Posted on 09/21/2006 3:53:20 PM PDT by Focault's Pendulum
In New Jersey, one's home is not one's castle after all. The real castle, it turns out, is the car.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 4-3 yesterday that police do not need a reason to ask permission to search someone's home.
The same court four years ago issued rules saying police must have a good reason before asking motorists if they can search their cars.
Yesterday the court said the rules for cars -- which prohibit police from asking motorists if they can conduct a search unless they have "a reasonable and articulable suspicion" of criminal activity -- are designed specifically to combat racial profiling on the state's highways and do not apply to searches of homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
>>Now I keep all doors locked.
The cop's action was completely unacceptable, but the above is good SOP anyway, I don't care where you live.
"In declining states the leadership intuitively choses the most harmful course of action."- A Great Historian 1888
I can also accept that not all drug runners drive 15 year old Chevy wagons (or brand new,pimped-out Escalades) and that they don't always wear torn sweatshirts and have "meth mouth".
But I do wonder if it's SOP for any State/County or local police departments to check for drugs with sniffer dogs every time they pull someone over for a broken taillight,regardless of the circumstances.
Many people (other than lawyers, judges, police officers and informed members of the public) don't understand that they can immediately send the police away without worrying about being harassed:
[NJ Justice Barry] Albin countered that unlike a motorist stopped on the road and threatened with a traffic citation, someone who is at home "can send the police away without fear of immediate repercussions."
When I hear judges or lawyers making statements like that above, it REALLY angers me. Like "everybody knows" that fact, Justice Albin. Albin is an elitist jerk.
"Just say no." ~Nancy Reagan
On this issue, I'd have to agree.
Here's a good site on the general topic.
http://www.fear.org/
your story is why - even though I would like to do it - I would never drive cross country, given I have NY plates, I figure the odds are I would run into trouble like that, and it just isn't worth it.
ping
well, I hope not. I mean, if one of those cops did something like that to me, I might be tempted to burn "A*****e" into the side of his house, car, whatever with a laser from 5000+ feet away. The spot size from a couple miles would be pretty big, I'd have to do the math to figure the real size. The neighbors would talk. I'd have to tow a mobile ingersal rand genset to make it happen, but funny things happen when total innocents are accused of crimes. Payback is a real bitch.
I think you misread me. I hope I would have been very calm, polite and respectful to the officer when he asked to search my car after a pull over for speeding. I have great respect for law enforcement and the very difficult and dangerous job they have.
But in this case, apparently there was no probable cause; the cop asked Jaysun to submit to a search and he politely said no which was well within his rights to do so.
Perhaps offended by that refusal, said officer used a police dog to execute an “external” sniff of the vehicle and interpreted the dog’s response as probable cause to search Jaysun’s body and his car, keeping him detained much longer than warranted for a normal traffic stop and ultimately finding nothing.
Jaysun, from all description did not fit the “profile” of a drug suspect, was not hostile and didn’t act in a suspicious manner from his description of events.
It sounds like a cop with a chip on his shoulder that couldn’t take “no thanks” as no thanks, got pi$$ed and over stepped his constitutional bounds.
And if Jaysun did for some reason merit a search, like he was driving a make and model car that the police were searching for or resembled a suspect they were searching for and that explanation was offered with the request for a search, then perhaps Jaysun might have consented. I probably would have in that case.
But having my rights trampled on makes me justifiably angry and if that alone makes me a suspect then none of us have any rights and the Constitution is just a nice piece of paper in a museum in DC – pretty to look at but as meaningless and vacant as Paris Hilton.
Cost's nothing but your time to file a complaint.....
Well I hope you never have to do anything like that. I wanted to go after the cop but later I figured out why he wanted in my house so badly. My husband is a biker and I am sure he thought he would find guns etc in the house. Little does he know my husband has no use for drugs. He tossed our oldest daughter out for using drugs and he has a tattoo on his chest that says zero tolerance. Funny later in the year we were doing a ride for 9/11 and the police chief had his picture taken with my nasty looking ol man and has it on his desk. I hope that cop got to see it and it made the local paper.
If he entered without a warrant or probable cause, it is likely a good lawyer would successfully argue that anything discovered was inadmissible evidence. I wouldn't count on that course of events every time.
Welcome to the Judicial Oligarchy of America.
1) was this a highway patrolman or a local cop, and if so, what jurisdiction?
2) in some states you may have a legal basis to declare the dog defective, iirc, and pursue this course.. not sure if TN is one.
Not Shelby.
I agree with the rest, however they rule with the roofrack/gun/badge and dog.
Take care.
Well, I guess yall can all live in motor homes. That ought to cover you.
I've been told by an attorney to never consent to a search without a warrant. Lots of people think it would be nice to help a cop but in reality the cops aren't trying to clear you of a crime, they're trying to find evidence to charge you with one.
When you consent to a search without a warrant you limit your attorneys ability to exclude whatever they find in a search. I don't do drugs or drink, and I'm not involved in any crimes but I can't guarantee that nothing will ever fall out of someones pocket into my car. I give rides to family members and co-workers, and I have service people (mechanics and car wash people) in my car from time to time.
best I ever heard was a friend of my girlfriend.
She is a shrink and when pulled over and ran through the usual hassle she made the cop go through all the motions.
During the 45 minutes she sat on the side of the road she got his name and badge.
Then she proceeded to talk to him the whole time...taking notes. Life, career, marriage, etc.
A month or two later she gets a check in the mail. She billed him for counseling via the police department!
hey, it's a billable hour!
The computer system prints the check, no one even blinked an eye, its all automated.
About six months go by and then she gets in "trouble". Apparently there is some issue with cops seeking outside psych counseling...his superiors were wanting to know what issues he had
Major hassle, but in the end she had the documentation of their conversation, time and date, she ended up returning the money but making a point.
Now the local yokels know her time is valuable too.
she has never been bothered by a cop since.
"Every NCIC check from this point forward will reflect your misfortune."
NCIC does not record traffic stops or searches.
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