The headlines were sensational: R&B singer Chris Brown and Los Angeles policewere in an hours-long “bizarre standoff” outside his San Fernando Valley home.
On Tuesday, that’s how the Los Angeles Times described it, leading the Associated Press to echo it, along with local TV stations and news outlets up and down California, including the San Jose Mercury News and the San Diego Union-Tribune, and as far away as the Sydney Morning Herald in Sydney, Australia.
By Wednesday, the Times had switched to “surreal standoff.”
But why was it a “standoff”? There was no armed SWAT team. There was no gun fire from the house. There was no Hollywood-style shouting back and forth: “Come out or we’re coming in!” or “You’ll never take me alive!”
Instead, a citizen, Brown, exercised his constitutional right to demand a search warrant. In turn, LAPD Robbery-Homicide detectives, following their constitutional obligations, waited to obtain said warrant signed by a judge before entering Brown’shome to search for a gun.
Los Angeles police investigators at Chris Brown’s house in Los Angeles on Aug. 30, 2016. (Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP)
“It’s not a standoff if someone is exercising their rights under the 4th Amendment,” says Troy Slaten, a former child actor-turned criminal defense attorney and popular TV legal pundit in Los Angeles.
That amendment (the man’s-home-is-his-castle amendment) protects Americans from “unreasonable searches,” among other rights.
By insisting the police obtain a warrant before entering his home, Brown was not being “uncooperative,” Slaten says. “How is he ‘not cooperating’ by exercising his rights? Even convicted felons do not give up their rights unless they’re on probation or parole.”
And Brown, although a convicted felon, is not on probation or parole. In a video on his Instagram (now deleted) he mocked the media reports that said he was “barricaded” in the house.
Brown had been accused of threatening a woman with a gun inside his house in the early hours of Tuesday. By that evening, he was under arrest on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, had been booked into the Los Angeles County Jail and bailed out before midnight local time on $250,000 bond.
Police would not say whether they found a gun.
The scene Tuesday outside Brown’s house no doubt was annoying to his Tarzananeighbors. Police cars blocked the roadway, keeping the media mob at bay. Media helicopters were circling overhead, causing a huge ruckus as they live-streamed what was happening below.
It was unusual that it took so long, Slaten says, since nowadays police can obtain a signed search warrant simply by using their smartphones. Also, the cops waited until Brown’s attorney, Mark Geragos, showed up at the scene, which they didn’t have to do.
But taking their time was the right thing, Slaten says.
The media wait outside Chris Brown’s house. (Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP)
“The police are within their rights to secure the property — they were right to surround house, set up a mobile command center, bring in portapotties…They wanted to make sure, if there was a gun, nobody got shot.”
So why all the attention? “Because (Brown) is a celebrity.”
For the police, Slaten says it’s about being extra careful. “The police know every single move they make is going to be scrutinized, every frame (of video) examined. They want to make sure they do everything by the book.
“They want to err on the side of tremendous response.”
– USA Today
