Bob who? Dylan picked up by NJ police

Post by **BrianIsSmilingAtYou** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 3:55 am

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_ ... _bob_dylan

BrianIs

AtYou

Post by **Dave_LF** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:43 am

It's funny that they didn't recognize him, but it's creepy that he was essentially arrested for daring to set foot outside without carrying ID.

Post by **Frelga** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 6:08 am

Well, not exactly. The article says that the residents called to complain about Dylan wandering about. The police simply acted on that.

The incident began at 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

Moreover, Dylan was NOT arrested. I doubt that he can even say that he was detained. The police gave him a ride to where he could be identified, which I believe is a nicer treatment than most people would get if they were suspected of casing out the houses and then claimed to be rock stars.

Post by **Lalaith** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 3:57 pm

Exactly. I think the officers handled the situation very well. And, I don't know. I kind of like the fact that even mega-stars can be humbled sometimes. Dylan doesn't seem like he has a giant ego (from the little I know of him), so I'm wondering if he was amused more than upset.

And, honestly, I might've recognized him once he said who he was, but I wouldn't have known him before that. I'm not a Dylan fan.

Post by **ToshoftheWuffingas** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:13 pm

The police gave him a ride to where he could be identified, which I believe is a nicer treatment than most people would get if they were suspected of casing out the houses and then claimed to be rock stars.

Or university professors

Post by **Frelga** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:16 pm

Yes, the thought has occurred.

Post by **sauronsfinger** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:26 pm

Its good that it all turned out well in the end. I guess there is a possible Jay Leno joke in there. When the officer heard from Dylan that he was a big singing star on tour he could have simply asked Dylan to sing a few lines from one of his songs. The obvious professional quality of his voice would have then convinced the officer that he was indeed ..... okay .... never mind.

Post by **axordil** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:53 am

Why does "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" come to mind?

Post by **sauronsfinger** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:48 pm

Dylan could have sung a few lines for the cops from "Positively Fourth Street"....

You see me on the street
You always act surprised

or maybe this

But it aint me, babe,
No, no, no, it aint me, babe,
It aint me youre lookin for, babe.

Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:56 pm

No, no,

There's something happening here
And you don't know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Jones?

Post by **Dave_LF** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:58 pm

Well, not exactly. The article says that the residents called to complain about Dylan wandering about. The police simply acted on that.

Did he have a choice about whether to accompany the officers? The articles don't make it clear, but it sounds like someone called the police when they noticed him looking into the windows of a house that was for sale, and the police then forced him to stop what he was doing and come with them until he could prove who he was (which is the common if not legal definition of being arrested). That is not an appropriate way to act on a call from residents; being reported as suspicious by a random person does not put you in the position of being guilty until proven innocent. I suppose he may have been drunk and/or high, but no one mentioned it if that was the case.

Post by **Frelga** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:20 pm

Errr... how else the police is supposed to act when responding a call sbout a suspicious person if not to establish the perosn's business and identity?

You might blame the resident for overreacting, but I don't see how any blame attached to the police.

Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:24 pm

Nor I. Nor, apparently, did Bob, since the article made it clear that he was completely cooperative and went with the officer with no complaints.

Post by **Dave_LF** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:02 pm

Frelga wrote:Errr... how else the police is supposed to act when responding a call sbout a suspicious person if not to establish the perosn's business and identity?

They should observe the person and determine for themselves whether anything illegal is going on. They are free to ask the person who he is and what he's doing, but they can't force him to go home and fetch his papers if he isn't carrying them. The fact that Dylan cooperated with the officers' requests/demands doesn't mean they had any right to make them.

Post by **Frelga** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:12 am

How do you determine if someone walking around peeking into yards and windows (not to say that's what Dylan is doing, just as a for instance) is casing the joint or collecting material for the next masterpiece? Seriously? Why, you find out who they are, and whether they have a criminal record.

Hubby actually has called the cops once when someone in our neighborhood was doing something like that - knocking on doors, and if no one answered going around the houses. They showed up eventually, but the guy took off when he saw hubby cruising the block. That was shortly after someone smash my second-floor window with a brick, so we were not inclined to take chances.

Sorry, Dave, I'm all for keeping our civil liberties, but in this case I think the police handled the manner well.

Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:39 am

The police certainly had an obligation to check the situation out when they got the call. It was have terribly irresponsible of them not to do so. And when the unidentified person was unable to provide an identification, I don't see what choice they had but to ask him to accompany them to a place where he could be identified. They didn't handcuff him, or bring him into custody. This was not an arrest, or even a detention in the legal sense. The more complicated issue would have been if he had refused to go with them. If they had insisted, that would have been at the least a detention, and in order for that to be legal they would have had to have been able to demonstrate that their was an imminent threat of harm or criminal conduct. In order to arrest them, they would have had to have had probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed. But that's not what happened. They article says they asked him to come with them, and he politely agreed. Everyone acted appropriately.

Post by **Dave_LF** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:24 pm

Bob Dylan aside, when a police officer says "please come with me, sir", you don't feel that you have much choice in the matter. Especially given the number of stories out there about innocent people being tazed/beaten/arrested in their own homes after refusing similar orders. Without evidence of illegal behavior, all they should do is put the guy on notice and go on their way.

But like I said before, details are sketchy. For all I know, it could have been Dylan himself who suggested the police take him back, thinking the rest of the band would get a kick out of it. Still, reporters are pitching it as a funny story--"Haha! Bob Dylan got arrested for not having his ID because a couple of kid cops didn't know who he was!". I don't find that spin funny, though. It strikes me as rather sinister, and the fact that we're supposed to find it amusing makes it even more so.

Post by **Rodia** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:30 am

I don't get it. If you walk around the police can stop you and demand ID and if you don't have it, drive you away to identify you?

Why?

Can this happen to me if I go for a walk in a place where no one knows me? Because I do that a lot.

If I say 'no thanks', can they decide I'm being suspicious and force me to come, or will they leave me be?

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:50 am

Rodia, it really depends on the circumstances--where you are, what you're doing, your demeanor, whether you have any ID on you at all, etc.

The police did not just randomly drive by and stop Bob Dylan. They had a call from a citizen who lived in the area, and they responded to that call appropriately.

Post by **vison** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 4:13 am

Lalaith wrote:Rodia, it really depends on the circumstances--where you are, what you're doing, your demeanor, whether you have any ID on you at all, etc.

The police did not just randomly drive by and stop Bob Dylan. They had a call from a citizen who lived in the area, and they responded to that call appropriately.

That's an important point.

We were out the other night, Chris in the car and me in the truck and as we drove up our road we found a car parked about 100 feet from our driveway. We've had a breakin recently and we also have to be constantly alert for the animal rights activists. So I pulled my truck up in such a way that the guy couldn't move. I'm not sure what they were doing, an older guy and a younger guy but at any rate they were both very apologetic and kept insisting they weren't doing anything wrong. In the meantime Chris had driven ahead and phoned the police with the license plate numbers, etc., and they checked into it.

I don't think the police should just randomly ask people for ID, though. And in Dylan's case, they didn't. They were acting on a complaint.