Drivers side vs passenger side.
So? The light is either out or it isn’t. There is no rule saying that a police officer cannot misspeak. The violation does not go away because he said driver instead of passenger. Hell since it was in the rear the broken taillight would be on camera too. That is one of those “Aha!” moments I see people hang their cases on when they come to court.
This entire thread is a pathetic argument… It left GQ weeks ago.
These cops try to defend their position… at least one being obviously wrong by the US consitution weeks ago, then two more jumping to his defense.
I pitted Loach a few years ago, then apologized.
I had hoped he would be the one to set the other “cops” straight, but NO.
He’s a predator, once again proving himself to be willing to lie, cheat and steal… if he can get away with it in court.
The “just cop” proves himself to be just as bad as the corrupt cop in posts #19 and #28.
“Bad” here refers to, uh “police officers” who abuse their athority in order to violate any citizens right against unlawful search and seizure.
These “cops” now publicly flaunt loopholes to violate consitutional rights.
I had hoped that after my original thread and countless dopers jumping to his defense, he might have reconciled a division of “right” and “wrong”, yet he still trumps out loopholes in the law in which local (apparantly still ignorant of US constitutional law) judges back them up time after time.
I just sent a personal email to “dustinsquarepants”, the great cop who thinks he’s awesome because he routinely violates the general public’s constitutional rights:
"dmcmanus1963@msn.com <dmcmanus1963@msn.com>
You’re the worst “cop” ever.
I think if a "perp’ ever shoots you, they were probaby in the right.
Why?
Because you’re an asshole who flaunts the US constitution in every manner possible, for no other reason than to be a dickhead cop.
If I’m ever on a jury depending on your word, you can fucking forget it.
Dick.
I hate you."
p.s. I won’t give a flying fuck if you ban me over this post. Shoot away
Again you prove that reading comprehension is not your strong suit. For one you did not apoligize before. You made some lame excuse about posting while drunk and slunk off into the shadows after you had your ass handed to you in the pit. And not by me, I just had to sit back and let every other posted let you know how wrong you were. If you had read this thread you would have seen that me and the other cops in this thread were never defending dustinsquarepants, we all disagreed with him. We are not looking for loopholes. These are laws and precedents set down by SCOTUS and other courts which regulate things like searches and codify what was put down in the constitution. The constitution is not specific as to what makes a search illegal. That came later through legislation and court rulings. We have been trying to answer questions about those laws and rulings. Not loopholes, the law. If you have a problem with dustinsquarepants fine, I have a problem with hime too. But I have never done what he claims to do I and I don’t agree with him.
“Loach, I’m sorry” doesn’t count as an apology?
I think cognitive thinking is not yours.
Regardless of our previous encounter, years ago, in which you did even accept my apology, I still feel that in this thread you treaded too lightly, and did not attack him as he deserves.
I did read it, and did not see it that way. I saw you grasping at straws to defend him. After all, that’s the police “code”.
If pretending to “smell marijuana” counts as within the constitution, you are still wrong.
Then great. Maybe we agree on one thing, and you can fight to eradicate corruption.
I went and reread the post. Its been a while so I didn’t remember it clearly. You did apologize. You did feel the need to qualify the apology with the excuse that you were drunk but it did seem like an apology.
Are you drunk now?
I never once defended him. I did some explaining on how inventories are done in my state. I explained the rarity of motor vehicle warrants in my state. I don’t see and straws grasped or any defending at all. Prove that I said anything different.
I never said anything about pretending to smell marijuana is constitutional. All I did say was that someone making work form themselves (as in pretending to smell marijuana when there is none and searching the car for no reason) goes against human nature. Why would I want to work harder than I already do for no reason? Prove that I said something different.
To clear things up, dustinsquarepants stated that he arrests people for motor vehicle violations as a pretext to do an inventory search. In order for inventories of impounded vehicles to be valid, a department must do inventories on all vehicles that are impounded. My department does not inventory impounded vehicles. The only time I have seen anyone arrested by my department for a motor vehicle violation it was because the driver had a long history of violations and a long history of failing to appear for court. Prove that I said something different.
Eleusis, I think you need to step back, take a breath, and calm down before you post. That sort of post has no business on this board outside of the Pit.
I cannot recall Loach saying anything in this thread that was not correct under the law as set forth by the Supreme Court of the United States. Can you make a specific reference to any such statement on his part? For that matter, other than the statements of the one officer here who has been pilloried for his representations, can you name any statement of policy or procedure, personal or departmental, by any OTHER officer who has posted that is inconsistent with the law on searches and seizures as expounded by the SCotUS? If so, trot it out in specific.
MODERATOR WARNING
Eleusis, you already recognized that your post was out of order and against the rules in any forum except the Pit. If this were a one time thing, we warn and forget. But this is a repeated pattern with you. You’ve been warned at least eight times by eight different moderators in six different forums.
I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll send this around the moderator email with the suggestion that you be suspended, if not banned.
samclem Moderator, General Questions
Yeah, I have to wonder if you’re posting drunk as well. Since you did not send that hateful e-mail to dustinsquarepants, you sent it to me.
Just like Loach, I did not defend dustinsquarepants (see post #152, for example).
I never said anything supporting violating anyone’s rights. I explained as best I can what the law and case law allow us to do. I have never stepped over those lines, and I never would.
Finally, since this isn’t actually in The Pit, I won’t say what I think of you at this moment.
Yeah, but I’ve been pulled over plenty of times for bullshit reasons over the years (in my area, there are certain regions you avoid at night – simply ebcause the likelihood of a bullshit stop is so high). Also, I’ve refused a search, and stood my ground (they were clearly surprised that anyone would refuse). They tried crap like asking me if i had something to hide, etc, and I was polite but didn’t give in.
They finally left, after bugging me for abotu 15 minutes.
For the record, DS is a lawyer with a great deal of experience, and has often lent that to legal discussions on this board. I’d say his calls on an issue carry a fair bit of weight.
Once upon a time, if I had a tail light out, the cop would (after running my plates) tell me “your passenger side tail light is out”. I’d say “thanks”. Confrontation over. Last time, a couple years ago, I got a fixit ticky and paid a $25 fine. My mechanic (Audi dealership) replace the bulb for free.
Not so long ago a CHP pulled up behind me at a red light and told me over her PA “Looks like someone stole your registration sticker” I waved “thanks” and went to the DMV and got another. Confrontation over.
Cops can put your plate # on a “watch list” on their computer. If they give you an oral warning for a light or something like that, and if they or another cop sees you with the same problem later, they can run your plate and then give you a ticket.
Interesting! Are you sure this system exists? I’m not doubting you, but I’ve never heard of this and I know we don’t have a system like that in Washington. I would think it would be an administrative nightmare to keep a system like that accurate and not overburdened with 50 million verbal warnings.
I’ll have to ask a California cop about this.
I’ve got a ball point pen that is actually a voice recorder. Pull it apart and it has a USB port to download the recording into my computer. It also writes pretty well.
I turn it on whenever I get stopped by the police. Never needed it to back me up but if you go to court it can be many months later and you need to know just what was said if you need to defend yourself in court.
A local city cop (Oakland, CA) told me. I semi-jaywalked once. Not that a cop would BS me for effect. 
If he did, it worked.
I wouldn’t think there would be all that many warnings in one locality, would there? the database could be first in/first out.
I’d think a regular old small recorder would be just as good. Or better. I have a small Xacti video recorder I’ve thought about mounting low on my dash for just such an event.
You’ll find that almost all cops do the same thing. It’s saved many of us from false claims of abuse.
That makes sense. I was thinking of a state-wide system. We do have a local (just our county) computer database that could actually be used for this, but we don’t use it that way. I think it would be too much of a pain to bother entering every warning, or checking it when you see a violation. I just remember the warnings I’ve given and write a ticket if I see that the problem hasn’t been repaired.
We do have “fix-it” tickets that give you 10 days to repair an equipment violation. You get the problem fixed, take it to any cop to have him sign off that it has been corrected, then mail the card back to me. If I don’t get the card back within 10 days, I can mail a ticket for the original equipment violation. Again, it’s more trouble than it’s worth for most violations and I just give a verbal warning and expect the driver will get the problem fixed.