Re: "My" run in with the law.
Its always amazing when I read of situations like this, it reminds me of a situation that happened to me a few years ago. When I was in the army as a commission officer, my specialty was "urban combat training" in other words, I taught people how to fight in an urban environment and many of my teachings are being used in both Iraq and Afghanistan right now as I write this..
Well anyway, after I was wounded in 1991, during the first Gulf conflict, they tried to drum me out of the military, of course they were not successful and I spent the last 15 years of my career teaching urban combat tactics.., in addition I contracted out with many states to teach their new SERT officers as well as SWAT officers for duty in large cities..
I was on my way home from a weekend of training a medium sized city SWAT team they were setting up, low and behold, I was stopped at a "safety check Point" I had a cased fully automatic M16 in the front seat next to me, no rounds in the weapon, but low and behold it was a fully automatic assault rifle, my personal weapon(I was an O-6 decorated officer in the army and I have an ATF certificate as well) Well I got to take a ride to the local poky, in restraints to boot... Come to find out, they disabled my weapon, and my magazines turned up missing, as well as my vehicle was damaged in the tow to the impound..
Well to say the least, it cost them a heck of a lot of money, as they had to purchase a new training weapon for me(My custom M16 is valued at close to $8,000), replace all of the magazines and have my vehicle fixed, in addition 3 officers received reprimands and demotions when the Chief of Police found out! It was an interesting experience to say the least, I was also accused of being in possession of a forged military decoration..(My Silver Star Hangs from my Mirror!)
Reason for my post, the field cops have become to egotistical, and they need to be taken down a peg or two, I would sure get a hold of those in power in the county you were stopped and make them aware, you would prefer not to pursue the issue, but there needs to be some training done to ensure, the public's rights are not violated and they can actually believe what most of the public says, I would not even mess with the local cop shop, I would not be opposed to contacting the Governor of the state and explain the situation to him and let him talk to these police officers..
I have the utmost respect for those guys in the field, they have a tough job, but there is no reason for this type of situation to happen, you don't have to consent to a search with no probable cause, and you were well within your right to say no, you had not presented any reason to constitute a search..
Let us know how it turns out, and by the way the ACLU is useless in these types of situations, forget the NAZI stuff, just be firm and explain your position and it should not cost you a dime, we are not only obligated but expected to question when things go wrong..
Good luck, stick to your guns and I am sure you will be able to accomplish something that will benefit the public at large..
