Knife Confiscated By Police Officer, Thoughts?

[rondv]

Hey Everyone,


Last night I was on the Skytrain with four of my friends with a bottle of open wine in a paper bag when I suddenly felt my knife – a spyderco endure wave – taken out of my rear pocket. When I looked behind me I was greeted by two transit police officers. At this point the male police officer motioning towards my bagged wine bottle and says, “I will for sure be taking that away,” and while flopping my knife closed, “this we will be talking about.”


-Victor

If you're drinking from a bag (don't want to draw attention duh), a knife stuck out of your pocket, two agents walk up behind four of you unnoticed, and one of them picked your pocket :rolleyes: ........probably did you a favor.

[captnvegtble]

I tend to agree that it was NOT unreasonable for the officers to confiscate the knife. You could question the legality of it, but I don't think you'd get very far, especially since you were drinking illegally in public. The officers could easily argue they were acting in the publics interest (which they did) to avoid a potentially worse sitution, which I would imagine is within their job description and right.

[.357 mag]

You get what you get when you do stuff illegal. Not that I've been a saint. But just saying.

[ViperGTS]

While I don't agree with the method he used to remove it from your pocket (as you said, it could have been dangerous for him if you had reacted out of instinct, not knowing it was an officer taking it), I feel confiscating it was justified. While I'm no scholar on Canadian law (of even American law for that matter! :rolleyes :) , it makes logical sense that if someone is out illegally drinking in public and is carrying a knife (even if that knife is normally legal to carry), then it just might be in the public's best interest to not have said person carrying a potential weapon. It was more the situation you had put yourself in (by illegally drinking in public) than it was the actual carrying of the knife that probably determined the outcome of your knife getting confiscated.

It sounds like the officer was considerate and took the time to explain why he was taking the knife and how you could get it back. It seems that the inconvenience of having to go out of your way to pick up the knife isn't really that bad considering the situation in which it was confiscated. If they really wanted to be jerks, and taking into consideration how aggressive Canadian Customs is with one-handed openers, they probably could have found a way to classify it as a weapon, but they didn't.

I'm glad that you'll at least be able to get it back! And just remember, very few stories involving alcohol and sharp knives have happy endings!

Ditto. It's the context in which you were carrying...

[jakemex]

If one is dealing drugs from a vehicle the vehicle is impounded. A similar principle is involved here.

[Allen R.]

That's really great, , ,advocating violence against a police officer. That's exactly the way to keep a good name for the knife carrying public.

It was a joke

[Allen R.]

Sorry guys i dint mean to bring anything negative to this thread i really was joking in my first post, i figured using the term copper would be understood as a joke.

[46Alpha]

Knife was in plain sight, thus discoverable. He had every right to take it. You were committing a crime (abeit a minor offense).

Please look at it from his point of view. He knows he has to do something. You were consuming in public and he knows NOTHING about you. Are you dangerous? Did you just get into a spat with your wife? Are you just having a crappy day? But he sees your carrying a knife. He just wants to do his job and go home safe at the end of his shift. He acted to protect his own safety and the safety of everyone around you.

It sounds like he treated you with respect, please do the same to him.

Knives scare the **** out of me in the wrong hands. A dangerous subject can do massive damage quickly with a sharp knife. Do some research on the "21 foot rule" for better understanding on why he did what he did.

[Sequimite]

I'm really surprised how many of you believe that one person's/officer's opinion about what is in the "public interest" is a valid substitute for following the law.

[BJEOD]

Well, legality aside, I carry a knife when drinking. Is it right? Maybe not. Will I stop? Definitely not. I unfortunately live in a very rough city, where the company I keep is very much the minority. It doesn't matter what race you are, when you are the minority you will be harassed. It is a fact. Now I know that there many other options like not going out at all, but I will not change my lifestyle because of the environment I live in. I am very much pro law enforcement, but the law is not always there when it is time to enforce. Ramblings aside, my point is that ill take my chances.

[Dr. Snubnose]

Did the officer have the right to take your knife? That's a loaded question and one that can be argued for days. In the real-world, practical sense - yes, he had the right to take your knife. If for whatever reason, the officer believed your knife could harm others then he can take it. Does that mean that he carefully evaluated all of your rights as a civilian - probably not.

In the end, imagine if you were in his shoes. You see a group of younger-age drinkers in public which is not legal (according to your facts) and one of them has a largish knife sticking out of the back pocket. Alcohol can cause fights to escalate very quickly and knife injuries can be fatal. If such were to happen with that officer in the proximity, he could face disciplinary action from a superior if something bad happened. He sought to diffuse any of that and was nice enough to give you information on how to retrieve your knife at a later date.

Trust me, most cops aren't that nice. I think you need to re-evaluate how you conduct yourself in public. It's not very intelligent to admit that you were committing a crime (no matter how minor you believe it to be) and then complain that a possible weapon was confiscated off of your person. If you are going to carry a knife then you need to exercise extra consideration of your actions. Just the same as if you were carrying a concealed handgun.

+++++1......on everything D1 said. FWIW: If I was the Officer involved, I would have taken your knife, (the same way) right out of your pocket-Legal or Not, Put you into handcuffs and searched you for more weapons. I would leave it up to a Judge to decide whether you are responsible enough to keep said knife. I think the Officers involved acted appropriately and were more than nice about the whole situation, I don't care how nice you talked to the Policeman. I'm offended with your statements that leads me to think you think the Police are pricks. I am insulted that you come to this forum for your first post to complain about your precious Spyderco being taken from you, looking for sympathy from a community of Spyderco lovers. As far as I am concerned you can find Sympathy in your dictionary...it's between **** and syphilis. It is people like you that gives knives a bad name (and you work in a related industry...go figure!) Why not take your questions to an attorney or maybe even a Law Enforcement Officer Forum....and see what they say. Why bother us with your irresponsible behavior and
your righteous indignation. You were involved and observed committing a crime...as far as I am concerned, that being said, you lose all the rights enjoyed by a civilized person, and deserved to be treated like a criminal. If this all seems harsh it might be because I've have been one of those so-called pricks who has had to deal with the likes of people like you for years. Sorry If I'm not sugar coating it for you, but I bet I'm saying what a lot of people here are thinking but are too polite to say on this forum. I am not so polite...take your nonsense someplace else......Doc :)

[jwingfie]

Everyone keeps assuming he was drunk. The OP never said how intoxicated he was or if he was at all. He could have only taken one sip of the wine before the cops came up. If that is the case, then the argument about him being a danger to society because he was drunk with a knife in invalid. That probably isn't the case, but again, we can't assume anything.

At the end of the day, OP made a stupid decision to drink on public transit and like Doc said, you break the law, you will more than likely be treated like a criminal.

[dbcad]

A phrase comes to mind, "If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough". Lord knows how many times I've had to be tough in the past :o All we can do is employ our experience to keep ourselves out of trouble :)

[DRKBC]

Drinking out of a brown paper bag on public transit system doesn't exactly elevate your credibility, not in the eyes of the law or anyone else. There are people with families who ride the sky train and you need to realize that they don't know that the guy drinking out of a paper bag with a knife in his pocket is actually a fine upstanding citizen. I am sure they were relieved the officer did what he did. You may be fine but as you know ... there are a few people out there who aren't.
Side bar - I like being able to carry a knife for nothing else other than utility but we need to be respectful. If we aren't we won't be allowed on the sky train with set of nail clippers soon.

[chuck_roxas45]

Doc is right, I'm being polite. :D

[Jay_Ev]

I'm really surprised how many of you believe that one person's/officer's opinion about what is in the "public interest" is a valid substitute for following the law.

And I am really surprised at all of the conclusions being drawn without hearing the officers side of the story. Perhaps the officers saw something that the OP did not disclose in his post. Without all of the unbiased facts, it is very difficult to say who is right and who is wrong.

[wrdwrght]

It's probably not the best idea to try to obtain legal counsel on an internet forum...

Well said.

The OP's sporting a bottle and a knife, particularly one designed for attack, is a reasonable concern for a LEO. But as I don't know Vancouver's laws, all you have here is an uninformed opinion.

[ChrisR]

FWIW, I think the LEO was just doing his job and he did it pretty well. He obviously had good reason to issue the OP with a fine for drinking in public and, considering how drunk people can react to authority (he had to expect the worst, whether later he was proven right or wrong), he decided to take control of the knife before the OP did. If I were the OP I would suck it in and go very apologetically to the police station and ask nicely whether he can have his knife back ... and think better of drinking in public in future.

[suedeface]

+++++1......on everything D1 said. FWIW: If I was the Officer involved, I would have taken your knife, (the same way) right out of your pocket-Legal or Not, Put you into handcuffs and searched you for more weapons. I would leave it up to a Judge to decide whether you are responsible enough to keep said knife. I think the Officers involved acted appropriately and were more than nice about the whole situation, I don't care how nice you talked to the Policeman. I'm offended with your statements that lead my to think you think Police are pricks. I am insulted that you come to this forum for your first post to complain about your precious Spyderco that was taken from you, looking for sympathy from a community of Spyderco lovers. As far as I am concerned you can find Sympathy in your dictionary...it's between **** and syphilis. It is people like you that gives knives a bad name (and you work in a related industry...go figure!) Why not take your questions to an attorney or maybe even a Law Enforcement Officer Forum....and see what they say. Why bother us with your irresponsible behavior and
your righteous indignation. You were involved and observed committing a crime...as far as I am concerned, that being said, you lose all the rights enjoyed by a civilized person, and deserved to be treated like a criminal. If this all seems harsh it might be because I've have been one of those so-called pricks who has had to deal with the likes of people like you for years. Sorry If I'm not sugar coating it for you, but I bet I'm saying what a lot of people here are thinking but are too polite to do so on this forum. I am not so polite...take your nonsense someplace else......Doc :)

You are probably right, but if I was an officer and found someone carrying a TABLE FULL of weapons, I would put them in hand cuffs as well. IMO that is very unnecessary and suspicious.

[gijoe945]

In Iowa, drinking or any illegal activity negates a persons permit to carry a concealed weapon. Please respect the law. Thank you.