The Laws to keep scalpers at bay are meant for ordinary fans like ourselves. There are laws that you cannot re-sell seats to an event on the premises. Its a rule to keep every sporting event ticket bought the first hour by scalpers then we have to deal with them and with the Ticket Reselling Agencies and pay more for seats. Its not that hard of a rule to follow. Its not like you got a ticket or even in trouble, I don't know what your complaining about. If they let everyone who said they were 'ignorant' to the rules go, then every event would be full of scalpers at the door. Ignorance is no excuse.
The issue really isn't the reselling of tickets to me, it's that the officer was only going to write a ticket when he was asked for his name or to see his badge in a way that someone could actually look at it. Who's to say that his badge didn't say "Colgate Cavity Patrol" instead of HPD? Even the HPD's own website lists "rude behavior" as an example of something someone might make a complaint about. And it's near-impossible to make a complaint without the indentifying information about the officer. Which is something he only agreed to give through a written ticket. And, it is my understanding that HPD policy is "all officers are required to wear name badges and must give their names and badges numbers when asked by anyone; failure to have a name tag on or to provide and badge number upon request is grounds for a complaint." And I know the Dallas Police requires the name and badge number of an officer before they'll even take the written complaint.
I'm sure you're pissed off now, but you and your buddy are gonna laugh your asses off about this story when you've had sufficient time to cool off. Oh, and mrpaige, I wouldnt go around pissing off crazy people who pose as police for the sole purpose of conducting fake sting operations and jotting down notes in "little black books", colgate cavity patrol or no. Nod your head, say "yes officer", and report them to the real police later.
Nod your head, say "yes officer", and report them to the real police later. How do you report them when they won't tell you who they are? Here where I live, you aren't allowed to complain if you don't know the officer's name and badge number. So the real answer is: the police are allowed to break the law or break official police policy and if you don't like that, you're the troublemaker. Personally, I don't piss off the police, but I've also had very few run-ins with the bad ones. Plus, making a complaint is useless. It's not as if the police get punished for breaking the law very often.
I meant to say "how do you know they aren't the real police in the first place?" There are plenty of officers who refuse to identify themselves or give their badge numbers despite official police policy, and, like I said, it becomes impossible to report them in Dallas if you don't know who they are.... And then all the rest. Reading through your post quickly, I missed some key words.
RM95's friend had already given his driver's license info to this (as it turns out, real) police officer. Basically, if the guy was a real cop, you assume its not a problem, and the sleeping dog who's cut you a break should be left alone. If it's not a cop, then he's given his number to some sort of thief. If a thief steals money from you, do you go hunt him down and ask for ID? Nah, you call the police. I'd call 911 and tell them there's some crazy hanging around the stadium, asking for DL#s and showing some bogus badge. To address your point tho, yep. Police can break official policy, and you're the troublemaker. This officer had a trump card in that he could (and did) write the man a ticket for something he was going to let go with a warning. Meanwhile, the only recourse you've got against the police is an internal grievance that's likely to go nowhere. Nobody said the rules were fair...
But it's this attitude that the cop gave the guy a break therefore he should be allowed to break policy that leads to officers who do really bad things being able to get away with bigger crimes. The rules should apply to the officer. RM95's friend may have been being a complete jerk, but if the rule is that the officer has to give his badge number, he should do that. And he should do that without attempting to intimidate the person asking for the information. RM95 and his friend should follow the rules, sure. But so should the Houston Police. Letting them get away with it just engenders the kind of attitude that ends up leading to trouble, i.e. the police don't have to follow the rules.
To address a few points: 1. F.D. Kahn, he did receive a ticket. If "you" meant I didn't receive a ticket so I have nothing to complain about, well that's just silly. For one thing, this happened to one of my best friends, who now has to waste time and money fighting this. Another, it's a stupid law. I understand why a law against selling tickets at over face value would be against the law, but this was a fan who was trying to make a little money back on some unused tickets (money he was planning on giving to the Marines Toys for Tots drive that was going on). 2. My friend (and I for that matter) really wouldn't have had any problem with the ticket had he originally given it. We didn't know it was against the law, but when they informed us that it was, we accepted it. However, he didn't show his full badge and wrote the info in a little black notepad, not an official warning, so my friend got scared. There was no reason the cop should've been offended by a respectful citizen who was simply protecting himself. He only gave the ticket because my friend insisted on receiving the cop's info. Waiting until after the fact is unacceptable and unreasonable.
There could be a reason. If the purpose of the law is to prevent mass scalping, then it makes sense to resell the tickets even at a lower than face value. Because scalpers can sell tickets for extrodonary prices prior to the game time, and simple sell the remaining ones lower than face value to "cover bases". In fact, that's a common practice. Then again, a law is a law. It may be stupid, but you sure need to bear the concequence if you break it. Many people call parts of the drug related law stupid, would you still complain about "stupid" law if you break that? He made sure the cops were not crooks, the cops made sure they dish out the ticket as they could, or should. Ain't nothing wrong about it. You don't have any argument to prove that they wrote the ticket just because of their attitude problems. He asked what he deserved to ask, and got what he deserved to got. That's fair. Then again, he could have sold some pencils and given out tickets for free. Know what you can do and can not do, and act accordingly. I don't know how this can be much complaint. Sometime you just have to accept the bust.
What are you talking about? The only reason he gave the ticket is because my friend, concerned about his privacy, went back and asked for the cop's information. Also, he made it perfectly clear to the cop that he had no idea of the law and had he known, he would've never thought about trying to get any money for the tickets. There is a reason cops are allowed to give out warnings.
Ignorance of the law is never an excuse though. Once my mother was real sick and asked me to run her car pool for my little brother's school (I am 12 years older than him). By his little school the was a certain road that bcomes a one way street during school zone hours. I had never done this before and I felt like Mr.Mom, having know idea how to do the pick-up/ drop off routine worked at the school. I went the wrong way and was ticketed right there. I was pissed, I was only trying to help out. I thought for sure I would just get a warning but almost got arrested I was so pissed.
The ignorance of the law is irrelevant here. He got off with a warning and then returned to the cop and was given a ticket for aggravating the cop with a request for identification. That seems to me like an abuse of power and a just cause for complaint. But, I do think the law makes a little sense. Busting people for selling tickets for under face value seems stupid, but such sales make a lot of cover for scalpers who are trying to profit from the business. Cops won't always have an easy time discerning the scalpers from folks with extra tickets. So make it all illegal, and the cops have a lot more lattitude to punish scalping. It was probably made plain to the cop that RM95 friend was not a scalper which was why he got a warning. That the cop had a chip on his shoulder was an unfortunate extra. Though, I understand that too -- if he's trying to nab some scalpers (who are watching out for undercover cops), spending a lot of time with you and presenting his badge and everything isn't going to be conducive to catching real scalpers.
Neither one of us would've been arguing or complaining about this had he given him the ticket in the first place. Sure, we'd have made a couple of comments immediately after about it being a stupid law, but that's it. We didn't know it was against the law, but we know now...that's fine. The fact that the only reason he gave the ticket because my friend asked for his info is why we're pissed off about it.
You need to snap a picture of this idiot cop and his keystone partner so that way we can all laugh at him when he tries the same thing on us..... All the crime in Houston and these two are trying to arrest people for selling tickets.....what a joke... I had a cop fired at wally mart because he tried to pull that strong arm tactic on my MINOR little brother.
