Searched by the cops, unjust?

[drexah]

So I got searched the other day by the cops for the first time and i'm curious as to what they did that was out of line if anything, and what i should have done (or told my friend to do) So it's 11pm and i'm in my friends car parked a bit down the street of my other friends house who were were waiting for. Less than 2 minutes after we park, while my friend is breaking up $10 of weed for a blunt, we see a cop car pull into the street and were like oh [censored], i tell my friend to put away the bud, as i insist we get out of the car and walk toward the house and not be sketchy. my friend doesn't move and the cop pulls right up next to us. he comes up to the window and asks what were doing, we say waiting for our friend who lives right here (pointing to the house) and he badgers us about not being directly in front of the house and to take out license and registration. he mentions that there have been breakins in the town recently and that we look sketchy. so he goes back to his car for about 5 mins and we see another cop pull up and were like jesus wtf did we do wrong. so the cop comes back and asks us if theres anythign in the car and to tell him right now because he has a canine and if we give whatever we have up its fine and if we dont were "going to jail." my friend hands him the weed and he thanks us and then pats both of us down/taking things out of our pockets and then fully searches the car with the dog (trunk and all) in the end he ripped up a $50 ticket for expired inspection and took the $10 worth of weed and told my friend he might be summoned to court for the weed.

random note worth mentioning: the second cop to pull up gets out of his car right after we've been patted down and we see its the 5 foot tall bitch who was the cop at my high school. he comes up to me and starts patting me down a again, and im like "why are you searching me the other officer already did this" to which he yells at me to take off my hat and starts to almost rip apart looking like an idiot thinking theres something in it. so its like 20 degrees outside and im walking around/shivering and he goes "why are you moving around so much youre sketchy" i just look at him for a second and im like uh cause its freezing out. he goes "what, do you live in florida or something?" i was so dumbfounded by this ridiculous comment all i could say was "i like to go to florida sometimes" and he turns around and goes back in his car.

what should of been my play here? i finished in the top of my criminal justice class and i was fairly certain that almost everything the cops were doing was unfair/out of line/not allowed but one of the first things he said was that if we give up whatever we had nothing would happen, and my friend immediatley gave up the weed so i didnt want to start pulling the "know it all" [censored] on them and piss them off.

[captZEEbo]

everytime I hear one of these stories, the person is guilty, the cop knows their guilty, but they didn't obtain a court-ordered warrant, so the guilty person telling the story seems like they were unjustly treated. I think suspicion is enough to search, and they knew what you were doing.

[wildzer0]

It sounds like you gave them permission to search you, at least your friend did by giving him the weed. Your two choice in this situation are to go along with the cop and be honest. I don't know what the penalities are for that amount of weed, but it's probably just a fine,r ight? The other option is to fight them on everything, flat out refuse to let them search the car, citing your constitutional rights, etc. Most of the time if you're polite but firm when you do this, they give up because it's too much of a hassle. If they decide to make an issue otu of it though, they'll probably win and they'll make things as difficult as possible for you if they find anything. So figure out if it's worth risking a tougher time for an increased chance of getting away with whatever you're dong and act accordingly.

[drexah]

[ QUOTE ]
It sounds like you gave them permission to search you, at least your friend did by giving him the weed. Your two choice in this situation are to go along with the cop and be honest. I don't know what the penalities are for that amount of weed, but it's probably just a fine,r ight? The other option is to fight them on everything, flat out refuse to let them search the car, citing your constitutional rights, etc. Most of the time if you're polite but firm when you do this, they give up because it's too much of a hassle. If they decide to make an issue otu of it though, they'll probably win and they'll make things as difficult as possible for you if they find anything. So figure out if it's worth risking a tougher time for an increased chance of getting away with whatever you're dong and act accordingly.

[/ QUOTE ]

What really is the best thing to say, simply "I know my constitutional rights and I am not allowing you to search me or my car" ? The first thing he asked was if we had anything in the car and to tell him because he had a canine and was GOING to search the car (not even asking, telling us no matter what he was going to search us and the car.)

Also worth mentioning was that after all was said and done the cop goes "so, if you know anything about the break ins, let me know, and this can all go away. that's how we work, you help us, we'll help you" which made me think they might of been pulling all this [censored] just to get information.

[wildzer0]

[ QUOTE ]

What really is the best thing to say, simply "I know my constitutional rights and I am not allowing you to search me or my car" ? The first thing he asked was if we had anything in the car and to tell him because he had a canine and was GOING to search the car (not even asking, telling us no matter what he was going to search us and the car.)

Also worth mentioning was that after all was said and done the cop goes "so, if you know anything about the break ins, let me know, and this can all go away. that's how we work, you help us, we'll help you" which made me think they might of been pulling all this [censored] just to get information.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always had bad luck with getting pulled over (which is why I was always careful not to be breaking any laws in my car). But asking if I mind them searching my car - in polite ways, and more forceful ways, like they did you - was pretty common. I just always told them "I value my privacy and I'm not going to let you search my car without a search warrant". That ended it every time but once right there even if they were still vaguely threatening. The last time, it turned out I had a way overdue parking ticket, so they arrested me, threw me in jail for a week, impounded my car, trumped up enough traffic charges to lose my license for a year and get about 1k in fines (reckless driving, running a red light, etc - although the reason they originally cited for pulling me over was 'suspcious activity', whatever that means). They basically told me the reason they did it was because they felt I was rude for not allowing them to search my car. So, I guess you could go either way with your decision to allow the cops to search you.

[beenben]

+they had probable cause to stop and talk to you, ask for your I.D.

That should've been the end of it, but they bullied you into consenting to the search.

[william deangelis]

You werent detained. You werent even getting a ticket. He said he had a canine coming. Which is probably a lie. Same with the whole we are looking for burglars. He needs a legal reason to harass you. Next time refuse a search and ask if you are detained/arrested/etc and if not can you leave every 2 or 3 minutes they will get the hint or just leave.

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
everytime I hear one of these stories, the person is guilty, the cop knows their guilty, but they didn't obtain a court-ordered warrant, so the guilty person telling the story seems like they were unjustly treated. I think suspicion is enough to search, and they knew what you were doing.

[/ QUOTE ]

While I see what you're saying and I don't want to turn this into a politics thread, I don't want to live in a place where a cop can search me because I'm sitting in a car on a street. I understand that in most other parts of the world they could throw me away for less, but I don't want to live there, either.

[Shadowrun]

[ QUOTE ]
So I got searched the other day by the cops for the first time and i'm curious as to what they did that was out of line if anything, and what i should have done (or told my friend to do) So it's 11pm and i'm in my friends car parked a bit down the street of my other friends house who were were waiting for. Less than 2 minutes after we park, while my friend is breaking up $10 of weed for a blunt, we see a cop car pull into the street and were like oh [censored], i tell my friend to put away the bud, as i insist we get out of the car and walk toward the house and not be sketchy. my friend doesn't move and the cop pulls right up next to us. he comes up to the window and asks what were doing, we say waiting for our friend who lives right here (pointing to the house) and he badgers us about not being directly in front of the house and to take out license and registration. he mentions that there have been breakins in the town recently and that we look sketchy. so he goes back to his car for about 5 mins and we see another cop pull up and were like jesus wtf did we do wrong. so the cop comes back and asks us if theres anythign in the car and to tell him right now because he has a canine and if we give whatever we have up its fine and if we dont were "going to jail." my friend hands him the weed and he thanks us and then pats both of us down/taking things out of our pockets and then fully searches the car with the dog (trunk and all) in the end he ripped up a $50 ticket for expired inspection and took the $10 worth of weed and told my friend he might be summoned to court for the weed.

random note worth mentioning: the second cop to pull up gets out of his car right after we've been patted down and we see its the 5 foot tall bitch who was the cop at my high school. he comes up to me and starts patting me down a again, and im like "why are you searching me the other officer already did this" to which he yells at me to take off my hat and starts to almost rip apart looking like an idiot thinking theres something in it. so its like 20 degrees outside and im walking around/shivering and he goes "why are you moving around so much youre sketchy" i just look at him for a second and im like uh cause its freezing out. he goes "what, do you live in florida or something?" i was so dumbfounded by this ridiculous comment all i could say was "i like to go to florida sometimes" and he turns around and goes back in his car.

what should of been my play here? i finished in the top of my criminal justice class and i was fairly certain that almost everything the cops were doing was unfair/out of line/not allowed but one of the first things he said was that if we give up whatever we had nothing would happen, and my friend immediatley gave up the weed so i didnt want to start pulling the "know it all" [censored] on them and piss them off.

[/ QUOTE ]

reconcile?

[CheckRaise]

Your friend shouldn't have given him the pot and then you should have refused the search.