosecute for these items? Does anybody know how that works? Do the cops detain the suspect while processing the new warrant? Thanks for the info!

[Mssr. Eleganté]

hopi,

I think the cops are allowed to charge you for other stuff they find during a search if the stuff is in plain view or if they find it somewhere that the item on their search warrent could have reasonably been.

So if they have a search warrent for a handgun, and find a bag of drugs in your desk drawer, I think they are OK.

If they have a search warrent for a stolen motorcycle, and they find a bag of drugs in your desk drawer, then they can't charge you because the motorcycle could not have reasonably been hidden in your desk drawer.

That's the way I heard it watching Law and Order anyway.

[delloro]

that's right.

[imported_1911_sfca]

I feel that you didn't talk to the right people, and/or didn't press the right buttons. Did you demand to talk to the sargent? or chief?

[M1guy]

I agree with you SF 1911, I did not escalate it up the chain, I thought I should give the officer another chance (won't make that mistake again). Unfortunatly my employee just wants to drop it. I even showed him all of the responses on this board in hopes it would sway him. He seems to have his mind made up. I don't want to push him to hard but it bothers me as well.

[Turbinator]

Too bad. The lesson here is that the law never works against those who really need to be controlled - it only serves to bash us honest folk.

Turby

[zot]

Isn't threatening someone with a gun a felony?

Aren't felonies up to the State to prosecute, regardless of weather or not the victim wants to press charges?

(if the victim won't testify, it's often not worth it to the state to even try, of course)

[Turbinator]

Originally posted by Zot:
Isn't threatening someone with a gun a felony?

Aren't felonies up to the State to prosecute, regardless of weather or not the victim wants to press charges?

(if the victim won't testify, it's often not worth it to the state to even try, of course)

Doesn't that presume that law enforcement have already captured the individual in question and have pressed charges?

Turby