We both know I did not seriously accuse you of anything. Merely pointing out that when you ( or anyone) is stopped by police, the stoppee could indeed be a dangerous criminal-the police would not know, and it is not safe for them to assume the best about you.
When people are wary of me, I do my best to reassure them that I am not a threat-friendly, smiling, open, hands visible. That works well for me; YMMV
Perhaps @mtmind and @roycroftmom would like to take it to PM. Regardless, please stop responding to each other on this thread
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Nothing funnier that falsely accusing someone you don’t know of being a drug lord. 
And how about @GKUnion repeatedly suggesting I must have been doing something wrong to get pulled over? Is that tongue-in cheek too?
Jokes or not, both represent a common approach. LEO is beyond reproach, and that anyone who might protect their rights when dealing with them must have done something wrong.
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If some posters don’t follow the recommendations of Officer @skieurope they may need to lawyer up. 
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Moving on–This thread wasn’t meant for drug lords etc…but more for mundane scenarios that someone (or their kids) may find themselves in at some point.
So…scenario…your kid has a party at campus apartment where underage drinking may be happening. Your kid may be of age–but the friends may be not. And the volume of music is really loud and the neighbor calls the police. The police show up on the doorstep… what’s the proper move?
- answer the door and leave it open–nothing to see here.
- don’t answer the door and hope for the best. Turn the music down though.
- Hope everyone at the party is a true straight arrow.
The answer I got from a pretty good video from ACLU is …
Turn the music down. Answer the door but immediately go outside closing the door behind you to speak to the police. Don’t let them see inside for “empties” (now probable cause) for example. Be respectful. (and don’t give permission to come inside–not because you did anything wrong but because you’ve no idea what anybody else has done.)
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This has happened at parties both my son’s attended in college. Generally the police have everyone leave, and make anyone carrying a beer/drink pour it out on the lawn. There are no arrests. The police want to stop the party and move on to real problems.
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That experience definitely not universal.
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What’s the other experience?
Binge drinking by those underage may be a cause for concern, but not a serious law enforcement priority.
Like the purchase of nicotine products by those underage. Of any racial/ethnic/SES demographic.
Other experiences are partygoers being arrested. The apartment/house/students being searched for other substances beyond alcohol. The police being hostile/threatening/creepy*.
Didn’t think pointing out that the experience listed above wasn’t universal was confusing, but happy to clarify.
*An unfortunately too-common experience for young women in these situations.
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I find this thread very sad.
I’m not sure why. Except it encapsulates for me the erosion of trust in institutions we’ve all seen of late.
No, the police are not blameless, and there are strategies and tactics which have led to tragic consequences for people, and contributed to the erosion of trust in law enforcement by minority communities (and some majority communities). And yes, there are parts of the country where the cultural ethos? practices? have made interactions with law enforcement very dangerous.
But policing is a hard job. Being a judge is a hard job. Being a prosecutor is a hard job. And trying to do your job in an ethical and straightforward way while being threatened, doxxed, killed, or just plain vanilla harassed makes hard jobs even harder.
And I wonder- as someone with family in law enforcement/criminal justice- at what point do the kind, ethical, psychologically healthy people decide “Nope, I’m leaving. The Psychos can have my badge because no normal person can tolerate what I see every day AND the criticism/threats”.
Do we want a society where only the damaged will put on a uniform? Because the gun and the stun gun are extensions of their already narcissistic narrative?
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None of this is about degrading the important work police do, Not an iota.
It’s about the snafus that can occur between the police doing their job and how you can land in a web in a seemingly innocent way.
So what is the percentage of parties gone wrong because of the police? I’d genuinely love to know.
I’ll ask my sons how many parties they’ve been at where the young adult host was arrested. I suggest others do the same.
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I dont know of a single arrest among dozens of parties. I do know of several large cities with enormous police recruitment problems in large part due to attitudes expressed in this thread.
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The idea that LEOs are avoiding become LEOs because some people know and exercise their legal rights? It is too ridiculous to address.
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I live adjacent to a university. Police will respond to noise complaints about parties but seem to just tell students it’s time to shut the party down and that people need to go home.
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Maybe not in Boston. I wouldn’t count on it in Brooklyn. And if they chase–felony time.
I can verify that’s the norm in our city as well. For a few years, the house next door was rented out to college students. A couple of years, it seemed to be the football team club house, other years an unauthorized frat house. We called the police very very often when the house next door was out of control and spilled over onto our lawn. All that was done was as you described above.
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