In Re Richard G.

There is little room for error when a police officer responds to a disturbance call involving a firearm in a documented criminal street gang area. (See People ex rel. Totten v. Colonia Chiques (2007) 156 Cal.App.4th 31 [ 67 Cal.Rptr.3d 70 ].) As this case shows, even when a police officer is careful, he is still subject to attack. The judiciary should not “lightly second-guess” an officer’s decision to conduct a “stop and frisk” in this situation. (People v. Dickey (1994) 21 Cal.App.4th 952, 957 [ 27 Cal.Rptr.2d 44 ], citing, inter alia, Terry v. Ohio (1968) 392 U.S. 1 [ 20 L.Ed.2d 889 , 88 S.Ct. 1868 ].) More than 40 years ago, Presiding Justice Pierce said that police officers were entitled to protect themselves during a detention: “This is a rule of necessity to which a right even as basic as that of privacy must bow. To rule otherwise would be inhumanely to add another hazard to an already very dangerous occupation. Our zeal to fend off encroachments upon the right of privacy must be tempered by remembrance that ours is a government of laws to preserve which we require law enforcement officers—live ones. Without becoming a police state, we may still protect the…