Posted on 03/04/2002 1:36:53 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
S A N F R A N C I S C O, March 4 —
The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the arrest of a bicyclist for not having identification when he was pulled over for pedaling in the wrong direction on a one-way street.
The ruling upheld a state law allowing officers to arrest and search vehicle-code offenders who do not have identification. The infraction is punishable by a $100 fine.
The decision "is probably the price we're paying for 9-11," said Richard Fitzer, attorney for defendant Conrad McKay, referring to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The justices, ruling 6-1, also said the methamphetamine an officer found on McKay after his arrest in Los Angeles County could be used against him in court. McKay was sentenced to nearly three years after pleading guilty to a drug charge.
The high court followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that validated a Texas motorist's arrest for not being buckled up, a 5-4 ruling that said police can arrest and handcuff people for minor traffic offenses.
"We conclude, in accordance with the United States Supreme Court precedent, that custodial arrests for fine-only offenses do not violate the Fourth Amendment," Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote for the majority.
-bc
Outstanding work on behalf of our Los Angeles Leos. Another drug threat off the streets. I wonder who that punk justice was that voted against admitting this legally seized evidence.
Good post!
One can only hope that you are arrested under this kind of pretense soon.
You can bet the day I am all doped up driving my bike down a one way street the wrong way I'll expect the full force and might of our government to crack down on me. Rats like this don't belong among free men.
Texas> Uhmmm?
Texas: Police State CNSNews.com | 2/26/02 | William S. Lind
Posted on 2/26/02 7:47 AM Pacific by JeanS
According to the February 22 Washington Times, the Gestapo is alive and well in the state of Texas: "Jerry Shifflet received a $300 ticket last Friday. But it wasn't from a cop catching him speeding. The ticket was written by an officer patrolling his child's school. The offense: his 15-year old son cursed at another student. Ticket-writing in schools is nothing new, said Karen Olson, the district's Director of Security. She coordinates nine to twelve city police officers and Department of Public Safety troopers each school day... The fines they dispense range from about $250 to $500. In 2001, police issued 132 tickets to students for disrupting class and 182 tickets for disorderly conduct."
As my father used to say, sometimes I really regret the fact that Hitler won the war.
Whatever happened to being sent to the principal's office? Or detention? Or simple common sense? If a schoolboy uses a bad word, state troopers stationed inside his school now ticket his parents? Why do we, the public, put up with this sort of totalitarian nonsense?
Our ancestors, who evidently had more guts than we do, would have solved this problem with tar, feathers, and a rail. We meekly allow ourselves to be dragged through every absurdity, not even protesting. Since we have decided to behave like sheep, we should not be surprised that we get fleeced, then slaughtered.
What lies behind this bizarre policy in Texas schools? A few factors are easy to identify:
We have stripped schoolteachers of the authority they need to maintain discipline. If they attempt to do so, they face a myriad of rules, the violation of any one of which puts their job in jeopardy. And, they face civil suits from parents if Johnny's or Susie's "self-esteem" is damaged. If the miscreant is a minority, the teacher's situation is even worse. Most of them gave up long ago, and now just go through the motions and wait for retirement.
Everyone is terrified to challenge any policy that is justified by the magic word, "security." To oppose Gestapo tactics in a school is "put children in danger." (Dr. Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel; today, scoundrels find safety by hiding behind "children.") Few parents are willing to stand up to the bureaucrats in the face of the "security" claptrap, even when the policies are patently absurd.
Political Correctness, aka cultural Marxism, works at every turn to condition us as to the words we can and cannot use, hence the thoughts we can and cannot think. From the PC perspective, the sooner kids learn to fear the law for speaking a wrong word, the better.
Finally, most Americans seem to accept without question that the state can do anything to us it wants. Here too we have been conditioned, by one absurd law after another: by tax forms that are incomprehensible but must be filled out accurately, by "wetlands" legislation that keeps farmers from plowing and builders from building, by "asset forfeiture" laws that allow the state to seize your property without a conviction or even a trial. We have accepted so much that we cannot draw the line anywhere.
Sometimes it's hard to remember that 50 years ago, America was still a free country.
William S. Lind is the director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation.
Probably not. I would not be carrying the dope!!!
You should be working for Greenpeace.
You make up great stuff.
Even almost sounds convincing.
You must be smoking something to think that illegal drugs is an inconsequential threat. This is the policy that was used in NYC to help clean up that city during the past few years. If a druggie so much as spits on the sidewalk, arrest him!
To make such mind-boggling unsupported assertions masquerading as predictions, you must be on some pretty expensive, fine s***!
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