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Boston's Door-to-Door Searches Weren't Illegal, Even Though They Looked Bad
The Atlantic Wire ^ | Apr 22, 2013 | Philip Bump

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 ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; US: Massachusetts; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: boston; searches; terror; tsarnaev
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To: EternalVigilance
Complete and utter B.S. !!

I am not a lawyer but any person with common sense and basic knowledge of the Bill of Rights knows this was a major violation of our constitution.

All of these searches were absolutely illegal. First there was NO imminent danger. Having an armed and dangerous person somewhere/anywhere on the lose in an area the size of a city is not imminent danger. This very situation happens every day in this country.

Second is the one that really craters even the smallest glimmer of hope that these searches were legal. Probable Cause. Without a valid reason to think this guy was ACTUALLY IN ANY PARTICULAR RESIDENCE then they did NOT have probable cause.

Think about it. If an armed suspect being lose somewhere in a city gives the police probable cause to search any residence in that city then we simply have no constitutional 4th amendment rights.

I make my prediction now, when the dust settles this baby is going to court big time, as it should.

Lastly, don't try to pull this shit in Texas.

21 posted on 04/22/2013 11:38:43 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: precisionshootist
All of these searches were absolutely illegal.

If you were right, the ACLU would already have been on them like flies on a cow pie.

I make my prediction now, when the dust settles this baby is going to court big time, as it should.

Get back to me if you hear of something. Because so far nada. Not even the ACLU can find a single soul to make a complaint, even though you can tell they're fishin'. That's in the article.

22 posted on 04/22/2013 11:42:40 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (RINOism to Libertarianism: Out of the frying pan and into the fire.)
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To: EternalVigilance

Get used to this. House to house warrantless searches just became the norm. They will just keep ratcheting down the reasons until barking dogs are enough justification. You just saw martial law without anyone actually declaring it.


23 posted on 04/22/2013 11:44:28 PM PDT by Cololeo (`)
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To: Alaska Wolf

1st all cell phone calls go to the Northern California CHP call center in Vallejo.

2nd, they are the PSAP for all cell phone calls that originate in Northern California.

3rd, when you buy a cell phone you register your address in the contract, which is stoopit given the mobility of the device.

Further and dumber, in that KawLeeFawNeeYuh tacks a $1.50 surcharge on all cell phones and has since 1996.

Why? You ask? Well, ostensibly for a statewide 911 system that supports GPS and telemetry to towers so that “the real and probable likely” location of the transmission can be ascertained to within 30 feet. That was the goal and it sholdn’t have taken more than 5 years to fund and build at least in metro areas.

It would have also had the advantage of sending calls to the local PSAP/911 center so that service would be rendered much quicker.

There was much anecdotal stories about women attacked and calling 811 or heart attack victims and “If only the system were built.....”. You get the picture.

To date, I am not aware of a single tower equipped to interface to local 911 centers and this while we currently have that capability to simply transmit back to with current technology in the phones.

But, no. My car can do it, through my phone, however my phone by itself can’t. But, that’s because Ford uses my phone in a way the emergency services can’t.

Still, they are the interface to 911 or rather a bridge. They transmit the location.

So, the state collects more than $500 million over the last several years and no one’s lives are being saved.

We are being fleeced by the state for their general fund.

Right now, if you call 911 during rush hour you can wait 15-20 minutes or longer for an operator.

Outrageous and it’s happened to me.

I was driving down 580, in the fast lane and saw a car pass me in the slower lane. It went up the embankment and flipped.

I pulled over and started dialing 911 busy signals for nearly 20 minutes. I gave up after a while, as I couldn’t get across the highway and went home.

Some other people stopped and I guess they were fine. I’ll never know.


24 posted on 04/22/2013 11:45:27 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: precisionshootist
This very situation happens every day in this country.

Can you list the last seven where bombs were placed in a large crowd killing and maiming, the perps escaping after killing a police officer in a shootout?

25 posted on 04/22/2013 11:45:39 PM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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To: EternalVigilance

The SEARCHES were not illegal. How they were carried out in some instances was. Is that so hard to understand?!

One of my best friends IS a lawyer who focuses on Constitutional issues (from the conservative side - rare enough). I’m basing my arguments on my discussions with him today. BTW he’s NEVER lost in court or on appeal.

But of course you are correct. Uh huh. Manner of searching doesn’t matter. Perfectly legal to stick M16s in known innocents’ faces. Even more legal to track them down a street by pointing an M16 at their back when they are clearly complying. Yup. As long as it is to keep us safe.

How pathetic.


26 posted on 04/22/2013 11:46:04 PM PDT by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: Vendome
California

I should have known!

27 posted on 04/22/2013 11:48:19 PM PDT by Alaska Wolf (I)
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To: Cololeo; EternalVigilance

And he does only submits to it, he agrees with it.


28 posted on 04/22/2013 11:51:51 PM PDT by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: piytar

Get back to me if you produce actual citizens of Watertown making these complaints instead of keyboard commandos hundreds or thousands of miles distant. I would be much more likely to lend credence to someone who actually felt the pressure of what was going on in that city before the last terrorist was apprehended.

So far all of my friends in Massachusetts that I have talked to are disgusted by the online attacks on them and on the law enforcement officers who put their butts out on the firing line for them last week.


29 posted on 04/22/2013 11:51:59 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (RINOism to Libertarianism: Out of the frying pan and into the fire.)
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To: Politicalmom

Long time ago. Maybe around 1994....

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me and my fondness for history and understanding that each amendment was spelled for a reason and there was a cause of action that preceded it.

It has in fact been infringed upon several times over the years and is right now in Watertown.

Those people should have been armed, not disarmed and they could have been plenty able to defend themselves and maybe end this travesty sooner.

If their inalienable rights hadn’t been infringed upon and the cops came by demanding them to come out while they searched their home they could have said “No”.

The cops would have said “What are you hiding?”

“Nothing that’s any of your business without a warrant that is pretty specific” could have been the reply.

When the cops asked what they were afraid of they could have simply said “Nothing” knowing full well they were quite capable of taking care of themselves.

Invaders are the ones at a disadvantage not the homeowner who has every motivation to defend his life and more importantly that of his loved ones. Even the jerkoff brother in law, who he does not love.


30 posted on 04/22/2013 11:52:06 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: EternalVigilance

31 posted on 04/22/2013 11:52:10 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: Cololeo
Get used to this. House to house warrantless searches just became the norm.

Only if terrorist bombers running through residential neighborhoods becomes the norm. Otherwise, no way.

32 posted on 04/22/2013 11:53:38 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (RINOism to Libertarianism: Out of the frying pan and into the fire.)
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To: piytar

Ordering people out of their home at gunpoint with their hands up is WAY beyond the pale. You don’t kick me out of my home like a criminal and then illegally search. I’ll stay right with them whether they mind it or not. Arrest me and I’ll sue the living shit out of them for pointing a deadly weapon in my face. I have surveillance cameras.


33 posted on 04/22/2013 11:53:59 PM PDT by Cololeo (`)
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To: precisionshootist
Lastly, don't try to pull this shit in Texas.

Amen fellow Texan! Thing is, no local PD or even military would try. Why? Because they respect the Constitution of both the US and Texas!

34 posted on 04/22/2013 11:55:02 PM PDT by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: EternalVigilance
Just remember that everything that the Nazis, Soviets, Maoists and all the other tyrants down through history was perfectly legal too. For they were the ‘Law’ in those places and times.
35 posted on 04/22/2013 11:55:09 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah, so shall it be again,")
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To: EternalVigilance

Just keep your Vaseline handy.


36 posted on 04/22/2013 11:56:17 PM PDT by Cololeo (`)
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To: EternalVigilance

They can’t in general say that all those homes were, in fact, under siege.

They were mistaken on where their demarcation should have been and only after a “Shelter in Place” was lifted was the turd found.

Still, they may have arrested me but, probably cause isn’t reasonable.

Otherwise they would conjure up that authority anytime a bank was robbed. They could just guess where they robbers are, in general, and then go house to house and business to business.

Without specific information they have no probably cause and the punk wasn’t even in a house, so their theory would be further undermined.

They should have called in the Coast Guard.


37 posted on 04/22/2013 11:58:01 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: EternalVigilance; All

BS...this is everyday policing in many metropolitan cities across the US. They do not go to martial law for this. Yes.. it could have been “done better. This is BS political policing according to what “concerns” the Washington political class. They live in their own little “bubble”... meanwhile the rest of humanity deals with worse than what these idiots could do. It really questions the capability of Federal LE when you see this pitiful response that violates the liberty of those they are sworn to protect.


38 posted on 04/22/2013 11:59:54 PM PDT by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
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To: precisionshootist

When there’s a foot pursuit of an armed suspect, the first action taken is to set up an outer perimeter that’s consistent with the distance the suspect could have run before the officers arrived. The searches were conducted in a 12 block area that was inside that perimeter. As it turned out, he’d managed to get two blocks outside, but their suspicion was obviously well founded. There was no search of the entire town, if there had been, they’d have found him in the boat.


39 posted on 04/23/2013 12:00:58 AM PDT by ArmstedFragg (hoaxy dopey changey)
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To: fella

Yeah, I’m well aware of that. The difference you seem to be missing is that the tyrants you list did these things to oppress and kill the people.

The police officers in question here were pursuing a vicious well-armed terrorist bomber, while trying hard to make sure neither American citizens nor themselves nor their fellow officers sustained any more casualties.


40 posted on 04/23/2013 12:01:15 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (RINOism to Libertarianism: Out of the frying pan and into the fire.)
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