I was stopped by the police last night. *sigh* It reminds me of when I was in Ottawa working for Corel. I was stopped by the police on my why home past 22:00 twice. And I lived like 2 blocks away from work.
Anyhow, it was about 23:00, and I was walking down King St. to see if the Harvey’s was open. It seemed to be my best bet for food that wasn’t pizza at that hour. At the corner of King, and whatever street is just by the Harvey’s a cop was stopped, and was talking to two people who were on the street. I walk past the cop, and across the intersection, and at that point I could see that the open sign was not lit up.
I paused for a moment, because I realized I would have to turn around, and immediately walk back in front of the cop car again, and that would probably mean he would stop me. I was tempted to just go around the block to avoid that, but instead I walked back up King street, and back in front of the cop like 15 seconds after passing by the first time.
I heard him say, “Hey”, and I turned my head and waved at him as I passed in front of him again. Then the two guys said the cop wanted to talk to me. I sighed and went over to talk to the officer.
He asked me for my name, and I was tempted not to cooperate, but it had been a while since I read about how to deal with the police properly. So I gave him my name, helped him spell it correctly, and my date of birth. He asked what I was doing out here. I said that I wanted to see if the Harvey’s was open. He said it looked open to him. I said that the was no open sign lit up. At some point the other two people left.
The cop asked if I had ever been in trouble with the police. I said no in an annoyed tone of voice. He asked where I lived. I said up on Schneider Ave. He said that that was a long way away. I said “No, not really.” We somehow got back to the question of what I was doing out here. He still insisted that the Harvey’s looked open presumably because the lights where on inside. I knew they were closed, but I said that I would take a closer look. Anyhow, he left shortly after that.
He probably thought I was some 16 year old out causing trouble. *sigh* It must suck to be a teenager. I was pretty annoyed, but at the same time the teenagers around here are loud and obnoxious by going around yelling things like, “Where are those bitches?”. It kinda makes me feel happy that they are probably getting hassled all the time, although I do know that it doesn’t really help the situation any.
I can’t find any canadian resources on how to deal with the police when they stop you. There is, of course, a lot of U.S. specific information. Anyone with any links, please let me know. I expect to be stopped again in a few months if my Ottawa experience is a good indicator.