Searched by the cops, unjust?

[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.

[Evan]

Where the hell do you live that cops do this hilarious crap?

Before NT! slams me for being a "city boy" and not understanding or whatever, I grew up in the suburbia of suburbias and this is just totally shocking to me. Sitting in your car gets a police officer knocking on your window, wtf?!

[drexah]

[ QUOTE ]
Where the hell do you live that cops do this hilarious crap?

Before NT! slams me for being a "city boy" and not understanding or whatever, I grew up in the suburbia of suburbias and this is just totally shocking to me. Sitting in your car gets a police officer knocking on your window, wtf?!

[/ QUOTE ]

I live in a pretty wealthy suburb about 40 minutes away from Boston and the cops in my town are absolutely ridiculous. I could literally tell that these two cops were sooooo pissed off because we didn't really have anything on us and werent the robbers/didn't know any information about the break ins. Im 19 and i have had the cops come to my house FOUR times for having parties in high school where there was like 10 cars parked at my house. I also live in a private development. The highlight of their jobs is busting high school parties and busting kids for small amounts of weed.

[william deangelis]

[ QUOTE ]
Where the hell do you live that cops do this hilarious crap?

Before NT! slams me for being a "city boy" and not understanding or whatever, I grew up in the suburbia of suburbias and this is just totally shocking to me. Sitting in your car gets a police officer knocking on your window, wtf?!

[/ QUOTE ]

I honestly think police are getting worse. Or my attiude toward them is just detoriating.

[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.

[NT!]

[ QUOTE ]
Where the hell do you live that cops do this hilarious crap?

Before NT! slams me for being a "city boy" and not understanding or whatever, I grew up in the suburbia of suburbias and this is just totally shocking to me. Sitting in your car gets a police officer knocking on your window, wtf?!

[/ QUOTE ]

i won't slam you for being a city boy, this happens everywhere - suburbia, rural areas, etc. i would guess that drexah was in a middle-class suburban area. probably lower density than you are used to which means cops have more time to pull stuff like this.

EDIT: btw for anyone arguing otherwise, this search would hold up in court 100%

[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.

[mmcd]

[ QUOTE ]
while my friend is breaking up $10 of weed for a blunt, we see a cop car pull into the street

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
so he goes back to his car for about 5 mins

[/ QUOTE ]

This would have been a good time for your friend to eat the weed.

[WilyTilt]

Wow, a couple of steps where you could've helped yourself out just be refusing searches .. see the other thread on OOT about the guy pulled over with weed and oxy, and he how got away without any problems.


[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

So he's using your "parking location violation" as the pretense for a stop and asking you for license/registration. This is legal, although the pretense here is really thin.

Did he give you back your license at this point? You could've left if he did with no problem.

[ QUOTE ]
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."

[/ QUOTE ]

At this point, he may have enough to have "reasonable suspicion" of you two being a danger. This entitles them to have you step out of the car, get patted down for weapons, and for them to have a VISUAL inspection of the car from the outside. Not a search on the inside, only what is in plain sight. A real search would require either your consent or probable cause / an arrest.

As for the dog, if the dog smells the weed on your friend, you're busted. But, if you had left it in the car, even if the dog smelled something they would not be able to search it.

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, he gave it up voluntarily. In his shoes, I may have waited until I saw a dog. Otherwise, I refuse my car to be searched, and I keep the pot in my pockets. He can pat me down, but there's the cop cannot ask you to remove anything from your pockets that does not have an appearance of a weapon.

As for the rough frisking, you can't really complain about it after you've given your drugs voluntarily. They have a right to arrest you at that point, allowing them to search you thoroughly incident to arrest, along with your entire car.

Summary: You should've left the pot in the car and refused a search of the car. Failing that, leave that in your pocket and give it over only if the a dog actually comes.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Where the hell do you live that cops do this hilarious crap?

Before NT! slams me for being a "city boy" and not understanding or whatever, I grew up in the suburbia of suburbias and this is just totally shocking to me. Sitting in your car gets a police officer knocking on your window, wtf?!

[/ QUOTE ]

i won't slam you for being a city boy, this happens everywhere - suburbia, rural areas, etc. i would guess that drexah was in a middle-class suburban area. probably lower density than you are used to which means cops have more time to pull stuff like this.

EDIT: btw for anyone arguing otherwise, this search would hold up in court 100%

[/ QUOTE ]
Backhanded slam.