Poll: Was it the right thing to do?

[beddo]

DAMMIT! He wasnt a police officer, I find police officers tend to follow the rules!

He was a PCSO!!!

And PCSOs still have powers given to them by by-laws. I'm fed up having to pay these people to keep an eye on you because you can't be bothered to drink in a designated sociable place.

Besides, why can't you just respect the fact that the law is the law and it's your responsibility to follow it without having to be told what to do by an actual police officer.

How dont you get this... I didnt need watching as I wasnt doing anything wrong... I have no record, I dont walk around blasting out music with my hood up or my face covered. I also wasnt drinking, I had 12 closed cans in my bag... and as everyone had their own I clearly didnt buy it to give to them!

EDIT: Oh and I dont live in a council flat, you dont pay me anything.

If you're hanging around with people on the street drinking and some of them are underage then a law is being broken. If the officer investigated the events, which is his job, and saw that you had alcohol with you then he had reasonable suspiscion that you were yourself supplying or one of those supplying it to the others.

I didn't mean you per se, I meant the kinds of people that hang around on the streets drinking. Why not drink in the pub or at someone's house. I know it's tough in that 17-20 age range as not all pubs/bars/clubs let you in but you have to consider that the majority of the community are intimidated by groups of oung people. It's not your fault, unless you hassle them, but it's the way it is.[/quote]

 

[Rosm101]

the officer was right to take the alcohol fom everyone, as there would be an obvious case that you would pass on alcohol to the underage people, he could have just opted to stay with you in sight and watched you give alcohol to them and arrested you but he didn't because like people say there are more important things for him to be doing, he could have also asked you where the underaged people got their alcohol from too and one and have them arrested/fined/revoked of their liscence, this is because SUPPLYING ALCOHOL IS AGAINST THE LAW.

i work behind a bar and it is a crime to buy or supply or attempt to buy or supply alcohol to underaged people, the rules are strict, and so you know the drinking age used to be 21 in the UK, saying theres little difference between 17 and 18 just leads on to saying theres not much difference betweens 16 and 17 and so on until you say, 'woah, why's the legal drinking age at 13?' or something ridiculous, there has to be a point were you say at one point somethings wrong and another its right

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

I just thought that it would be fun to add that I, an underaged person, have just a couple of hours ago consumed a pint of Guiness in a perfectly legal establishment with many underaged friends. No questions asked, no documents needed to be shown.

Guess that shows the difference in mentality and such.

 

[Rosm101]

most places ban drinking in public in city areas in britain, but as i jsut said, it is illegal to supply or attempt to buy alcohol to underaged drinkers, but if your not stupid- and i'd like to say, you've got to be A FUCKING RETARD to drink on teh streets with a load of people some of whom are underaged with the intent of getting drunk- you should be okay

of course you're eventuslly going to get caught up by the police or the PCSO's if you're on a street drinking with that much acohol witht he intent to get drunk

 

[Radeonx]

The cop is in the right, as the older kids would simply distribute to the younger kids, if the younger ones wanted more booze.

Law isn't about who's right or who's wrong. Law is about acting based on how you interpret the current law. It's not about morality, it's not about good and evil if those things even exist, it's only about following the people-created rules, sometimes rather retarded and outdated.

And unless I'm unaware of some specific laws in Britain (And I probably am, I've got no fucking idea about Brits' legal system) the cop is probably in the wrong, assuming that drinking on public property is legal (drinking on the streets or other public property isn't legal in Canada)

And the cop interpreted the law his way.
As a cop, he is allowed to assume, that, as an adult, with a large amount of booze, you are intending to distribute.
Especially since he just confiscated booze from underage kids.
He didn't arrest him. He didn't give him a ticket. He could have, but he didn't. All he did was confiscate the booze, and gave them a warning.

 

[jojolagger]

The PCSO should have waited for alcohol to be given to someone underage before confiscating the alcohol.

 

[Rosm101]

no t

The cop is in the right, as the older kids would simply distribute to the younger kids, if the younger ones wanted more booze.

Law isn't about who's right or who's wrong. Law is about acting based on how you interpret the current law. It's not about morality, it's not about good and evil if those things even exist, it's only about following the people-created rules, sometimes rather retarded and outdated.

And unless I'm unaware of some specific laws in Britain (And I probably am, I've got no fucking idea about Brits' legal system) the cop is probably in the wrong, assuming that drinking on public property is legal (drinking on the streets or other public property isn't legal in Canada)

And the cop interpreted the law his way.
As a cop, he is allowed to assume, that, as an adult, with a large amount of booze, you are intending to distribute.
Especially since he just confiscated booze from underage kids.
He didn't arrest him. He didn't give him a ticket. He could have, but he didn't. All he did was confiscate the booze, and gave them a warning.

Good point... I didn't look at it this way.

Although I'm not sure if he was absolutely right. It seems like a kind of a jump to assumption, like expecting someone who owns a car and a drinker to be a drunk driver.

no thats not a logical assumption, the younger people had alcohol, the of age people ahd alochol, all where intent on drinking it, to take some would only mean a more likely outcome that they would share their drinks about

your logic of saying someone who drinks and some who drives is obviously a drunk driver doesn't make sense, its like saying my dog has four legs, my cat also has four legs therefore my dog is a cat

 

[Enzeru92]

The cop did his job so of course its the right thing to do.Sure it doesn't feel right seeing there was people of legal age there but its a law and its his job to enforce.

 

[Seldon2639]

Intent to distribute is a fuzzy area of law. Even if I can legally possess something, if the police have a reasonable suspicion (based on the amount of "something" I have) that I'm going to distribute it to people who can't legally possess it, I can get busted.

 

[Kinguendo]

DAMMIT! He wasnt a police officer, I find police officers tend to follow the rules!

He was a PCSO!!!

And PCSOs still have powers given to them by by-laws. I'm fed up having to pay these people to keep an eye on you because you can't be bothered to drink in a designated sociable place.

Besides, why can't you just respect the fact that the law is the law and it's your responsibility to follow it without having to be told what to do by an actual police officer.

How dont you get this... I didnt need watching as I wasnt doing anything wrong... I have no record, I dont walk around blasting out music with my hood up or my face covered. I also wasnt drinking, I had 12 closed cans in my bag... and as everyone had their own I clearly didnt buy it to give to them!

EDIT: Oh and I dont live in a council flat, you dont pay me anything.

If you're hanging around with people on the street drinking and some of them are underage then a law is being broken. If the officer investigated the events, which is his job, and saw that you had alcohol with you then he had reasonable suspiscion that you were yourself supplying or one of those supplying it to the others.

I didn't mean you per se, I meant the kinds of people that hang around on the streets drinking. Why not drink in the pub or at someone's house. I know it's tough in that 17-20 age range as not all pubs/bars/clubs let you in but you have to consider that the majority of the community are intimidated by groups of oung people. It's not your fault, unless you hassle them, but it's the way it is.

[/quote]

As I have said before, I was outside of the exclusion zone... I was not on any streets and we werent hassling anyone as there was practically no one around, not that we would hassle them anyway but you see the point.

 

[Kinguendo]

You named yourself, man. He didn't name you in the first post...
OT: I think the officer was correct. Even if the person who was of age didn't get it taken away, who is to say he wouldn't pass some around? It doesn't matter if you (Evil Jak) "Weren't going to", he can't read your mind, and he doesn't know your intent. Also, officers (in America at least) are allowed to search your bag if they are confiscating things like alcohol or tobacco off minors.

He wasnt a police officer, he was a PCSO. A police officer wouldnt have given a false number.

His point was that the amount I had bought earlier that day gave him reason to believe that I was going to supply people with alcohol... HOWEVER, I bought that amount knowing that people already had there own so why would I be giving alcohol to people who already had it?!

 

[Kinguendo]

You named yourself, man. He didn't name you in the first post...
OT: I think the officer was correct. Even if the person who was of age didn't get it taken away, who is to say he wouldn't pass some around? It doesn't matter if you (Evil Jak) "Weren't going to", he can't read your mind, and he doesn't know your intent. Also, officers (in America at least) are allowed to search your bag if they are confiscating things like alcohol or tobacco off minors.

He wasnt a police officer, he was a PCSO. A police officer wouldnt have given a false number.

His point was that the amount I had bought earlier that day gave him reason to believe that I was going to supply people with alcohol... HOWEVER, I bought that amount knowing that people already had there own so why would I be giving alcohol to people who already had it?!

They have their number on their uniform, how is it false? And how do you have proof it's false?
Again, he can't read your mind, how is he to know that you were buying for yourself?

We asked him for it, we didnt just walk up to him and look. He gave us a number and later we found it to be false... all he said once we told him he had lied about his number was "Did I? Oops.".

He also searched my friends bag whilst she wasnt their, then called her over once he had finished searching her bag.

 

[Kinguendo]

Your allowed to search bags in America. I don't know about England, but you at least can in America. Again, how did you find out it was false? You don't seem to be telling that part...

Once again he is a PCSO, he is allowed to search bags... but with the expressed permission of the owner... he did so when the owner wasnt even there.

Also, when my friend asked him for his number he gave his real one... a slip on his part I presume as he mentioned the false number twice before.

 

[Kinguendo]

Your allowed to search bags in America. I don't know about England, but you at least can in America. Again, how did you find out it was false? You don't seem to be telling that part...

Once again he is a PCSO, he is allowed to search bags... but with the expressed permission of the owner... he did so when the owner wasnt even there.

Also, when my friend asked him for his number he gave his real one... a slip on his part I presume as he mentioned the false number twice before.

Do you understand what I mean? How do you know it's false? You say he said one number twice, and then said something different. How do you know that what was different is his real one? Did you contact a precinct, or whatever you have in England, or are you just saying he lied because your pissed that you lost x amount of pounds?

Even with the information you have now it is clear he has lied... your only question is which is a lie.

The number is on his shoulder... but we only checked that AFTER we found out he lied as we wanted to be sure.