OFF THE WIRE
Edmond Dantescopblock.orgQUOTE THE CONSTITUTIONAs many of you probably know, the State of California recently passed a law saying a warrant is needed for police to search your cellphone if you are placed under arrest.
Policeone.com picked up the story and the police officers who commented on the story let their true feelings on the Constitution be known.
In the story, the author noted that this law, which forces police officers to follow the Constitution, was opposed by The Peace Officers Research Association of California. Why did the oppose it? Well because it threatens their auhtority to do whatever they want, law be damned.
The Peace Officers Research Association of California, which opposed the law, argued: “Restricting the authority of a peace officer to search an arrestee unduly restricts their ability to apply the law, fight crime, discover evidence valuable to an investigation and protect the citizens of California.”
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, the quotes on the PoliceOne website and on their facebook page just go to prove what we already knew, cops are not fans of the Constitution when it comes to restrictions on their authority. These people crave power, whether or not it is why they took the job, the power gets ahold of most officers and like the famous saying “power currupts”
PoliceOne.com user
kas9kas posted this on the website,
A person arrested loses their fourth ammendment when Peace Officers seize their person and property. Anything found on an arrestee has always been fair game in the courts eyes. If we find counterfeit money in a wallet, a childs porno picture, or narcotics, it was still evidence that was legally obtained by arrest.
User
sevans is really in favor of “Law Enforcement” Officers following the law
Boy am I glad I left California. The whacko legislature and governor know not what they do, unless allowing more criminals to avoid prosecution is their intent. I cannot believe they enacted this law after the California Supreme Court, one of the most liberal in the Country, upheld the search. I started in California and retired from Oregon. I’m truly surprised the liberal Oregon Court (either Court of Appeals, or Supreme Court) didn’t follow California.
I’ve noticed time and time again that anyone that is opposed to something a cop does, or just pisses them off in anyway, is a liberal in the minds of a PoliceOne.com commenter. I’ve yet to figure that out. But before I go on, let’s just take a look at what the US Constitution has to say about searching a persons property
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
This is an amendment that was written because British soldiers and were allowed to search any home they liked, at any time and for whatever reason they wanted. And since many Founding Fathers were smugglers, they did not like this. But if you want to piss off a cop, just quote the 4th amendment. Make sure you tell them that you have the right to be secure in your effects. This really sets them off, especially PoliceOne user
rhaney1313OK everybody…lets all of us standup and applause the absolute morons in Sacramento and that awesome looser Gov. Jerry (Sunshine) Brown. He and his merrymen and dancing babes did it again. Another BAD law………….From all of us real Californians…My apologies to the United States of America and to the citizens in each State.
That’s right, a real Californian is against getting a warrant to search someones property, and that is what your cell phone and any other electronic device you have in your car is, your private property. Now not all cops are against the Constitution restricting their path to absolute authority,
USO131 is one of the good guys.
When you start eliminating the need for a warrant you start to go down a very slippery slope of the loss of your constitutional rights..
If you can’t wrap your head around what I am saying then wrap it around this… Some one is arrested for DUI and all the contents in their electronic device was downloaded? The key here is the subject was arrested… Their cell phone was searched even when the reason for the arrest had nothing to do with possibly of any evidence to USE AGAINST THEM MIGHT BE ON THAT CELL PHONE…
Again remember this YOU CAN AND WILL BE SEARCHED LIKE THIS AS WELL…
Glockman39 is another one of the good guys, however small that group may be. Here he responds to
rhaney1313You want to stand up an applaud the upholding of the constitution? That document which you were, I assume, sworn to uphold?
Tell me, what reason would you have to search an individual’s cell phone for, say, an open container arrest? Are you hoping to find pictures of him imbibing on previous occasions?
We have the fourth amendment, and warrants signed by judges for a reason. The same reason we have the second amendment right to protect ourselves with individual firearms ownership.
Really, folks, I can’t fathom why some of you are so upset by this, unless you are too lazy to put in the extra effort required to protect individual liberty.
And this isn’t a left/right issue. It’s a rule of law issue.
A warrant isn’t always needed, most people are too afraid to say no to an officer, and they know it. One trick cops use all the time, one which I fell for during a traffic stop a few years back, is just simply asking the person if they can search their property, as
coolcoin points out
Hey, just ask for consent, most of the time you will get it, just like consent to search a car. The morons think they are smarter than you, and if they give you permission, they are banking on you being too lazy to follow through, because “they have nothing to hide”, right?
Yep, you heard it correct, this officer thinks we’re all morons, at least he admits it. Over at the
PoliceOne.com facebook page, where officers are always more bold and hateful, commenter Matt Osborne expresses his disdain by claiming his job will me millions of times harder if he has to follow the rules he swore to uphold.
damn bunch of tree huggers. California is the i hate police state lets make their job 8000000000000 times harder. Every police officer just needs to take a day off at the same time and see how they fill about that.
Nothing says “fuck you, respect my authority” like an idle threat written with the wrong word (see how they FEEL about that)
Hey Johnny Lubeck, what do you think about this?
The best thing that can happen for the country is a west coast earthquake, where it seperates Cali, and it floats out into the pacific.
Oh, I see. That was rather……harsh.
Hey Thomas John Staubly Jr., you’re the next contestant on “I hate you private citizens who make us follow the law, I hope you fucking die” (In case there is confusion, I don’t hope he dies, I’m implying he wants you to die)
next their gunna make officers get a warrant before they can even knock on their door….this is absurd. thank god i live in a redf state that is actually pro-law enforcement and actually let them do their damn jobs
Oh I’m sorry Thomas, you weren’t done? You had something else to say about freedom loving Americans who love the Constitution and limits on governmental power, like someone else, who was it? Oh yeah, the Founding Fathers. But anyways, I believe you had something else to add to the conversation later on
lets face it, these people who take issues with these type of searches arent hurt or offended by the searches. the ones who take issue with this are the anti leo and/or thuggin gangbangers trying to get out of a charge. if you dont have anything to hide and arent committing any crime, then quess what, you likely wont get searched. keep your nose out of crime and this wont be an issue. the majority of supreme court decisions are made from some thug trying to get out of a charge or some liberal nut case who is super anti-leo
Oh that’s right, anyone who stands up for their rights must be a….hold on, I wanna get this term correct…..thuggin gangbanger. Well he showed us! Good upstanding people wipe their ass with the Constitution, thuggin gangbangers are the ones who want their rights to be upheld.
Like I said earlier though, there are good cops who are in favor of this new law, I was unaware there was so many thuggin gangbangers with badges, like Christopher Powell.
some of you are crazy or lazy…how is it anti-le to say that someones cell phone is subject to protections of the 4th ammendment? Ask somebody if you can look at their cell phone, if they tell you no, than get a warrant…if you don’t have PC or enough to get a warrant, then you probably have no business looking anyway.
It’s really scary to see what cops honestly think of this ruling. So many of them are bold enough to come right out and say they don’t want to have to get a warrant to search a persons property, even though they swore to uphold a document that says they do.
But the real problem is that Probable Cause is never really defined in the Constitution. Cops use this all the time, they just saw “I had probable cause to believe that…….” and they can search anything without a warrant.
It’s time to stand up for your rights, if you aren’t already. If you are pulled over, and a cop asks if he can search something (your car, cell phone, laptop, whatever) tell him no. Just be prepared to deal with a pissed off cop, and maybe carry a pocket constitution with you at all times.
Bottom-line, the majority of the cops today are punk ass cowards who are in their line of work because they can prey on civilians. Cops either want to take your money and property or injure you. It’s why they’re cops. Take away their badges and guns and their true pussy character comes out. Ever notice how often lone cops shoot unarmed civilians or that most physical confrontations involve several cops beating the shit out of one person?
That’s because the cops these days are pussies. When I was a kid almost all of the cops were World War II or Korean War veterans. They weren’t afraid to duke it out, one on one with a suspect. They almost never pulled their guns. Nowadays, nothing but a bunch pussies. They will shoot you or gang thump you for looking at them wrong. They will shoot your dog for target practice. Not only are today’s cops sadistic cowards, they also break more laws than the average civilian. And that’s because they think they are superior to everyone else The law doesn’t apply to them. In California, most cops game the system for their own benefit. One example is the well documented phenomena of the majority of cops getting some kind of disability within a year of retirement. That way they pad their already outrageously large pensions with tax free disability payments. In the civilian world that’s called fraud. In the cop world it’s them taking something from civilians that cops are owed because they are superior.
Probable cause was never meant to be read as one term, viewed as reasonable suspicion of any “crime”. The most legitimate way in which we should read that phrase: probably have a cause or the cause is probable. And that one simple way of reading this often misinterpreted clause clears up all the mystery.
A cause in the common law of England meant a cause of action, a suit, a claim. And in these actions one would have to prove up their standing by presenting the corpus delecti, the actual proof of harm or injury. Thus, properly understood and enforced, the probable cause requirement of the 4th Amendment would eliminate the enforcement of virtually all victimless crimes. Too bad, so sad, it ain’t like that.
The blatant misconduct of law enforcement officers is horrifying. These are the people that we trust to uphold the Constitution of the United State of America, protect our civil liberties, and keep order in our society. When any one of them has the audacity to break the trust that has been placed in them by the citizens, it sickens me to my core.
I am all for doing the job that needs to be done, especially in the case of felons. However, what I am NOT a supporter of is the willingness of those sworn to uphold the law to break it. That spells doom and gloom for our nation if we allow those with authority, of any kind, to misuse it and abuse it.
A lawyer once came to speak at my college for Constitution Day. He had recently defended a man charged with murder, who was later found not guilty. When asked why he would choose to defend a person like that, he said, it may have been reprehensible for him to defend a person like that, but just because they are accused of a crime doesn’t mean that they lose the rights afforded to them by the Constitution of the United States of America. It may not always be what’s right, but that’s at least fair.
There should be no isolated incidents,but like you said,there are, most search warrant “probable cause” is gained, when a cop gives a “snitch” a break on an arrest, for information about other “crimes”,and a snitch will stretch the story as much as “it” has too.I’m sure you know the “MAJORITY” of the time,cops word the police report to their benefit. Most judges hand out search warrants like Halloween candy,and thats the real “SOB STORY”. But you believe cops should break the law,in order to enforce it. Bet back in school, when the teacher left the classroom,you filled her in on who did what. Then went home to tell mom your version of how you were, “KICKIN ASS AND TAKIN NAMES” Sorry I’m merely voicing an opinion from the other side.
