Posted on 05/20/2015 12:11:32 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments
Earlier this year, Aaron Heuser of Eugene, Oregon, had to travel to Washington, D.C. The trip had two purposes: The 37-year-old mathematician was officially leaving his job at National Institutes of Health and starting a new position at a private firm. Since he is terrified of flying he booked himself a sleeper car on Amtrak. Upon reaching Reno, Nevada, there was an unexpected knock at his door. There was a DEA badge on the window, he said. Having a good reason to be making this trip and being a law abiding citizen, I opened the door and politely asked if there was a problem. The officer asked if I was Aaron Heuser, and then asked to see my ticket. He then told me that there were many red flags on my trip, mainly that I had a sleeper car, was traveling alone, and did not check my luggage.
A sleeper car is a main Amtrak product! Plenty of people travel alone! Why would anyone with a whole sleeper-car compartment to themselves go through the hassle of checking luggage?
Yet the harassment isnt surprising.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Don't let the fact that you didn't have a problem with it that one time close your mind to the possibility that others are having these problems now, and that these incidents may be increasing in numberand are definitely, in the case of cash seizures, eroding basic rights.
Agree. It may all be true and the DEA may be doing this; however this may be another “victim” trying to exaggerate and to show the prejudice of law enforcement. I don’t trust the Atlantic.
No. It is just that would like to get the other side of the story on this. The last couple of years, I have heard (as reported from the media) that an innocent person named Mike Brown was murdered in cold blood by an SOB racist police officer in Ferguson, MO. Or a family man was choked to death by a bunch of racist SOB police officers in NYC. Or recently a man was brutally killed in custody by a bunch of racist SOB police officers in Baltimore. Can brutality from the police, DEA, etc, happen? Yes it can. But I for one do not trust media outlets and their “stories” on these matters now. From Travyon Martin to Mike Brown, to NYC to Baltimore......all of those narratives in the media were completely false. As a result, several police officers are now DEAD around the country with several more injured. Yeah, I do have a problem with believing, word for word, what is being printed in the liberal media the Atlantic Star. Again, I would like to get the DEA’s account on this and see if it stacks up to what is in this article. By looking at the past track record of the news media, my gut tells me that the stories will not match.
“May I see your warrant? No warrant? Good night.”
Police came to my house. They said, Answer questions.
I said, No. They said, Well detectives may show up
at your place of work or your wife’s place of work
and it will be embarrassing for you.
I said, Yes that would be bad, but so would your
not responding to any 911 call of mine, or even
your taking out your service pistol and shooting
me now, since you brought up the issue of possible
negative outcomes of my not answering your questions!
Then they lied to me and said that I was required to
produce ID. I said, Am I being detained? They said that
I’m required to produce ID. I said do I have any other
options? After pressing the issue (and their pretending
to start to get angry), the finally relented and said
that I need only provide my name. (It’s true; look this
up.)
So I didn’t even need to produce ID. The courts have
adjudicated that unless you’re under arrest, ID is not
required — a fact I wasn’t sure about until after this
incident. I later also found out that the police are
not required to tell the subjects of their investigations
what their rights are or even tell the truth when
questioned about what I called “my options.”
Then they asked to search my home. I declined. They
said, You’re not hiding anything, are you? I said nothing
good can come from your looking around my house.
I know I’m probably on some S7|t list with my local
police department, but as I shared with those officers,
I can’t live in fear of police. I have enough to worry
about with criminals.
If everyone insisted that the police just slowed down
and insisted that they know what their options are,
I think there would be a lot less shenanigans with the
police and their investigations.
Police are known to slant things toward conviction during
any trial. Remember: Anything can and will be *used against* you, before or after the reading of “Miranda
rights.” Saying, for instance, “I didn’t like the murder
victim, but that doesn’t mean I killed him” will be used
against you: “we have a motive, members of the jury; the
accused admitted to our honest, self-sacrificing police
officers that he didn’t like the victim.” Context *will*
be lost in such a hypothetical situation.
I had to tell them that I wanted to end the interview
and go back into my house. I had to insist on it before they
would leave, which they finally did.
1) Only talk to your lawyer, never to police. 2) Insist
on asking questions about whether you are required to
follow their instructions. 3) Insist very early on that
you want to leave unless you are being detained.
It gets worse when they say they are only talking to you and
you are free to leave at any time. If you stay, then they
have established that you are there voluntarily. This lets
them off the hook in terms of having to ask questions the
right way. When you are officially detained, their ability
to ask questions, and what can fallaciously be used in court
against you, becomes restricted under the law.
When they say, You are free to leave at any time, get up and
walk away. That’s why it’s imperative that you continue
to respectfully ask them whether you are being detained.
Insist on a yes or no answer and tell them that you want to
be left alone or leave. Otherwise they are allowed to assume
that you are speaking to them voluntarily.
I wish everyone in the United States had the experience
I had. The police can be macho jerks who don’t care if
they get the wrong person. Many would be glad to make
an arrest under false pretenses and let the DA sort it
out.
Keep them on their toes. Never assume they are on your side.
They are on *their own* side! The Constitution is a miracle.
Just ignore anything from some media. Is there some source that you trust 100%? What kind of filter do you use to judge the validity of any story from any source? This was first reported by local Omaha media. This kind of crap goes on all the time. I’m glad your trust the government 100% of the time.
You are not required to give permission for a search. Next time it happens to you just try to politely refuse until they get a warrant. You are going to get searched whether you allow it or not. Warrant will be rubber stamped.
I once considered taking Amtrak for a cross-country trip, until I learned what a fascist operation they are. Besides disarming you, they are exorbitantly expensive, even for the coach seat that you must make love to for 2+ days.
I have a problem with it. Despite all these unconstitutional actions drugs are still widely available in any town.
Suit yourself. But you need to evaluate each situation with an open mind. The stories of police overreach and “no-win” confrontations in the lives of all kinds of Americans are stacking up. Don’t be overconfident in the way things “should be” if you find yourself in a position to be framed and/or extorted correction “subject to asset forfeiture.”
Trayvon & Mike Brown have nothing to do with Baltimore and NYC (if you are referring to Eric Garner).
Garner and Gray were killed by police brutality. Of that, there is no dispute.
The Baltimore DA is a moron who is going to blow the case with over charging. But, please do not pretend that Gray had it coming.
And the Garner thing was murder. We saw it. The tatted "thug" who choked him had a long record of being a bad cop. There was nothing false about the media narrative at all.
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