You're rights when stopped by the Police

[Alchemy R]

The "Patriot" act certainly is anything but...

I've got nothing to hide and am nothing but courteous to an officer if I am stopped.

However... simply on principle, I do not willingly allow searches of my person or property.

[donnyonee]

ive taken some classes with local constables.
its their ball, court and game. winning is tough.

[Alchemy R]

Yup. True enough. It gets worse every day.

[jwight]

Originally Posted by xcrew229x

Not that simple. Give me a reason to tow your car. Then I must inventory it prior to tow. Anything found then is not fruits of the poisonous tree. It's admissable. Anything in plain view that's not legal gives me probable cause to believe there are other illegal items there, possibly that will be dangerous to me. Therefore I have reason to search. The old axiom is, "you can't look for a body in a breadbox" if your warrant says you are, say, looking for a body. The breadbox is off limits. It's all about articulation. Bottom line, don't get stopped to begin with.

Sure, there are always caveats that would allow a search and you mentioned several. However, on a routine stop, no reason to tow, no burned out bulbs, nothing in plain sight, etc. the rules still apply - no warrant, no search. BTW, this applies to police visits to your house as well; if they ask to come in, the answer is no. We do not live in a police state. The laws apply to everyone, including the police, as they should. Off my soapbox again.

[Old Panda]

Originally Posted by Smartfor2guy

Smartfor2guy starts a thread: You're rights when stopped by the Police

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Irony at its best.

[Dave Van]

Somewhat on topic. We were recently pulled over in a rural area. The first thing out of the cops mouth was 'these things aren't legal on the street'. I was not too worried as I had all paperwork from the WV DMV and my insurance paperwork. After it was shown to be street legal vehicle the stop was changed to speeding.....which in 35 years of driving, much of it with CDL and Chauffeurs DL I have never had. The cop gave us a ticket for 6 over....but I think it was more to keep him from being embarrassed about not knowing a street legal car from one thats not. I firmly believe this cop thought he was pulling over one of those mini trucks many of the hunters in WV use and are about the same size. The problem is you can drive these mini trucks on WV roads that do not have a painted center line. We were on a road with painted center and sides and I think he thought he had a good illegal vehicle ticket stop. Not much you can do, knowledge or not, in a stop like this. Not happy with the level of competency of some of WV finest.......

[Alchemy R]

^^^exactly.

Also slightly on topic.

My friend was pulled over today for no tags. He'd paid for the tags awhile ago. The police ran his registration and said yep, you're registration is paid and up to date but the DMV F'd up and hadn't sent him the tags... so, even though the cop acknowledged that he was indeed registered... they towed his car. On a Saturday too. So he can't go to the DMV until Monday to clear it up. This will end up costing him at least $500 even though he did everything right.

I rented him my Smart at a steep discount...

So, for those of you that think you won't get pulled over or stopped and searched because you've done nothing wrong might want to reconsider your POV on exercising your rights when confronted by the "authorities".


*I always think of Cartman when I see or hear that word!! LoL!

[CruisingAZ]

Lifes tough, hope you never need a cop, they are all sooooooooooo bad!

Gets kind of old after a while, you can find unprofessional people in every line of work, maybe your friend was a jerk, maybe the records didn't show the fee paid and your friend said it did, you were not their you do not know, maybe the law requires the tow, not always officer discretion. And a real friend would loan a car to a friend not rent it.

[Alchemy R]

Originally Posted by CruisingAZ

Lifes tough, hope you never need a cop, they are all sooooooooooo bad!

Gets kind of old after a while, you can find unprofessional people in every line of work, maybe your friend was a jerk, maybe the records didn't show the fee paid and your friend said it did, you were not their* you do not know, maybe the law requires the tow, not always officer discretion. And a real friend would loan a car to a friend not rent it.

Excuse me? Did I make a rude comment to you on another thread or something?

Later!

[jwight]

Just want to make a point for the LEOs here. A person exercising their rights is not "anti-cop." In fact, the cops should be aware of those rights and expect them to be exercised. There are plenty of places in the world where this may not be the case, but so far the USA isn't one of them.