Did my arresting officer break the law

[xitek@msn.com]

I am currently in florida and i was recently arrested for drawing on a slide with sharpie and charged with criminal mischef for under 200 dollars, but i believe the police officer broke the law. after he came and questioned my and my friend he searched us and found some sharpies, because we had the sharpies he charged us with ALL the graffiti in the park when we had done two things. he then proceeded to cuff us and put us in the car after which he called our parents and the property management group. he SAID the property manage group said to make an example of us and wanted to press charges and was EXTREMELY rude to my parents and my friends sister who came there and would not tell them anything. they procceded to arrest us take us to an assesment center and such where they questioned us further and kept us there over night. after we left they got us to agree to go to a course which waived our rights to go to court and my parents agreed. now here comes the part that we believes makes him a criminal both mine and my friend parents are good friends with the people who own the management group, so we called them. we spoke to the owner who told us that they had said to the police DO NOT PROSECUTE THEM and DO NOT ARREST THEM and we DO NOT WANT TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF THEM just bring them home and let there parents handle it. so that means that the officer lied to us and arrested us even though the management group did not want to press charges. should we sue or what should we do?

[justalayman]

so the management group wants the police to be babysitters and nicely scold those they find breaking the law. Too bad. Who do you thnk alerted the police to the law breaking to begin with?

the police get to lie to you. that is how they get many folks to confess and there is nothing illegal about it.

so,was this private property or public property?

If public, the management group does not control the enforcement of the laws.

If private, apparently somebody else is lying to you since apparently charges were pressed by somebody.

So, what can you do? Learn from your mistake and don;t break the law anymore.

Other than that, get on with life.

[xitek@msn.com]

the park was privite in the gated community where I live 5 houses down from me and no one alerted the police they were just drove by and thought we were smoking pot so they questioned us. and the management group told the cop they refused to press charges but the jack*** cop arrested us anyway

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by xitek@msn.com

but the jack*** cop arrested us anyway

And I'm glad he did! Your attitude is terrible.
There's an old saying...even a dog won't crap where he sleeps.

EDIT:
You broke the law. The hard-working police officer doesn't need someone else's permission to arrest you for a crime.

[xitek@msn.com]

we were not in any way dirsrespectfal to the cop at any point we were completely honest, and the drawing on the park was in sharpie it came off in three seconds with and alchol pad, we cleaned the whole park three days later without being ordered to and since the property was private doesnt the management have the right to refuse to press charges and the right to tell the police not to arrest you, and im not somekind of bad kid with a horrible atttitude im a 15 year old with a 4.0 in private school college bound who is pissed because i thing i was unrightfully charged.

[racer72]

since the property was private doesnt the management have the right to refuse to press charges

No. That is up to the prosecuting attorney's office. If they feel that there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction, they will press charges. This can be done without the property owner's permission.

the right to tell the police not to arrest you

Only the officer's superior's can tell him to not make an arrest, it is not up to the property owner. Perhaps you should take your 4.0 grade point average to your local library and read some of the law books. Many of those making a living at attorneys today got their start when they had contact with the legal system. Instead of making wrong assumption like you, they took the time to learn what the legal system was about and this eventually led to law school. Good folks get caught doing dumb things, learn from it, don't dwell on it.

[outonbail]

im not somekind of bad kid with a horrible atttitude im a 15 year old with a 4.0 in private school college bound who is pissed because i thing i was unrightfully charged.

You did it, you were arrested for it. Where's the problem?

4.0 and college bound? (Hint: Spell check is your friend!)

[justalayman]

as I said before, either the management folks were not in control of the enforcement of the laws (i.e. it is not private property per the legal definition or there is an agreement in place that allows/requests the police to enforce public laws on semi-private property) or somebody is lying to you.

Just because it is a gated community does not neccessarily mean the police do not have authority to arrest for a crime committed against the property and it doesn;t neccessarily mean the management folks have control of prosecution of that offense.

check the attitude and work to improve yourself as others suggested. The cops was doing his job. As another told you, the officer has to answer to his captain, not the management group.

If the arrest and conviction ws unjust, where is your attorney fighting for you and advising you?

[FITFatherof2]

If this is a gated community how did the officer get in? Maybe a neighbor who is tired of graffiti called and then let the officer in. I would be irriteated living in a gated community and having to deal with some dumbass kids that feel they need to write their names everywhere. Nothing like having your property value go down due to an idiot with a marker. I wouldnt want to purchase a home in a gated community that had tagging all over it.

You are proof that education is not the only thing we need to get by in life. With a 4.0 you still made a dumb choice, and then try and put the blame on the officer to take the focus off of you. When you go to that college you are bound for see if they offer classes on common sense. If you were my kid being arrested would be the least of your concerns.

Do you tag on the walls in your home?

[outonbail]

Originally Posted by FITFatherof2

If this is a gated community how did the officer get in? Maybe a neighbor who is tired of graffiti called and then let the officer in.

These gated communities often have a default access code will open the gate. This is provided to the police and fire departments so they can enter in emergency situations. They could also have a guard at the entrance who would allow them to pass through.

I would be irriteated living in a gated community and having to deal with some dumbass kids that feel they need to write their names everywhere. Nothing like having your property value go down due to an idiot with a marker. I wouldnt want to purchase a home in a gated community that had tagging all over it.

You are proof that education is not the only thing we need to get by in life. With a 4.0 you still made a dumb choice, and then try and put the blame on the officer to take the focus off of you. When you go to that college you are bound for see if they offer classes on common sense. If you were my kid being arrested would be the least of your concerns.

Agreed. If the police ever brought me home and informed my father I was "Tagging", he would have brought the term "whoop A$$" to a whole new level!

[xitek@msn.com]

i never said we did the graffiti, we did not i had the sharpies because i hadnt changed since i came from school i have a bad attitude because i was arrested even though i am innocent

[outonbail]

Originally Posted by xitek@msn.com

i never said we did the graffiti, we did not i had the sharpies because i hadnt changed since i came from school i have a bad attitude because i was arrested even though i am innocent

Innocent? Then why in your original post, did you admit to doing two things?

because we had the sharpies he charged us with ALL the graffiti in the park when we had done two things.

You see, the way it works, is you can be arrested and charged with breaking the law, even if it was only one time. So claiming you did one thing, or two things, or ten doesn't mean a rat's a$$ as to whether your position is one of being guilty or not.

Even if you hadn't began your artistic course of destruction prior to the officer searching you. His discovering the sharpie in your possession, is the equivalant of a smoking gun. Why would you carry a sharpie on your person, if you were going to a park that you know has been getting vandalized by people using these things? Either your dumber than a sack of rocks or you believe everyone else is.
There's only one reason anyone would carry these things around with them all the time and I think everyone knows what that reason is.
It certainly isn't because you hadn't changed your clothes after school, so stop adding all these little details thinking they will create any doubt as to your guilt. Why the hell would you have them in your school clothes? Because other than when your attending art class, I doubt your permitted to carry the damn things around on you while your on school property anyway.

Were you carrying around any drawing paper along with the sharpies? Of course not, because the world is your canvas.

So stop with the "I'm innocent" BS already, You've already admitted to doing two things, that makes you guilty, no if's and's or but's about it.

It is unbelievable how so many people can't keep up with their own statements, even though they were the one's who posted them. How difficult can it be to read your original altered rendition of the incident to refresh your memory so you don't go posting another line of lies that contradict those you posted in the first line?

Time for you to grow up and learn that out in the adult world, you are not going to be able to get away with the lies and BS stories that you've learned to spin on a dime, to fool your family members. They want to believe you, because being guilty can be seen as a reflection of their parenting skills. You lose that advantage in the real world, remember that.

[CdwJava]

Nothing you wrote leaps out to me as containing an unlawful act by the officer(s).

Just what do you want to do? Are you going to ask mom and dad to hire an attorney so you can sue the police?

In any event, the first step is to either win at trial or hope that the DA does not pursue the matter. You can also ask mom and dad to pay a couple thousand dollars so that you can consult an attorney about the viability of a lawsuit. Good luck with that.

The officer caught you involved in what he apparently thought was a criminal act and properly detained or arrested you. You were subsequently released to parents pending charges for a low level misdemeanor. I'm not sure where the officer did anything wrong in there. He has a lawful right to make an arrest or detain people who might be involved in criminal activity. He also does not have to heed the word of the property management company since it is the DA that decides on charges or not. If the PM company wants to pass on it, then the DA may decide it's not worth pursuing, but that is the call of the DA.


- Carl

[CdwJava]

outonbail, there are a couple of reasons kids carry around felt pens: One is to get high (they "huff" them) ... the second is to do precisely what this officer suspected - to graffiti the world. This is why it can sometimes be a crime in CA for kids to wander around with these things with no real purpose.

- Carl

[outonbail]

Originally Posted by CdwJava

outonbail, there are a couple of reasons kids carry around felt pens: One is to get high (they "huff" them) ... the second is to do precisely what this officer suspected - to graffiti the world. This is why it can sometimes be a crime in CA for kids to wander around with these things with no real purpose.

- Carl

Yeah, I agree and that is the point I was trying to make. I didn't know they "huffed" them, so that's something new on me.
I wonder how they even get the idea that they can get high with these things to begin with. I've used them in school but never thought I'd get much more than a headache if I didn't put the top back on good and tight.
But these resourceful little brats run around with a marker that not only gets them high, but doubles as a device for their uglyass artistic destruction.

But if I want to purchase one of these markers for a legitimate reason, I have to spend an hour hunting down some department manager who holds the key to the bullet proof safe these things are hidden away in?

This is one of the reason's posts like this one get my goat. The world has been covered with graffiti that our tax dollars try to paint over on a daily basis. Then It just about takes a court order and several forms of ID to have Home Depot open their paint cabinet so I can purchase these products.
So when one of the snot nosed little delinquents who's actions have helped to create this inconvenience that has been bestowed on law abiding citizens, I have a hard time sugar coating my replies to his distorted, fact bending BS story.

Plus, I'm tired of reading how every one of these destructive little monsters is really a "good kid". If only the posters would explain what it is their good for,,,, because, that would be enlightening.