Posted on 11/25/2013 5:08:12 AM PST by Orangedog
Norman Gurley, 30, is facing drug-related charges in Lorain County, Ohio, despite the fact that state troopers did not actually find any drugs in his possession.
Ohio passed a law in 2012 making it a felony to alter a vehicle to add a secret compartment with the “intent” of using it to conceal drugs for trafficking.
Gurley is the first actual person arrested under the law. WKYC in Northeast Ohio covered the arrest, with no notable journalistic skepticism whatsoever:
They pulled over the driver for speeding, but then troopers noticed several wires running to the back of the car.
Those wires then led them directly to a hidden compartment.
Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday state troopers made the arrest under the law, which is meant to combat criminals who modify the inside of their car, allowing them to store drugs or weapons inside secret compartments, which can often only be accessed electronically.
They just noticed some wires, did they? Just while in the process of handing Gurley a speeding ticket, they noticed the wires?
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
That is soooo pre drug war.
BTW. Before I was tested the cop asked me why I seemed so nervous. I asked him to explain. He said "Well, you're shaking a bit".
I had to explain to him that I rolled out of bed, threw on jeans and hopped in my truck. I was in the white t shirt that I wore to bed and it was about 25 degrees out. I was shivering.
Guess being prone to the laws of thermodynamics makes one suspicious these days.
I felt like I was in Nazi Germany.
“Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—all without so much as charging you with a crime...with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with or convicted of a crime to lose homes, cars, cash or other property.”
Bears repeating.....
There is one fact missing from most of the stories about this incident. It is peripheral to the discussion of how we make laws to punish the possibility of crime, rather than only punishing crime, but explains what happened here.
“The giveaway this time? Troopers noticed an overwhelming smell of raw marijuana which gave them probable cause to search the car.”
So, the officers pulled him over for a traffic offense, and smelled raw marijuana, a smell that suggested the man was carrying drugs. That is how they were able to search his car, and find the wires. The wires went to a section of the car that could not be opened without sending some electronic signal down the wires.
Apparently, these types of trap storage units are rigged to open if you do a set of innocous things, like “turn on the lights, hit the left blinker, turn off the lights, turn on right blinker”.
(I know it sounds funny, but the car computers are built to do funny things like this and you can tap into them — for example, to turn off my car’s internal backup beeper, I have to do a series of steps which include holding the brakes and turning the key and hitting the “odo” button. For some other function I had to open and close the car door).
Anyway, there was a reason to suspect the guy transported drugs, which then let them claim the intent for the trap was drug trafficking. Now it will go to court and a jury will have to decide if they can prove that was the intent.
My guess is they will go over the compartment carefully to see if they can find any trace drug evidence, or they will now investigate the guy to see if they can tie him to drug purchases.
***I wished AMC Jeep would have kept the passenger side under seat storage compartment that Willlys and AMC models had until 76.***
That is what mine had, in the floor. Under the driver’s seat was a second gas tank.
Yeah, I guess if the JBT wants to be a pr!ck
Or how about a multi-disc CD player, which could explain wires?
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Prosecution by persecution.
Prosecutors and police have no check or ballance.
I don't live close enough and I never get called for jury duty but if I ever do I'll hang hang the jury of any case like this. If a prosecutor can't present an actual, individual victim for any charge they're getting a not guilty out of me. Mostly because victimless crimes are mostly bulls***, and because cops lie. "Strong smell..."? No, more like they ran his ID, knew he had priors and needed to cook a reason to search.
That’s akin to Conservative blasphemy to some around here. Though they note the Fed side MAY be Unconstitutional (some/most of the time it suits THEM just fine), they don’t have a problem with the State doing the same...or worse (or willfully ignore the totalitarianism @ the State level)
I’ve never seen dual tank setup in a jeep.
My Willys has the factory under seat one that some people nickname the driver’s seat an ejection seat. I wouldn’t want to try that ride.
As for the car itself, the Institute for Justice’s 2010 “Policing for Profit” report calculated that law enforcement officials in the state have collected more than $80 million in shared proceeds from asset forfeiture funds. Oh, and the hidden compartment law exempts vehicles being operated by law enforcement officers, so if state troopers can come up with an excuse to use the ride they just grabbed, they may be able to keep it for themselves.
Yeah; we'd better all take those magnetic key holders out from under our bumpers. No fair hiding keys under flowerpots, either. In fact, possession of a combination lock on the way to the gym? Potential drug hiding. The possibilities for creative law enforcement are endless.
Can't have phosphates in the wash detergent in Maryland. Might hurt the Bay. In fact, our permanent Democrat majority now wants to tax the amount of rainfall on the square footage of your property.
New Mexico, right?
ping to post 42
I wonder what these people would say about how NASCAR was founded.
“BTW. Before I was tested the cop asked me why I seemed so nervous. I asked him to explain. He said “Well, you’re shaking a bit”.”
THis is cop technique —
They ask you all kinds of these questions. You just get deeper.
Ques like: Do you have anything in your car I should know about?
What the cops didn’t realize was, he was smuggling the car.
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