A police officer in Loxley Alabama had an encounter with Robert O' Ryan who is the man arrested for allegedly stalking Dancing With The Stars contestant Shawn Johnson. O'Ryan was pulled over on his way to California for driving with expired tags on his license plate. He was also given a ticket for driving without insurance. During the police stop, a dashboard camera in the police car captured the entire sequence of events.
I understand the police can't know everything and we are second guessing which is much easier, but here is the conversation they had, and you tell me what should have been done.
The policeman asked O'Ryan where he was heading. "California," replied O'Ryan who went on to say he was meeting a friend. "Who is she," asked the officer. "Shawn Johnson," mumbled O'Ryan. "She's an Olympic gymnast. She's on TV now."
During the 29 minute stop, O'Ryan talked about Johnson at least three times, and when asked if he'd ever spoken to her personally, he said only in his dreams.
He also said that he was going to marry her. OK, see to me that is a red flag. You have a guy driving on expired tags in Alabama talking about marrying a woman he has seen only on television and never spoken to personally. At what point if you are the policeman do you start asking more detailed questions? I mean in 29 minutes he kept bringing her name up repeatedly, and each time was more bizarre. Again, I know we are second guessing and that policeman had no way of knowing the guy was going to buy some guns and duct tape and get her to marry him that way. The policeman also has much more experience dealing with people he has pulled over and it was 29 minutes, so he was being very careful.
The policeman didn't know who Shawn Johnson was and maybe he thought the guy was just trying to impress the cop. I do know that if O'Ryan had been successful with his kidnap plot or marriage proposal or whatever he is calling it, this tape would have been much more than just a curiosity thing.
hmm, sorry that is a bit suspect and i'm only watching the video!
ReplyDeleteSo say he asked more questions... what then? This is America -- you can't put someone in jail for just saying things.
ReplyDeleteIf he had a gun and a pile of plastic explosives in the car, that's a different matter. But apparently, he didn't. He had an expired registration and no insurance.
Like it or not, you and I can AND SHOULD be able to say any crazy-ass shit about Shawn Johnson that we want without having to worry about the police arresting us.
And even if Shawn Johnson were dead right now, THE SAME THING APPLIES. You don't arrest people based on what you THINK they MIGHT do. You arrest them based on what they HAVE done. And I don't see any evidence that this guy had done something criminal with respect to Shawn Johnson at the point of this traffic stop.
And before someone jumps in with "well, what about restraining orders" and such -- restraining orders aren't handed out just because you want one. The person who is to be restrained has to have done some ACT to create a present danger to the person seeking the order: a credible threat, a threat plus some other action indicating danger (i.e. purchasing a weapon or stalking), or such.
it's scary when you start thinking about the extreme degree of mental illnesses out there...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, A Pimp Named DaveR is 100% correct. The only thing I could do after my soon-to-be-ex-husband threatened me with a gun over the phone (a gun that he had in his possession for many years) was to call the police and they took a report. What he did was only enough for documentation in case other threats were made or he actually did something to me. It sucks, but that's the law.
ReplyDeletedbfreak, that's so scary. I'm so glad you're ditching the loser. I hope you'll be completely free of him soon.
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, the cops impound your vehicle if you have no insurance.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mooshki, it is scary, but he's put me through so much I'm sort of numb to being scared anymore. Also, I refuse to live my life in terror. It's easier for me than others in similar situations I think because I don't have kids to worry about thank god. Unfortunately, he's only moved about 9 blocks away, so he'll be around : ( That's another reason I REFUSE to let him rule how I live my life. Thanks to you and the rest of the CDAN community for actually helping to get me to this point. Love you guys.
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