So I was Illegally Searched by Cops on my Way Home

So I was on my way home last night after work. I'd just gotten off the train and was heading towards the gates when a transit cop stopped me. Our transit system has it's own police force. They're real cops they carry guns and can arrest you. He asked me where I was coming from and tried to tell me I hadn't paid. He took me to the fare machine checked the balance on my fare card and looked really upset it was full of money. He started to double check before realizing it was useless and gave me my card back.

Thinking that was it I was about to turn to leave when I notice another cop standing behind me making exaggerated sniffing sounds. This cop starts telling me 'someone on the train told us you were loaded up with marijuana". I asked them who. He said "yup someone reported that the guy in the grey toque and beard was loaded up with marijuana we're going to need to search you". At that point I knew it was just some bull# to meet their ticket quota. I had been sitting by myseld in filthy work clothes on the train. No one was even looking at me let alone near me and about a third of the people at the station were wearing grey toques and had beards.

They started asking me more questions, did you smoke any weed before getting on the train? Do you have any weed on you? Any roaches or butts? No, no, no. So they asked me to empty my jacket pockets. I started with my rolling papers their eyes lit up, then i followed with my pouch of rolling tobacco and cigarette filters. That disappointed them

Then they wanted to go through my backpack. Now as pissed off as this was making me. This was probably the best part of the whole thing. My backpack scares me. I'm kind of lazy with it. I only use it for work so I don't really clean it out. It's one of those camping style backpacks with one big pouch.

So he starts by pulling out my waterbottle, gives it a little shake to make sure it's full of liquid and not drugs. Rummages around a bit through the wet socks, then notices I had a separate inside pouch. He pulls out another pack of cigarette filters which mildly confused him, then pulls out the quarter full bag of rice I had in there from when my phone got wet. This really confused him. I asked if he wanted to search the bag of rice. He declined and decided he was done with the inner pouch and goes back to the main pouch. Now the contents of the main pouch are almost exclusively wet socks and old food containers. At this point I was almost starting to enjoy it. The look of disgust on the cops face as he pulled out wet sock after wet sock

Finally, he pulled out one of the old food containers, it may have been pasta at one point or possibly chicken fried rice, it was impossible to tell by that point, I asked if he'd like to look for drugs in there. He declined and apparently decided I was not a drug smuggler. They gave my bag back, tried to ask me for my name again, I told them to go # themselves and walked away. They stopped me again and tried to thank me for giving them my time. I told them to # off again and walked away.

The transit cops here are corrupt as #. Their a private police force enforcing government legislation over a private company. Every day I show up at my stop in the morning to used needles, crack heads actively hanging out smoking crack, people just passed out on against the wall. I've watched transit cops laugh about that stuff saying how they should be dealing with it. Before saying # that and standing checking to make sure people are paying their fare. I've watched them chase people down for exiting a station without tapping their cards out, escort a student off the train for not paying forcing them to leave their computer, backpack and school work sitting their while the train left. Not once have I seen them actually stop any real crime but I've personally witness plenty of real crime sometimes in the presence of thes so called cops.

This is the 6th time this year I've been stopped this year by them for no reason other than I can tell that, I'm a 'shady' looking dude in work clothes with a backpack, and the 6th time this year I've gotten to tell them to go # themselves.

TL;DR
Dont smoke weed on the train.

J/K
I'm guessing youre in the UK?

You mean you followed orders and didn't get shot!??? Weird how that works.

More people need to take lessons from you when being "harassed" by LEO in my opinion. Nice Job!

Wow, gives me flashbacks of the mid 70’s, when I was 16-17-18, with hair just past my shoulders (male) and a job where my shift ended at 11 pm. For those that think profiling is a new phenomena that only affects people of color, you’re sadly mistaken. I generally just answered yes sir, no sir, etc., based on questions asked and after the cursory search of my person, car interior and trunk (which only ever had a spare in it), they would let me go on my way, though I could always tell they were disappointed the “hippie” had no drugs.

Funny thing though, I never let the asshole cops turn me against all cops for the rest of my life and to this day I am a full supporter of law enforcement.

Another funny thing...by being polite and cooperative, I never got arrested...or shot!

a reply to: dug88

Ooo....were they, by chance, G4S "cops" I wonder?

originally posted by: Butterfinger
TL;DR
Dont smoke weed on the train.

J/K
I'm guessing youre in the UK?

Canada.

originally posted by: Lab4Us
Wow, gives me flashbacks of the mid 70’s, when I was 16-17-18, with hair just past my shoulders (male) and a job where my shift ended at 11 pm. For those that think profiling is a new phenomena that only affects people of color, you’re sadly mistaken. I generally just answered yes sir, no sir, etc., based on questions asked and after the cursory search of my person, car interior and trunk (which only ever had a spare in it), they would let me go on my way, though I could always tell they were disappointed the “hippie” had no drugs.

Funny thing though, I never let the asshole cops turn me against all cops for the rest of my life and to this day I am a full supporter of law enforcement.

Another funny thing...by being polite and cooperative, I never got arrested...or shot!

I don't hate all cops. I do hate the transit cops though. I've yet to meet or see a single one of them doing a good job.

And honestly I was rude as # to the cops I swore at them told them to go # themselves repeatedly. I honestly expected them to just put some weed in my bag by the way I was acting. I just knew I did nothing wrong so honestly they could go # themselves.

originally posted by: dug88

originally posted by: Butterfinger
TL;DR
Dont smoke weed on the train.

J/K
I'm guessing youre in the UK?

Canada.

originally posted by: Lab4Us
Wow, gives me flashbacks of the mid 70’s, when I was 16-17-18, with hair just past my shoulders (male) and a job where my shift ended at 11 pm. For those that think profiling is a new phenomena that only affects people of color, you’re sadly mistaken. I generally just answered yes sir, no sir, etc., based on questions asked and after the cursory search of my person, car interior and trunk (which only ever had a spare in it), they would let me go on my way, though I could always tell they were disappointed the “hippie” had no drugs.

Funny thing though, I never let the asshole cops turn me against all cops for the rest of my life and to this day I am a full supporter of law enforcement.

Another funny thing...by being polite and cooperative, I never got arrested...or shot!

I don't hate all cops. I do hate the transit cops though. I've yet to meet or see a single one of them doing a good job.

And honestly I was rude as # to the cops I swore at them told them to go # themselves repeatedly. I honestly expected them to just put some weed in my bag by the way I was acting. I just knew I did nothing wrong so honestly they could go # themselves.

Back in the day, that would have resulted in a disorderly conduct, obscene behavior or some other BS arrest.

originally posted by: Lab4Us

originally posted by: dug88

originally posted by: Butterfinger
TL;DR
Dont smoke weed on the train.

J/K
I'm guessing youre in the UK?

Canada.

originally posted by: Lab4Us
Wow, gives me flashbacks of the mid 70’s, when I was 16-17-18, with hair just past my shoulders (male) and a job where my shift ended at 11 pm. For those that think profiling is a new phenomena that only affects people of color, you’re sadly mistaken. I generally just answered yes sir, no sir, etc., based on questions asked and after the cursory search of my person, car interior and trunk (which only ever had a spare in it), they would let me go on my way, though I could always tell they were disappointed the “hippie” had no drugs.

Funny thing though, I never let the asshole cops turn me against all cops for the rest of my life and to this day I am a full supporter of law enforcement.

Another funny thing...by being polite and cooperative, I never got arrested...or shot!

I don't hate all cops. I do hate the transit cops though. I've yet to meet or see a single one of them doing a good job.

And honestly I was rude as # to the cops I swore at them told them to go # themselves repeatedly. I honestly expected them to just put some weed in my bag by the way I was acting. I just knew I did nothing wrong so honestly they could go # themselves.

Back in the day, that would have resulted in a disorderly conduct, obscene behavior or some other BS arrest.

Honestly I've been polite with them the last 5 times. I'm getting sick of them. I've called and left complaints about their behaviour more than once. Talked personally with different officers in very polite and reasonable manners about my concerns and every time whether it's the department responsible for dealing with internal review, individual officers, sergeants or anyone. Their response has always been unprofessional and leads to nothing. The transit company has told me they have no authority to do anything. The only people overseeing them is themselves. They shouldn't exist. The only reason they do is because our transit system is still legislated by the same laws as it was when it was a public company. Their essentially a private police force for a private company that enforce public legislation accountable to no one.

originally posted by: Tekaran
You mean you followed orders and didn't get shot!??? Weird how that works.

More people need to take lessons from you when being "harassed" by LEO in my opinion. Nice Job!

Actually I was surprised while reading this guy didn't die, from the sound of it he could have

a reply to: Tekaran

Gross,

I would suggest you read some more dystopian novels and remember you have the right to object to unlawful searches.

a reply to: dug88

It's not illegal to smell like grass. If you are sure you have nothing on you you could have #ed with them. I got pulled over with my wife when we were dating. I was driving her Lincoln. Cop asked me if I had anything in the car and I said no. Asked me if I ever smoked pot in the car and I said all the time. I never had btw. They called the dog to sniff around. Nothing found of course.
# them
I shouldn't have done that but I was in a mood and had nowhere to be though.

a reply to: TinySickTears

When I was a younger and a waiter the place I worked did police banquets.

We had a small lot and had to park their vehicles valet. At least 10 of the cars had tall boys in the drink holders.

Another waiter had to cut an officer off who was driving a motercycle.

Pretty common I was told.

a reply to: dug88

Report them, say you'r really concerned that their searches weren't thorough enough and you're worried that if you were a terrorist you could have committed an atrocity. If you don't have their badge numbers, time date and location will be good enough for their boss.

originally posted by: jokei
a reply to: dug88

Report them, say you'r really concerned that their searches weren't thorough enough and you're worried that if you were a terrorist you could have committed an atrocity. If you don't have their badge numbers, time date and location will be good enough for their boss.

I've complained to them a bunch. See my post above. It does nothing. Ya I gotta say the one thing I really learned was if I did want to smuggle drugs put them inside old work socks and containers of moldy food

a reply to: dug88

They gave my bag back, tried to ask me for my name again, I told them to go # themselves and walked away. They stopped me again and tried to thank me for giving them my time. I told them to # off again and walked away.

You're lucky they didn't use that to arrest you you for resisting or non compliance. There are cops that will mess with you and try your patience so that you become 'non compliant' in order to arrest you.

For that revenue.

Nothing personal, if you submit you demonstrated your subservience, if you mouth off (resist) then you need to be 'taught a lesson'.

Go home and sleep in your own bed tonight instead of jail, the hospital or Morgue. Whats that set you back, ten minutes of indignity? You can laugh about it later, bring it here so we can all chuckle too.

originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: dug88

Ooo....were they, by chance, G4S "cops" I wonder?

Imo, all transit cops are wannabes.

a reply to: dug88

Hit record, be polite state you object if illegal searches, wait until you have a few recordings and deliver to the news.

If you can live stream the event.

youtu.be...

For your viewing enjoyment.

originally posted by: Tekaran
You mean you followed orders and didn't get shot!??? Weird how that works.

More people need to take lessons from you when being "harassed" by LEO in my opinion. Nice Job!

Take for the team, you receive all the harassing for the rest of us.

This stuff has been going on for centuries!

I've had several experiences similar to this. Probably the funniest was when they (Issaquah Police) found a zip-lock coin-bag containing "Smooth Stroke" billiards chalk in my glove compartment during their illegal search of my vehicle at Lake Sammamish State Park. The cop held it up in the air and yelled "JACK-POT!!!" with a huge grin on his face as if he had just won the lottery. He became even less pleasant and searched even harder when he realized with disappointment that this was not an illicit substance that he had illegally pulled from my car.

a reply to: dug88
Sounds to me like a repeated pattern of harassment and abuse, systematic at that. I am certain you could easily find dozens of witnesses and victims to corroborate your testimony. Do what Americans do, go for that easy payday! Because incident number 7 may just have them planting drugs and drawing firearms where they shoot you in fear of their life as they demand you approach them with weapons drawn.


Better to rape them in court and take funding from their budget.