re: Cincinnati Police arrest man for not answering questions on sidewalk

You guys are completely misunderstanding Reasonable Articulable Suspicion and Probable Cause.

Reasonable Articulable Suspicion is the threshold for them stopping him and IDing him, but not for arresting him. He was not arrested based on RAS.

Probable Cause is the threshold for arresting him. He was arrested based on PC.

Asking the questions he asked is the clear definition of Reasonable Articulable Suspicion.

His questions - how many people work here? and where is the vault located? - raised the suspicions of the bank security guard (a reasonable person)...so much so that he called the f'n police.

The police arrived under those facts and circumstances and had every right to stop and engage with him. They also have the right to ID him. He is required by law to ID himself. He did not. THAT is the Probable Cause for the arrest, NOT his original questions/behavior.

Had he ID'd himself, they would have had no PC for an arrest because his initial actions were not illegal. But he did not, which was illegal, and therefore they did.

Bottom Line:

A reasonable person found his actions to be suspicious (a crime is being or about to be committed). That person called the police, who arrived under those already established facts and circumstances.

If RAS exists (it clearly did), THEN the police had a right to ID him and he is required by law to ID himself. His refusal to do so, under those already established facts and circumstances which rose to the level of Reasonable Articulable Suspicion, was a violation of the law...therefore, Probable Cause to arrest was established and he was hooked up.

This one isn't controversial in the least. Had he ID'd himself and still been arrested based on his original suspicious behavior, then no Probable Cause would have existed and he would be 100% in the right. But that's not what happened.

Guy is a jackass and cops didn’t do anything wrong. This guy created a fake situation made to look like a threat. Arrest his arse for that. Not much different from falsely yelling fire in a crowded building.

A lot of you are missing the part where him standing out there filming for a long period of time and purposely asking suspicious questions is illegal in the way he is doing it. There are people working inside that bank. It’s not all about him. He may have the right to stand there and not answer cops questions but he does not have the right to put the people inside the bank in a panic.

Any lawyer could rip this dude to shreds.

Dumb cops costing taxpayers money, nothing new here