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George "geohot" Hotz Arrested In Texas For Posession of Marijuana

Posted by timothy on from the such-a-nice-drug-war-you've-got-going dept.

n1ywb writes "Goerge 'geohot' Hotz, famous for being the first to jailbreak an iPhone and for his spat with Sony over PS3 jailbreaking, was busted for possession of a small amount of marijuana at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas on his way to SXSW. The shakedown goes like this: drug dogs are run around vehicles; when they signal, DHS searches the car and finds the contraband; DHS then turns evidence and suspects over to the local sheriff. Willie Nelson, actor Armie Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network), and Snoop Dogg have all gotten in trouble at the same checkpoint under similar circumstances."

12 of 578 comments (clear)

  1. Smart people can be dumb by mcmonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would you go through a border checkpoint with marijuana unless you wanted to get caught?

    1. Re:Smart people can be dumb by Anrego · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Pretty lame for a frame. He's gonna get what.. a small fine?

      If gonna go to all that trouble.. may as well throw a brick of cocaine or something in there.

    2. Re:Smart people can be dumb by tylersoze · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Uh you do understand this "border" checkpoint is nowhere near the actual border, right? It's just some random spot on I-10 like a 100 miles from the border. Completely ridiculous.

      That said, you'd think people would have heard about this and avoid I-10 like the plague in that part of the state.

    3. Re:Smart people can be dumb by ISoldat53 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Some roads in Texas you have no choice but to drive through a checkpoint. I always avoid Texas. Not for that reason, just for general principles.

    4. Re:Smart people can be dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you're sending a dog around to sniff a vehicle you've randomly chosen, you're *already* performing the search before the dog alerts. The use of the dog is *part* of the search process.

      You need a warrant, or probable cause' to perform a search.

      So, either basic logic escapes you, or you're simply unaware that they don't just have random dogs wandering around the checkpoint aimlessly. I'm betting it's the prior.

    5. Re:Smart people can be dumb by countach74 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Our prisons are so full because they are largely privatized, which in turn lends to the large corporations that own the prisons to lobby for ridiculous mandatory sentencing laws and other things that lead to lots of prisoners. Just like everything else in the United States, money is power and the power is used to get more money and thus, more power. It's a vicious cycle. Most US citizens either loath how the system works or are oblivious to it and think their votes still do something.

    6. Re:Smart people can be dumb by cas2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not the dog that lies, it's the police officer "interpreting" the dog.

      police dogs have long been used like this as a proxy for illegal racial and subcultural (hippies, goths, ravers and other weirdoes) profiling. or whenever a cop just needs an excuse for a search without actual probable cause.

      and even without deliberate lying, there's also a feedback loop - the dogs are sensitive to their handlers' reactions. if a cop doesn't like the look of you because you're a long-haired freak or walking while black or something similarly nefarious, then the dog will pick up on that and react. the dogs end up reacting to the sight of such profiling targets because they know their handler will reward them and tell them what a good dog they are.

  2. How is this constitutional? by swb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even if you grant them mandatory illegal alien checkpoints, how is it possible for them to subject you to a search for something unrelated to border enforcement and prosecute you for it?

    I know we're largely flushing the entire constitution down the toilet these days, but this seems really egregious.

    I've been through the checks outside of Sierra Vista & Tombstone, AZ, and they were more or less roll to a stop, yes we are citizens, have a nice day. No dogs run around the car, no bullshit, although there were dogs at the checkpoints.

  3. Re:Newsflash: they have drug dogs at Mexico-US bor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you try to take drugs through a border checkpoint, you're going to get caught. Should this surprise anyone?

    It should if the people in question are driving from one part of the US to another part of the US. Why the FUCK do we have "border checkpoints" on roads that don't CROSS THE BORDER?

  4. Re:Im still wondering... by Immostlyharmless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Soooo basically I give up my 4th amendment rights simply because I live in a town within 100 miles of the border? Total crock of shit.....

  5. Effective at what? by deanklear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a guy not under the influence being hassled at a checkpoint for the equivalent of carrying a small bottle of alcohol.

    1) How many people lost time/money due to the checkpoint?
    2) How many lives were saved due to the confiscation of a small amount of marijuana?
    3) How much did tax payers spend for all of this nonsense?

    It's effective at promoting stigma for the recreational use of a drug that is literally less dangerous than ibuprofen. It's effective at wasting taxpayer dollars for no benefit to society at large. It's effective at being ineffective, wasteful, and pointless.

  6. Re:You don't say by houstonbofh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Admittedly, most people are quite surprised to find "Border" checkpoints in the fucking middle of Texas! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol_Interior_Checkpoints And why? If the "checkpoints" at the actual border don't work, why would these? (I mean to stop illegal immigration, not bust famous people...)