Besides boring and long, the process is expensive and emotionally draining. And it doesn't have to be just an arrest. For example, if you are open carrying (where legal) and the police stop and detain you ("Am I being detained officer" and the answer is yes or they won't let you leave) solely because you are open carrying, that is technically an illegal detainment. The police can try to frame the stop as "folks are concerned/calling about a man with a gun" or "we need to ID you to make sure that you are not a felon" but the exercise of a legal activity can never be the basis of a non-consensual stop. But, as you can see from any number of You Tube videos, that happens all the time. I would imagine that most folks who suffer through this type of illegal detainment will never seek legal redress.
Obviously the cop that stopped this open carrier either didn't know the law or was lying to try to get the actor to ID himself. And, to make (legal) matters worse, he seized the gun (legal private property) without a warrant or due process. Both actions were technically illegal. Should the actor have sued in this instance?
But, some do:
In the first instance I certainly would have spoken to a lawyer. The officer was certainly violating the mans rights, whether the officers actions were "technically" or blatantly illegal is irrelevant, the officer was breaking the law. A citizens rights were violated. No crime had been committed and the officer had no reasonable suspicion that one was about to occur.
OK, the guy
eventually got his property back and was allowed to go on his way. The key word here is
allowed. Since when do we, as free people, have to tolerate harassment by LEO's in order to exercise our Constitutional rights? The problem is that LEO's get away with this so often that it's become accepted practice, they feel entitled to get information from you, whether or not you've broken the law. This needs to change.
In the second instance, that guy did the right thing, at a cost of two
years of his time and probably no small amount of money. I only hope that the $15,000 was in addition to his attorney's fees.
The interesting thing, to me, was how, even through a third party { the TV anchor person } you feel how pissed off the police chief was that he had to do this. Not so funny when you stop to think that he's paid to ensure that our rights are
not violated.
I'm sure this would have come to light in a very different manner had the officer simply shot this man
Something like, "Crazed gunman shot after attacking policeman in park."
I appreciate the difficult job the police do for us. That doesn't mean they get to break the laws they're paid to enforce. They should know better.