Around 10am this morning while I was working from home I had my screen open to my patio. I hear someone say "yo yo yo" they were really close to my patio. So I go to check it out and it's this random black guy he starts talking to me like he knows me and asks if I can let him into the building. I tell him to fuck off and close my patio off and lock it. I call the cops by the time they get here he's already gone and the cops just shrug and tell me he's probably a homeless guy looking for shelter.
In the next few hours I'm told by another neighbor that he got up on her deck which is on the 3rd level and wouldn't go away. Cops never went up there instead just drove around. Another girl told us that same guy tried to follow her home a few weeks ago.
What are my legal rights here if the cops won't do anything but this guy continues to hang around and harass people? I'm not afraid of him myself but I do fear this could possibly end up bad for one of the female neighbors. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JohnnyV13:
I don't have anything like your experience in criminal law. I have a degree, passed the bar and briefly practiced patent law.
A number of years ago, I did brush up on criminal law b/c a health care IT firm I was with was trying to win a government contract in the Philippines, which involved local partners.
This situation made me intently study a very obscure part of federal criminal law: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This is an odd area of law enforced by a special FBI unit, and I've never seen more than 22 reported legal cases in a year. [P.S. I've read EVERY reported case under this act going back to when it was passed in 1977.]
I'm also familiar with health care fraud and abuse (from the POV of a health care IT provider), which can have criminal implications in certain situations.
It was the discussions about how to structure that foreign partnership deal that made me watch James Duane's material on talking to police and some of the more recent 4th and 5th amendment cases.
Patent law is way beyond my bailiwick. Most of my work these days is in federal court so I've dealt with medicare fraud (quite boring) and I had a client who was tangentially involved with FCPA. Odd is a good way to describe it but it certainly isn't my main area of practice. If I have a case involved with that, I will DM you. And if you are ever coming to Alaska, drop me a line. I'll be happy to give you some boots on the ground advice. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
mount a motion-activated surveillance camera back there
i have one of these and it's fantastic - records any motion to a flash card and also uploads it to server hosting the app so you can review suspicious activity in the morning if you're sleeping
also has an alarm and a floodlight - only thing that kinda sucks is running power to it
Originally Posted by Razaele:
Lots of dumb advice in this thread. Engaging in a physical confrontation that could have been avoided is always dumb. The guy might have a weapon, he might be cracked out and not feel fear or pain. He might come back later armed. He might come back later after seeing your fancy gun and steal all your fancy guns for some easy cash. You might lose. You also might pummel him like a true Billy Badass and then he lawyers up and cleans you out. You KO him with one swing like John Wayne but he dies, now you're going to prison. Even confronting him in a threatening way is a big risk because you don't know what he's capable of. Just stupid.
Best outcome is that he voluntarily leaves, after being convinced he wants to by the police or someone besides you. Next best outcome is that someone else makes him leave, like law enforcement.
The only reason I am doing this guy harm is if he's in my house and I have no other choice. Even then, do you know the size of the checks you're going to be writing to lawyers to try to stay out of jail? And the further stacks when his family lawyers up to try to piggybank you?
The worst thing that could happen is that he does you harm, the second worst thing that could happen would be if you did some to him.
So the fantastic advice you're giving here is:
" Do nothing to protect yourself or your property and pray like hell that the woman upstairs has the balls to handle it for you."