Under a Gibbous Moon

I was reading this article (sorry I couldn’t seem to access the original). It’s about two off duty police officers shooting a man who had a pellet gun (to be fair, the man was running around and shooting it) that they thought was a rifle.

The police officers were working as private security for a bar at the time and in the middle of the article there is something that seemed strange.

What is known, he said, is that Messerschmidt and Palermo were approached by a woman who said two men in a car double-parked on south 33rd Street were causing problems and might be armed.

The officers approached the men, placed them in handcuffs and began to search the car for weapons. None were found.

So, while off duty, the walk up to somebody’s car, handcuff them, and then search them. I’m not sure that would have been legal if they were on duty. They seem to be on really shaky PC detaining and searching people on the say so of someone at a bar.

Related (maybe) posts:

1. Dangers of a double standard
2. Police burn, shoot 7 year old during raid
3. Pittsburg Cops accused of brutality
4. Police road rage
5. The Mentality of a Police State