Police Chief Resigns After Detaining Business Owner

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers reasonable suspicion police investigations and officer experience and is brought to us by the marin independent journals channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we dive into the interaction i want to give a big thanks to the sponsor of this episode skillshare skillshare is an online learning community that features a catalog of thousands of inspiring classes designed for creative and curious people with so much to explore endless projects to create and the support of fellow creatives skillshare empowers its members to accomplish real growth through the development of valuable skills even the simplest skillshare classes offer a ton of value and i particularly enjoyed elana carp's class on how to make the perfect grilled cheese a skillshare membership is already super affordable but right now the first 1 000 people to use the link in my description will get a free trial of skillshare premium you have absolutely nothing to lose so click on the link in the description and empower your personal growth today thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this episode in the early morning hours of august 21 2020 jaema khalif the owner of fashion startup yema and his wife and co-owner hawi awash were working late at their store in downtown tiburun california along with a friend visiting from washington dc according to mr khalif a tiburun police car drove around the block three times at one point stopping across from the store for about a minute after conducting the surveillance the officer parked and began to approach the store hey guys you guys i've never seen you open this late yeah you're just restocking no you're just doing all the things just doing your thing what's your thing what's up well i just i've never seen anyone in the store this lady okay no no just chill just shoot is that a problem no sir there's no problem just i've never seen anyone in the store this late i wanted to come check in make sure it's okay okay yeah are you guys restocking the store there's no problem going on why are you here so late it does not matter it does matter to who to me why because the stores never open this place is this your store no and then what if it's not your store what's the problem i'm making sure that everyone is okay no problem going on so if you have a problem with you let me know right now if there's a problem i just want to know why you guys are here so lately it does not matter it does matter to me it does not matter to me so if you have a problem you tell me right now if you have a problem i don't have a problem sir i just want to know why you guys are here solely it does not matter that's what i'm telling you it does to me can you take a hand in your pocket please it does not matter to me okay why are you guys here solely it does not matter to me i don't care if you have a problem call you call your chief of police call whoever you want to call my supervisor is already on his way yeah call him tell him to come talk he's going to come or when do you own the store yeah do one of you on the store it does not matter i'm not going to answer your question if you have a problem you tell me i have a problem with you guys being here so late and you're not telling me why is it your store no so you call your supervisor tell him to come here he's already on his way okay so when he's here knock the door tell me he's here is that okay okay can you just tell me why you guys are here it does not matter cause your supervisor tell him to come here and then um they wanted you to own the store do not talk to anybody else talk to me you're talking to me right now no i'm talking all three you know you're talking to me sir okay you're talking to me call your supervisor let him come here he's already on his way okay so when he's here let you let me know no why don't you come out here for me the officer orders mr khalif to step out of the store which would constitute a detainment by show of authority as we've discussed many times on ata in order to detain an individual police officers must have a reasonable suspicion that the individual is involved in criminal activity in the 1974 case of people versus lathan the second appellate district of the california court of appeals determined that a police officer did not have reasonable suspicion to detain an individual who was behaving in an unusual but not overtly criminal way the court stated that not only must an officer have a rational suspicion that some activity out of the ordinary is or has taken place but the officer must also have some suggestion that the activity is related to crime where the events and officer observes are as consistent with innocent activity as with criminal activity a detention based on those events is unlawful the court also stated that the fact an event occurs at night time does not without more transform an innocent gesture into a criminal one finally the court concluded that it was the duty of the police officer to keep the individual engaged in unusual behavior under observation but that the officer was not entitled to detain the individual applying california law as outlined in the lathan case the officer did not have the level of reasonable suspicion necessary to detain mr khalif while it may have been unusual for individuals to be in the store after closing there was nothing to suggest that the activity was related to crime and the events were far more consistent with innocent activity than criminal activity the only fact the officer points to that made the activity unusual was the time of night which is not enough to warrant reasonable suspicion instead of detaining mr khalif the officer should have observed the activity in the store to determine if there was any suggestion that it was related to crime do you have a problem with me i have a problem with you three being in the store right now why i'm asking you this town is my duty to protect this is i live here do not tell me about whatever that's fine okay where do you live i do not i'm not going to answer your question when your supervisor is here you tell him to come talk to me okay he's already on his way okay so i do not have to talk to you you do have to talk no i do not have to talk to you because it's one o'clock in the morning you're inside of a store and you can't tell me why it does not matter i would have done the same thing if you were over there at the candy store or wherever dude can you tell me who you are i'm not to tell you who i am why because i'm not going to why because i'm not going to who are you my name is isaac isaac and then what's your problem my problem is there's three people in a store at one o'clock in the morning because because there's two three people in the store what's the problem with three people being in a store it's one o'clock in the morning sir and what's the problem with that people aren't usually in stores at one in the morning and what's the problem with that because you can't tell me why you're so your supervisor is gonna come tell me what the problem let me put it this way sir yes if i was walking around that store at one o'clock in the morning not in this would you think it's odd would you think that was odd if you were doing what if i was in a store i'll be mining my business huh i'll be minding my business i would think that's a little strange i'm going to be finding my business i'm not going to tell you anything you're going to bring your supervisor you bring your supervisor he's coming right now he's right here okay you tell him to come talk to me he's on his way okay where's your supervisor he's right there okay tell him to come then okay yeah supervisor how are you doing that's right how are you you came three of you guys what's going on what's the problem there's three black people in the store what's the problem what's that so it's one o'clock in the morning there's three people in the black people in the store three o'clock in the morning what's the problem there's three people there's three black people in the store it's three o'clock in the morning what's the problem it's one o'clock in the morning and yeah you never have any activity at the store at that time okay is this your store well so what's the problem with having three black people in the store you keep emphasizing black people yes yeah you cannot tell me you don't see that you see that three black people in the store what's the problem with that i see three people i in the morning i see one o'clock in the morning this street's closed up at nine o'clock at night okay nobody here okay so what's the problem that's the problem this street closes at nine o'clock at night and there's never anybody in here okay this isn't regular business hours there's no customers in there okay is it your store that's all we want to know who like do you want to know why i want to know what you're doing in the store at one o'clock in the morning okay if i tell you it's my store then what then show me that it's your store i do not have to show you nothing if i tell you it's my store then what the tiburon officer was joined by his supervisor sergeant michael blasey who demands that mr khalif prove he owns the store in general citizens are not legally required to assist police officers with their investigations in this situation mr khalif did not have a responsibility to answer sergeant blasey's questions explain what he was doing in the store or prove that he is the owner of the store he claimed to be the store owner and the officers had no evidence that he was being untruthful there were no signs of forced entry such as broken windows or doors the lights were on in the store the individuals inside were not trying to hide and nothing was ransacked or destroyed the store alarm did not go off and no one called the police to report criminal activity there is far more evidence to suggest nothing illegal is happening than the conclusion that criminal activity is occurring the officers easily could have accepted mr khalif's statement that he owned the store and stayed outside to observe the activity occurring in the store i do not have to prove anything to you if i tell you if it's my store then what aren't you glad we're looking out for your store i am glad you're looking out for my soul but if i tell you it's my story then what then you should be grateful that we're being as as diligent as we are to look out for the street that's all we do okay it's my story okay okay did you identify i do not have to identify myself to anybody it's my story say okay then what sergeant blasi argues that the officers are justified in their demands because the stores in the area are closed at night and the sergeant's experience as an officer would likely play a role in the court's ruling starting with the infamous terry case courts have given considerable deference to a police officer's experience when determining the reasonableness of a stop in the terry case the supreme court determined that officers have reasonable suspicion when they observe unusual conduct which leads them to reasonably conclude that criminal activity may be occurring and that when determining whether an officer acted reasonably courts must give due weight to the specific reasonable inferences that officers are entitled to draw from the facts in light of their experience through the years the level of reverence courts have given to officer experience has grown and there are many court decisions that deal with this issue for example in the 1981 case of united states versus cortes the supreme court stated that trained law enforcement officers can combine objective facts that are meaningless to the untrained with permissible deductions from those facts to form a legitimate basis for suspecting a particular individual of a crime then in the 1996 case of ordnellas versus united states the supreme court determined that a reviewing appellate court should give due way to inferences drawn from facts both by local judges and by local police view the facts through the lens of their experience and expertise some legal scholars have interpreted this case to grant decisions and conclusions made by police officers the same level of deference as is given to judges in appellate courts most recently in the 2020 case of kansas vs glover the supreme court held that officers are not required to point to specific training materials or field experiences justifying their reasonable suspicions and that they can rely on knowledge gained outside of their law enforcement training and experience in determining probable cause however even the high level of deference courts give to officer experience is not a rubber stamp for all police decisions and it is unlikely that any court would find that sergeant blasey had a reasonable suspicion that mr khalif was engaged in criminal activity yeah exactly so it's my it's my store so so what can you prove that it's i do not have to prove anything to you no i don't yes you do no i don't to who it's why oh my god i do not have the proof to you who you are i do not have to prove myself you are in a store after hours when the stores are closed on this street all night okay this store that last store this last door that closes is sam's anchor cafe right over there and it closes at 10 o'clock at night okay there's three people in the store in the middle of the excuse me i'll put this on now okay there's three people in the store in the middle of the night we're doing what we're supposed to do we're looking out for our community okay that's all we're doing okay that's it you're looking out for my community that's what you mean to say if you're if this is your store you're not if this is my so i've already told you from my store don't use the one if okay i told you it's my store okay then we're looking outside your community okay all right you want us to look out for your community i don't really want us to let anybody just walk in here at two o'clock in the morning and steal all your i want you to look out for my comments you're sure yeah because you don't sound like you're very grateful you sound like you're very defensive i do not sound dis defensive really hey hey come on now come come you're being very different so calm down my officer is doing his job your office is not doing his job yes he is yes he is listen he is doing his job man that's exactly what i did i knocked and asked if you guys were restocked i didn't know you had an alarm system sir i just got here we're supposed to look out for this neighborhood that's a sign here that says red roof security those are a dime a dozen and half of those aren't even half of those don't have active alarms with them okay all right so i want to wrap up this conversation we're wasting time so what's going on what's up what's the next step prove to us that you have keys okay okay that's a perfect thing i just asked okay okay you know what put the key in the door and we're out of here put the key in the door put the key in the door i'm telling you guys stand back please god raise your voice with me put the key in the door don't rush your voice let me just chill i'm gonna put my kid in the door after repeatedly insisting that mr khalif needed to prove that he owned the store sergeant blassie immediately accepts a stranger's statement that mr khalif owns the store and walks away the stranger provided no further evidence than what the officers already had as mr khalif had informed them that he owned the store multiple times the officers did not ask the stranger any additional questions or take any actions to determine his credibility and simply walked away from the encounter based on his word thank you for your time you put the game in the door huh can you put the key in the door please i'm not going to put the key in the door he already told me that's your supervisor he said the same day as the incident mr khalif posted a video his friend recorded of the interaction on yemen's instagram page alleging that the encounter was an instance of racial profiling the video went viral sparking a protest in support of mr khalif and the black lives matter movement the protest which occurred on august 29 2020 was attended by over 200 people who marched to the tiburon police department where mr khalif spoke about his experience in response to the outrage sergeant blasi resigned on september 1st and tiburon police chief michael cronin resigned on september 13th it is unclear whether mr khalif is taking further legal action overall the tiburon officers get a c-minus for misrepresenting the concept of reasonable suspicion detaining mr khalif without any evidence of criminal activity and for accepting the opinion of a random citizen while simultaneously ignoring the very same claims from mr khalif although it could certainly be argued that the tiburon officers had good intentions their investigative tactics were far from reasonable and the officers took the most invasive route possible when merely observing the scene to determine the criminality of the situation would have likely rendered more favorable results for everyone involved the officers simply did not take the time to gather more evidence before confronting and accusing mr khalif of criminal activity and we're operating under the impression that mr khalif was required to answer their questions while the city of tiburon's arrest data does not explicitly indicate a pattern of racist enforcement there is an argument to be made that implicit bias played a role in this interaction but the sample size of the arrest data is too small to draw any accurate conclusions out of the tiburon police department's 51 stops made between january 1st and december 31st of 2020 only two were african americans making up only 3.9 percent of the total all that said when compared with the city of tiburon census data for 2020 the department's arrest data does indicate a slight imbalance for minority enforcement but as mentioned before the sample size for the arrest data is too low for accurate results and there are a plethora of other variables that could influence this discrepancy such as taurus being stopped by police ultimately the officers did not arrest mr khalif or place him into handcuffs but that does not absolve them from failing to conduct a legitimate investigation and accusing mr khalif of criminal activity with no evidence mr khalif gets an a minus because although he could have invoked his right to remain silent more effectively he did not allow the officers to intimidate him or force him to comply with their unreasonable demands and he made a legitimate effort to dispel their suspicions without compromising his fourth amendment rights at no point did mr khalif break the law and at no point was he reasonably suspected of breaking the law it is clear that the california courts would have favored mr khalif in this situation given their rulings in the past and this interaction is a testament to the notion that the tiburon officers could use more training on the state's case law mr khalif's reluctance to assist the officers in their investigation could be seen as inflammatory but he was under no legal obligation to aid the officers with their investigation after all being accused of robbing your own store would likely dissolve the trust of almost anyone as mentioned before the officers could have gathered just as much information by standing outside of the store without potentially offending mr khalif or baselessly accusing him of a crime and it's difficult to fault mr khalif for having a reactionary response to their accusations i commend mr khalif for having the conviction to challenge the logic of the officers and the courage to defend his civil liberties be sure to give your support to the marin independent journal for covering this story you can find a link to their channel in the description below let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out the ata patreon page for more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,666,580

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: 76zAL72c_HE

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/velocibadgery]

That cop was so accusatory. I bet the owner would have answered his questions had he been polite about it.

"Hello sir, how's it going?"

"Just checking out the area, how's business been?"

"I assume this is your shop? Cool, well if you need us we will be up and down this street to make sure nothing happens, you have a good night."

And now they have established a non suspicious reason to surveil the shop.

[u/Best_Bing_Bong]

Classic case of being black when the subject shouldn't be.

The officers trusted a random white guy over the business owner.

Aside from the officers hurt feelings, I'm extremely curious what happened behind the scenes that resulted in the chiefs resignation.

[u/DefendCharterRights]

Police need to understand that they have limited powers. If the law doesn't require someone to do something, then they are not legally obligated to do it.

At 11:20, sergeant: "Can you prove that it's your store?"

Subject: "I don't have to prove anything to you."

Sergeant: "Actually, you do."

Encountering uncooperative subjects might make the job of law enforcement more difficult, but the solution isn't to violate their rights. A better idea would try to establish a better relationship with the community you serve. Bullying tactics destroy that relationship rather than build it.

Why not stop in and say hello to all the store owners when you have some free time? Get to know the community.

[u/wwwhistler]

a perfect example of how the mindset has changed over the years...from guardians to guards.

[u/alrightwtf]

Just shut the fucking door. Jesus.

[u/Bleaaargh]

Can’t believe ATA gave them a ‘C-‘ grade, should’ve been lower

[u/hang3xc]

They get an F. And their resignation likely lasted a whole day or two before they were hired 1 town over. ACABad

[u/Peoplegottabefree]

An old vid but glad something was done here. A perfect example of a racist POS cop and his partner said nothing so he is complicit in this blatant racist attempt to file another notch in that Glock.

[u/tdevore]

I don't really buy this one. If I were a business owner I would want the police to check it out if there were people in my business late when that is not usually the case. The business owner was a little hostile or at least defensive from the start. I'm not saying he doesn't have a right to be but when asked if he was doing inventory he could have just stated that he was conducting his business. That conversation didn't have to become confrontational.