[deputac]

Problem is, with the probable cause standard, the liberal judges in NY don't know how to apply it.

I always remember that case from my Crim Law class where an "enlightened" judge threw out a probable cause stop (and subsequent arrest) when the male perp, walking down a high-crime area at night with a woman's purse in his hand and high-tailed it upon spotting the police, was deemed to have been illegally stopped in the first place. Because, all of the aforementioned factors did not add up to probable cause in NYC. /sarc

I think that case also featured that wonderful reasoning that African-American males had a reason to fear the police becuase of their history with the department, and thus running from the cops was not too odd for this guy (I can't remember for sure, it was a long time ago).

[SJackson]

I always remember that case from my Crim Law class where an "enlightened" judge threw out a probable cause stop (and subsequent arrest) when the male perp, walking down a high-crime area at night with a woman's purse in his hand and high-tailed it upon spotting the police, was deemed to have been illegally stopped in the first place. Because, all of the aforementioned factors did not add up to probable cause in NYC...Forgot to also state that I have friends working in conjunction with the street crimes units. If the NYPD arrested and booked all the perps they came across on a nightly basis, you would see even higher arrest and conviction rates than you see now in NYC.

The standard is reasonable, even lower than probable. I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge the judge made a mistake, but the solution isn't to throw all standards out the window. I certainly have no problem with higher arrests, presuming you're talking about arrests within the restraints of the law.