Ever try to get your Arrest Report?

So, when I got that ticket back on the 9th of January, which really set the fire for my Walking With Eddie Cat project here, the officer took from me a tarp I had been using to wall off the entrance to the dug-outs. It was a tarp I found about four months prior, which simply walled off the door area from all the dogs that run around the park area off their leash, while I was working on that morning's article. It is/was/is a nice place to work in the morning, except the unleashed dogs trying to catch Eddie, and of course the Deputies showing up at 9AM to say it is illegal for me to exist in the Park.

The Deputy (regarding the tarp) actually came back, after the two other deputies left. She had stopped to talk with the maintenance men (who started this whole thing), and they told her that the tarp was theirs. So, she came back and said she was taking it, and giving it to them. She said this with her hand on her weapon, and who is going to argue about a tarp, when you are faced with a gun? So, I said, "Take it." With my hands raised. (no, I wasn't in jest).

The maintenance men were probably also responsible for telling the deputies that the use of the electricity was not allowed as well, when this is not true and I have letters on City of Santee Letter head to dismiss that charge from Deborah Daunis, Administrative Secretary City of Santee Community Services Department, which is the only source of information on the rules of public park usage. A Deputy should know that, so I don't feel sorry for her on that account.

Now, I already have documentation from the City of Santee about the power, and I have the documentation about the law "Illegal Lodging" which is a joke if you ask me. So both of these charges will be dropped without much effort on my part. What I have been curious about was the seizure of the tarp, and how that would be justified in a police report. So, I went to the Sheriff's department this morning and asked them for a copy of the incident.

Seems that it is not an infraction, it is an "Arrest" and therefore an "Arrest Report" which in order to get a copy of, cost $20.00. So, before I shelled out $20 for three pieces of paper, I asked if the report included the seizure of the tarp. The detective (name with-held because I don't really think he is "working the case", just a detective that was available), looked through the three page report and told me "no". He also says that they have a new documentation system, which could be why he didn't have that part. So I asked him to look into a full copy of the report and I would purchase it when it was complete.

Now, all of this didn't happen nicely. In fact it was amazingly difficult to get them to even offer the report to me. They tried to turn me away three times, before they were even going to talk with a detective. Also, they refused to offer me the photos that were taken using a digital Nikon camera at the scene. (See the video for those conversations).

What bugs me quite a bit is not only the stone-wall effort (which I don't believe most homeless people would get through, if they did happen to get to the Sheriff's Office lobby), but the huge fee for what should be freely available information for such infractions. They kept telling me that I had to have my "lawyer" get the reports for me, or that I had to go to the "court" to get them. Which makes no sense at all. And $20.00 is some serious cash for printing out .03 worth the ink and paper. So I'm going to look further into this area.

All that aside, my first curiosity is now something of a burr in my saddle. It seems that not only was my tarp seized, without real cause, but that basic procedure was not followed afterwards. I know that the maintenance men threw the tarp away as soon as the Deputy left the park, seeming to make a point of letting me see them do this as I was walking Eddie towards the park entrance.

Do I really care about the tarp? No. What I care about is that a Deputy on the word of a Maintenance Man, walked over and took something of mine (as far as I'm concerned ... by force, because I didn't have the option of declining the request) and then didn't even bother to report the fact that she did so. That, really, upsets me greatly. So I will be pursuing that aspect of this incident.

So far, I don't have any new incidents, and will probably be moving down into Old Town or perhaps Mira Mesa, and seeing what I run across there, since I'll be here in San Diego until after the middle of March.