Law roundup: Officers offer man a lesson in the Constitution

A man claiming to be on the receiving end of a threat got a lesson in the First Amendment from the Kalispell Police Department.

He initially phoned authorities saying that a woman approached him while he was fueling up and warned him that his vehicle might not be running in a few weeks. While he claimed to not know her, he offered that maybe the confrontation grew out of an earlier dust up over parking near his home. Officers let him know that it was his responsibility to safe keep his property and reminded him that the woman had “a right to free speech.” It’s not a crime, they said, until she committed a criminal act.

The employee of a local business threatened to kick another man’s rear end if authorities took much longer in having him removed from the locale. He said the man kept coming into the lobby, but leaving before officers arrived. The man grew more irate as his call with dispatchers got repeatedly disconnected. When they got hold of him again he voiced frustration with law enforcement’s response time and then threatened to attack the other man again.

A father alerted authorities to the possibility that her daughter might be huffing chemicals and getting behind the wheel. He clarified that her car was at his house and that her mother, upon learning that the younger woman possibly was abusing dust cleaner, had picked her up and dropped her off at her stepfather’s home. Mostly, the father was concerned his daughter would get a ride back to her car and start driving. Officers recommended he call back if he heard that she was coming to retrieve the vehicle.

Allegedly caught in the act, a shoplifter forgot a few personal items while they fled the scene of the crime. The employee who contacted authorities told police that they saw the man place items into a grocery bag. He became upset and left after being asked to disclose the bag’s contents. The employee opted against pressing charges and said they would hang onto the personal items in case he returned.

Police were asked to intervene with a dispute between a landlord and tenant that began when the tenant returned home drunk and aggressive. The landlord told authorities that her renter lived in a trailer in the driveway, but had a key to the main house. Both agreed to separate for the remainder of the evening.

When officers got a call from a man looking for his brother, who he said lived on the streets of Kalispell, they offered to help track him down. With a little searching the determined the man’s brother was taken to the hospital recently for an infection in the leg. The man, though, did not welcome the news and hung up on the officers.

A resident reported his neighbor for turning up the music in his shop from about 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Officers spoke with the neighbor, who agreed to turn the volume down, and recommended the two exchange contact information.