There is a truly bizarre case out of Ohio where Norman Gurley, 30, was arrested for having a hidden compartment in his car. However, there were no drugs or guns or anything illegal in the compartment. Indeed, there was nothing illegal in the car or on Gurley. However, just have a hidden compartment in your car can now be charged as a crime in Ohio. It is part of the expanding criminalization of America where virtually any act can be charged as a crime by police.
Once again, the fault for this arrest rests with legislators who give little thought to adding more crimes to their state codes, often at the request of police or prosecutors. In this case, the legislators added the following crime: “No person shall knowingly operate, possess, or use a vehicle with a hidden compartment with knowledge that the hidden compartment is used or intended to be used to facilitate the unlawful concealment or transportation of a controlled substance.”
Note that prosecutors already have criminal enterprise and conspiracy laws to nail people involved in the drug trade. This crime turns on the dubious distinction of an intention to use the compartment for illegal purposes. Moreover, it allows for the proliferation of charges in cases where drugs are found. Instead of just being charged with the drug possession, intent to distribute, and other conventional charges, the Ohio prosecutors can add a charge for the actual compartment in the car. Such proliferation of counts allows prosecutors to force people to plead guilty to avoid long potential sentences.
Lt. Michael Combs said that the officers stopped the car and then noticed “components inside the vehicle that did not appear to be factory.” That led to a full search and arrest. Combs insisted “The law does help us and is on our side.” I am sure that it does. But giving police a myriad of ways to charge citizens hardly helps society. It encourages pretext stops and allows for full searches if police spot things that “do not appear to be factory.” We have previously discussed the problem of such pretextual stops. For a prior column, click here.
Source: CBS
The remarkable (remarkable to me, if to no one else) forms of group psychosis facilitated by humans’ mirror neuron system continues to intrigue and fascinate me.
I happen to have an Amateur Radio Extra Class license issued by the Federal Communications Commission, and I have two motor vehicles with mobile amateur radio station installations, which I put together for possible use in disaster communication situations.
The wiring from the receiving and transmitting apparatus to the antenna mounting is run, in one of the vehicles, through concealed spaces in the vehicle, those spaces being the essence of the vehicle’s monocoque design and construction. The motor vehicle manufacturer also used those concealed spaces as conduits for electrical wiring.
Remove some trim pieces, whether made of metal, plastic, or something else, and every motor vehicle I have ever studied which is of monocoque design and construction has concealed spaces which someone could intend to use for concealed carry of illicit substances.
And it gets better as it gets worse. Consider the four door sedan my wife and I acquired in 1986 for her to use to get to her work as a Chicago Public School teacher during the years 1986-1993. The back seat bottom was removable with effort, and there was a rather large concealed space under the back seat bottom cushion, a space large enough, I speculate, to hold perhaps a million dollars of street value of some illicit substance.
What if “the rule of law” itself eventually becomes its own greatest violation?
What if that violation is already an accomplished fact of law?
I have the unfortunate habit of emitting a loud laugh whenever I hear the USA being praised for freedom and liberty. Ticks some folks off.
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
Why do we ever accept crimes against the state? Just what is this “state”?
Certainly not the people or an actual reflection of even the will of the majority. just a total farce of an excuse to enslave and control.
Where’s the damaged party in a purported crime such as this one? Prosecutors should have to return to the days of having to prove an actual injury i order to prosecute. Remember “injuria absque damno”?
This is why there is so much contempt for our present policy/political/police New World Order. Its nothing but a police state, which all statists models always have been, and those vested with financial interests will never admit it. And that includes most lawyers, judges, and everyone else that has their grubby little entitlement paws in the public purse. Just grant the state
the authority over the currency system and this is inevitably the societal dunghill you will find yourself at the bottom of.
Beoth 1, December 19, 2013 at 9:53 am
How on earth do they plan to prove the knowledge requirement of that statute?
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That would seem to be the grounds for a motion to dismiss the charges.
The statute has this language:
(Ohio Legislation, emphasis added). So there is “with the intent to facilitate” and there is “with knowledge that the hidden compartment is used or intended to be used to facilitate“.
The statute may be over-broad and/or ambiguous because it could apply to even the tires on the vehicle.
And how, in terms of intent or knowledge, do they discern the deferences in section (I) and the other sections viz a viz whether such a box, safe, container, or other item is not what the defendant in this case had?
And as you say, from the facts in the case how do they have probable cause to arrest absent a confession?
The same could apply to a firearm in the sense that it could be used for bad.
Therefore since the compartment could be used to conceal controlled substance, it must have been intended to be used in the future for that purpose alone out of many legal purposes (hiding valuables from thieves, etc.).
Somebody call Maxwell Smart.
Next they will say people can be arrested on a DNA predilection to commit crimes… http://rt.com/usa/police-dna-swabs-reading-checkpoint-405/
Seems it is epidemic.. http://rt.com/usa/texas-warrants-future-prediction-crimes-449/
Once again, we see the result of the Tea party types in the GOP who scream about the Constitution and then support and vote for GOP judges who spit on it. The Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals in Sharon Keller who has committed perjury, fraud, and simply closes the court to make sure no appeals can be made to a death penalty case. My ex roomie has given me enough horror stories about these so called judges to last a lifetime.
Justice in Texas means “just US, the rich and well connected” I have to admit that I have nothing but contempt for most of the judicial system in this state. It is a farce.
davidblue, In the segregationist South, most of them had visual rape laws on the books to prosecute black men who looked at white women the wrong way. I think that some of the more rabid PC women would like to see that restored too.
It would be interesting to read the report and see how the police had probable cause to prove the intent side.
This is similar I suppose to drug paraphernalia laws
If Anyone can be pulled over for any reason…… Might as well shoot first, and answer questions later!
Jonathan, surely your staff will be challenging this idiot law. And thanks for the wonderful job you have done thus far on other such ridiculous legislation.
Rediculous! Our rights are quickly slipping away and so few people are wise enough to give a crap! Only when the sheep change will society change!
How on earth do they plan to prove the knowledge requirement of that statute?
We have a sick society where the majority has to push their (dubious) morals on all of society. Stop the madness now. Most people decry the persecution of those not in the majority religion in the middle east but we have the exact same thing here. My god says you should not smoke pot so I will put you in jail if you do. Sick, we are sick society.
Paul wrote: “My god says you should not smoke pot so I will put you in jail if you do. Sick, we are sick society.”
I don’t think that I have heard a religious argument for not smoking pot. Where does the Bible or other religious book teach that?
I think most of society is tired of the war on drugs. They should be legalized and regulated, and education should be the main force to curb its negative effects in society. This approach seems to have worked with cigarette smoking, although local prohibitions in the work place and public accommodations also had a hand in that.
Government employees have way too much time and money on their hands. The police also have too much time on their hands if they are wasting time enforcing laws like this. I say take away their money and shorten their hours and these kinds of problems will go away.
What next?
The “He looked at me the wrong way” law?
Will hidden compartments in homes be next?
The so called “Drug War” has created a class of “law enforcement” professionals who have forgotten what the law is supposed to do. All of us are at risk.
Police State.
God forbid someone wants to hide stuff from thieves.
This country sucks now.
Where is the ACLU on this? Make the call!
ACLU of Ohio
Executive Director: Christine Link
4506 Chester Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44103
Phone: 216-472-2200 | Email: contact@acluohio.org
Web: http://www.acluohio.org