Posted on 04/22/2013 10:54:14 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
There were two components to last week's shelter-in-place request in Watertown, Massachusetts. The first was a request that people not to leave home. The second was a door-to-door search by heavily armed law enforcement officials. Those are two very different things, with different implications. But neither was illegal.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlanticwire.com ...
Neither, apparently, have they found anyone whose homes were actually searched that is making a case that they were mistreated.
They should be illegal
From state trooper that was there, “biggest screwed up mess i ever saw.” Used a few other words and said he was embassered to be part of it.
Link?
Oh geeze EV. The shelter in place “order” was legal. The searches were legal in principal. The way some of the recorded searches were carried out was NOT legal. Not even close. And there will be lawsuits, but those will take more than a couple days to file.
Sigh.
ITS Called cell to cell, didnt say anything about a link.
Get back to me when there is an actual live person filing a suit. Because not even the ACLU can find anyone as of today, according to the story. And even they admit the searches were legal.
When there are bombs going off killing and maiming people, and gunfire is dropping cops in the street, things tend to be "big screwed up messes" for awhile.
Do you think you could have done better?
Yeah, because we can count on the ACLU to be anything but a mouthpiece for the far left (with a few rare exceptions). Other people in your corner: Slate, some posters at DU, HuffPo, and even a couple tards at Daily Kos. Great company you’re keeping.
BTW, by the “far left,” I mean obamabot suck ups. Well done.
Hmmmm.....
I’m not going to agree.
Years ago a friend was living with me. She apparently was having asthma problems while clear across town and called 911.
Now I know she was across town and 20 minutes away because she had called me and so had her son to discuss something or other and in the process told me where they were and what they were doing.
Ah! I remember! They were going to have sushi at one of our favorite places and it was 20 minutes away.
Anyway, I’m upstairs and suddenly I hear this pounding on the front door.
I look through the peep hole and it’s fire department.
I open they door and they want to know if “so and so lives here”.
“Yes” I reply “but, she’s not here”.
They inform me they received a 911 call from this house and that she is in there having trouble breathing.
I tell em I’m a telecom professional and it’s impossible for a call to have originated out of this house as I was the only one home.
If she used her cell phone the call came from the PSAP in Vallejo at the CHP call center and that’s 80 miles from here. The cell phone is registered to this address but, no one but me is home.
At that point he insisted on searching the home to ensure no one was a risk.
“No. No one is searching this home but me” I responded, as I set my feet.
Guy was a big dude and might have been able to run me over.
“If you wait here I will do a quick run and if anyone is here, you are very wanted and welcome to perform your service but, I am the only home. Would you wait here”.
He started to advance and I said “No!”
He wanted to know what I had to hide.
I laughed and said that was a trite and typical response but, the Bill of Rights gives me certain inalienable rights that crazy questions, like that, aren’t going to undermine.
I told him if he wanted to stay I would search but, no one was entering without my permission.
Exasperated he “Sure! We’ll be right here”.
I ran through the house popping open every door, closet and looked under beds and all sides possible.
Nope. No one was there and I didn’t know the real reason these guys were here.
No search.
I went back down stairs and opened the door.
“You’re out of breath! Well?” he inguired.
“Ain’t no one here but my and I’d know. You can hear everyone in the house and it’s not possible to hide. Don’t know where my friend it but, she isn’t here”.
“So seriously, we got a 911 call and you won’t let make sure no one is at risk” he demanded.
“Nope” still out of breath “I actually have no idea why you are here if she is clear across town. If you want the number to where they are suppose to be you can call”
“No. If you are certain no one is home, then we’re fine” he said.
“No one is home. If there were you’d be in here taking care of whoever called but, no call originated in this house. I have been the only here all day”.
So they left.
Sure enough, I get a call an hour later and my friend actually did go to the hospital, in an ambulance, for her asthma, from clear across town.
I told about the fire department and she got upset demanding to know why I wouldn’t just let them in.
told her to look at from my point of view. I knew where you were, no one has been home all day but me and I got some “so called” emergency guys wanting to go through the house.
She then started screaming about hiding nothing and they should have been allowed to walk all over the house.
I told here that her idiot son is a bit of a risk. I have no idea what’s in his room and what they might stumble upon or what they might observe that would be suspicious to them, causing them to report their observations to certain LEO’s.
She told me I was ridiculous.
I told her that our rights are inalienable and I don’t care who shows up wanting to go through the house, I do not consent.
If they wanted to kick my ass and try it we would have dealt with that.
Same thing with the gas company guy who wanted to traipse through my current home.
The neighbor had an outside leak of LNG and he wanted to check our home too.
Nope. the leak is at her house. If it were at mine, I’d deal with it appropriately and at that time you might be able to inspect our home.
No leak, no dice.
Did not say a thing about myself
If you think the ACLU wouldn’t jump on this if there was illegality involved in the searches, you don’t anything about the ACLU.
Fact is, if it’s a legal search, which includes them having probable cause to think human lives are endangered, they will arrest you for interfering with official acts.
OK going to stop this discussion after one last question. Just curious: are you a Constitutional lawyer or do you just play one on FreeRepublic?
So how did the dispatcher discern the call came from your house?
And then you kicked her out, right? :p
From a practical standpoint, most jurisdictions have a judge and prosecutor on telephone standby 24/7. A peace officer contacts the prosecutor, presents the evidence justifying the search, the prosecutor then adds the judge to the conversation. Upon being convinced a warrant is justified, the judge signs it and faxes it to the prosecutor. Most larger departments have fax capability built into their data terminals in the cars. In a situation like this, even if the police didn’t want to use the exigent circumstances exception, I suspect that within 20 minutes of a homeowner saying “get a warrant” they’d hand him one. I also suspect he’d have company waiting on his front porch during those 20 minutes.
No, I’m not a constitutional lawyer, neither do I play one on FR.
But, I can read, and I can see plainly that neither you, nor the ACLU, can produce any proof whatsoever that these searches were illegal, or that there is so far a single citizen of Watertown complaining about the searches that were done in pursuit of this vicious terrorist.
Get back to me if you come up with anything.
You’re almost certainly correct. I have no doubt that law enforcement knew exactly what the legal parameters were.
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