TheAgitator.com
Know Your Left from Your Rights
Tuesday, May 25th, 2004Busted is an instructional video that explains what you should and shouldn’t do to assert your constitutional rights should you find yourself pulled over, accosted, or in an otherwise precarious position with the po-lice.
It’s endorsed by the likes of Milton Friedman, Nadine Strossen, and Jacob Sullum, among others.
Nice, but try asserting your rights if they think you’ve been drinking.
IIRC, there was an article awhile back about this that the COP that produced them was getting some heat from his bosses.
Lee, of course. The less we know about our rights and their authority, the better for them.
They should point out that you should resist a warrantless search of your car or person only if you have something to hide.
Under the Atwater case, cops can arrest you for the most minor traffic offenses. Once they arrest you they can do everything they can’t do in an ordinary traffic stop: including a full inventory search of your car, and an invasive pat down of your body.
So, if you do get pulled over for a real traffic violation, your judgment has to be–is it worth my while to get arrested just to prove a point. Maybe it is. But you should do it with the awareness that you just might spend a few hours at the police station on a Friday night.
To give an example: I was driving a restored classic muscle car with expired tags and was pulled over by bored Virginia cops who were clearly looking for drugs in the hopes they could confiscate the car. They made me get out of the car, did a full pat down, and a complete interior and trunk search. I let them do it, even though it was illegal–because I had a sneaking suspicion that if I refused, they would simply arrest me for expired tags, and then take me down to the station and (legally) do the same search anyway. As I was out for dinner on a weekend night with my girlfriend, that wasn’t much of an option for me.
Anon, that’s our problem now. It is to inconvinient to protect our rights. We should always say no, especially when we don’t have anything to hide.
Maybe so. Or maybe public interest litigation should target Atwater for reversal. But until then, I think Busted should make a full disclosure of all consequences to its readers so that they can make an informed voluntary decision in light of the possible consequences and costs associated with the exercise of their rights.
Thing is, while they hauling you off to jail, just so they can dig through your stuff, they aren’t writing tickets. Gets them on the bad side of their supervisor fast. You will usually have to piss them off pretty bad to make them go through the effort.
Have to remember traffic enforcement has turned into revenue generation. Will they make or lose money trying to “prove” their point.
The year is ‘94 and my trunk is raw
In my rear view mirror is the mother fuckin’ law
I got two choices y’all pull over the car or (hmmm)
Bounce on the devil put the pedal to the floor
Now i ain’t tryin’ to see no highway chase with jake
Plus i got a few dollars i can fight the case
So i…pull over to the side of the road
And i heard “Son do you know what i’m stoppin’ you for?”
Cause i’m young and i’m black and my hats real low
Do i look like a mind reader sir, i don’t know
Am i under arrest or should i guess some mo’?
“Well you was doin fifty-five in a fifty-four”
“Liscense and registration and step out of the car”
“Are you carryin’ a weapon on you i know alot of you are”
I ain’t steppin out of shit all my papers legit
“Do you mind if i look round the car a little bit?”
Well my glove compartment is locked so is the trunk and the back
And i know my rights so you gon’ need a warrant for that
“Aren’t you sharp as a tack, are some type of lawyer or something’?”
“Or somebody important or somethin’?”
Nah i ain’t pass the bar but i know a little bit
Enough that you won’t illegally search my shit
“We’ll see how smart you are when the K-9 come”
I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one
Hit me