by Justice-One 40 Replies latest jw friends
However, it is NEVER a good idea to give away rights.
I have to agree wholeheartedly Justice One. I also agree with the statements in your opening statement...I can't understand why anyone would let someone ransack their car just because a police officer asks, whether they have something to hide or not. Our freedoms are being eroded away every day (by both political parties) as it is...there is no reason to give away more. Good subject!
exjdub
I have nothing to hide, so wouldn't object to any kind of a search. My trunk has a bottle of Febreeze in it, and a quilt. What can they do with that?
Mulan..I admire you greatly, but it kills me when people say this. There are people all of the time who have done nothing wrong, but who are accused of doing something wrong and get charged with a crime. Stop and think why we have the rights we have. Did The Founding Fathers have something to hide when they established the freedoms that we have? Why did they think it was so important that we have those freedoms? They were all about stopping government from oppressing people. Searching your car for nothing more than curiosity is oppressive. What would our forefathers think of their ideals now? I suspect they are rolling over in their graves.
exjdub
During my time as a sheriffs deputy, I always had a legit reason for asking about a search and it wasn't for the trunk only.
Legit in whos mind? Like I said, put your wants in one hand and crap in the other.
Most car stops are due to knowledge about the drivers life style and associates and previous arrests.
None of which mean squat unless their is a current warrant.
Here is a little more info...notice my beginning post was about a locked trunk. An officer needs a warrant to look into locked containers whose contents the driver does not have access to without key or combination. Now here is the interesting part...an officer does not need your permission to search your "immediate grabable area." This could pretty much mean the inside of your car, or your living room IF you let the officer into your home. But this does not include locked containers. This is the reason many people carry a locked Pelican case in their cars. They need a warrant to look inside it.
Mulan, you may not have anything to hide or illegal but:
Have you heard of entrapment, or the planting of evidence!
It happens all the time especially drug entrapment.
Oh and the newest is if you have a large amount of cash on you , you will be arrested for probable cause .
And you will have to prove where the cash came from and what was your intended use.
Oh and the newest is if you have a large amount of cash on you , you will be arrested for probable cause .
Unless something has changed, I think they actually for lack of a better word, "arrest" the cash. But it comes down to they just take it, and then you have to prove you came by it honestly.
WHAT A LOAD. BTW, this is another reason to have a locked Pelican Case in your car or truck.
A few years ago my hubby and I crossed the border into the US (there is a nice Italian resturant we love just over the border). The US customs guard asked us to surrender our drivers licence, drive to this garage, park the car open the doors and trunk and sit on the chairs and wait. They searched the car (we hadn't had the car that long, so there was absolutley nothing in it), then had to go inside and they asked us more questions, like how much money we had etc.
We had just enough for dinner - we'd just bought our house and were pretty cash strapped. He kept repeating the question and I was getting fed up. I dumped my purse out on the counter infront of him and told him to count the change! He said ok we were free to go.
What would our rights be in that case? Could we have said no and tried to leave the country? I've been crossing the border for years and never had that happen before or since.
BB
When the cops start asking questions that have nothing to do with the initial purpose of the traffic stop, and if they saw nothing that would give rise to a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot, they have unlawfully strayed from the purpose of the stop. This is called unduly prolonging the detention (a traffic stop is indeed a detention). Once they do this, consent is vitiated and the search is unlawful. When I clerked for the public defender, I got contraband suppressed all the time when a traffic stop turned into something else. But still, my job is easier if you just say no. (But be prepared to have the crap beaten out of you....) They can't make you wait for the k-9 unless they have that reasonable suspicion (articulable fact, not a hunch). Shoshana
Never.
Warlock
