The Ohio Supreme Court just made it legal for cops to stop a car and search it if they “smell” pot.
Come now!
ANy cope can say they smelled it and didn’t.
How can you prove they didn’t? Or did!
Where oh where are our rights going?
Down the shitter, that’s where they’re headed. And for the most part, people don’t seem to care- More police! Tougher penalties! Toss 'em in jail! We need a law for that!
Average people don’t see how unfair it already is and where this trend is heading. Laws for this, laws for that, banning so and so.
We as a nation (US) are legislating ourselves to fucking death.
One small example (I have more but I’m pushed for time)- In and around Minneapolis lakes in the summer, the police can and do stop bicyclists, check bike racks, and other areas, for bike registrations. It’s a fairly unknown law that each and every bike needs to be registered with the state.
I’ve heard of people being ‘pulled over’ on the bike path to see if their bike has been registered. Keep in mind these people were minding their own business, not braking any laws, and enjoying a nice ride. If they have the registration, then fine, get outta here. If not, we’ll just take your bike, thank you very much.
You see park patrol trucks driving around crammed with bicycles in the back.
You might think, “Great. They’re actively looking for stolen bicycles”. Wrong, or partly wrong. While they do nab some stolen bikes, they mostly nab people who have never heard of the law and, more importantly, haven’t ponied up the cash to register their bikes. What a pain in the ass.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of nailing someone who stole a bike, but to stop anyone and everyone because you’re considered a theif until you can prove otherwise, is completely bullshit to me.
Besides, and I’ve never been able to get a number on this, how many people have had their bikes taken from the racks by the fuzz and assumed it was stolen and did nothing but get angry and buy a new bike?
I don’t know, not the worlds best example, but it pisses me off. It seems that with the recent trends in law enforcement and bizarre legislation, the burden has been placed on a person proving themselves innocent rather than the state having to prove the persons guilt.
People’s right are being trampled on and the general population seems to say ‘Great!’, bring it on. Hopefully this won’t get so outta hand that it can’t be toned down and repealed when the advocates themselves start getting their rights infringed upon.
but CNote, you’re dead on!
I’m old enough to have seen it all going downhill for a lot of years. I don’t think I’ll live long enough to see the slide stop. There’s too many public safety nazis and other narrow intrest assholes, and too many polititions that suck up to them. And snagging somebodies wheels is a prime way to “enhance revenues.”
Not to mention the completely asinine drug laws…I won’t go into it. It’s starting to be that we don’t get protection by the state, but need protection from it.
“Down the shitter…” Colorful AND true.
Wasn’t it Nietzsche who said the strength of a society is inversely proportional to the size of its police force? I think he also mentioned something about people in power (ie, money) dictating morality.
This is exactly why pot was de-criminalized in the late 60s and 70s. Suddenly these laws aimed at black jazz musicians, mexican migrant workers, and foreign sailors were striking white hippy kids, the sons and daughters of many a politician. Couldn’t have that. Then in the 80s some suburb parents found some roaches on the lawn after their kids had a party and formed a ballistic political group. Next thing you know, urinals, lemonheads, and the First Lady are telling me to just say no, and criminalization was back in full swing. Two decades later you’d think we’d be coming back down to earth in our view of the criminal issue. Ohio sure isn’t leading the way.
But hey, it’s America. If you can’t sue someone, make a new law. It’s the only God-fearing, capitalist thing to do.
This kind of law is sickening. I agree that we are slowly being stripped of any kind of rights.
This has been why t.v. shows like “cops” have always given me the creeps. They’ve always seemed like ways to desensitize the masses to a police state. Now, I’m not a conspiracy theory buff and don’t believe that “cops” was specifically created to do this. I do believe that it may have that as a side effect though. Either way, I can’t watch 'em.
On the other hand, I like the show “NYPD Blue” even though it does bother me how often we see the officers violating people’s rights (hitting, etc.). You then see in the resolution of the show that the person was guilty of the suspected crime and thus the violation of rights was necessary to convict a criminal and thus was a good thing. Now I can still enjoy the show while noticing this, but I wonder how many people watch it without examining that.
[sorry if this turned into a hijack…i have a bad habit of that]
I did not witness this, however…
I have a friend here in North Alabama who told me that her car was stopped by a State Trooper. He wanted to smell her fingers.
(pausing while you all work your jokes in)
OK. It seems he wanted to know if she may have been smoking a joint. (that’s why I prefer bong hits) Claimed she was driving erratically and all that crap (she was actually avoiding a few, er, potholes in the road).
What a load of shit! Being pulled over to have your fingers inspected for resin! If I ever see flashing lights behind me, the first thing I’ll do is scratch my ass.
I’m SO SICK of politicians pitching and yawing about tougher drug sentences and zero-tolerance and all that jazz. Our prisons are overcrowded already, and nobody wants a new one being built near their house. Where are we going to put all these unregistered bike owners and recreation pot smokers? Not to mention, why are recreational weedheads looking at jail time while the kingpins are free to shop at Cartier & drive around in their Jaguars?
I’m scared of the police. They beat up my dad while he was participating in a peaceful demonstration on the Pentagon in '82. Tear-gassed and cracked on the head with a rifle butt. His eyes were all swollen & he looked like a monster. It was way scary.
Why are you so outraged by this? They’ve been pulling people for “driving while black”. Or is it only when tactics like this start to hit home that anyone cares?
Needs2know
Driving while Black? I guess I have two quick questions on this…
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Is it a policy that they are allowed to pull people over for simply being black, or are you saying that’s what they do regardless of the policy, or are you making a subtle reference to something else that I’m not picking up on?
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Does the fact that this isn’t the first rights violation we’ve seen make it any less of an outrage?
Vote Libertarian.
Harry Browne in 2000
BillyBoy,
The NJ police had the policy/strategy of pulling people over for DWB. They claimed it was part of an antigang operation. Basically they would see a driver who was black and wearing a red hat. Gang X is a black gang that wears red clothes and paraphenalia. This jusified a stop and search of the car.
Governor Whitman promised to stop it, but I am not sure what she has done.
I’m with you, Wahoo. Harry makes some really interesting points on his site.
Grendel69 - just saw your post as I’m writing this. Wow, that’s crazy. If I were black and in New Jersey, I would have gone ballistic over that.
BillyBoy, it gets worse; on a nationwide basis, the DWB phenomenon is even more insidious than you can imagine.
Let’s say that Joe Smith, a successful black investment banker, wants to take his Lexus out for a spin one night. He drives through Bay Village, an affluent Cleveland suburb.
A couple of cops on patrol see Mr. Smith drive by. “Did you see that?” says Officer A. “A black guy? In a Lexus? In this neighborhood?” “Yeah,” replies Officer B, “that car has got to be stolen.”
They proceed to pull over Mr. Smith and subject him to a lengthy traffic stop, possibly asking him to exit the vehicle and frisking him, asking him who he is, where he lives, can he prove it, etc., etc. It happens on an almost daily basis, sadly.
May I add some gas to the fire? In San Francisco, Supervisor Amos Brown wants to create a law that will allow the POLICE to seize the cars of anyone SUSPECTED (not even convicted) of trying to solicit drugs or sex in the city. You only need to be suspected. Only the owner of the car really suffers. What if I let someone borrow my car, and they decide they want some bud (without my prior knowledge) so they start to look for some. If they get caught being “suspicious”, I can kiss MY car goodbye. IS AMOS BROWN FUCKING NUTS!!!
They already have this law in effect in Oakland and have raised something like $300,000 from auctions of the impounded cars.
Why can’t people THINK before they ask their politicians to create all of these bullshit laws. Yes, I’m sure there’s a serious problem in your neighborhood and you’ve had it up to here. But come on, do you really want to give up your rights for a temporary bandaid. PEOPLE THAT WANT TO GET HIGH WILL GET HIGH, PEOPLE THAT WANT TO FUCK A PROSTITUTE WILL FUCK A PRSOTITUTE. LAWS THAT TRY TO CURB THIS BEHAVIOR WILL CHANGE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
I think people are just responding too quickly, to some terrible events/situations, and are not thinking about how they will be losing freedoms, by having senseless laws drawn up. I’m just waiting for that pendulum to swing the other way (when my generation takes over) so I can hopefully get some of my rights back. Remember that it’s easy to get laws on the book, but for some reason, I guess they use indelible ink or something, it sure is hard to erase them from the books.
GODDAMN IT!
–Tim
Being outraged by this and being outraged by people being pulled over for DWB are not mutually exclusive. Just because it was not raised does not mean the poster is not outraged by it.
The poster does not mention that minorities are executed at a disproportinate rate to whites, that doesn’t imply anything about their feelings on the matter one way or the other. It just means they are posting that they are outraged about this particular issue.
My response to the OP: more erosion of the 4th Amendment.
The plain truth of the matter is you have NO reasonable expectation of privacy in your vehicle. The courts have been consistantly whittling away at privacy expections in vehicles for years. Which, considering how many people consider their cars to be their “second homes” rather surprises me. However, the problem with successful search and seizure claims is generally that the defendant is a “bad guy” who has been caught with contraband.
What?!?!?
No violation of rights is a good thing. The fact that they happened to be right in the small and carefully chosen number of instances that get shown on NYPD Blue does not make it ok.
(Slap me a couple times if I misunderstood what you were trying to say)
Just what we need, a law that give deputy Bubba even more excuses to fuck with the citizens. Damn, if you are a person of color you get hassled, if you express yourself you get fucked with, now they will fuck with you because Bubba thinks he smells something. Is this probable cause?
Now that I’m somewhat less pissed, I’d like to comment that I’ve distinctly smelled weed while riding in my mom’s van, going through a local small town, in a local restaraunt, basically anywhere and everywhere. I don’t know why, but sometimes, you’ll just smell it, even if there’s none to be found. ::sigh::
–Tim