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biccat wrote:
I should "work alongside" the authorities if I'm going to do something in a public place? Why? What business is it of theirs?

If the cops find a "suspicious package" and a bunch of weirdos prancing around wearing elf-ears and shouting "MAGIC MISSILE", maybe they should do what most people would do: ask someone what's going on. Then, once they figure out that it's a group of LARPers, and maybe one of them would show the cop that the "suspicious package" was a couple of bricks, the cops could go on to do something important. Like catching criminals.

The "disorderly conduct" charge will more than likely not stick. Simply a cop trying to validate his actions by pointing to an arrest.

It's not the 90s anymore. People have got the Fear and other people and things out of the ordinary are to be detained and/or confiscated for further state evaluation. You really shouldn't blame them though. 9/11 was Scary because Bad Things happened.

Also see: "2007 boston bomb scare" and "geocaching bomb scares". People do things in public. We either move toward welcoming concepts like facecrime or we realize that we're realistically not going to catch ever single terrorist bombing attempt that has occurred since 9/11. I mean, the terrorists can hide the bombs SO WELL THAT WE CAN'T SEEM TO FIND THEM. EVER. Cause like, we've never found any. And I mean, they've got to be out there right, otherwise we wouldn't be treating every last sack of bricks like it's full of explosives, right?

SilverMK2 wrote:

biccat wrote:Then, once they figure out that it's a group of LARPers, and maybe one of them would show the cop that the "suspicious package" was a couple of bricks, the cops could go on to do something important. Like catching criminals.

Slightly OT, but what would happen (legally speaking) if, say, the dad of that child was home and took on the police officers?

Well, that's what they do to people with speech impediments who turn their backs upon them. Using that as an estimate, I'd imagine anyone that brought real force would be shot with any paramedics showing up restrained until that person bled out like the 'filthy criminal' that they obviously were.