A: Chosen as “Best Answer” by Asker on www.AVVO.com
A: Obviously he can. He did.
Look, you have an explanation for everything except the chip you seem to have on your shoulder.
There is no need to be disrespectful (whether intentionally or not and by action or word) and you can invoke your rights pleasantly if you wish. Or not….
But so too are the cops are free to act as they wish too (lawfully or not). They could have found a reason to harass you, taser you, maybe even throw you a beat down and then claim that you provoked the situation. Or they could have taken you home to mama (as they did) and hope that she smacked some sense into you (which I suspect they also believed that they were doing).
I am not condoning the cops behavior but I am gonna go out on a limb here and say that I’m pretty certain (from your own words, here, on AVVO and well after the fact) that your choice of behavior contributed to this scene going south.
I’m betting that had you not caused the “police [to have to] had caught up to us”, and had you not “didn’t want to answer his question” and had you not “told if he do he would have to drop the charged because I lived in the community” then he probably would not have “got mad and jump out of his car and told me “keep it with your smart mouth I’ll take you down to the station for disorderly conduct”” and you would not have been field interrogated and “handcuff me brought me to my house to ask my mom do I live here.”
Instead you probably could have avoided all that by standing still and telling the cop, in plain English, what you were doing and where you lived. There was no crime being committed (tasteless as it may be you are perfectly free to tell the neighbor “to “f*** off, I’m not going no where””), but your acts in leaving after you saw the cop and then aggressively (instead of politely) invoking your rights and otherwise effectively being stand-off-ish (instead of being what you were, innocent of any criminal activity) sealed the deal.
“Do unto others”….
Act like a thug and you’ll likely be treated like one.
Behave like a good citizen and you’ll also likely be treated like one.
I’m pretty sure this is not what you wan’t to hear but after 25 years of criminal defense representation in the 305 I’ve represented a lot of folks who have had sufficiently similar (if not carbon copied) experience I know of what I speak.
Regardless, I hope that I have been helpful in answering your question.
https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelhaberlaw / http://habercriminallaw.blogspot.com
Q: Can a police arrest me for having an attitude?
A: No. But they can find any of a number of other reasons to arrest you (and, sadly, worse), and while you may (in the end, long-term) beat the rap you cannot beat the (immediate, short-term) ride.
My advise: Don’t poke the bear.
If you’re innocent then, although you can, you don’t walk away (although innocent folks can do so guilty folks have a clear incentive to walk away at the sight of a cop, the cops know that, they do simple math and bank on the odds that you’re into something nefarious – after all you don’t know what the neighbor told them or what they thought when they showed up, made eye contact and you started walking off…).
Further, if you’re innocent then you are best advised to respectfully respond to police questions by saying that you’re not doing anything wrong and that unless you’re being detained you would like to be on your way.
And if you are being detained then you can politely invoke your rights to remain silent and for an attorney.
After that simply resign yourself to the fact that if he’s gonna arrest you then so be it. If you don;t make things tough on your lawyer then you will beat the rap (even though you won’t beat the ride).
You will generally get farther (with the cops and in life) with sugar than you will with spice.