Tuesday, November 4, 2008

search and seizure law blog

I am extremley interested in the laws on search and seizures. I wanted to see what is said about illegal or unfair searches. I found a blog about a specific situation in which a police officer will try to trick a person into giving up their rights and unlawfully searching their car. It is very interesting. It says that if you happen to get puled over you should NEVER let an officer search your car. Legally an officer does not have the right to search a person's car unless there is probable cause in plain view. An officer will try to trick you into thinking you do not have a choice. An officer can also make you think that searching your car is the only way to prove yourself not guilty. A person might think they have nothing to hide, but you never know what someone might have left or put in your car. Even if they find something illegal in your car that does not belong to you, you will still be the person charged.
I found another blog on search and seizures. It is talking about an officer's right to search someone, instead of a car like the previous blog i read. My favorite quote from this blog is, "Sometimes people say I shouldn't mind being searched if I have nothing to hide. I immediately accuse them of having a swastika tattooed on their genitalia -- if they have nothing to hide, then surely they shouldn't mind dropping their pants to prove me wrong." I find this extremely funny, but also true. It seems as though probable cause is flawed. This blog goes into talking about what exactly is probable cause and specific situations where people were stripped of their rights.
I found a hilarious blog about a party that took place at a students house. This student had a party of at least ninety people at his house. The street was lined with cars and there was loud music, which prompted neighbors to call the police. The police arrived and convinced the boy that they had probable cause to go into the house based on loud music, which was untrue. The officer went downstairs and found what appeared to be a keg, beer pong, and red cups comonly used to drink alcohal out of. Of course, the officer's initial reaction was that they were all drinking so he had them all go upstairs and began to breathalize them. As this was going on backup was on the way. It turns out that all ninety kids at the party blew zeros because they were in fact drinking root beer! If it was acttualy beer and the officer found it, it might not have been admissable because of the illegal search of the house.

1 comment:

Jamie said...

haha priceless video