I should have reported it.
I moved to North Port a couple years ago and have had 3 run ins with officers, 2 that have bothered me ever sense. The first was at the GoodWill where I was contacted by officer Richard's after a employee called PD to serve a trespass because a customer said I threatened them. (Absolutely NOT never happened!) The man was a 80 year old marine veteran (based on tattoos on his arms) that was angry I couht him taking something from my shopping cart And all I said to him was, Do you do that at the grocery store also? A joke I didn't really care that he did it. Anyways... officer Richards responded and issued me a trespass. I let him know I didnt want to identify because I hadn't committed a crime. I did agenst my best judgment and I stayed to get the documentation even though I could have just walked away I was not detained and I say agenst my best judgment because a couple days later I'm out fishing and get a call from my neighbor saying that the cops are in my driveway. ?? I have no idea why they would have any reason to be at my house. So I come home and as soon as I pull in my driveway I'm blocked in by a marked NPPD vehicle driven by officer Richards. Why is this guy at my house other then to be intimidating I guess??
I asked him why he was at my home and he said because he wanted to ask me for my phone # so he could call me in regards to the trespass. Why?? Is that normal procedure?? That should not be his concern at this point. The head of Goodwill security already called me and apologized for the mistake and let me know that he would go down that monday and remove the trespass.
But officer wouldnt know anything about that yet as it was the weekend.
A few months later I'm riding my Harley and get pulled over by a rather stubby man with no neck. this time I was doing 15mph in an alley way behind the doughnut shop when I was passed by a all blacked out NPPD cruser and immediately he flipped around and lit me up. He gets out with an attitude demanding my driver's license. I'm cought off guard with the way he came at me and immediately thought back to the last officer that violated my rights and with my own attitude I asked "why did you pull me over?" And he repeats him self as do I. This happens 4 or 5 times Before I let him know I would not be giving him anything without a legitimate reason for the stop in the first place. I'm almost 40 and have no criminal record because I dont break the law, I know my rights and I happily exercise them. I know why he pulled me over it was obvious he profiled me and I wasnt going to comply without a legal reason for the stop, I'm sorry but it's not happening! So now hes looking over my motorcycle for a violation and comments that it's a nice bike. He finally says he pulled me over because I wasnt wearing eye protection! Lol Really!?! Haha okay I give my ID and ask for my ticket and not politely ill admit it. I'm going to give what I get that's just me. I felt it was bogus and it was because I have a windshield and FL state law states eye protection is optional as long as your windshield is 15" above the bars and Mine is! Unfortunately a law I didnt know because M I just moved here.
I wanted to fight the ticket but reading the fine print it says that if I choose to and loose, it would cost me $1,000 for court fees. Wtf? So I paid the $116 ticket that shouldn't have even been issued instead of risking the chance that the judge may be as bad as th
This cop. This ticket was pure retaliation because I wasnt going to comply and I'd myself if I didn't have to. I've heard some pretty sketchy stories about NPPD officers and I dont want any problems so chose not to report either of these incidents and risk retaliation. It wont happen again we need to weed out the bad cops and possibly prevent bad things from happening to good people in the future. Has anyone else experience this type of behavior from NPPD.
* Just to make it clear with everyone,* I only dislike bad cops! 98% of the time I'm totally respectful towards police. I think in NPPD's case just like every other department there's a few bad apples.
So with the bad is good and I cant forgot the 2 officers that stopped for me when my Harley died and took a good 10 minutes to make sure I got my bike safely across the road. I had no power so no lights and it was dusk m. they literally stopped traffic for me and not once did they try to violate any of my rights I hope the next encounter is equally as pleasant as that one!
-Anonymous
