there's some people that are concerned cuz you've been out here for a couple hours i want to make sure you're okay okay you got some ID on you i'm just passing through sir okay i need your ID um did I commit a crime you're loitering if I'm trespassing yes you are because you've been here for hours i need your ID sir imagine that you're a free American citizen you're traveling in your car all of a sudden there's a terrible thunderstorm it's early in the morning you're on a busy road so you pull into a gas station to wait out the storm you turn your car off you sit in the back seat and you read a book as it storms for like an hour and a half but unbeknownst to you the cashier inside that gas station is apparently afraid of the fact that you've been parked there for 1 and 1/2 hours so she calls the cops you answer their questions but they want to obtain your ID because they think that you might have warrants and they want to search their databases for your information but you know that you've done nothing wrong freedom is scary just because some lady in Murphy's gas station is afraid that does not limit our rights i'm just trying to protect my constitutional rights and I understand that but us asking you to identify yourself isn't a violation of your constitutional rights it's not because you're required to identify yourself while we're investigating the nature of the call as both a content creator and a lawyer I take online privacy very seriously but most people are completely oblivious to the fact that their private data is being collected and traded online by shady data brokers data brokers create shadow profiles on you that include a scary amount of personal details that are then used by corporations banks insurance companies and even the government that's why I use a product called Incogn that not only tracks down your personal information but they have that data removed for you here's what they've done for me as of today and Cognney has located my private 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USA gas station to wait out the thunderstorm after parking his car he read a book called Sky Full of Elephants by Sibo Campbell this is the actual gas station that he stopped at murphy USA gas station in Athens Georgia along this busy highway right across the street from a Walmart john was interrupted by a knock on his car door by police officers who just had to have that crack they had to have that ID i'm just uh stopping for the stopping is that okay yeah there's some people that are concerned cuz you've been out here for a couple hours i want to make sure you're okay okay you got some ID on you yeah I do but um I can move if you want you don't I'm not saying you have to i'm just I'm just resting i know i'm not accusing anything they want us to check on you i just want to know who I'm talking to that's all i'm just passing through sir okay i need your ID um did I commit a crime you're loitering if I'm trespassing yes you are because you've been here for hours i need your ID sir they accused John of being parked there for too long and trespassing but when he offered to leave they told him not to leave that he couldn't leave that he was being detained and they needed his ID john refused to give his ID because he believed that he had done nothing wrong there was no allegation that he had even committed any crime are you going to arrest me do I need am I do I need to i don't I don't know i just Okay you need to identify yourself please provide me your identification officer if I committed a crime I Yes it's called trespassing and loitering that's a crime i don't believe I've been trusted okay it doesn't matter what you believe you need to provide your ID all I was doing officer was reading a I need your ID i mean I you're going to arrest me because if you don't provide your ID I will just for my car for trespassing and loitering you've been here for hours that's not normal behavior i I just It's not normal behavior i need your ID i don't know what you mean by normal behavior is that real nor People don't park in gas stations for hours they come get gas and they leave they come to the store grab something and leave you've been here for hours i need your ID i I've actually been doing this for Give me your ID or we're going to Then you're going to be detained you're going to arrest me potentially yes i'm trying to provide you an opportunity no I already explained to you why we're here provide your ID sir I didn't do anything wrong i don't provide your ID i'm not required to provide yes you are when we're investigating a complaint no you're not sir can I call Sergeant yeah sure okay i'm going to get out of the car okay please don't i'm just getting out of the car okay i still need your ID you're going to provide an ID i'm going to know no keep your door open i'm going to know who I'm talking to i just want to I'm not a threat to you guys i have no weapons okay great i'm just reading a book in my car sir we could have been we could have been dealt with this if you want to talk to your sergeants I'm I'm perfectly happy to wait i'm not a threat to you guys i didn't say you were threat i'm not resisting arrest the issue is not that we believe you're a threat the issue is that we received a complaint that you've been out here for a long time i just parked my car to read a book i understand that but there's a thunderstorm i know it's unsafe to drive a thunderstorm because of the nature of the complaint and we're out here you need to provide us with identification so we understand we're talking to i know you're being very reasonable right now i'm trying to be reasonable as well you're not i I ask i ask is there a reason are you Do you have warrants or something do you have arrest warrants out of somewhere else of another state have another jurisdiction i mean I see you got Is this your vehicle i'm waiting for your sergeant that's fine okay and when he tells you the same thing then what are you going to do i will comply once your sergeant comes here okay and tells me if all you need is for him to ask for the ID then then what then good i just want to know i've already explained to you is here i've already told you you guys a little Did you run the plate huh did you run the plate we're not confused yeah clearly not confused you're confused nothing illegal about my car read a book so I don't think the issue is the fact that you've been So the issue is the fact that you have been here for hours from what time so from what the I think somebody inside called they wanted us to check on you okay that's what we're attempting to do what time did they call they called maybe 20 minutes ago we're just now getting here they said that you've been here for hours they wanted us to check on you so because they're wanting us to check on you that's why we're speaking with you right now i'm just trying to protect my constitutional rights okay and I understand that but us asking you to identify yourself isn't a violation of your constitutional rights it's not because you're required to identify yourself while we're investigating the nature of the call if you refuse to identify yourself that is a criminal offense and you could go to jail for that sir if I'm committing a crime I'd be happy to give you my driver's license and my ID so the crime that you're committing right now is refusing to identify yourself no that's that's what confusion is that's not confusion you're required to identify yourself when we're Look this can be solved very quickly with your supervisor and he's in row okay i also perfectly have to move if that's okay with you then that's what we want the end goal to be but the issue is that usually when people don't want to identify themselves is because of some underlying factor that's not why that's exactly why cuz a lot of times people will have warrants and they won't want to identify themselves so they don't go to jail not that I believe you have warrants but that's what that usual theme follows there's a reason for not identifying your logic is I'm reading a book in my car and therefore I have a warrant and therefore you need to check my ID that doesn't make any sense it doesn't make any sense cuz you're misconstruing the order of what I just explained things as all right i'm we're miscommunicating you You're telling me stuff that doesn't make any sense i'd like to talk to you supervisor and the supervisor is in route okay my phone okay you okay my close my door uh yeah you can close it i'm not hiding anything i I got you you can close it i don't want anything to get wet okay you okay if I put my jacket on where is your jacket it's right here sure i'm not hiding anything i got you hold on let's not go reach it back into the vehicle my supervisor just pulled up can I just get my glasses i can't see anything sure although it's clear now that John is not from this area that he was traveling that there was a thunderstorm the officer still has to have the ID not because of any actual criminal suspicion that he that had not already been alleviated assuming it even existed but he just wants to have that ID because because he's probably told that's what his procedure is when you interact with somebody you have to get their ID so you can run their name see if they have any warrants not about crime about procedure jon wants to protect his constitutional rights and he requests a supervisor he's told that a supervisor is coming but unfortunately instead of talking to Jon when the supervisor gets there he goes up to the passenger window of the original officer and he talks to him first what's going on with this guy oh he's been out here for hours what's in the water lately oh I don't know dude because he's been here for hours the employees like uh car's running no it's not they've been out so he's refu just refusing to identify himself i haven't gotten that far yet um I just want to know who I'm talking to you're talking to somebody who's got a murder warrant for all I know he's out of New York so I'm trying to get something back on the plate but I'm not sure if that's him or not so he just I haven't done anything wrong well maybe you haven't but you've been here for hours which is not normal behavior and now you're just refusing to identify yourself which makes me really concerned so yeah I need to go talk to them about potentially trespassing them but I was like let me see if I can find something through the vehicle information which is what I'm trying to look up now which I noticed he's got a the name on it was like an Asian name wasn't it oh it's an Asian dude yeah he is Asian yeah so there's a chance i'm trying to maybe work around it but he's just really being He's I Is he saying anything about why he's here what he's doing he just I'm reading a book i haven't committed a crime well I'm not You You've been loitering which not normal behavior to be here for hours so um let me just I mean I'll go talk to him but I was trying to at least know am I talking to somebody who's running from something i mean it's not If you're from New York and you're just traveling through I don't I don't know that that's what he's even doing he's got a bunch of stuff in his car like he's like like power cords and everything you know other stuff in there so you can go look in there and talk to them i'll see if they want to trespass him but I was trying to at least I think it's worth it's just a red flag when you Mhm don't This isn't a consensual encounter asked to be here because the employee was concerned i'm gonna go talk to her but I just wanted someone else to be here because I don't know anything about this guy he's from out of state which go see what they want to do because if they want to trespass him obviously then we can push him a little harder rather than showing any concern whatsoever for the constitutional rights of this innocent man the supervisor before even learning the facts before even talking to John he's helping to conspire to jam this guy up so Jon has offered to leave jon has not been told to leave by the property owner the cops have not been told that Jon has been asked to leave the supervisor's directions are to go inside and see if they will ask Jon to leave so then they can ramp things up go see what they want to do cuz if they want to trespass them obviously then we can push them a little harder and set up an arrest for trespassing or some sort of obstruction charge for not giving them his ID but it hasn't happened yet so officer number one then goes inside to talk to the gas station lady who was afraid of absolutely nothing and called the cops for absolutely no reason creating this entire incident that never should have happened yeah okay hey sorry good morning sir morning where how can I help you today what's going on uh I don't need any help but I did stop my car with um thunderstorm mhm it's not safe to drive i was reading my book and then these officers came and knocked on my door and said I was trespassing and I said "I didn't think I was trespassing i I can move on." Okay we got a call here that the car has been sitting here for several hours and that's why we were called to come out and investigate it's been here since it was thunderstorm okay um I I was hoping to ride out the the rain okay i didn't think I was committing a crime well I understand that and and if that's the case that's the case like I said we got a call to come out here and look into it and investigate because they said that the vehicle's been sitting here for several hours from their perspective that's suspicious right okay i'm not complaining about that okay so um I'm just curious cuz I noticed you have a New York plate you had a rack you So are you from New York yes okay a resident of New York yes okay what brings you down to Georgia um visiting different houses of worship okay is there one here in Athens or are you passing through Athens um this one I think it's a Cherokee uh Cherokee Corner Church cherokee Corner Church in Athens are you familiar with that i know we have Cherokee Road and we have Cornerstone i don't know about a Cherokee Corner it says Arnoldsville Georgia okay so you're a little ways out that way actually in Athens yes sir that's another 20 minutes or so down the road then this seems like gaslighting the friend's church is actually on this same road only 5 miles further down the road again this man has answered every question that he doesn't even have to answer whatever suspicions this random gas station lady may have had have been alleviated just send him on his way okay what kind of church is that um I'm going to a Quaker meeting okay okay and you do a lot of the traveling around then are you like a higher up member of it or um I'm traveling in the ministry okay um just visiting different players meeting understandable okay so again from our perspective just so you understand right we we don't just show up we get a call i'm not complaining about that the only thing the only issue I had was that your officers kept insisting on me showing my ID and I said "I'll show you my ID if you're going to arrest me if I committed a crime." And that's all that's where it stopped sure so what we're investigating right now is we're investigating the complaint of loitering okay right and that's what we're investigating and that's why we're out here so we are investigating the complaint of a crime we're not just out here because right and we need to determine what's going on to talk to the people in the store and all that um and just quite frankly like whether you're in trouble or not right as soon as someone says that they don't want to show us that they refuse to show us an ID it's a red flag for us okay right it shows us in a lot of cases and I'm not saying it's you specifically but a lot of people are trying to hide from something and the easiest way to move on and clear it up is if you've got nothing to hide from we run your name it comes back clean right and and we all just move on you go to church and and we leave the gas station and everyone's on their way to that okay right and it's simple enough as that cuz otherwise the the loitering complaint then it only furthers our suspicion that that there's something weird going on and that there's a problem of some sort yeah right so that's that's part of our investigation i I tried to explain to officers that I only stopped the rain i had to move on i was just reading my book when they knocked on the door i was doing illegal um as far as I know I I know you say that I'm trespassing but I didn't realize I was trespassing and we understood that which is I don't know he's being difficult do you want a barn he's coming from He's not even from here from New York so I don't know what he's got going on i mean I wasn't even gonna call him but it's like every weekend this is something that's happening to me yeah last weekend the weekend yeah last Saturday guy was sitting on pump seven for about an hour no that's not normal behavior i agree different and he us down raining so I was like maybe they just needed to pull over but you know come in say something and we open up at 6:00 a.m i don't know what the hell you doing yeah no I get it that's You tucked in the corner it's like that's how things I get it um do y'all want Do you want to bar him or do you want What do you want to do i mean you can It's up to you i mean I don't work for the store you I mean he hasn't came in here and did anything or But I want to b him for no reason but hell I need him to get off the property okay go somewhere else i I probably should go ahead and borrow cuz he's going to come back and say you're the one called the cops on me probably i mean I don't I don't know this guy he's not from here he's from New York so I really Okay I'm scared i get it it's a crazy world we live in especially on the east side yeah they want a bar they do want to borrow i'm trying to explain to you the nature of our investigation here's the thing Jess they want to bar you from the property okay that's on them that's their right to do so in order to do that at this point in time it is a criminal trespass warning okay it's not an arrest however it is something where we do need your ID so that we can fill out the paperwork and officially make it that you are barred from this property okay so at this point in time because they want to do that we are going to need your ID okay i guess we need to um and fully understand what's going on so I I parked my power here during the rain um they called you i don't know exactly when but um when you guys arrived um you asked for my ID mhm i refuse to give my I didn't believe I uh did anything wrong um but now you went to the manager or whoever this person is and they are asking for a bar i just trying to explain trespassing you warning so what they're doing is they are barring you they are trespassing you from the property which means if you return back here then you will be arrested for trespass okay and so for that process we will need your ID okay so just so I understand um they're asking me to leave no they're ask they're telling you you're not back allowed on this property they're making an official report and do and documenting that you're not allowed on this property okay i haven't been here before it doesn't matter sir i'm just trying I'm just trying to No you keep on trying to stringing along you keep trying to understand but we're explaining to you the process and you just keep on going in circles we're not going to keep doing and you keep going back to the point that we've already explained all right so here's the thing we get your ID we put it in the system we trespass you from the property you're on your way you're never going to return here again so it's not going to be a problem for you right we make it official and and we move on and that's that that's the end of it right there okay sir i was not planning to come back here so okay but we have to make it official still for their request now if you don't like that you can call into corporate and you can complain about that i don't know what this what this company is it's it's Murphy's okay okay this is Murphy's gas station but right now the people that are on site who are the ones that have the authority to do that that's what they want to do okay so we're going to move forward with that process all right we're going to go to jail all right put your hands on your back please thank you i don't know like if you're like on a crusade or something man is there anything else he's going to poke stick or cut me uh no i don't have anything okay thank you but John doesn't budge in the end he believes that what the officers were doing was wrong violating his constitutional rights and he ended up getting arrested for it in Georgia like most other states the trespassing law requires that he enter the property with knowledge that he's been trespassed from it or not supposed to be there he had not been trespassed from the property he couldn't have committed criminal trespassing in Georgia unless he were to leave and then come back on the property he had already offered to leave not giving up your ID to officers is not a standalone crime in Georgia in fact it can't be a standalone crime anywhere because police officers cannot forcibly detain you without reasonable suspicion that you have committed some crime here he could not have committed trespassing and then all the questions that he answered alleviated any other hunches that the officers may have had that he was casing out the joint or anything like that he clearly was not they knew that he was not they just were upset that he asserted his rights and they thought that was suspicious reasonable suspicion to forcibly ID somebody cannot be the fact that they asserted their Fourth Amendment rights that's not illegal that's protected activity just because some lady in a gas station is afraid of her own shadow doesn't mean that any of us have some reduced version of Fourth Amendment rights that doesn't mean that police officers can't come up to you and ask you questions and ask for your ID that's a consensual encounter they haven't seized you yet but here John said "Well I'll leave if I can leave can I leave i'll leave right now." And they did not allow him to leave that invoked the Fourth Amendment and the problem with that was is they didn't have any reasonable suspicion that they could articulate that any crime had been committed at all because again it could not have been trespassing the officers knew that there had been a thunderstorm it was still raining he answered all of these questions it made perfect sense it wasn't a traffic stop he wasn't driving there was no statutory obligation for him to hand over his ID he answered all the other questions that they had they just had to have that crack they just had to have that ID on the other side of things I'm sure there are many of you saying it was so easy just to comply why didn't he just comply if we all complied all the time government would never stop taking that's why freedom is scary just because some lady in Murphy's gas station is afraid that does not limit our rights our freedom does not end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it