December 19th 2016
Dear Chief Carl L. Harvey,
On December 19th 2016 shortly after 12:30am 2 Officers of the La Sale Police Department knock at my door. I did not know who was at my door as I hear it pounding. The expression "Knocking like the Police" came to mind. I was in the bathroom as I wondered if that noise came from my front door or my neighbor’s door. I immediately got nervous since I notice the intensity of the door knock increasing. I approach the door carefully since I didn't know what dangers I may have encountered at this time of night.
As I opened the door I saw what appeared to be two officers of the law. They asked if a particular person was here. (I honestly don't remember the name, my roommate remembered the name). I answered "That [name that I don't remember here] isn't here. They began to interrogate me if I knew that individual. I kept on insisting that the individual they were looking for did not live here.
The officer directly in front of me tried to enter my apartment but I stood directly in front of the door, as I believed to be a universal symbol of not being welcome in. The officer did not take that as a clue and "tried" to convince me to enter. He began to ask if he could enter and search for her. I replied if they had a search warrant and he replied he didn't need one since he had an arrest warrant for that individual. That officer did not want to take my word that I did not know that individual and began to harass me to come in.
That moment that I told the officer that he was NOT welcome to enter my home without a search warrant; the conversation should have been over. But this officer continued to find a way inside my apartment. The officers began accusing me of hiding an apparent fugitive. After the police officers left I search my county's warrant list for a warrant to for that individual zero where found. So I searched for warrant of individuals that had previously had used my current address I found 1 but it was a male and not the female they claimed they were searching for. The officer claimed that my current address was the most recent address that the individual they seek had recently used.
The officers harassed me so much that they made me, against my will, wake up my roommate since they were adamant about needing me to wake up my household. I woke my roommate up and of course the officers counted on the fact that when an individual is suddenly woken up they awake dazed. My roommate reaffirmed to the officers that the individual they were looking for had never lived with us nor have we ever met her. They began their harassment tactics against my roommate to enter our apartment. He told them twice they couldn't search our apartment. My roommate in his dazed state was in no condition to argue an unnecessary argument. So my roommate allowed a walk through.
The officer stated that he just wanted to walk the apartment quickly and will leave us alone. As the officer approached my room he began accusing me of hiding someone because my closet door was slide to one side of the closet and began to harass me to open it. I told him that this is exactly why I wasn't allowing him to enter. He accused me of hiding something. I don't need to hide anything in order to be secured from unreasonable warrantless searches. I made it clear to him that I was only opening the other half of my closet because of his harassment and not of my own free will. This officer demeanor was way past threatening. He was arguing with me and forcing me to open things during a warrantless search, that only got this far by harassing us in subzero temperatures for approximately 15 minutes. It was about -10̊F during this encounter.
I was defenseless even with the law on my side. It was no used against a thug that claims to serve humanity. As far as I am concern this was a random unreasonable search that goes against the fourth amendment of the United States Constitution. I had believed it pertain to all people of different creed, not just the color of the "month".
Sincerely,
A citizen living under police tyranny.
