Full opinion text
ORDER CARNES, District Judge. This case is presently before the Court on defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment [26]. The Court has reviewed the record and the arguments of the parties and, for the reasons set out below, concludes that defendants’ motion should be GRANTED. BACKGROUND Plaintiff Gainor is no stranger to police stops. His apparent modus operandi during such stops is to refuse to cooperate or to provide identification to the police when the latter, suspicious that plaintiff is engaging in criminal activity, requests such information. After two of these encounters — the Georgia arrest leading to this legal action and an arrest in Minnesota— plaintiff sued for monetary damages following his arrest by police based on what they perceived to be obstructive conduct during the encounter. See generally Gainor v. Rogers, 973 F.2d 1379, at 1381-82, 1390 (8th Cir.1992). The events leading to the present claim occurred on February 23, 1996, when Deputy Timothy Bearden of the Douglas County Sheriffs Department was dispatched to the residence of Ann Camp. Ms. Camp, a 51 year-old resident of Douglas County, resided on Highway 166, a two-lane road through a residential neighborhood of single-family homes. She told Deputy Bearden that she had heard “suspicious noises” a few days earlier. Ms. Camp also told Deputy Bearden that she believed her carport door may have been “jimmied”, as she had experienced difficulty opening it. Ms. Camp requested increased patrols past her residence that day because she would be home alone. Deputy Bearden noted Ms. Camp’s concerns in a report and returned to his patrol. Approximately 30 minutes later, Deputy Bearden returned to Ms. Camp’s residence and saw plaintiff standing in Ms. Camp’s yard. According to the officer, plaintiff began walking down the road after he sighted the deputy. According to plaintiff, he was not in Ms. Camp’s yard when Deputy Bearden approached, but instead was walking along a narrow path that parallels the road, within four to five feet of the shoulder of the road, in front of Ms. Camp’s residence. The Court must accept plaintiffs version of these facts for purposes of this motion. At any rate it is clear that plaintiff was in front of Ms. Camp’s home when the officer approached. Deputy Bearden immediately noticed that plaintiff had a “drifter’s appearance in that he looked to be unclean, had a ‘scruffy’ beard, and was wearing a large backpack and what appeared to be coveralls.” (Def. Bearden’s Aff. [26] at ¶ 6.) Suspicious of plaintiffs presence in front of Ms. Camp’s home, as a result of Ms. Camp’s concern about an attempted burglary, Deputy Bearden became further suspicious because plaintiff had no visible means of transportation, because Ms. Camp did not have any visitors when he was at her house only minutes before, and because, from Deputy Bearden’s experience as a police officer, he knew that burglary tools (such as hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, etc.) could be carried in a backpack. (Id.) (Indeed, as plaintiff now concedes, he did have such tools in his backpack.) (Dep. Of Gainor at 141-43) Deputy Bearden passed plaintiff, then made two consecutive u-turns so as to approach plaintiff from behind. As he did this, Deputy Bearden activated the emergency lights on his patrol ear, which in turn activated a video camera mounted on the ear’s dashboard. As Deputy Bearden pulled up behind plaintiff, he instructed plaintiff, repeatedly, to remain in front of his vehicle. Plaintiff refused to comply with the officer’s directive, however, for after initially pausing in front of the vehicle, plaintiff proceeded in front of the car to the driver’s side window and demanded, “Am I breaking the law right now?” (Videotape [27].) Deputy Bearden repeated his request for plaintiff to return to the front of the vehicle, but plaintiff again refused to comply with the directive of the officer and, instead, turned and walked away. Deputy Bearden again drove his car up behind plaintiff. Plaintiff, however, continued walking away from Deputy Bearden and toward Whitesburg at a brisk pace. At this point, Bearden exited his car, with a cannister of pepper spray in his right hand, which he kept behind his back, and stated, “Hey, come here.” (Videotape [27].) Plaintiff turned, walked towards Deputy Bearden, and stated, “Hey, listen to me. I’m not a dog, you talk to me like a person.” (Id.) Deputy Bearden asked plaintiff for identification and plaintiff interrupted, “Am I breaking the law?” (Id.) During this exchange, plaintiff repeatedly gestured adamantly with his finger to both the ground and to Bearden while shifting his weight forward and rising on his toes. After plaintiff refused Deputy Bearden’s repeated requests for identification, Bear-den told plaintiff that plaintiff was “about to go to jail.” {Id.) While pointing at Deputy Bearden, plaintiff-responded, “You take me to jail and I’m' not breaking the law and you’re going to be in trouble.” (Id.) Bearden agreed with plaintiffs assertion, and while apparently pointing back at the camera mounted in his vehicle, began to state that if plaintiff would show him some identification, but before he could finish his sentence, plaintiff again turned to walk away. At this point, Deputy Bearden grabbed plaintiff for the first time, turned him around, and repeated that he wanted to talk to him. Plaintiff repeated his demand to know if he was breaking the law. Plaintiff and Bearden then began to argue, with both men, at times, raising their voices and pointing at the other, about whether plaintiff was required to show Bearden. his identification. Plaintiff stated that he could prove to Bearden in court that he was not so required, and that he had proven this in the past. Deputy Bearden then instructed plaintiff to keep his hands down and repeated his threat to take plaintiff to jail if he did not show the officer his identification. After plaintiff again asked what law he was breaking, Deputy Bearden stated that by not showing him identification, plaintiff was guilty of obstruction of an officer. Plaintiff then asked Deputy Bearden whether he could quote the Fourth Amendment and, if Bearden could not, offered to quote it to him. After each man assured the other that he did not feel “like playing games,” the ante was raised as Deputy Bearden stated, “Right now, either show me your I.D. or your going to jail.” (Id.) Again, plaintiff stated that he would not give Bearden any identification unless he was breaking the law. Deputy Bearden informed plaintiff that he was under arrest and told him to go to the police vehicle. While repeatedly trying to step around Deputy Bearden so that he could continue on his way towards Whitesburg, plaintiff asked why he was under arrest. Bearden reiterated that plaintiff was under arrest for obstruction. As plaintiff continued to try to advance and maneuver around Deputy Bearden, Bearden repeatedly told plaintiff to “take a step back,” and that plaintiff was “going to jail.” (Id.) After initially asserting that he was not going, plaintiff stated that if Deputy Bear-den took him to jail it would be false arrest and assured Bearden that the law also applied to him. Deputy Bearden, reminding plaintiff to take a step back, told plaintiff that that was fine, and firmly told plaintiff to go to the vehicle. Plaintiff responded that he wanted to speak with an attorney, and repeated his statement. Bearden, in an agitated tone, stated, “You’re about to talk to one,” grabbed plaintiffs arm, spun him and attempted to handcuff him. (Id.) Plaintiff, however, successfully pulled his arm free. Deputy Bearden then grabbed plaintiff and knocked plaintiffs feet out from under him, successfully tripping plaintiff to the ground. Plaintiff jumped back up before Deputy Bearden was able to reach him. Plaintiff then told Deputy Bearden not to give him a hard time. Deputy Bearden told plaintiff to get down, and when he refused, Bearden again tripped plaintiff to the ground. Plaintiff again quickly got back on his feet. Deputy Bearden then took the pepper spray out from behind his back. Plaintiff stated, “Sir, you’d better not spray me with that.” (Id.) Deputy Bearden renewed his demand for plaintiff to get down on the ground. Plaintiff refused, and from a distance of approximately three to four feet, Bearden attempted to spray plaintiff with the pepper spray. Though on the videotape it appears that plaintiffs head was completely immersed in the spray, plaintiff stated that defendant “tried to spray my face with pepper spray but missed apparently or a gust of wind blew the spray elsewhere.” (Pl.’s Aff. [32] at ¶ 15.) In the wake of Deputy Bearden’s use of the pepper spray, plaintiff wound up on the Whitesburg side of Bearden. He turned and walked quickly away. Deputy Bearden called Douglas County on his walkie-talkie and stated that he had attempted unsuccessfully to arrest plaintiff and that the use of pepper spray to restrain plaintiff had been unsuccessful. Deputy Bearden requested back-up. Deputy Bearden then quickly followed and caught up with plaintiff. (See Defs.’ Mot. for Summ.J. [26] at 3.) Bearden again tripped plaintiff to the ground. Plaintiff stated, “Once I was on the ground, he took a telescoping baton from his belt, extended it, and held it menacingly, but did not hit me with it. Eventually, perhaps, he realized how silly he looked, and put it away.” (Gainor Dep. at Ex. 9, p. 2.) Plaintiff then plead with Bearden that he could not arrest plaintiff “for nothing.” (Videotape [27].) Bearden demanded that plaintiff get down and put his hands out to his sides. Plaintiff refused. Deputy Bearden continued demanding that plaintiff get down while plaintiff repeatedly told Bear-den that he “had better stop it,” or “you’re gonna get yourself in trouble, mister.” (Id.) At some point, plaintiff remained on the ground with Deputy Bearden straddling him. Plaintiff wrapped his arms in front and underneath him so that he could not be handcuffed. (See Pl.’s Aff. [32] at ¶ 16; Defs.’ Statement of Material Facts [26] at ¶ 10 (citing Gainor Dep. at 153-54).) Plaintiff then told Bearden that he was trying to talk to him “decent.” Deputy Bearden responded, “You are under arrest. Get down.” (Videotape [27].) Plaintiff again asked what he was under arrest for and repeated that he could not be arrested If he had not broken any law. As plaintiff continued to struggle and demanded to know what he had done, Deputy Bearden told him that he was not going to fight with him. Plaintiff responded that while he also did not want to fight, he would not get down and stay down because, as plaintiff stated, “I’m not a dog and you don’t tell me what to do and expect me to do it.” (Id.) After again stating that he was attempting to be “peaceable”, plaintiff told Deputy Bearden that he “guaranteed” that Bear-den would end up in court for his behavior. A passerby then entered into the conversation. Plaintiff asked the man to stay and informed him, “I’m walking down the road and he wanted to check my identification. I asked him why and he won’t tell me.” (Id.) The passerby apparently asked plaintiff why he would not show Deputy Bear-den his identification if he had nothing to hide, and plaintiff responded because he did not have to if he had done nothing wrong. Deputy Bearden then demanded that plaintiff give him his hands. Plaintiff responded by telling Deputy Bearden to let him stand and talk. Bearden rejected plaintiffs request and again demanded that plaintiff give him his hands. When plaintiff refused, Deputy Bearden stated that in that case they would stay there all day. Plaintiff responded that that was fine and, if necessary, he was ready to stay there longer than that. Bearden agreed and stated that when the other officers arrived they would take plaintiff to jail. The third party present then attempted to talk plaintiff into giving up. He told plaintiff that Bearden would have help in a short period of time and that they would take plaintiff to jail “one way or another so you might as well calm down.” (Id.) Plaintiff responded that he was hoping that some of the other officers would “be a little more restrained and reasonable” than Deputy Bearden. (Id.) The third party again told plaintiff he should try and calm down. Rather than heed the third party’s advice, plaintiff again demanded to know why he was under arrest. Deputy Bearden reiterated that plaintiff was under arrest for obstruction. Plaintiff and Bearden then renewed their argument over whether plaintiff had to show Deputy Bearden his identification. As part of this segment of plaintiff and Deputy Bearden’s argument, plaintiff offered to tell “a story” demonstrating how he could “guarantee” that he knew what he was talking about and that otherwise Deputy Bearden would find out the hard way. Deputy Bearden' did not respond to plaintiffs offer ánd asked the third-party if he would take down the names of witnesses who had gathered. Plaintiff then asked the third party to do the same thing for him. Shortly thereafter, Officers William Gray, J.G. Wingo, Dewey Lammie and Jeff Nalley arrived on the scene. Plaintiff asked to speak with the senior officer. Lieutenant Nalley identified himself as the senior officer. Plaintiff said that he wanted to explain what had happened. Lieutenant Nalley responded that they could talk once plaintiff allowed himself to be handcuffed. Plaintiff states that because it seemed that Nalley “was going to be reasonable” (Gainor Dep. at 157), he allowed the officers to pull his arms out from under him and handcuff him. Plaintiff was placed in a sitting position and lifted to his feet. Plaintiff then mentioned for the first time that his motorcycle had broken down on the way to work and he was in the process of walking back to Whitesburg when Deputy Bearden stopped him. Lieutenant Nalley responded that plaintiff could talk at the jail. At that point they began walking plaintiff towards one of the police vehicles. Plaintiff had reached the vehicle and placed one foot inside of it when he heard bystanders “trying to reason with the police officers.” (Gainor Dep. at 159.) Plaintiff stopped and turned in an attempt to get the bystanders names. Officer Gray ran at plaintiff, held a can of pepper spray before plaintiffs face, and told plaintiff to get in the car. Plaintiff continued to try and get the bystanders’ names. Officer Gray then “screamed” at plaintiff to get in the car, but plaintiff chose to ignore him “because I [plaintiff] said if he sprays me, he’s in trouble, not me.” (Gainor Dep. at 160.) Gray again screamed for plaintiff to get in the car, but once again plaintiff refused. Officer Gray then sprayed plaintiff in the face with the pepper spray and plaintiff was successfully placed in the police car. Plaintiff was not able to reheve the pain in his eyes caused by the pepper spray until he arrived at the Sheriffs Department. Once there, plaintiff was allowed use of the shower to wash the spray out of his eyes. Plaintiff guesses that the spray was in his eyes for approximately 30 minutes and stated that the officers got him to a shower “as reasonably quickly as they could.” (Id. at 163.) Plaintiff was charged with felony obstruction. He remained in jail for six days until he could post bond of $3000. On May 22, 1996, the charge against plaintiff was dismissed. Plaintiff filed this complaint on February 10, 1997, claiming, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that the rights secured to him by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were violated by the actions of the officers on February 23, 1996. Plaintiff also included pendent state-law claims for assault and battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. DISCUSSION I. Summary Judgment Standard Summary judgment is not properly viewed as a device that the trial court may, in its discretion, implement in lieu of a trial on the merits. Instead, Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure mandates the entry of summary judgment against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of every element essential to that party’s case on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In such a situation, there can be no genuine issue as to any material fact, as a complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial. Id. at 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548. The movant bears the initial responsibility of asserting the basis for his motion. Id. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Apcoa, Inc. v. Fidelity Nat’l Bank, 906 F.2d 610, 611 (11th Cir.1990) However, the movant is not required to negate his opponent’s claim. The movant may discharge his burden by merely “ ‘showing’ — that is, pointing out to the district court — that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex, 477 U.S. at 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548. After the movant has carried his burden, the nonmoving party is then required to “go beyond the pleadings” and present competent evidence designating “ ‘specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.’ ” Id. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548 (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)). While the court is to view all evidence and factual inferences in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, Samples v. City of Atlanta, 846 F.2d 1328, 1330 (11th Cir.1988), “the mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A fact is material when it is identified as such by the controlling substantive law. Id. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505. An issue is genuine when the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmovant. Id. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505. The nonmovant “must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.... Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party, there is no ‘genuine issue for trial.’ ” Matsushita Electric Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986) (citations omitted). An issue is not genuine if it is unsupported by evidence, or if it is created by evidence that is “merely colorable” or is “not significantly probative.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505. Thus, to survive a motion for summary judgment, the nonmoving party must come forward with specific evidence of every element material to that party’s case so as to create a genuine issue for trial. II. Section 198S Section 1983 creates no substantive rights. See Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140, 144 n. 3, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 2692, 2694 n. 3, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979). Rather, it provides a vehicle through which an individual may seek redress when his or her federally protected rights have been violated by an individual or individuals acting under color of state law. See Livadas v. Bradshaw, 512 U.S. 107, 132, 114 S.Ct. 2068, 2082-83, 129 L.Ed.2d 93 (1994) (citations omitted). Thus, for every § 1983 claim, plaintiff must identify a specific federal right and demonstrate that the standard of care provided for by that right has been violated by a state actor. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 394, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1870-71, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989); Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 330, 106 S.Ct. 662, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986). In this case, plaintiff claims that defendants violated his Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Defendants argue that as plaintiffs claims stem from his arrest and its surrounding circumstances, plaintiffs Fourteenth Amendment claim must be dismissed pursuant to the Supreme Court’s holding in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 394, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1870-71, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). In Graham, the Supreme Court held: [A]ll claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force — deadly or not — in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment and its “reasonableness” standard, rather than under a “substantive due process” approach. Because the Fourth Amendment provides an explicit textual source of constitutional protection against this sort of physically intrusive governmental conduct, that Amendment, not the more generalized notion of “substantive due process,” must be the guide for analyzing these claims. Id. at 396, 109 S.Ct. at 1871 (emphasis in original). Here, plaintiff claims that he was unlawfully arrested and subjected to the use of excessive force. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s holding in Graham, these claims fall within the confines of the Fourth Amendment. Due to this holding, and the fact that plaintiff did not assert the merits of any Fourteenth Amendment based claim, or even mention the Fourteenth Amendment, in his response to defendants’ motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs claim(s) premised on the Fourteenth Amendment are hereby dismissed. The standards promulgated by the Fourth Amendment will govern this dispute. III. Unlawful Seizure and Arrest Claims Against Deputy Bearden in his Individual Capacities The Fourth Amendment guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const. Amend. IV. As plaintiff alleges that he was unlawfully seized pursuant to the Fourth Amendment, the Court must determine at what point plaintiff was seized, and what level of justification is required to authorize the seizure that occurred. (A) When was Plaintiff Seized? The existence of three “levels” of police contact with citizenry, with different requirements of suspicion to sustain each contact, has been well-settled for a long time. See, e.g., United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980); United States v. Berry, 636 F.2d 1075 (5th Cir.1981) (en banc). These three levels are: (1) a consensual police-citizen encounter or conversation, in which no suspicion is required by the police, (2) an investigatory stop (also known as a Terry stop), for which reasonable suspicion is required, and (3) an arrest, for which probable cause is required. Id. Accordingly, both an investigatory stop and an arrest are deemed to be seizures, within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures, and the propriety of both such seizures trigger analysis under the case law interpreting that Amendment. In the present case, Deputy Bearden issued many directives to plaintiff; plaintiff acquiesced to virtually none of those directives. The first question then is when was plaintiff initially seized for purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis? In California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991), the Supreme Court addressed the issue of when a fleeing individual who resists a show of authority by officers is seized under the Fourth Amendment. In Hodari D., the police observed a group of youths huddled around a car in a high-crime area and, upon observing the approach of the officers, the young men took flight. The officers ran after the youths, one of whom dropped a rock of cocaine and was later charged with a drug offense. During the subsequent juvenile proceedings, this youth, now a defendant, argued that the officers’ chase of him constituted a seizure and an illegal seizure, at that, as the officers did not have reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant. The Supreme Court ruled that an individual is seized only when he actually submits to a show of authority by an officer that would objectively lead a reasonable individual to believe he was not free to leave, or when the officer applies physical force, however slight, to the individual’s body. Hodari D., 111 S.Ct. at 1548; see also Menuel v. City of Atlanta, 25 F.3d 990, 995 (11th Cir.1994). A show of authority that does not succeed in holding the defendant is not a seizure. Thus, no seizure occurs when an officer yells, “Stop, in the name of the law” at a fleeing person who continues to flee. Hodari D., 111 S.Ct. at 1548. While an unsuccessful or attempted seizure that is limited to a show of authority is not a seizure for purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis, a seizure does occur at the point that an officer applies even slight physical force to a suspect, even if that force does not succeed in stopping the individual from fleeing. Id. at 1550. Applying this standard to the facts at hand, the Court concludes that plaintiff was seized when Deputy Bearden first grabbed him by the arm, turned him around, and stated again that he wanted to talk to plaintiff. See discussion supra at 1265. Plaintiff does not argue that Deputy Bearden physically touched him before this point, and plaintiffs affidavit makes clear that he had not previously submitted to Deputy Bearden’s show of authority. Accordingly, plaintiff was seized when Officer Bearden grabbed plaintiff by the arm. (B) Did the Officer’s Action In Touching Plaintiff Constitute An Investigatory Stop Or An Arrest? Once a seizure has occurred the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment are implicated. Not all seizures that implicate the Fourth Amendment, however, rise to the level of an arrest that must be supported by probable cause to be found reasonable. United States v. Roper, 702 F.2d 984, 986 (11th Cir.1983). Rather, encounters that implicate the seizure prong of the Fourth Amendment fall into two categories: (1) investigative stops, for which reasonable suspicion is required; and (2) full scale arrests, for which probable cause is necessary. See United States v. Espinosa-Guerra, 805 F.2d 1502, 1506 (11th Cir.1986). The question then is whether Deputy Bearden’s touching of plaintiff constituted an investigatory stop or an arrest and, if it were only the former, at what later point was plaintiff arrested? In distinguishing an investigative stop from an arrest, the Court must not adhere to “rigid time limitations” or “bright line rules,” but must use “common sense and ordinary human experience.” United States v. Hardy, 855 F.2d 753, 759 (11th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1019, 109 S.Ct. 1137, 103 L.Ed.2d 198 (1989) (quoting United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 685, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 1575, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985)). Pursuant to this common-sense approach, the totality of the circumstances determines when a seizure has become an arrest, requiring probable cause. Courson v. McMillian, 939 F.2d 1479, 1492 (11th Cir.1991). As a “seizure” necessarily requires that the seized individual is not free to leave, this fact alone does not distinguish an investigatory stop from an arrest. See United States v. Blackman, 66 F.3d 1572, 1576 (11th Cir.1995). Further, as the physical touching of the plaintiff is the event that rendered the encounter a seizure, it begs the question to assume that this same touching transformed the seizure into an arrest. Indeed, pertinent cases in this circuit suggest that there is no talismanic test for determining when a stop becomes an arrest. Thus, in Roper, where an officer, with a drawn gun, ordered a suspect out of his vehicle, the Eleventh Circuit construed the encounter to be an investigative stop, not an arrest. Noting that the period of the detention prior to the arrest was brief, that the officer had no intention to make an arrest when he stopped the suspect, but instead merely wished to question him, and that the stop was reasonably related in scope to the justification for its initiation, the panel concluded that the drawing of his gun by the officer did not convert the stop into an arrest. Roper, 702 F.2d at 986-88. Accord Blackman, 66 F.3d at 1576 (citations omitted). In Espinosar-Guerra, ■ in which a DEA agent at the airport asked a suspect who could not speak English to follow the agent to an office where an interpreter could be located, the panel concluded that those acts did not convert an investigative stop into an arrest even though an officer’s request that a suspect follow him frequently does equal an arrest in other situations. In arriving at this conclusion, the panel applied a balancing test to weigh the Government interest involved against the intrusion on the individual. Noting the Government’s interest in questioning the suspect and an inability to do so absent directing the individual to follow the agent to another location, the panel concluded that the Government had satisfied the balancing test. Espinosa-Guerra, 805 F.2d at 1509-10. Likewise, in Hardy, in which a state trooper made an investigative stop of a suspect and detained the suspect for 50 minutes while waiting for a drug detection dog, the Eleventh Circuit concluded that the duration of the stop, although it was indeed at the outer limits of an appropriate period of time for an investigative detention, did not convert the stop into an arrest. Instead, looking to the law enforcement purposes served by the detention— that is, the police were pursuing a method of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly — the court concluded that the officers behaved diligently and reasonably. Hardy, 855 F.2d at 758-61. In addition, the Eleventh Circuit has recognized, as pertinent factors indicating an investigative stop, rather than an arrest: that the officer did not take the detained person to a station or office, did not conduct a full search of the person, and did not touch the individual. Courson, 939 F.2d at 1492. Moreover, the fact that the police handcuff a seized individual does not automatically turn an investigative stop into an arrest. See Blackman, 66 F.3d at 1576 (citations omitted). In short, a reasonable attempt to restrain a seized individual does not convert a Terry stop into an arrest. Tom v. Voida, 963 F.2d 952, 958 (7th Cir.1992). Generalizing from these cases then, one can infer that with regard to acts by an officer that can sometimes suggest an arrest and can other times connote only an investigative stop, these acts do not transform an otherwise permissible stop into an arrest (1) if they are otherwise reasonable under the circumstances and are directed toward accomplishing a limited inquiry of the suspect and (2) if the officer does not, by these acts, intend to effect an arrest on the suspect. Applying these factors in a common-sense way to this case, the Court concludes that Deputy Bearden’s initial seizure of plaintiff — when he grabbed the latter — amounted to an investigatory stop for which only a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity was required. See discussion infra. Deputy Bearden stopped plaintiff to briefly question him and to obtain his identification in order to confirm or dispel quickly a suspicion that plaintiff might be engaged or about to be engaged in criminal activity involving Ms. Camp’s residence. Deputy Bearden’s actions were proportional to the concerns triggered by his reasonable suspicion. Had plaintiff cooperated with Deputy Bearden, this stop would have likely been relatively brief and non-intrusive. Further, the officer demonstrated no intent to arrest plaintiff, but instead was asking only for some identification at the time the investigative stop occurred. As such, it did not constitute an arrest for which probable cause was required. Plaintiff essentially concedes this point. (See Pl.’s Resp. to Mot. for Summ.J. [32] at 3) (“[I]t is clear that when Defendant Bearden began his ‘Terry-stop’, or investigatory detention of Plaintiff he precipitated factual events which exceeded more than a brief, slight government intrusion of plaintiffs freedom.”). Plaintiffs continued seizure became an arrest when Deputy Bearden first attempted to arrest plaintiff for obstruction. Bearden informed plaintiff that he was under arrest and that he was going to jail, and instructed him to go to Bearden’s vehicle. At this point it was clear that the duration of plaintiffs initial seizure, and the intended curtailment of his freedom had increased dramatically. Plaintiffs detention would no longer be brief, and the intrusion into his freedom no longer slight. As such, plaintiffs continued confinement required that Deputy Bearden have probable cause to believe plaintiff had committed or was planning to commit a crime. Defendants essentially concede this point by arguing that probable cause existed to arrest plaintiff for obstruction of an officer at this time. (See Defs.’ Mot. for Summ.J. [26] at 10.) (C) Did the Officer Have The Requisite Level of Suspicion To Justify the Stop and Subsequent Arrest? (1) Reasonable Suspicion for the Initial Seizure Having concluded that Deputy Bearden’s initial seizure of plaintiff — when the officer grabbed the plaintiff — constituted an investigatory stop, the Court must now consider whether reasonable suspicion existed to suspect plaintiff of being involved in criminal activity. The Fourth Amendment requires the presence of a reasonable suspicion, based on objective facts, before an individual may be subjected to an investigative stop. See Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 51, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 2641, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979) (citations omitted). The determination of whether reasonable suspicion existed is for the Court to decide. See Justice v. Peachtree City, 961 F.2d 188, 193 (11th Cir.1992) (citation omitted) (“it is for the court ... ultimately to resolve whether, under the facts available to the law enforcement officer, the legal standard for reasonable suspicion was met”). This decision is purely objective; no weight may be given to the subjective intent of the police officer involved. See United States v. Holloway, 962 F.2d 451, 458 (5th Cir.1992). Rather, the historical facts leading up to the seizure, viewed from the perspective of an objective reasonable police officer, are to form the basis of the court’s reasonable suspicion determination. See Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 1661-62, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996); Blackman, 66 F.3d at 1576. In order to determine whether reasonable suspicion existed to subject plaintiff to an investigatory stop, it is necessary to determine what constitutes a reasonable suspicion. The term “reasonable suspicion,” as well as “probable cause,” however, does not readily lend itself to a textbook definition. See Ornelas, 116 S.Ct. at 1661 (“Articulating precisely what ‘reasonable suspicion’ and ‘probable cause’ mean is not possible.”). Rather, the terms reasonable suspicion and probable cause are meant to be utilized as “commonsense, nontechnical conceptions that deal with ‘the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.’ ” Ornelas, 116 S.Ct. at 1661 (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1311, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949)). As such, reasonable suspicion and probable cause are both context-dependent standards that are not entirely severable from the circumstances in which they are assessed. Therefore, they must be “developed in the concrete factual circumstances of individual cases.” Id. (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 29, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1884, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). Despite the difficulty of assigning a precise definition to the term “reasonable suspicion,” there are guidelines to be applied to the facts of a particular case in determining whether a seizing officer had a reasonable suspicion that the seized individual was involved in criminal activity. To have a reasonable suspicion, a police officer must “be able to articulate something more than an ‘inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or hunch.’ ” United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989) (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 27, 88 S.Ct. at 1883). “Some minimum level of objective justification” is required. Id. (quoting Immigration and Naturalization Serv. v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 217, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 1763, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984)). Thus, an officer “must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant” the police officer’s action. Terry, 392 U.S. at 20, 88 S.Ct. at 1879. If a reasonable suspicion exists, the “reasonableness of an officer’s decision to stop a suspect does not turn on the availability of less intrusive investigatory techniques.” Sokolow, 109 S.Ct. at 1587. The Eleventh Circuit, construing the Supreme Court’s pronouncements concerning what is required to meet the reasonable suspicion standard, stated: “[R]easonable” suspicion is determined from the totality of the circumstances, United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989), and from the collective knowledge of the officers involved in the stop. United States v. Williams, 876 F.2d 1521 (11th Cir.1989). “Such a level of suspicion is considerably less than proof of wrongdoing by a preponderance of the evidence ... or even the implicit requirement of probable cause that a fair probability that evidence of a crime will be found.” Tapia, 912 F.2d at 1370. Nevertheless, the police are required to articulate some minimal, objective justification for the stop. Id. United States v. Mikell, 102 F.3d 470 (11th Cir.1996); see also Blackman, 66 F.3d at 1576 (citation omitted) (“Reasonable suspicion requires more than a hunch; it requires that the totality of the circumstances create, at least, some minimal level of objective justification for the belief that the person engaged in unlawful conduct.”). The reasonable suspicion standard is thus not particularly stringent as all that is required is some minimal objective justification. In assessing whether this minimal objective justification exists, such factors as the area in which the individual was seized and the attributes of the community are valid considerations. See Ornelas, 116 S.Ct. at 1663; United States v. Walker, 924 F.2d 1, 4 (1st Cir.1991). Though the reasonable suspicion determination is objective, the police officer involved is permitted to draw inferences, or make common-sense conclusions, from the objective facts based on his or her experience in deciding whether reasonable suspicion exists. Ornelas, 116 S.Ct. at 1663; Sokolow, 109 S.Ct. at 1585-86. Further, conduct that is entirely innocent may in the proper circumstances “justify the suspicion that criminal activity was afoot.” Sokolow, 109 S.Ct. at 1586 (quoting Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 441, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 2754, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980) (per curiam)). Lastly, the degree of reasonable suspicion required may vary depending on the degree of intrusion into the privacy of the individual seized or searched. See Justice v. Peachtree City, 961 F.2d 188, 193-94 (11th Cir.1992) (citation omitted). See also, e.g., United States v. Lanford, 838 F.2d 1351, 1354 (5th Cir.1988). In the case before the Court, defendants proffer the following evidence in support of the existence of reasonable suspicion: (1)Approximately thirty minutes before Deputy Bearden seized plaintiff, Ms. Camp informed Bearden that she had heard suspicious nois- (2) Ms. Camp informed Deputy Bear-den that she believed her carport door may have been “jimmied” as she had experienced difficulty opening it; (3) Ms. Camp told Deputy Bearden that she was not expecting any visitors that day and, in view of the above, would like for him to increase the patrols of her home; (4) plaintiff was in an area not frequented by pedestrian traffic; (5) plaintiff had a “scruffy ‘drifter’s’ appearance”; (6) plaintiff had no visible means of transportation; (7) plaintiff was wearing a backpack, which, due to his experience, Deputy Bearden knew could be used to carry burglary tools; (8) Deputy Bearden saw plaintiff in front of Camp’s house on Highway 166; (9) when Deputy Bearden first pulled up behind plaintiff and asked him to stay in front of his patrol car, plaintiff ignored him and after a hostile comment, walked to the driver’s side window, and then walked away; (10) plaintiff continued, at a brisk pace, to walk away from the officer, in violation of the latter’s directive, as the latter drove behind him; (11) when the officer approached plaintiff on foot, plaintiff continued to behave in an inappropriate and hostile manner toward the officer, while gesturing in an animated and angry fashion; and (12) after further conversations with plaintiff in which the latter continued to argue with the officer and continued to refuse to provide any identification, the plaintiff again walked away. See discussion supra, at 1264. (See also Defs.’ Mot. for Summ. J. [26] at 9.) Based on these objective facts, this Court finds that a minimal objective justification existed to support a reasonable suspicion to seize plaintiff: that is, to subject him to an investigative stop. Specifically, the officer had objective, specific, and particularized facts that reasonably supported the suspicion that plaintiff had been engaged in, or was about to be engaged in, criminal activity. The presence of such objective facts demonstrates that Deputy Bearden did not act simply to harass plaintiff. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 14, 88 S.Ct. at 1876. Further, the touchstone of any analysis of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness, as the latter prohibits only unreasonable searches and seizures. Turning the inquiry around, one must ask whether Deputy Bearden would have acted reasonably had he not attempted to stop and question plaintiff. As noted, without any visible means of transportation, plaintiff was at a place for which he had no apparent reason to be present, near the home of a woman who had called in to report a suspected attempted burglary or, at least, a concern that her door had been tampered with by someone who might be coming back. Ms. Camp’s concern was so intense that she requested that the officer make frequent patrols. Further, plaintiff had a very scruffy, unkempt appearance and was carrying a backpack, which the officer knew from his experience could contain burglary tools. (Indeed, as noted, supra, the pack did contain tools, although the officer was not aware of the contents at the time of the seizure.) Clearly, it would have been irresponsible and unreasonable, under the circumstances, for Deputy Bearden to have let plaintiff, who had disobeyed the officer’s simple directive, to proceed down the road without any effort by the officer to inquire as to plaintiffs purpose for being in the neighborhood. Further, at each step of an escalating encounter, the officer behaved in a reasonable manner. After the officer first approached the plaintiff, the latter’s hostile and uncooperative conduct logically heightened Deputy Bearden’s suspicion. Admittedly, an individual is not required to converse with an officer. Nevertheless, while the silence of a suspect would not constitute reasonable suspicion, the excessive hostility displayed by plaintiff and his repeated efforts to walk away from the officer in contravention of the latter’s directives, reasonably increased the officer’s concerns about the plaintiffs presence near Ms. Camp’s house. Again, one must ask what a reasonable officer should have done at this juncture? When an officer asks to speak to a suspicious individual under these circumstances and the latter repeatedly walks away, after having spoken to the officer in an inappropriate and hostile fashion, it would seem that the officer has an obligation to continue to try to speak to the subject to gauge out the level of risk threatened, requiring the officer to allow such a subject to walk away, when the latter’s disobedience has only heightened the officer’s consensus, does not seem reasonable or wise. Certainly, an investigative stop must be limited in duration and nature and an officer cannot endlessly interrogate the subject of such a stop, but the officer’s efforts here to complete his inquiry of a subject who was repeatedly disobeying the officer’s directive were reasonable under the circumstances and suspicions known to the officer. Plaintiffs argument to the contrary is unpersuasive. Plaintiff argues that a reasonable suspicion did not exist because Deputy Bearden “never stated what crime or criminal activity plaintiff might have been guilty of committing; no particularized description even closely matching that of the Plaintiff was even broadcast; there is no evidence presented showing that Ann Camp gave any indication that a “crime” had been committed, and Defendant Bear-den stated that he did not observe any criminal activity on the part of Plaintiff before the Plaintiff began to defy Bear-den’s orders.” (Pl.’s Resp. to Mot. for Summ. J. [32] at 5.) As to plaintiffs last contention, reasonable suspicion may be created by conduct which is in and of itself lawful. See Sokolow, 109 S.Ct. at 1586. Second, though a description of a suspect matching a seized individual would be a significant fact upon which to find the existence of a reasonable suspicion, it is not a prerequisite to such a finding. Finally, plaintiffs argument that Ms. Camp did not state that a crime had been committed and Bearden did not state what crime he believed plaintiff had committed is also unpersuasive. An investigative stop must be justified by a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, not a particular crime. For example, the Eleventh Circuit has held that one driver’s attempted payoff of the other driver involved in a crash was a legitimate ground for finding the existence of a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity, and not of a particular crime. It was not clear what the individual was attempting to hide, but just that he was attempting to hide something. See Lindsey v. Storey, 936 F.2d 554, 558 (11th Cir.1991); see also Tom v. Voida, 1991 WL 343377, *4 (S.D.Ind.1991), aff'd, 963 F.2d 952 (7th Cir.1992) (“the law only requires that the officer have specific and articulable facts giving rise to reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, not a specific crime”). Moreover, the fact that Bearden did not specify what crime he believed plaintiff had committed or was planning to commit is irrelevant, as the reasonable suspicion inquiry is objective in nature. See Rankin v. Evans, 133 F.3d 1425, 1433 (11th Cir.1998) (citation omitted); United States v. Roy, 869 F.2d 1427, 1432 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 818, 110 S.Ct. 72, 107 L.Ed.2d 38 (1989). Objectively, the Court finds that the facts created a reasonable suspicion to stop and investigate whether plaintiff was involved in illegal activities on Camp’s property. Thus, plaintiffs claims stemming from Deputy Bearden’s initial seizure of him are dismissed. (2) Probable Cause for the Subsequent Arrest In addition to claiming that Deputy Bearden seized him without possessing the necessary reasonable suspicion, plaintiff also claims that the officer’s subsequent arrest of plaintiff was made without probable cause and hence violated the Fourth Amendment. This issue presents a much closer question than did the inquiry regarding the existence of reasonable suspicion for the investigatory stop. The Court is inclined toward the view that there was probable cause to arrest plaintiff, under Georgia law. At any rate, given the uncertainty on this question, one must conclude that the legal authority on this question was not so clearly established that the illegality of the arrest would have been obvious to a reasonable officer. See discussion infra. Accordingly, defendant Bearden would be entitled to qualified immunity even were the arrest deemed by a reviewing court to be unconstitutional. To avoid repetition, the Court will discuss the legality of the arrest in its discussion of the qualified immunity issue infra at 45-59. (D) Qualified Immunity (1) Qualified Immunity for the Initial Seizure In them motion for summary judgment, defendant Bearden also argues that even if the Court were to find that a reasonable suspicion did not exist to seize plaintiff at the time of his initial seizure, Deputy Bearden would still be shielded from liability due to the doctrine of qualified immunity. Even though the Court has concluded that Deputy Bearden’s initial seizure of plaintiff was constitutional, alternatively, it also concludes that, even if the seizure were unconstitutional, the officer would be immune from liability. Qualified immunity protects government officials from civil liability if their conduct violates no “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Lassiter v. Alabama A & M Univ., 28 F.3d 1146, 1149 (11th Cir.1994) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)); Jordan v. Doe, 38 F.3d 1559, 1565 (11th Cir.1994). As the Supreme Court has explained, “permitting damages suits against government officials can entail substantial social costs, including the risk that fear of personal monetary liability and harassing litigation will unduly inhibit officials in the discharge of their duties.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 638, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). Because of this important interest, “the protection of qualified immunity extends to all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.” Jordan, 38 F.3d at 1565 (citing Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986)). Optimally, the Court is to make the decision of whether a defendant enjoys qualified immunity before trial, as due to the policy reasons behind qualified immunity, it is meant to “be an immunity from trial, not just from liability.” Post v. Fort Lauderdale, 7 F.3d 1552, 1556 (11th Cir.1993), modified on other grounds, 14 F.3d 583 (11th Cir.1994). A two-part analysis is used to address a qualified immunity defense. First, the defendant must prove that he was “acting within the scope of his discretionary authority” when the allegedly wrongful acts occurred. Hudgins v. City of Ashburn, 890 F.2d 396, 404 (11th Cir.1989) (citing Rich v. Dollar, 841 F.2d 1558, 1563-64 (11th Cir.1988)). To satisfy this standard, defendant must show “objective circumstances which would compel the conclusion that his actions were undertaken pursuant to the performance of his duties and within the scope of his authority.” Hutton v. Strickland, 919 F.2d 1531, 1537 (11th Cir.1990) (quoting Rich, 841 F.2d at 1564). Clearly it is within a police officer’s discretion to decide whether to subject an individual to an investigative stop. Further, in his affidavit, Deputy Bearden swore that he was on duty and on his routine patrol when he decided to stop plaintiff. (See Def. Bearden’s Aff. [26] at ¶ 3.) Thus, the first prong of this two-part analysis is satisfied. Once the defendant makes this showing, “the burden is on the plaintiff to show that, when the defendant acted, the law established the contours of a right so clearly that a reasonable official would have understood his acts were unlawful.” Post, 7 F.3d at 1557. In order for the law to be so clearly established, it “must have earlier been developed in such a concrete and factually definite context to make it obvious to all reasonable government actors, in the defendant’s place, that ‘what he is doing violates federal law.’ ” Jenkins by Hall v. Talladega City Bd. of Educ., 115 F.3d 821, 823 (11th Cir.1997) (en banc), cert. denied, Jenkins by Hall v. Herring, — U.S.-, 118 S.Ct. 412, 139 L.Ed.2d 315 (1997) (quoting Lassiter, 28 F.3d at 1149). Plaintiff may not meet this burden by “referring to general rules and to the violation of abstract ‘rights’.” Lassiter, 28 F.3d at 1150 (citation omitted). Rather, plaintiff must demonstrate that, in factual terms, that is, in a materially similar situation, a bright-line rule has been drawn, and that defendants crossed that line. Id. at 1150 (emphasis in original) (“For qualified immunity to be surrendered, pre-ex-isting law must dictate, that is, truly compel (not just suggest or allow or raise a question about), the conclusion for every like-situated, reasonable government agent that what defendant is doing violates federal law in the circumstances.”). As a determination of reasonable suspicion is made on a case by case basis, and is not subject to a neat categorical rule, a defendant will often be able to legitimately claim qualified immunity as to a claim that he or she lacked a reasonable suspicion to seize an individual in contravention of the Fourth Amendment. Cf. Thompson v. City of Clio, 765 F.Supp. 1066, 1078 (M.D.Ala.1991) (citing Dartland v. Metropolitan Dade County, 866 F.2d 1321, 1323 (11th Cir.1989)). All that is required to grant defendant qualified immunity is that “the facts known to him at the time of the seizure at least arguably created a reasonable suspicion.” Storey, 936 F.2d at 559. Plaintiff did not engage in any factual analysis in his response to defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The Eleventh Circuit has instructed that such a failure may not be excused. See Lassiter, 28 F.3d at 1150. Rather, while interjecting legal principles more relevant to an analysis of municipal liability under § 1983, plaintiff simply makes generalized statements such as, “The rights of individuals to be free from illegal detentions, beatings and excessive use of force under color of law as free citizens has been well established since Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989), if not since the Terry v. Ohio case decided in 1968.” (See Pl.’s Resp. to Mot. for Summ. J. [32] at 16.) Due to plaintiffs failure to point to a single instance in which, on the facts presented or even on analogous facts, a reasonable suspicion was held not to exist, he has not carried his burden. The Court concludes that it would not be obvious to all reasonable governmental actors that what Deputy Bearden did violated the Constitution. See Jenkins by Hall, 115 F.3d at 823. Accordingly, even had the Court not held that the initial seizure of plaintiff was constitutional, Deputy Bearden would be entitled to qualified immunity for his actions in seizing plaintiff. (2) Qualified Immunity for Subsequent Arrest Defendant argues that even if the Court concluded that probable cause to arrest plaintiff for obstruction did not exist, Deputy Bearden would be immune from suit due to the defense of qualified immunity. As discussed in the preceding section, supra at 1278-80, Deputy Bearden would be entitled to qualified immunity for plaintiffs el aim that he was arrested without probable cause unless there was not even arguable probable cause to arrest plaintiff. See Montoute v. Carr, 114 F.3d 181, 184 (11th Cir.1997). Again, plaintiff has the burden of demonstrating that his arrest violated a right clearly established in a factually similar context. See Lassiter, 28 F.3d at 1150. Like reasonable suspicion, probable cause is not a term susceptible to a clear delineation. See Ornelas, 116 S.Ct. at 1661. Rather, “probable cause” is a “nontechnical concept! ] that deal[s] with ‘the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.’ ” Id. (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1311, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949)); see also Marx v. Gumbinner, 905 F.2d 1503, 1506 (11th Cir.1990) (probable cause to be “judged not with clinical detachment but with a common sense view to the realities of normal life”). The Eleventh Circuit has instructed that in determining whether probable cause existed to arrest, the Court must consider the facts available to the arresting officer at the moment of arrest. See United States v. Allison, 953 F.2d 1346, 1349 (11th Cir.1992). “Probable cause to arrest exists when law enforcement officials have facts and circumstances within their knowledge sufficient to warrant a reasonable belief that the suspect had committed or was committing a crime.” Diaz-Lizaraza, 981 F.2d at 1222 (citing United States v. Gonzalez, 969 F.2d 999, 1002 (11th Cir.1992)). Probable cause does not require overwhelmingly convincing evidence, but only “reasonably trustworthy information.” Marx, 905 F.2d at 1506 (citing Beck v. State of Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225-26, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964)). The determination of whether probable cause exists is also determined on a purely objective basis. See Rankin v. Evans, 133 F.3d 1425, 1433 (11th Cir.1998) (citation omitted). Thus, like reasonable suspicion, whether a particular officer believed or did not believe that probable cause existed is irrelevant. Id. Defendants contend that during the course of carrying out his investigative stop, Deputy Bearden acquired probable cause to arrest plaintiff for obstruction of an officer pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24. (See Defs.’ Mot. for Summ.J. [26] at 10 (citing Herren v. State, 201 Ga.App. 509, 411 S.E.2d 552 (1991); Bailey v. State, 190 Ga.App. 683, 379 S.E.2d 816 (1989)).) Plaintiff argues that he was arrested solely for refusing to proffer his identification and that, pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24, this act does not provide probable cause to arrest an individual for obstruction of an officer. (See Pl.’s Resp. to Mot. for Summ.J. [32] at 5 (citing Wagner v. State, 206 Ga.App. 180, 183, 424 S.E.2d 861 (1992)).) The Court concludes that there were two potential grounds for arresting defendant: (1) his refusal on two occasions to comply with the officer’s directive that he stop and (2) his refusal to provide identification upon the request of the officer. As the second ground is more complicated than the first, the Court will address it initially. Further, as plaintiff argues that the arrest violated both Georgia law and federal constitutional law, the Court will also have to analyze how those two bodies of law impact this determination. The question then is whether plaintiffs failure to provide identification under the circumstances in this case constituted a ground for his arrest. (a) Georgia law The Georgia courts have ruled that a refusal to provide identification can constitute violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24, which prohibits a person from willfully obstructing or hindering a law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of the latter’s official duties. In Bailey v. State, 190 Ga.App. 683, 379 S.E.2d 816 (1989), the Georgia Court of Appeals held that failure to produce identification to an officer, who is in the lawful discharge of his duties, constitutes obstruction of an officer pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24. There, a non-uniformed officer had observed the defendant driving recklessly. Following the latter to his home, the officer announced herself as an officer and tried to speak to the defendant and to examine the latter’s identification. The defendant refused to provide any identification. The Georgia Court of Appeals held that defendant’s refusal to identify himself was not merely discourteous, but also actually hindered and obstructed the officer in her investigation. Bailey, 190 Ga.App. at 684, 379 S.E.2d 816. Likewise, in Hudson v. State, 135 Ga.App. 739, 218 S.E.2d 905 (1975), the Court of Appeals upheld a conviction for obstruction where an individual who police believed might be the person wanted on a bench warrant refused to provide the police with identification. The Court of Appeals noted that the obstruction statute had been purposely drafted broadly to cover actions that might not be otherwise unlawful, but which obstructed or hindered law enforcement officers in carrying