but then when I walk up he's like you're the Smith he was like um none of your business you're dismissed and then rolled up his window and I'm like okay and unfortunately he got blood on my uniform so it's another charge from criminal mischief so police officers have a hard time understanding that Reasonable Suspicion to justify detaining a citizen is supposed to be based on suspicion of a crime rather than just a hunch or the ego of the police officer how many police videos that we see were completely unnecessary and achieved nothing other than bad publicity lawsuits and constitutional violations Devin Thomas was asleep in his truck on Christmas night in a Home Depot parking lot in Delaware he was waiting for the store to open because he needed to buy products they sell inside for his business he was traveling for work which takes place on highways hence the fact that he was sleeping in his truck he woke to a flashlight in his face and somebody trying to talk to him that somebody was Delaware State Police Trooper Trevor White who was on quote proactive Patrol and noticed the parked vehicle in the Home Depot parking lot during the encounter Trooper white claims that he was called to Home Depot however apparently there was no 9-1-1 call Home Depot apparently never complained about Mr Tom Thomas being parked and sleeping in their parking lot there was no complaining just a police officer who wanted to be quote proactive who claims that Home Depot allegedly asked him to do something at some point unknown in the past take a look at the footage and see for yourself foreign foreign can you roll down the other windows I'm going to walk on that side all right can you roll these other windows down I'm gonna just come up talk to you what's up I can't hear you man you're you're just in a parking lot that's closed can you roll down the windows it's not a big deal it's not making a big deal roll down the other windows what's the issue man I'm a private property right nobody calls me thank you if you could send me another unit and someone get out of the vehicle it's the white male gray hair heavier set for about 220. and this gray hair gray facial hair roll down all your windows and exit the vehicle with your hands off roll down all your windows and exit the vehicle I don't know who you're calling but instead I would exit the vehicle so exit the vehicle this can be simple or you can be placed under arrest exit the vehicle with your hands up exit the vehicle with your hands up that's all right that's all right perfect foreign behind my back all for nothing hold on he could have just walked out right Fourth Amendment yeah you're mixed up brother I don't know how he's gonna get up so bring your knees up I am not a brick then bring your knees up sequels that's as far as my knees go okay what do you need to do to sit up I don't know I'm gonna try to be like this and then you're gonna touch your knees in all right you're ready no not yet um good enough bro pop up in here buddy what's your name I'm sorry my name is go right to level 10 escalation out of the gate okay what you have to understand is that this is private property right that you don't own I'm not I'm not done talking okay and the Home Depot has been having problems with break-ins and they've called us because people are here they did okay that's what you have to understand is not open for business for customers right now uh you don't get to park on somebody's private property I do when I'm waiting for them to open no you don't I'm not a threat to you guys and I never was okay as long as we're not a threat hop out again obviously you can get taser again but we don't want to do that it wasn't it didn't need to be an issue what I'm going to do is there anything in the car yeah he was figured it was probably the best route to go since you started snatching the car was honest instead of that yeah that's what I saw I figured it was just maybe sitting here is like a uh contractor or something like since they were having issues when I saw the laptop but then when I walk up he's like Curtis Smith he said that he was like um none of your business you're dismissed and then rolled up his window and I'm like okay okay that's where you're wrong I will be back shortly with the with the squad he hasn't answered questions and unfortunately got blood on my uniform so it's another charge for criminal mischief so so if you have like anything worthwhile that he would be doing understand what was in me yeah laptops cameras I may look young but I've been doing this for a while so not that I can't learn lessons but like I said unfortunately you you made this night the way it has turned out so that that was on you you know I'm accountable for my actions so if I'm wrong on something I will absolutely take accountability for it is there any factual basis the officer can use to support or establish that criminal activity had taken place at that Home Depot which made the presence of Mr Thomas's truck appear suspicious or related to criminal activity a law enforcement officer May detain an individual for investigation when that officer has what's known as Reasonable Suspicion it has to be supported by articulable facts that some criminal activity is afoot courts in this case the third Circuit of the federal courts consider the totality of the circumstances in determining whether the facts know to the police officer amounts to an objective in particularized basis for reasonably suspecting criminal activity courts have ruled that the government must do more than simply label some Behavior as suspicious in their mind to make it so police officers must be able to either articulate why a particular behavior is suspicious or logically demonstrate given the surrounding circumstances that the behavior is likely to indicate some more Sinister activity than may appear at first glance an individual's presence in an area of expected criminal activity just standing alone is not enough to support a reasonable particularized suspicion that a person is committing a crime however the Supreme Court has noted that the fact that a stop occurred in a high crime area could be among the relevant contextual considerations in this sort of analysis courts in the third circuit here have allowed officers to consider proximity to locations where crimes are known to have occurred as just one factor in developing Reasonable Suspicion so what crime was suspected here that Mr Thomas may have committed I reviewed the state trespassing laws in Delaware and I see no basis for any objectively reasonable belief that any of those or even theoretically those trespassing laws could have been violated here it doesn't appear that under the state Delaware State trespassing laws that there could have been any reasonable suspicion that the crime of trespassing could have been committed Delaware doesn't appear to have any automatic liability trespassing statute when you're committing the crime of trespassing just by virtue of driving into or parking in the parking lot of a closed public business it doesn't appear that there's any evidence that Home Depot specifically complained here about this individual in particular or about people driving in or parking in their parking lots after hours or before hours what about burglary there appears to have been no allegation that there was any burglary that occurred at this location but rather alleged knowledge of past issues supposedly certainly nothing particular remember particularized is the language the third circuit uses there's nothing particular here to this individual Mr Thomas moreover no information is given that the behavior of parking in a parking lot or the appearance of this individual or this vehicle itself Justified suspicion of something like burglary to the contrary it appears to be a work truck a white truck in a parking lot of a business that sells work supplies so Trooper white here wrote in his police report that he was on what he called a proactive Patrol and he just happened to be passing by Home Depot when he observed a white truck with its lights on parked next to two Home Depot rental vehicles he further wrote that Home Depot recently advised him that they were having issues with their alarm system and requested additional Patrols in the area for suspicious activity he wrote that it was 2 30 in the morning and that the store didn't open until 7 am however Trooper white mentioned no actual report of any criminal activity much less criminal activity specifically pertaining to Mr Thomas so it wasn't particularized at least not prior to the seizure of Mr Thomas by the police officers it was a white truck and a construction material store parking lot there was no indication that the vehicle had entered a closed off area through a gate or past no trespassing signs it was a public place parking lot I see nothing in the Delaware trespassing laws criminalizing the behavior that he engaged in whatsoever all we have here is an officer with an with a hunch and or an ego and after we get past the Reasonable Suspicion issue we have the fact that Mr Thomas was tased here the alleged justification for that according to the officer who fired the taser was that Mr Thomas was allegedly grabbing and pushing Troop super White's arm as white attempted to forcibly unlock his driver's side door however Trooper white can be heard on the dash cam footage saying to the tasing police officer I didn't mean for you to have to tase him apparently that Trooper tased Mr Thomas just because Trooper white told him to tase him at least he did but he didn't really mean it at one point in the reports they mentioned that they used what they called D Minimus force and extracting Mr Thomas from his vehicle and that's literally not true tasing is actually a high level use of force that's not supposed to be used where unnecessary I believe there's a good case to be made here that even if Reasonable Suspicion existed to extract Mr Thomas from the vehicle which I don't think it did in my opinion that the level of force that they used here was unreasonable he was only suspected of having committed trespassing at best it wasn't actually a threat to them in any way he was just standing on his rights he was surrounded by police officers he wasn't going anywhere they also blocked them in anyways they had no indication that he was any immediate safety threat to any individual except to Mr Thomas of course so as always thanks for watching you find more information in the link below to my blog the Civil Rights lawyer.com if you have a video you want me to see please use the submission link it'll be one in the description also at the blog itself if you want to learn more about these cases about your constitutional rights please make sure to subscribe also please comment I want to hear your thoughts about this case have you ever driven into temporarily parked or parked in the parking lot of a closed business also this was a Home Depot what do you think happens when Trooper white patrols near a Walmart parking lot if you want to support the Channel please consider clicking the join button becoming a channel member or sponsor remember freedom is scary deal with it see you next time foreign