The police in Mayfield Heights, Ohio are clearly put out that the Supreme Court has ruled out checkpoints for drugs. They have come up with what they believe is the next best thing: fake drug checkpoints. They are effectively threatening an unconstitutional stop to see which drivers flee . . . and then searching their vehicles. It turns out that Police Chief Fred W. Bittner has support from the local prosecutors in threatening police abuse as a basis to stop cars.
When the Court allowed sobriety checkpoints, many civil libertarians objected to the reduction of protections for suspicionless searches. Yet, in Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz, the Court ruled 6-3 that such stops were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. As a result, citizens are now routinely stopped in these checkpoints.
However, City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32 (2000), the Court drew the line at drug checkpoints and ruled that such stops were unreasonable. The Mayfield Heights police and prosecutors are clearly disappointed that they cannot search all citizens driving on roads around this city of just 19,000. So they came up with the faux stop idea.
Here is how it works. The police post large yellow signs on the Interstate warning of a drug checkpoint ahead and to be prepared to stop for a drug-sniffing dog. Instead of a checkpoint, police just watch for any suspicious response to the sign. The police say that they nabbed four people this way.
Putting aside the low yield, there is the abuse of threatening unconstitutional acts to see if citizens try to avoid it. Yet, Dominic Vitantonio, a Mayfield Heights assistant prosecutor, insisted that “We should be applauded for doing this. It’s a good thing.”
It’s a good thing that police threaten citizens with unconstitutional actions and then search them when they seek to avoid it. I would challenge any such stop. There are ample reasons for citizens to want to avoid police abuse, which is what the signs are promising since police cannot engage in such action.
In one case detailed in this story, a man missed his exit and was pulled over to check his phone for direction. He then pulled back on the freeway. He the pulled over again to connect his phone to a re-charger as he is supposed to do rather than multitask while driving. Police then pulled him over and demanded to know what kind of drugs he had in the car. He was told that it would be better for him to simply confess before the arrival of the drug-sniffing dog. The man agreed to a search and no drugs were found.
The fact that the prosecutor, Mr. Vitantonio, supports such abusive practices shows a serious gap of judgment in this jurisdiction. He appears to believe that citizens should be stopped if they take any effort to avoid an act of police abuse. I hope that one of these four citizens will challenge their arrests and put Mr. Vitantonio’s theory to the test.
Source: Washington Post
Ok you are now reading daily the takeover beginning. Only thing to be done stomp them into ground get rid od judges stomp the evil out of all of them like us and egypt right?? This country is full of weak morons we are 300,000,000+ people they dont stand a chance unless we let them get away with this sick SHIT.
Police do not know that they walk in darkness in a body that has darkness in it. Without the Lord in them police will be in fear looking for people that look suspicious. Religious pharisees acted like that. They saw Jesus as being a suspicious character because he was not of this world.
Land of the free,….. huh….
Burma shave signs in sequence:
Here I sit broken hearted
Tried to Poop but only Farted.
One more opCay round the corner.
Go back to the way you started.
Drop A Donut in the Box.
Where opCays frequent– after stops.
Leave a turdy in that Box
Before they come back like an ox.
There are no billboards to rent for several miles in any direction on 271 until Warrensville Heights to the south, several suburbs away.
mespo
It is Ten o five pm and CSPAN is running the oral arguments on the Voting Rights Act case.
I don’t like the pit bull idea.
I do like the idea of video taping the stops from inside and outside the vehicles and have the residents of the vehicles ask some pointed questions. Maybe in German.
Reblogged this on dreams on the hill and commented:
Reblogs of interest. Not an indication of endorsement.
Here’s a story for you:
Belgian diplomat booted from golf club, treated like ‘terrorists’ over wife’s breast-feeding
By KATE BRIQUELET
June 30, 2013
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mom_terror_bust_n1BftwpraCJSSBW1xjf2aO
Excerpt:
A Belgian diplomat says his family was bounced from a White Plains golf club — and treated like “terrorists” — simply because his wife was breast-feeding at a table and he was carrying a black backpack.
Tom Neijens, 36, and his wife, Roseline Remans, 34, stopped by the Metropolis Country Club on June 8 and asked if they could have lunch despite the fact that they weren’t members.
Staffers gave the Harlem family permission to dine on the terrace, where Remans said she discreetly bared her bosom to feed her daughter, Luka.
A female manager swiftly intervened to nip the feeding in the bud.
“She said, ‘Please leave immediately, you are disturbing the members,’ ” Neijens, first secretary of the Belgium Mission to the UN, told The Post.
Neijens said it would only take a few minutes, but Remans was told to finish in the restroom.
“You don’t ask a person to have lunch in the restroom — why would you ask a baby to have lunch there?” Neijens said.
Minutes later, the Greenburgh Police Department arrived.
Detective Scott Harding allegedly yelled, “Close the doors!” and two other diners were told to leave the terrace.
“He was walking as if he was acting in a Western movie,” Neijens said. “He had one hand on his gun, one hand on his Taser.”
Neijens said the officer warned the couple they were trespassing and said some people at the club thought they were terrorists because of their black backpack.
When Remans, on the verge of tears, questioned why terrorists would breast-feed at a ritzy club, the cop allegedly replied, “In Sri Lanka, babies are used by terrorists.”
Harding changed his tone when Neijens revealed his State Department-issued ID. “You have to understand, this club has had terrorism threats in the past,” the cop said.
The family was escorted out through a back door.
Days later, the diplomat sent an e-mail demanding an apology from Metropolis general manager Tracy Fraus and assistant general manager Audra Vaccari.
“I am deeply worried about your staff if they cannot distinguish between a European couple looking for a quiet place to breast-feed a baby and suicide terrorists carrying a backpack,” Neijens wrote.
The most important thing about this is that some prosecutors support these
kinds of police-state actions. Why in the world would THEY support this?
NS: “What would you think if people did a U-turn @ these established checkpoints.”
They do at Van Horn and are pursued, caught, and arrested. More often it is an expired Student Visa which caused the change of directions rather than illicit drugs. They would have been waived on with instructions to self-deport if they had stopped at the checkpoint.
There is one checkpoint on Interstate 10 near Van Horn, Tx. and then one on Interstate 8 in western San Diego County. Anyone who drives that route knows about them. Although Willie Nelson and other musicians have gotten popped @ those stops. What would you think if people did a U-turn @ these established checkpoints. I’m leaning toward it’s probable cause and I’m a strong 4th amendment guy, and I deplore the war on drugs. These checkpoints are for both illegal immigrants and drugs.
pete9999:
I remember they made some FL state cop a hero for coming up with the idea. Lie to the public! It’s for their own good.
back in the 80’s they tried the same thing here off I 95 in volusia county florida. feds made them stop because too many people were turning around in the median creating hazardous conditions.
well the response to this will surely give them something to do besides sit around and eat donuts. seeing as how today you can give a cop a “dehumanizing stare” and thats reason for them to put you in a choke hold. or waving your arms around while rough housing with friends, or even walking out of the store with bottled water. the police state is here now comes the push to force the people to begin a civil war so they can really come out in the open and realize their martial law. so far progress isnt going the way they want. so expect situations like this to get worse and worse