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D.C. Police Detonate Man's 'Suspicious' Pressure Cooker
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday evening in Washington D.C., police officers on routine patrol spotted an unoccupied car parked near the National Mall. They deemed it "suspicious," and took a look inside, where they found a pressure cooker. They also claimed to smell gasoline. The officers called the bomb squad, and at 7:45pm they initiated a controlled detonation of the car's contents. Afterward, a search of the car found no evidence that it contained explosives or any other hazardous materials. The car's owner was located and arrested for driving on a revoked license.
and if so, did they reimburse the guy?
If you can't take the pressure, you shouldn't be a cop.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
"...an odor of gasoline was detected"
In a fucking gasoline-powered car. Where do they find these geniuses?
You need a license to own a parked car? Was he seen "operating" the vehicle?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
If your license is revoked, don't drive with a pressure cooker.
If your license is revoked, don't store a pressure cooker in your parked car.
blowing up peoples personal property because they have a pressure cooker.
Well, apparently it was an explosive pressure cooker, because they managed to detonate it.
Pretty much this. "We fucked up and embarassed ourselves, so we're going to take it out on you because we can". That's what it reads like. Was the guy who owned the car black, too?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Assuming the cops had good cause to check his license, assuming there is little or no doubt about him driving with an expired license (maybe he foolishly admitted it, or maybe he was caught on camera), and assuming the offense is one that routinely results in arrest (vs. a ticket-and-tow as some jurisdictions do) then it's a good arrest.
Without evidence that a motorist with a revoked license would typically only be ticketed (and towed), or lack of evidence that he was the driver, it's premature to claim that the arrest was done to cover up the other issue. The only legal tie between the two is that the suspicious car - or perhaps the driver's claim that the car was his car - gave the cops probable cause to check his license for validity. Other than that, they are separate and should be treated as such.
Now, does there need to be an independent investigation to determine if these cops used prudent judgment (vs. "looking for trouble" "judgement") - yes. If they were not acting prudently, does the police dept. need to issue an apology and pay damages? Yes.
Memo to self:
If I drive a car without a license and park it, and I see police activity around my car, call a lawyer and have HIM arrange to recover the car.
Memo to self #2:
If my license is revoked, call a cab.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Careful attention to terminology is important. In point of fact, they use an explosive charge of their own, carefully configured and arranged in a manner which they hope will touch off any explosive contained in the pressure cooker. Of course, the police spokesman used outlandish terms in her press release. They "disrupted" the pressure cooker? Jesus - I've never heard a military man use the term "disrupted". It's far more accurate when we say, "We blew it to fuck!"
In point of fact, the cops detonated their own charge, but failed to cause an explosive reaction within the pressure cooker. Maybe they should have used a bigger charge?
Idiots. Everywhere you look these days, idiots. Juvenile minded fools, trying to act like important people.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
It's not a crime to have your car parked somewhere if you have a suspended/revoked license
but it would seem that the guy was driving on a suspended or revoked license
He was not caught by police driving on a suspended driver's license: his car was parked at the time, so there should be no probable cause to arrest.
Someone else can still drive the vehicle for him.
Also, the police should have to pay for replacement of his vehicle and replacement of his pressure cooker, before he can be arrested. As I see it, right now: so far: the police have committed the bigger crime, which is wanton destruction of property.
Really? Then why was there a parking meter there?
Yeah, usually from authoritarians who think it's perfectly OK to enforce laws which they couldn't be bothered to actually enact.
Like its gas tank?
It was revoked. Did you know that in the District of Columbia, the Mayor or his representative can revoke your license for any reason at all, and the only appeal is to the Mayor?
Sure, why not? Now they can leverage dropping that charge against his not filing a lawsuit for the damage to his car.
I don't know about you, but I've never been pulled over for a routine traffic stop when I wasn't driving.
So you want to encourage people to think those of us using them are out to hurt someone?
You're doing the harm.
The risks of terrorism and illicit drug production are only two of the risks of allowing this dangerous 'dual use' technology to be sold on the open market! A far more insidious problem is the destruction of essential vitamins in the pressure cooking process. Some of these are required for higher brain functions, like the ability to parse textual data for abstract meaning. In one recent study, over 70% of regular pressure cooker users were unable to detect irony, satire or even obvious jokes in posts on internet forums. The end product may be delicious but, like cannabis or Snapchat, the long-term effects on the developing brain can be devastating.
Just accept the fact that he buried your ridiculous post, line by line, and exposed you as the idiot that you truly are :-)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
You lose. DC Code 50-1403.1(a) and (c).
Republicans don't like the fact that Democratic Governor Brown put a tax increase on the ballot in 2012, a majority of voters voted yes (55.4%), and the state budget has a budget surplus this year and next year. That doesn't fit the doom-and-gloom narrative that California is on the verge of an economic collapse.
Pressure cookers neither explode nor burn, unless you pack them with explosives. Gasoline vapor mixed with air, however, explodes. If you want to make a car bomb, you don't need a pressure cooker. Ask Dateline NBC.
Yes, but you can't get driving on a suspended/revoked license citations while the car is parked. There's a difference: expired registration/inspection applies to the car, revoked license applies to the driver. If my license is revoked, it's still legal for me to allow anyone else with a valid license to drive my car, and it is still legal for the car (assuming its registration and inspection remains valid) to be parked on public streets where parking is permitted. (There was a meter in front of the car, so parking was clearly permitted at least some of the time).
FUCK YOU and FUCK YOUR "THIS ERA" BULLSHIT!
You know what the reality of "this era" is? The reality is that we as Americans are safer (from all types of crime, including "terrorism") than at any point in history, and that DHS or other "anti-terrorism" jackbooted thugs have had NOT ONE GODDAMN THING to do with it!
The reality is that some terrorists got lucky ONCE, and shit-for-brains sheeple like you are letting the authoritarian powermongers in our government use that as an excuse to flush our civil rights down the toilet. Knock it off, dipshit!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Right, because having a car parked with an item in it that is sold at most department stores and kitchenware stores is reasonable cause to blow up someone's property. And I guess everyone better start driving electric cars if they don't want the police to blow up their stuff too.
And sure driving with a revoked license is illegal, but the car was parked. Now the person involved may have been stupid enough to say he drove it there, or the police might be making that up like they often do. It'd be nice to be in a country where the word of a police officer could be trusted, but the US isn't such a place - and no not all police are going to make stuff up to protect themselves but enough have and then not been charged with filing a false report that it's rational to not trust any of them. Just like when the 8 year old says "no I didn't I eat those cookies" when found next to the now empty cookie jar it's rational to not just trust them at their word.
You didn't read 50-1403.1(c) (concerning non-residents), obviously.