I took my GF to a horse auction and was told to be home by midnight by her dad, at midnight he checked her room and it was empty called my parents mad at me, we were on the patio watching a meteor shower with her MOTHER his wife! Well he was hot that we did not wake him and tell him, one time we did wake him accidently and he was mad over that. Then after screaming at us he then noticed the neighbors (4) and his wife were also outside with us, we were back early (11:30) to tell mother to come out (she read books late) she said don't wake him! He was mad at everyone! Even his wife. Yet caused all of it. If alive probably still would be. Her mother called and explained all to my parents, it helped some as to my problem at home. We had done nothing wrong and knew that.
Your story reminds me of one from my teenage years, @Tex Dennis . It didn’t happen to me, but to one of my close friends. She and I belonged to the local Horsemans’s Association and always went on the trail rides, playdays, and usually to their monthly meetings. This time, it must have been a special meeting, maybe a Christmas banquet, because it was held at one of the local schools, but on a Saturday evening when no one was actually using the school. Both Norma and I had permission from our parents to go to the Horseman’s meeting, and had told them that it might last late because of the special dinner we were all having. During the meeting, we kept hearing the phone ringing in the office of the school, but no one could get into the office to answer it, and the adults all assumed it was something to do with the school, so we all just ignored it. Turned out that it was Norma’s mother, calling the school to make sure that we were actually at the meeting , and concerned when no one answered the phone. We explained to her that the phone was ringing in the school principal’s office, which was locked up; so no one could have answered the phone under any circumstances; but it didn’t do any good. She was sure that the whole thing was some kind of a story made up by Norma, and she would not call one of the adults from the Horseman’s Association to verify that there actually was a meeting at the school, and that Norma and I were there. Poor Norma was grounded for the rest of the month, even though she had not done anything wrong.
Growing up things as these are what gave me my stand my ground attitude when I know I am correct, I still do so. One time in high school I got suspended for 3 days for something I did NOT do, later the asst principal found I had told the truth, still nothing changed as to me getting in trouble. I asked him what he thought of this now and was just told to go to class. He would not answer me. Zero's in classes and trouble at home over it. I had a teacher with a pet student, that teacher did not like me, as I would not back down and admit to something I did not do. Never did either. Later in my life as a police officer I stopped him unknowingly at the stop time that I had this teacher, after a 30-45 min stop, with drug dog I released him without even a ticket as the better person, he was very nervous to say the lest. I am not sure he even remembered me. I did ask if he ever was a teacher, he was.
In high school, I was arrested twice for being a minor in possession of beer and I didn't even drink. It seems that being in attendance at the party was enough. Another time, I returned to where I was living at the time after having spent a couple of months hitchhiking around the country. I was renting an apartment adjacent to the Menominee Marina in Menominee, Michigan. Seeing that there were hundreds of people milling about in the Marina Park, I walked down to see what was going on. Finding someone I knew, I learned that it was an anti-war protest. I was sitting there on the lawn, catching up on how this had come about when I was arrested for criminal trespass and inciting a riot. First of all, it was hardly a riot. Nobody was even yelling, and I didn't see any signs. I didn't even know that it was a protest until my friends told me, and that was only about ten minutes before the police came. Secondly, I could hardly be blamed for inciting it since I wasn't even in town when it started. I later learned that there had been a protest there for two days before, prompting the city to put a 5:00 pm curfew on the park. So I guess it was more about the curfew than the war. I didn't see a sign about that, either, nor did I know about it. They dropped the inciting a riot charge before it ever got to court, and the judge believed me when I pointed out that I lived next to the Marina Park, and that I had no idea there was a curfew since I had just gotten back in town. He dismissed the case almost immediately. It probably didn't hurt that his son had been arrested too.
@Ken Anderson A victim of circumstances outside of, and pre-dating your control. In my mind, it was this sort of experience which swayed your thinking over the following years to coincide with my own: we may be bystanders, or observers, of some event at odds with "acceptable" to the powers that be, which places us in the category of supporters or instigators. After that happens, we are adjudged as criminals, before the fact, and based upon law enforcement's judgement, which of course presumes guilt above all else. Frank