I'm being detained. I don't I'm not legally obligated to answer your questions. What's your name and your badge number? Is that what you tell the judge? Can you de-escalate Can you de-escalate this situation? He's You need to stay away from me. First, it's 6 ft. It's I don't I don't have to tell the judge. >> Police approached a man practicing in a parking lot, quickly labeling him suspicious, detaining him, and demanding ID without identifying any clear crime. When he refused, they escalated by searching his backpack without consent or legal grounds. As he stood firm and questioned their actions, their weak justifications unravelled, ending in an awkward retreat. >> to answer my questions, okay? And you're going to you're going to provide me your identification. Am I legally obligated to? You're being detained right now, yeah. What crime am I being detained for? I need to know what crime I'm That's your bag over here. You're littering. I'm littering? You You put the bag down over there, but yeah, you're not saying nothing about it. Uh are you going to de-escalate this, sir? I'm just riding around the parking lot. And now he's asking me questions saying I'm littering and I'm being detained. And I'm being detained. That's your bag over there. You can't even answer a question. >> I don't I'm not legally obligated to answer your questions. What's your name and your badge number? That's what the statute is. >> Is that what you tell the judge? >> Yeah, that's what I tell the judge. Can you de-escalate Can you de-escalate this situation? He's You need to stay away from me. First, it's 6 ft. It's I don't I don't have to tell the judge. Is this your vehicle? >> It's Hold on. I don't I don't request any searches or seizures of my property. >> your bag and you left it there? >> your bag, yes or no? It's my bag. You put my bag down, dude. I already I don't have to answer your questions. I'm not illegally obligated to answer your questions. Let's start there. Who are you? What's your first name? Am I legally obligated to answer who I am? I'm going to tell you this, all right? I come here and I practice riding my motorcycle. I take my bag off and put it right there, so I'm not riding with it on me. All I did was pull up, check my tire pressure, put my bag down, and he came up to me asking questions saying I was being detained. That's a That's an illegal detention. He deems you suspicious. He doesn't know who you are, all right? So, he's checking you out. And he's asking you some simple questions. And that's understandable, but uh suspicion is not a crime. If he deems you suspicious, just the same as if if somebody was driving a motorcycle in your neighborhood, Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. somebody was driving a motorcycle in your neighborhood, and they dropped a bag that was near their home, wouldn't you want or near your home, wouldn't you want us to at least check them out? 100% 100% Right, but it was the way he did it. It was the way he did it. It was very unprofessional and aggressive. And he was treating me like I'm a criminal, like I did something wrong. And then, are you going to be professional and identify yourself? You're a member of the public. No, you didn't. What's your name and your badge number? Thank you for being professional. It is It is open to the public. >> I didn't share it. That you you legally you illegally took my information. Because he has a lawful opportunity to do He just I just Listen, I don't know even know your first name is. If he If he deems it suspicious and he's checking it out, he can do so, lawfully do so. And that's what he's doing here today. Why are we making this so much harder than it has to be? >> It It didn't have to be hard. It didn't have to be hard at all. All I All I said was what I asked him when he asked the question, I asked the question. Okay. All right. So, You didn't start out being defensive. Why are you Why are I don't I don't ex- Did you forfeit your bag when you set it over there? I don't forfeit my bag for setting it over there. You drove it away. Like I just got done saying, if you set it there, if you left it there and drove away from it, you lose an expectation of privacy for it. No, that's that is not correct. You You told me I can't set my bag down to practice riding my motorcycle. >> but you jumped to a conclusion, went right to the defensive line. Exactly. No, I'm not legally obligated to tell him anything. First of all, I don't even know who you are. You don't have to know who I am. Okay. If he deems it suspicious and he's checking it out, >> Suspicion is not a crime. >> You're operating a motor vehicle. No, I'm not. I'm parked. I'm parked. >> At the time you were. I'm parked when he pulled up, I was parked. >> Okay. Do you have an identification? I don't answer questions. I'm not answering any questions. That was very unprofessional of him. It was very aggressive. I'm glad you you de-escalated. I don't know what he would have done if you didn't de-escalate that. All right, we're good. We're good? What do you mean we're good? I'm I'm going to Yeah, your card. I want your card. I want your card. I want your card. I'll make sure you get it. I got it right here. Thank you. All right, yeah. Same circumstances if it was at your home, wouldn't you want us to check that person out and ensure that that's who they are? I'm not being detained. >> obligation to know We need to know who you are, okay? If you say, "No, I'm not telling you who I am," and we're investigating something that we deem to be suspicious, now you're obstructing. If I'm being detained for a crime, he detained me. I didn't do no crime. He He legally detained me. I didn't do any crime here. Okay. Detaining is different from an arrest. Yeah, but you have to you have to detain me for something I've done illegally. to ensure that something isn't going on, and he's done so in a lawful fashion. Okay. He's done so in a lawful fashion to ensure that there isn't a crime present, right? We could have took it that extra step and said, "You're detained and we're demanding that we see a license from you." But he didn't. You're cop-splaining me right now. You're cop-splaining me. I All I did was pull up here, and I was going to practice my motorcycle practice riding my motorcycle. He pulled up, asked me a bunch of questions. I was like, "Okay, what Is there a reason why you're asking all these questions?" And then I was detained and it this and that and like all I all I was doing was asking him why I'm being questioned for illegal activity. I'm doing nothing illegal. And then he illegally searched my bag like I'm doing something wrong. I feel like my rights were violated. Okay. If he If he deemed it suspicious and he detained you for a time until he could determine if it was suspicious, >> You can't detain someone without a crime, though. Suspicion is not a crime. There's a difference. A simple detainment is separate from an arrest. Are you in handcuffs? Well, you could use >> Are you in handcuffs? No, sir, but Are you Have you been told you've been placed under arrest? No, sir. Okay. So, all he's doing is talking with you to deem whether or not something was suspicious. You're talking All right. And you're saying that my my rights weren't violated at all in any way? He checked it out. If you If you weren't sitting in the back of his car, and this is a personal contact, okay? And he wants to know who you are. He could have went down the road of obstruction, but he didn't. That's a secondary charge. Obstruction, you have to have a You haven't been charged with anything yet. Right. So, how could he charge me with obstruction? Cuz we don't know who you are. Right now as we stand, I still don't know who you are. It's my I don't have to identify unless I've committed a crime. That's not true. That's 100% true. If he deems it suspicious, I don't have to tell you who I am unless I've committed a crime. And neither have you. And we're going to leave it at that. He took He He illegally searched my bag and took my ID and he ID'd me. I have a right to privacy as a private citizen. And if you're saying this is 100% legal what just happened here, you're saying this is 100% legal. If you have anything else you want to talk to my lieutenant about it, or you want to talk to the chief about it, He detained me. All right. I'm sorry. It did he So, am I still being detained right now? Cuz he left with But he's the one that But he's the one that detained me and he took off without saying I was not detained being detained anymore. He said we're done. So, I'm not being detained right now. Nobody said you're being detained right now. You can walk away if you want. But he's detained me. That's what he said. He said I was being detained. At that point, you were detained, but you still weren't in the handcuffs. You weren't putting anything. He was just trying to figure out what was going on. Right, but I was being detained for Who's your uh lieutenant? Lieutenant what? Waters.