Police stage an accident then steal the victim's car to search it -- and it's upheld on appeal

[thewayne]

It's so nice to live in a country where everyone has civil rights.

Guy and girlfriend in his car, sitting at a light. Light changes, car in front stalls. Truck rearends guy's car, minimal or no damage. They get out, police respond, put the couple in the back of a cruiser 'while they're processing things.' Someone jumps in the guy's car and takes off! Police chase ensues.

Turns out that everyone except for the couple were cops. They staged this ruse so that they could search the guy's car and maintain the secrecy of the investigation. And they got the search warrant AFTER they had control of the suspect's car.

The courts threw out the drugs as evidence as an illegal search and seizure. An appeals court said that what the police did was OK.

Yes, the guy was under surveillance as a drug distributor. Yes, there were drugs in the car. Yes, they could have gotten a warrant for all of this. So why all this drama?

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/appeals_court_r.html

Comments

[deborak]

Please support Ron Paul for president. He is against the war on drugs, and has consistently voted against the Patriot Act and other federal invasions of privacy in the name of "security."