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Lunch Links

Friday, July 18th, 2008
  • Chicago man awarded $750,000 after a beating by prison guards.
  • Sheep phones.
  • This one has been floating around the blogs this week, but it’s worth noting. Cop threatens Starbucks for not giving him free coffee.
  • This is weird. That last photo is nightmarish.
  • Washington State Supreme Court rules that the mere smell of marijuana during a traffic stop isn’t enough to trigger a search arrest passengers in the car.
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    This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    • 9 Responses to “Lunch Links”

    1. #1 |  Jim Collins |  July 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

      I have to wonder how that Court would rule about the scent of alcohol? It seems that some police now have alcohol sniffers built into their flashlights. A few weeks ago it was my turn to be the designated driver and we were stopped. The little LED on the flashlight glowed red and all of us were given brethalyzer tests, even though I was the one driving. Somebody mention citations for “Public Drunkeness” until I said “Go ahead. We were not in public until you made us get out of the car.”. I blew 0.0 by the way.

    2. #2 |  Lee |  July 18th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

      We need to bring back NWA and their hit song “Fuck the police”

    3. #3 |  Mike |  July 18th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

      What I can’t believe is that the police union let the officer get fired. I certainly don’t disagree with the firing but I would much rather leave this officer employeed and fire the one who perhaps was a touch too careless with his gun safety protocol during a SWAT raid. Something seems a bit strange here.

    4. #4 |  Dave Krueger |  July 18th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

      Wait a sec. Don’t the figures on that tower constitute child porn. Everyone who looked at those pictures is now a potential felon. I say potential because I believe everyone is innocent until the formality of a trial is over with.

    5. #5 |  Dave Krueger |  July 18th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

      That cop who threatened the Starbucks deserved to be fired. Anyone who takes a polygraph test is too stupid even for a government job.

    6. #6 |  KBCraig |  July 18th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

      Contrary to Radley’s entry stating the smell of marijuana “isn’t enough to trigger a search”, the ruling actually said this:

      The court’s decision will not bar authorities from searching a car because it smells of drugs, the court said. But justices indicated that a drug smell might be stronger evidence supporting arrest if there is only one person in a vehicle.

      When it comes to passengers, though, the scent of pot alone doesn’t give probable cause to arrest everyone in the car. Officers need additional evidence that each individual broke the law.

    7. #7 |  Andrew Williams |  July 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

      “We need to bring back NWA and their hit song ‘Fuck the police’”

      Quoted for truth.

    8. #8 |  freedomfan |  July 18th, 2008 at 8:33 pm

      Regarding the Chicago story about the detainee attacked by guards: Those guards should be in jail for assault. I would hate to find out they still have jobs working for the government…

    9. #9 |  old |  July 19th, 2008 at 11:45 am

      “I saw an undercover police officer going real fast. The girl was crossing the street; he hit her and when he hit her she landed at the mailbox. He got out of the car throwing a bottle. He got a cover to cover her up,” eyewitness Jonathan Smith said.

      Campbell said he “found no evidence that would indicate alcohol was involved”. A routine blood alcohol test was taken on the scene, but the results of that test have not been released.

      Story here

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