Re: LEO encounter at Home Depot in Allentown
Nothing beats getting seized by a government official while trying to conduct your day to day business.
If the situation unfolded substantially similar to how you described it, it was an illegal seizure. The officer clearly did not have RAS to conduct any sort of detention and you did not consent to being detained. Furthermore, since you hadn't commited a crime and weren't in the process of commiting a crime the Terry search was completely inappropriate and unconstitutional.
You have really have two remedies available 1) sue him and Allentown in federal court 2) file a complaint against the officer. At a minimum you should do #2 because it is an important step for two reasons. First, you up the ante for officers who want to swing their weight around and secondly you are building evidence that will strip them of qualified immunity if incidents like this continue to occur.
Furthermore, if Allentown has an ordinance against OC lets get someone up there to sue them. I'll be more than happy to help with a complaint and a brief.
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