Marijuana.com

Haddock

So me, J, L and 3 other guys were all chilling in the park (about 9:30 so it was dark), smoking some weed. I was about to roll a joint and I had the paper in my hand. I'd put the weed in the grinder and gave it to J to grind it for me, I passed the bag of weed with two joints in it to L (it was his weed), and put some tobacco in the paper. So the situation was I had papers, J had a joint's worth of weed in a grinder and L had a bag with two joints in it.

Suddenly we all see this bright light shining on us with this guy saying "What's going on over there?" Two cops (white guy with glasses and a black woman) walked over to us and I pocketed the paper with the tobacco while J pocketed the grinder with the weed.

"Hi, I'm PC Flinn from Stetchford Police."

He asked what was going on and first he asked to search me. I emptied my pockets and all he found was papers. He said "Right, since I've found papers that's reasonable suspicion and now I have the right to search all of you. Who's got the weed?" Nobody spoke up so he searched J. He found the grinder with the joint in it and said,

"Right. We're under instructions to arrest anybody found with any amount of cannabis. But we'll just let you off with a warning this time." He must've thought that the joint in the grinder was all we had. He asked L and the 3 other guys to leave while they took mine and J's details. So we got away with just a written warning, and they only confescated one third of our weed.

Also, he said "We're not going to report this, we'll just destroy this." So it's pretty obvious they just smoked it. All through it I was being really cool with the cops and asking stuff like "So you having a good night? Busy?" and asking about my rights, but being really polite about it.

Thank fuck we didn't get arrested.

 

blondie0420

"Right. We're under instructions to arrest anybody found with any amount of cannabis. But we'll just let you off with a warning this time."



How does that make any sense? I mean, I understand they did you a BIG favor, but did they or did they not directly violate the orders of their superiors? God, just imagine if everyone worked like that...the grocery store employee: "I'm under instructions to take this moldy bread off the shelves, but I'll just let it go this time," or better yet, the heart surgeon: "I'm under instructions to repair this dude's blocked artery, but let's just close him up and call it a day."

__________________

Haddock

Haha yeah, it's pretty obvious they couldn't be bothered with the paperwork and would rather just smoke our weed than send us to jail.

ihavenoidea

dude next time they ask to search you just say no politley. They can only search you without reason if you are detained, and from your post it looks like you werent. Also when they say whats going on over here just reply with, im not giving you consent to talk to me, after that they cant do much and you can just leave. You guys did get lucky though.

Tokemon420

wow lucky lucky lucky! i wish cops like that woulda ran into me instead of those dickheads

 

goodgirl

"So it's pretty obvious they just smoked it."

It isn't obvious at all. Believe it or not, most cops do not smoke pot. They are regularly drug tested and have way too much to lose. I am not saying for sure that they didn't smoke it....but the chances are not good let alone "obvious".

Blondie:
"I mean, I understand they did you a BIG favor, but did they or did they not directly violate the orders of their superiors?"

I doubt they ever received any orders along that line. After all, it is kind of a silly order. It's like telling them to go out and do their job. If you get lucky enough to be let go by a cop for a small amount of weed they will often stress how lucky you are and how generous they are being to try to reduce the chances of you doing it again.

After all, if they just said "we can't even be bothered with this small amount of pot" it wouldn't exactly discourage anyone from doing it again.

ihavenoidea:
"Also when they say whats going on over here just reply with, im not giving you consent to talk to me, after that they cant do much and you can just leave."

Not the best of advice. Getting smart with the officers is not the best idea. Why antagonize them unnecessarily? You can politely say no if they ask to search you, but acting like a punk won't win you any favors.

**Oh.....and umm Haddock.....perhaps it isn't the best idea to put the officer's name and the town up. After all, this is a cop that gave you a break, doesn't seem right to run the risk of drawing attention to him.**

__________________
"Sometimes being a bitch is all you have to hold onto." ~Dolores Claiborne

troublemaker_42

Actually, such orders ARE routinely given by police departments. As an example, officers in SD normally have the discretion to either arrest and ticket people possessing misd. amounts of marijuana, or arresting then taking them to jail. Officers are under order during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to arrest and jail EVERY drug offense. The officer has no discretion--if drugs are found, someone has to go to jail--period. Also, just look at the News forum. Theres an article about how Texas has given law enforcement the option of ticketing and releasing people in possession of 4 ozs or less.....but the article goes on to state that in certain jurisdictions, ticketing and releasing would NOT be allowed, and that all cannabis offenders would be jailed. While it seems obvious and like its telling officers to go out and do their job.....most of the time, officers on the street have a very wide area of discretion. They can handle a given situation many different ways. However, there are times when a certain course of action IS mandated by the chain of command, and officers are fully expected to comply. Its not at all out of the realm of possibility that in this particular case, the officer WAS instructed to arrest in all possession cases. Do I know that for a fact? Of course not.....but its certainly well within the realms of possibility
heres a link to the news article I referred to--
http://www.marijuana.com/drug-war-he...a-offense.html

On an unrelated note, those cops sound like the stereotypical redneck Texas cops, don't they?

__________________
Ted Nugent: "To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic." Also by Ted "If guns cause crime, all of mine are defective"

SpiralArchitect

I'd say the officer did a good job, most likely you learned your lesson and won't be smoking marijuana at 9:30pm in a public park with a large group of people. Be glad you weren't busted, and take notice of it next time you might be in a similar situation, the cop was very generous and did a good job. Strange how he only took 1/3 of your weed though. I guess that would be the weed in grinder, 1/3, and the two joints hidden on a different friend would be the other 2/3's?

__________________
.

Hashishi

Would you rather they followed orders like good little state drones or would you rather they did some good police work? Bill Hicks would turn in his grave if he read this!

Not in the UK - from whence Haddock originates. I don`t believe the States have Police Constables - do they?

That`s actually pretty much to the letter the current policy Constabularies around the UK have toward cannabis.



Most likely situation in this case was they`d been having complaints from the surrounding neighbourhood and needed any excuse they could find to arrest or move people on. Well handled though Haddock, either way!

__________________
<Taki> I swear I just took a dump with well defined anatomical features

<Taki> a long smooth tail and a bunch of little hardened pellets making up a complex head

<Taki> I didn't want to flush it, it's probably the closest thing I'll have to a son

<bryant> I think in the 3 days I've seen you in this channel you've done a better job keeping me in school and off drugs than every authority figure I've met in my entire life.

<Taki> I do what I can

goodgirl

troublemaker:
"Actually, such orders ARE routinely given by police departments."

I misspoke, it was late and I was tired and I probably should have waited until morning to respond. What I meant was that just because they said it doesn't mean that it was true. It is common for officers to stress how generous they are being as an effort to discourage you from doing it again.


Hashishi:
"Not in the UK - from whence Haddock originates. I don`t believe the States have Police Constables - do they?"

I didn't know what the "PC" stood for....I guess I was too focused on the fact that he was giving out the officer's name and city to really pay attention to what the title was. Regardless, for some reason it tends to be a common statement from those that have been let off with a minor amount of pot to claim that the officer's took it so that they could smoke it and it most likely isn't true. I have even seen some go so far as to claim an officer has "stolen" their pot because they want to use it themselves. It is a roundabout way of accusing an officer that gave you a break of being corrupt and seems just a tad ungrateful to me.