A father's concern

Are police officers today as dangerous as the criminals?

On the night of March 1, in Nisswa, Minn. a convenience store was held up at gunpoint and the robber disappeared.

Law enforcement did their best to locate and arrest this person but after two hours and no results, they were by now in a feeding frenzy and had to have someone, anyone.

We live a couple of blocks from the crime scene and my son's vehicle looked similar to a vehicle that was in the area around the time of the robbery.

I'm sure that the boys in blue thought of the fact that it would be rather stupid of the robber not to go any further than a couple of blocks from the crime scene, but they had guns loaded and were desperate.

My wife and I were in Minneapolis that day and were on our way home. Now we wished that a day's business away could have waited.

My son, 17 years old, was in bed sleeping when the phone rang at midnight. They identified themselves as law enforcement and asked him what he was wearing. They then told him to get dressed and step out of the door with his arms up.

To his shock, when he opened the door he saw about a dozen officers behind bushes, cars, corners and laying on the ground with high powered rifles and automatic weapons pointed at him.

He was then told to walk south backwards (at this point he thought he was going to die), get on his knees, lay on the ground with fingers interlaced behind his head.

The police then wrestled his arms behind his back, cuffed him and put him in a police car. They then proceeded without permission to ransack his vehicle and our residence.

Thank god he didn't go for his wallet, clear his throat, sneeze or blink! We are thankful that one of these sharks didn't pull a trigger because they would have all joined in. After contacting some friends of his at that hour, the officers decided they had the wrong person, told him they were sorry and to go back to bed.

The news of this event, of course, hit the school the next morning because of the late hour contacts to friends and once again the respect for law enforcement has taken a dip. I taught my children early on to respect all law enforcement because of the everyday risks they go through, but today they go to extremes with their given power. I doubt their effectiveness.

This is not L.A.; this is Nisswa, Minnesota. They are not a trained SWAT team; they are locals that were given instruction and a gun. Our son is alive because he was smart enough to hold that sneeze, but what will happen to other innocent sons and daughters in this situation? Should we as innocent people fear law enforcement? I don't think so.

A worried father,

Nisswa MN