Chasisaac, your focus may be a bit skewed, the Government is not necessarily the agency of wrongdoing in the majority of illegal searches.
Though the 'gov' can and do use law enforcement to their own ends, the appropriate cut off point is to really hammer the police and prosecutors for lies and planted evidence, and let the facts stand whether the warrant is good or bad. The penalty for an unrighteous warrant should scale up from a firm financial penalty through to three strikes and job reallocation away from warrants â" including the judges and prosecutors.
A bad or good warrant that discovers nothing does not naturally lead to an innocent person going to jail.
And, what planted evidence in the OJ case? Seems to me that it was a shrunken leather glove and a well played race card that turned the biased jury. Not to worry though as it seems the arrogant murdering son of a bitch is about to get 25 to life anyway.
BSBD
Should 'misinformation' vitiate police search and seizure?
How about common sense ?
Let's agree that 'crime' should be prosecuted firmly to 'punish' the guilty discourage potential perpetrators.. Or does it ?
If a serious felony crime is determined from an illegal search , and we all agree that's okay. What then ?
It's a racing certainty that some police joker will break down a door, beat up the householders, smash and search a previously tranquil home and vindicate the violation with : 'Outstanding parking fines led us to believe that this was a den of iniquity, sure enough we found them smoking a reefer.....they appeared surprised and upset when SWAT entered [swiftly with flash bangs ] so reasonable force [ Mace and Tasers may be painful but we could have shot them !] was employed to subdue the parents and the screaming children.'
One may be inclined to suspect that police will be less careful with their search and seizure procedures, leading to greater disaffection between the police and citizens.. [ hardly likely to get much worse when Youtube shows that even with video surveillance most cops are quite prepared to beat the crap out of the average citizen without much provocation ]
So how do we satisfy the desire to prosecute an obvious crime -based on evidence obtained during a search based on 'misinformation'- and deter the police from smashing open every car trunk and front door in the city?
Make it into a real money game. Their money .
If the police break into a private home or office and find nothing then ALL of the stormtroopers involved, up to the station commander, lose a week's pay which is paid as immediate compensation to the innocent citizen, and the local authority pays for all the damages done and USD5,000 a day penalty until the property is fixed.
If , god forbid, an innocent person is hurt , detained , abused , insulted or otherwise delayed from their ordinary business â" based on misinformation that fails to result in a crime [misdemeanors excepted] then a scale of severe financial punishments kick in, and or civil action court hears the case immediately with jury awards.
Police should also participate in the 'three strikes and you're out' routine.. Next job , guards on a nuclear facility waste dump.
The cash prize would make being a casual police victim reflect the 'star' value of what we see on Youtube; when police Taser, Mace, thrash or shoot hapless innocents, typically pulled over for a tail light violation [tap on the light with a night stick] on a racial profile stop and search action, followed by coffee and donuts.
Give a person a gun, uniform and modest training then inculcate them with the idea that this empowers them to be arrogant , sarcastic, power crazed guardians of the law and a goodly number will become what we fear the most - COPS: 'criminals on patrol stupid'.
Oh, best if all search warrants are carried out by naked police and on video to improve the prospects of real discovery of evidence, and not the kind that appears with the police in handy carry to the scene of the crime sizes.
We all want police to be decent law abiding people, but why should they be any better than the average citizen who: lie, steal , cheat , do drugs, alcohol, porn, sleaze and generally screw up without much encouragement? Experience shows that the police enroll a significant proportion of morally decrepit types give them guns, and back them up in court, with politically appointed public prosecutors that operate a corrupt legal system that has little inclination to serve the truth.
Is anyone concerned about this empowerment of the police without a few checks and balances ?
Not me, I've started posting loads of 'misinformation' on the Internet and hope to feature in a non-fatal police brutality live action video on Youtube , real soon now. My lawyers are on stand by with the cameras. Ready to settle â" out of court.
BSBD
Slashdot Mirror
Chasisaac, your focus may be a bit skewed, the Government is not necessarily the agency of wrongdoing in the majority of illegal searches. Though the 'gov' can and do use law enforcement to their own ends, the appropriate cut off point is to really hammer the police and prosecutors for lies and planted evidence, and let the facts stand whether the warrant is good or bad. The penalty for an unrighteous warrant should scale up from a firm financial penalty through to three strikes and job reallocation away from warrants â" including the judges and prosecutors. A bad or good warrant that discovers nothing does not naturally lead to an innocent person going to jail. And, what planted evidence in the OJ case? Seems to me that it was a shrunken leather glove and a well played race card that turned the biased jury. Not to worry though as it seems the arrogant murdering son of a bitch is about to get 25 to life anyway. BSBD
Should 'misinformation' vitiate police search and seizure? How about common sense ? Let's agree that 'crime' should be prosecuted firmly to 'punish' the guilty discourage potential perpetrators.. Or does it ? If a serious felony crime is determined from an illegal search , and we all agree that's okay. What then ? It's a racing certainty that some police joker will break down a door, beat up the householders, smash and search a previously tranquil home and vindicate the violation with : 'Outstanding parking fines led us to believe that this was a den of iniquity, sure enough we found them smoking a reefer.....they appeared surprised and upset when SWAT entered [swiftly with flash bangs ] so reasonable force [ Mace and Tasers may be painful but we could have shot them !] was employed to subdue the parents and the screaming children.' One may be inclined to suspect that police will be less careful with their search and seizure procedures, leading to greater disaffection between the police and citizens.. [ hardly likely to get much worse when Youtube shows that even with video surveillance most cops are quite prepared to beat the crap out of the average citizen without much provocation ] So how do we satisfy the desire to prosecute an obvious crime -based on evidence obtained during a search based on 'misinformation'- and deter the police from smashing open every car trunk and front door in the city? Make it into a real money game. Their money . If the police break into a private home or office and find nothing then ALL of the stormtroopers involved, up to the station commander, lose a week's pay which is paid as immediate compensation to the innocent citizen, and the local authority pays for all the damages done and USD5,000 a day penalty until the property is fixed. If , god forbid, an innocent person is hurt , detained , abused , insulted or otherwise delayed from their ordinary business â" based on misinformation that fails to result in a crime [misdemeanors excepted] then a scale of severe financial punishments kick in, and or civil action court hears the case immediately with jury awards. Police should also participate in the 'three strikes and you're out' routine.. Next job , guards on a nuclear facility waste dump. The cash prize would make being a casual police victim reflect the 'star' value of what we see on Youtube; when police Taser, Mace, thrash or shoot hapless innocents, typically pulled over for a tail light violation [tap on the light with a night stick] on a racial profile stop and search action, followed by coffee and donuts. Give a person a gun, uniform and modest training then inculcate them with the idea that this empowers them to be arrogant , sarcastic, power crazed guardians of the law and a goodly number will become what we fear the most - COPS: 'criminals on patrol stupid'. Oh, best if all search warrants are carried out by naked police and on video to improve the prospects of real discovery of evidence, and not the kind that appears with the police in handy carry to the scene of the crime sizes. We all want police to be decent law abiding people, but why should they be any better than the average citizen who: lie, steal , cheat , do drugs, alcohol, porn, sleaze and generally screw up without much encouragement? Experience shows that the police enroll a significant proportion of morally decrepit types give them guns, and back them up in court, with politically appointed public prosecutors that operate a corrupt legal system that has little inclination to serve the truth. Is anyone concerned about this empowerment of the police without a few checks and balances ? Not me, I've started posting loads of 'misinformation' on the Internet and hope to feature in a non-fatal police brutality live action video on Youtube , real soon now. My lawyers are on stand by with the cameras. Ready to settle â" out of court. BSBD