Shoplifting, Larceny, Robbery, Theft Falsely Identified

[bythepound]

On my way home, in uniform, I was a block away from my home when two Hawthorne PD officers surrounded me with guns drawn and hand cuffed me. After searching me, running my ID ( which because of my line of work tells the officers who I work for), and having the "victim" stand half a block away to ID "the person who robbed him", I was IDed (falsely) as the person who robbed him. In all this commotion I asked politely why I was was being hand cuffed and subsequently arrest and it took them 10 minutes to even tell me. I was humiliated because many of my co workers live in my neighborhood and it was the middle of the day (approx.1630).

After being taken to the jail ( a horrible experience in itself) and was booked eventually for armed robbery. I had to spent the night in jail ( the phones and intercom systems didn't work so I couldn't reach family or call to lower my bail) because the detective went home for the day. The officers weren't the nicest, even though the watch commander WAS very kind, being that he said he didn't believe I had anything to do with the crime. I spent the night with guys yelling and barking...the guy in the next cell talking to himself loudly and every two minutes flushing the toilet that was on the side of the wall where my bunks were ( scary and humiliating).

Well the next morning sometime the detective came in to basically "size me up" and said " I am going to talk to you about what you did...I mean you are accused of doing, so I need you to think about what happened and we will talk". Sometimes later he took me to the interview room , read me my rights (FINALLY) and questioned me. At the end of the interview he released me because he said he thought I had nothing to do with the incident. Upon release ... the officer who released me gave no apology for my wasted time ( had to call off from work) or , my inconvenience , or humiliation, he said " I don't want to see you in here again ".

Now... after 3 months I got an apology after calling the police department to see how I would go about placing a complaint, being hung up on and talked down to by an officer ( the same officer who was disrespectful to my mother when she was trying to find information to get me released) and complaining to his commanding officer a week or so ago.My question is what recourse do I have against the police department , the guy who falsely identified me, the arresting officer being that they had other recourse than to arrest me in front of my neighbors and neighborhood?

 

[tpajet]

There's not much you can do if anything. Keep in mind that from the get go, the robbery victim is telling the police he was robbed by someone with a weapon. Now for whatever reason he thought you were the guy. So with the victim telling the police "that's him" and hence now they believe you were the robber and therfor armed, they did as they should and surround your car with guns drawn. Think of it this way, if you had been the robber, and knowing that the robber was armed, what would you have them do - follow them to another location and "Please Mr. armed robber, don't draw you gun on us or run on the way to the location where we are going to arrest you."

It sucks, but the police were acting on the only information they had. Keep in mind too, that the victim was kept back to keep the potential suspect from seeing him at that time.