| But this is aggravated by the SFPD's presence. Sounds like things went down like: 1) A group of people show up at his door in plain clothes. 2) Some of them identify as police officers. 3) They ask him about the iPhone 5 and he denies it. 4) They threaten him a bit and then ask him to allow a search of the premises. 5) Since, from his perspective, there are a bunch of police officers threatening the immigration status of his family, he consents. 6) Two people from the group (Apple employees) enter the premises and search for the iPhone. He assumes that they are police because they are all in plain clothes (no way to tell them apart without asking to each each badge). Seems to me like the police used their muscle to strong-arm the guy, but then stopped short of doing the search themselves (because that would be illegal). Since the guy consented to the search, then there may not be anything illegal about the Apple employees performing the search. This whole thing stinks: * Sounds like the ex-police security guy that Apple hired got some of his buddies to use their badges to get him in the door. * The police performed a search without technically performing a search. * The Apple security employees impersonated police officers without technically impersonating police officers. My take: A bunch of police officers (and an ex-cop) were behaving badly on their off-hours and now the SFPD is going to go into CYA-mode. No charges will be brought. Nothing will happen to anyone. Maybe the Apple security guy will get dressed-down by his superiors for being so heavy-handed and causing bad press. |