"Call the cops, they're fuckin' again!"

<a class="postlink" href="http://rawstory.com/2010/03/loud-sex-cops-search-home/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://rawstory.com/2010/03/loud-sex-cops-search-home/</a>

Apparently, great sex can lead to a jail sentence.

Personally, I side with the cops. I know a few cops, some young, some old and they all tend to agree that chances are that anything that's being said to them is bullshit, and a great deal of their work stems from trying to identify said bullshit.

While I value my privacy very much, since I have nothing to hide I wouldn't object to even a completely random search of my home. Worst things they're gonna find are a bottle of tingling lube and a cherry-red vibrator, so I reckon it's not much of a hassle.

FOCUS: How do you feel about what went down here? Are you siding with the cops, or Mr. McGacken?

 

Does unreasonable search and seizure apply to this?

Mapp vs. Ohio

<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapp_v._Ohio" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapp_v._Ohio</a>

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar19.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-co ... /ar19.html</a>

 

Hmm, and cops wonder why they don't get more cooperation from citizens. Maybe it's because the citizens know that they are being looked down on/doubted/disrespected by the very people whose salaries they pay for, the very same people who took an oath to protect them?

Fuck those cops. Fuck them right in the ass. Actually, fuck all law enforcement agents. Cops, state troopers, the DEA, border patrol and customs agents, constables, the whole lot of those ass fucks.

I can legitimately say that because I live in a rural area, and out here (where the local sheriff's department has a response time of about 30-60 minutes) where I live, if shit goes down, YOU are the one in charge until they get there.
So when my shop gets broken into, and the punks flee into the night while I'm waiting for some fatass rookie deputy(because I can't shoot the assholes if they aren't in my house! What the motherfucking fuck? I mean seriously, what the hell are we paying these people for? If YOU become the criminal for defending your property, what kind of country are we living in?), what ultimately happens? The asshole with the badge makes a report and NOTHING ends up happening.

Cops just give the illusion of security to weak people. What do Customs and DEA agents do? They catch the occasional load of drugs that they were tipped off about, but otherwise they don't do shit except harrass innocent citizens and waste our time.
If I can still go out and score an ounce of weed or a bag of blow, THEY FAILED AT THEIR JOBS. Seriously, if you or I failed in our professions at anywhere near the rate that cops do, we would be fired so fast.

Here's a quote from the badass movie Heat that sums up cops in a nutshell:

Nate (John Voight) to Robert DeNiro, in referrence to the cop (Al Pacino) who was after him: "This guy can hit or miss. You can't miss once."

That's right people, no matter how incompetent the cops get and how many busts they fuck up, they still get paid to do it all again tomorrow. They can bend the rules and they can break them, because what are we citizens gonna do? They're the cops! They look after their own!
They can hit or miss!
What happens if you as a citizen don't show up to court/jury duty when you are supposed to? You get arrested!
What happens if a cop doesn't show up? NOTHING! "They must have had a good reason for not being here," says the grey-haired bastard in the black robe.

Well whoopty shit for you. You do realize that sex paraphenalia is illegal in some jurisdictions, don't you?
A completely random search of your home, huh? So you wouldn't mind if I came through and rooted through your stuff or your car? I know I'm not a cop, but since I'm not a cop, and you yourself said that I won't find anything, what's the harm?

This is a clearcut case of the 4th amendment being violated by cops overstepping their boundaries. (And yes, I read the whole article, and I know that that asshole judge SAID that they didn't violate the 4th amendment, but that is just another example of the law looking out for its own. You really think he's going to throw out that case now that they found a bunch of contraband?)
So yeah the couple was making a lot of noise fucking. What if YOU were watching a movie with a lot of screaming or gunfire? Does that make it OK for the cops to search your place arbitrarily (and I'm not asking you Volo; we already know that you have no problem bending over and taking it from the law. You're a real patriot.)?
This is what those cops had: A call from some obnoxious busy-body, and "suspects" who were cooperative. COOPERATIVE SUSPECTS! Isn't that every cops' wet dream right there?!
You know what? I should just use this for my own amusement; I'll just call the cops on people I don't like so I can watch them get their rights violated, since we are evidently living in a police state now.

 

I know a few cops too, enough that I typically side with the cops point of view in any of these debates.

However, if you allow the police to search your home for no apparent reason, you are incredibly foolish. In addition to the fact that such a search violates the Constitution, you have no idea what they are really looking for, despite what they are telling you. Chances are, if they are searching your house they already suspect you of doing something wrong, and what they see or hear in your home may implicate you purely by chance. And let's face it, they are people just like everyone else, and prone to error.

While the following video may seem extreme in instructing you never to talk to the police, at least without a lawyer present, there are some logical reasons to take this advice to heart.

As for me - if you want to search my house you had better show up with a warrant.

 

Hi guys! As many of you know I'm a police cadet. Let me start by saying the guy who was arrested is dumb for not knowing how to deal with cops. "He didn't object to the officer following him inside." Thats a bad move, and one that anyone who grows weed should know not to do.
Secondly, what many people do not understand about being a police officer is the "CYA" or "cover your ass" policy. Dixiebandit, I agree with you on your points about the DEA, and you're right a lot of cops are dickheads. That being said, if those cops had said "well good for you for getting laid" and walked off they could have been in a world of shit. For instance, lets say two weeks later the same neighbor reported more screams, and the cops actually searched; upon entering the house they find a couple of dead 12 year olds. The two cops who ignored the call earlier would be royally fucked. I realize this is unlikley, but crazy shit happens.
A more realistic example: Someone gets pulled over and blows a .10. Above the legal limit, but for many hard drinkers a very managble BAC. "Officer I'm only two miles from home just let me go" The cop doesn't want to fuck you that hard and decides to cut you loose. A mile down the road you run somone over. Now that cop has to answer for why he let you go (he gets fired). I'm all for personal freedoms and privacy, and if it were me, I probably would have left without searching (unless the dumbass let me in like this guy did) but the off chance that youve missed something can really fuck you in the end. The sad fact is that cops are trained to assume people lie, because on the whole, people lie.

 

I'm no expert or anything, but aren't these two scenarios completely different? If on the off chance there are dead things in the house, the cop who said "well good for you for getting laid" should have absolutely nothing to answer for. "I got called because people were fucking, I didn't feel it was necessary to check for dead things" They're completely unrelated.

As for the drunk driver, he was actually doing something illegal. In this case the officer absolutely has some responsibility and something to answer for. If on the other hand, you said he blew a .05, then ran someone over, the cop should have nothing to answer for. He did his job. It's just a complete freak accident and coincidence that he ran someone over. I think this case would be more comparable to the original article, not the one where the driver blows .1

 

The guy was growing pot in his house, he was doing something wrong. I'm still not sure which way I feel about the cop searching the house, but if the dumbass wasn't growing, he would have been fine.

 

Sorry I should have made this a little more clear. The point I was trying to make is that as a cop you have to make sure you cover all your bases. They werent called because people were fucking (or they didn't know anyway). They were called for screams. They werent sure what caused the screams, and if it had been because of something bad, they would have been in trouble for not investigating further. The DUI thing was just a way of illustrating what can happen if you don't follow up on shit. Admittedly it was bad example.

 

Well, touche, I guess. I also should have been more clear. If they were doing something bad that pertained to the original call, which could have warranted a search. Searching the house because of a possible noise violation seems out of the question to me. Now, if they had gotten a call because it smelt like weed, then the search would have been [more] warranted, and I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it.

They had no reason to believe it was something bad, and as far as I can tell, no reason to perform the search. And if the rest of this thread is true, the search is unconstitutional anyway, so those cops should get some sort of reprimand.

Because the search was performed, illegaly or not, and pot was found, the grower also should be punished. Just sucks for him that he shouldn't have got caught in the first place. Guess that's the risk you take, though.

 

I know many people who are police officers and I know their jobs aren't easy, I understand this but I would never allow cops into my house if they don't have a warrant, but that's not a problem I don't think I've heard of any cases of police searching houses without a warrant, at least not in the last few years.

I don't know if they're common in America, but over here road blocks lately are quite common, especially on weekends, the police or the army stops your vehicle and checks for drugs, weapons etc, and if you have something in the car they'll find it. The law says that the police can search your car if there's 'reasonable suspicion,' however what usually happens is they allow everyone to go through except young people, for example if you're old or with family, you'll probably won't get stopped. The law says that you can ask why they want to search your car, but in reality you'll end up in court facing charges of obstruction of justice.

Most people get into trouble with the police because they either don't know their rights or they just can't keep their mouth shut. The video posted above is very helpful, watch it. Even though it speaks on U.S law, if I'm ever arrested and questioned, you can bet I'll keep my mouth shut, since over here we don't have the right of having an attorney present during questioning.

 

I love the -4 reps for saying the guy was wrong in the eyes of the law by growing pot in his house.

Been thinking about the cops searching over a complaint about screams. I understand it.

The screams could have been loud sex, or they could have been the guy chasing the woman around the house, trying to beat the shit out of her. You hear about the woman covering for the man in this situation all the time.

I know this isn't the case, but it's possible and reasonable to warrent further investigation. From the looks of the article though, the guy didn't tell the cop that he COULDN'T search the house either, the cop followed him in to his place.

I've HAD a cop search my car without permission/probable cause personally and I didn't like that shit one bit. If he smelt weed on me, I'd still not like it, but I couldn't really be pissed. If I was high and driving around, got pulled over and they found my stash, I'm being an idiot and deserve the search and jail time/fine/whatever.

 

So, you're fine if there's a story in the paper next day about "local dude loves sticking vibrator up his ass"? What about if the cops decide they like some of your shit and start "confiscating it for evidence"? Or, what if they decide to plant some weed in your place?

That being said, the people in the story are fucking idiots and deserve their jail time. I mean, what kind of idiot lets the cops into their house without a warrant?

 

In the US, as a general rule, I think cops usually tell you why they feel the need to search you/your car/your home to avoid this Fouth Amedment issue & to not have to wait for a warrant to be issued. They'll say "I'd like to search ______ as I can smell weed/there's blood all over the walls/wife's bruised up." A cop I talked to said this is a good way to have the possible perp just cave in and accept the inevitable without the cops having to jump thru a bunch of legal hoops.

 

Wait, you can't have it both ways. Either you value your privacy or you don't.

I love when people argue the "I have nothing to hide" statement. As if that makes searches any less bothersome.

What's scarier- A pot grower or a gestapo with more rights than its citizens?

 

Seriously, some of you need to rethink this a bit. They weren't ransacking the place looking for traitors to the brotherhood here, they got a a 911 call that someone was screaming in distress and looked in a couple of rooms to make sure no ones life was in danger.

Personally I could care less about the pot one way or another. Only thing even worth considering is the search itself,which was just the cop following the guy to his bedroom with no protests from the guy, not him turning over mattresses and couches and rummaging through drawers and such.

It all boils down to should the cop believe the dude and his girlfriend that the screams were the two of them fucking. Notice that. Screams. Not just loud noises or music. Screams. Screams imply that someone might be in distress. Personally I think that's good enough reason for a cop to poke his nose into a couple of rooms. He starts rummaging through drawers and reading through my emails that's going way too far but for me 911 call + screams = take a quick peak around and make sure there's not a bound and gagged teenage runaway all bruised up and and cowering in the corner covered in blood and semen in the bedroom (ie an average Tuesday evening at home for some of you freaks) before apologizing for the inconvenience and asking them to keep it down in the future and maybe an off-the-cuff remark about the reconsideration of her choice of sex noises.

If this happened to me (minus the pot obviously) you can bet that while I would feel a touch violated, similar to the feeling you get for a speeding ticket when you know you were doing 10 over the limit, at least I end up with a story that, when told, results in a response of "Wait, you two fucked so hard the cops searched the house?" Net gain.

 

This guy just sounds like a dumbass. Case closed. He didn't object when the cops followed him in, he admitted that he had weed. The cops did nothing wrong. As others have said, you can't just accept someone's explanation for the screams and leave it at that, because (quoting the court decision in this case) "the potential for harm was too severe for the police to accept an explanation for loud screaming that could have been a cover-up of its true source."

If someone calls 911 for loud screaming and gunshots should the cops accept an explanation of "sorry I just had my TV turned up really loud"? What if through the open door the police can see a huge surround system and an intense action movie still playing on the TV? Should they accept his word then? These are legitimate questions, but in this particular case I think the officers acted appropriately.

 

What's bullshit about the judge's reasoning is that the police were somehow justified in searching the house because the guy corroborated the screaming. Isn't it just as likely that they would be justified in searching if he flat-out denied any screaming? If cover your ass applies to real screaming, it applies to fake screaming just as much, doesn't it?

 

I'm pretty sure it's a domestic abuse issue.

Nevertheless, the guy didn't prohibit the cops from entering. No gray area if he didn't resist.

 

Can we get one of the lawyers in here to weigh in on this?

Ditto to what most of you said, the guy was dumb. Should have just said no you can't follow me while I get my i.d. That immediatly negates any 4th amendment violations, as the officer was given permission.

Then again, in instances like this, I know there is a gray area in regards to cops suspecting danger in the house and thus making a warrant unnecessary. If they hear screams themselves, they are allowed to bust in and investigate. But simply a neighbor calling? There are some bad neighbors out there, and people lie all the time. I would want to hear the 911 call.

Of course, like in any situation, I'm morally obligated to go against the cops. Though that is a more emotive response rather than a rational one. And fuck, 10 years for growing weed? By the time that sentence is up the fucking shit will be legal. That sentence is absurd. A guy can kill someone driving drunk on his 4th DUI and not get that much time.