TheAgitator.com
After Careful Deliberation…
Friday, July 17th, 2009Police in San Carlos who heard that a man had been in a minor traffic accident and may have been drinking can’t justify charging into his home with guns drawn by claiming they feared he was in a diabetic coma, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
Ya’ think?
(Thanks to longtime reader Angie for the link.)
Its a shame he doesn’t have any grounds to sue the busybody hag that called the cops, too.
Yes. Tiny.
One of my closest friends lives in San Carlos, he’s on the Board of Ed. It is a very toney suburb on the peninsula. Barry Bonds grew up in the neighborhood in which my friend lives. When my friend bought his home in 1996 for $500K we all thought he was insane. Homes are worth well over $1M now — well, at least they were a couple of years ago.
If this story had occurred in neighboring Redwood City with its burgeoning Hispanic population instead of white-bread San Carlos, I would sit up and take notice.
Until then, it’s another case of American “just-us.”
Thanks to this website, I can no longer watch a movie that has cops in it without noticing every single illegal action on the part of cops.
However, in an effort to turn the bad into good and for the educational benefit of everyone else in the theater, I usually explain every such discrepancy to my wife.
Hey Dave I have the same exact problem. My Wife’s family watches every cop show on tv and every time we go to their house I have to grit my teeth, but after about the second show, I’m all ‘yeah assholes let’s shred the constitution some more, it makes better tolietpaper that way’ and my wife gets all upset and everybody starts cringing when I point out that the police are even dressed like Nazis. So yeah, I know where you are coming from. My wife keeps saying her parents don’t like it when I comment on their shows and I’m the typical ‘political son-in-law’
I’m not in agreement with you zero. I do think the lady has a public duty to report illegal activity (as she saw it).
I believe we need community policing instead of police forces for law enforcement. Have you ever saw any of these news reports of how crime was so bad in a neighborhood for years, but the police could not stem it. Then when the community got together, and started policing the neighborhood themselves it was cleaned up in a matter of days or weeks, and with no violence.
Im with MacK. If he was DWI she should have called the cops. From her own selfish POV, she might have needed to make an insurance claim (although the story says no damage, her perception at the time might have been different).
The cops are given extraordinary powers. They are supposed to be trained to use them only to the extent necessary, and should be monitored for it. They misused them here, and were rightly called on it.
Mack, the guy was already home in his bedroom. If the lady saw him weaving uncontrollably and still on the road, he’d be a danger to himself and others and I’d back her decision 100%. I believe in community policing when an actual crime is committed. This was not the case.
I was confused by why there was a “citizen’s arrest” in the article when the cops were on the scene.
You know, if the cops had really been concerned for that guys safety, they’d deserve some respect. But the fact that they dragged him out in handcuffs belies their good intentions.
Anytime a cop is actually investigating a reported incident instead of arbitrarily testing their authority on whoever happens to be handy, I consider it a good thing.
On the other hand, once the guy got home, the woman was no longer really doing much of a service to the community by calling the cops on him.
Did the judge ask them why their guns were drawn if they thought he was in a coma? Were they going to shoot him out of it?
“typical ‘political son-in-law’”
Meathead!
“In their defense, the officers said they had learned in police training that a person in the early stages of a diabetic emergency might seem, to an untrained observer, to have liquor on his breath.”
Say wha? I know that sometimes people on a low can appear to be loopy or disorented (signs of drunkeness), but I don’t think it makes thier breath smell.
Also as qwints points out if they were concerned they should have called an ambulance, or had a snickers bar at the ready not a glock?
The opinion is well worth reading. It covers a lot more, including stuff that is more important, than the diabetes pretext aspect that this blog entry points out.
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/07/16/07-15102.pdf
Having been in a discussion or two on police boards regarding whether the police can come in your house (without a warrant) because you were reported as drunk driving, I can say that police absolutely feel that they have this right.
This case might have gone differently if there had been some property damage.
Zero,
The fact he was now in his house is not relevant to her calling about the intoxicated driver that was involved in an accident with her. You aren’t home free just because you get to your house and are no longer driving. You were still driving while intoxicated and with the right evidence you can still be charged with it.
That in no ways excuses the officers conduct and they got rightly smacked down for their illegal behavior. Have a question about CA civilian arrest powers however. Can a civilian arrest a law enforcement official? Could the plantiff had arrested the officers for breaking/entering, trespass, burglary or other relevant statutes since the were engaged in illegal conduct?
Give the police a break.
The guy might have been dealing insulin.
;)
Legally? Under the right circumstances, probably.
Practically? You’ll get shot, and then go to prison for assaulting a police officer, if you live.
The cops got in trouble for trying to have it both ways. According to the man-he exchanged info with the lady at the scene of the accident. The lady said he hit her and she followed him home and he didn’t provide info. They apparently had words on his lawn and he thought she was calling another man to come over and beat him up or whatever so he went in his basement and started watching tv.
The cops showed up and he either didn’t hear them or refused to answer the door which is within his rights. So the cops couldn’t neccesarily break down the door over allegations that she smelled alchohol on his breath so they came up with the diabetic bullshit. The fact that they had their guns drawn pretty much refutes their statements, but what else is new?
The cops got the lady to do a citizen’s arrest over the alleged hit and run/DUI but the judge threw it out because of the illegal entry.
The thing I noticed was there was no evidence in the article he had been drinking.You’d think if they had tested him and he was drunk that would have been reported.Maybe this women’s nose is no better that the dogs that have been reported on lately.Besides,one beer might leave a smell.
Black Philadelphia police sue over message board, say it’s racist
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/17/police.racism.lawsuit/index.html
>>>>>I believe we need community policing instead of police forces for law enforcement.<<<<<
If you lived in my neighborhood where people fight over the brightness of street lights and water fountains, you might not be so quick to think that was a good idea.
Being an HOA president, I assure you mob rule isn’t a good idea.
#19 Michael Chaney
A user response to lawsuit from domelights.com
“I will never be able to understand why certain individuals and organizations in our society believe that punitive legal action is the primary course for resolution. As someone who has been the target of a frivolous and unsubtantiated lawsuit, I can appreciate in a small way what Fred is going through right now. The fact of the matter here is that reasonableness, objectivity, facts, evidence, etc. oftentimes have very little relevance or significance once someone decides to use the legal system as a weapon to attack, tear down and destroy another person or organization.”
The irony of this statement overwhelms me.
Its funny that it has to be this egregious of a situation for the court to agree we have some rights the police can’t violate at will.
To #12 – Diabetic ketoacidosis can cause a sweet or fruity breath that is often confused with alcohol. Diabetics do occasionally get beat up, I mean lawfully arrested by police because they appear very much like belligerent drunks.
California officer admits to sexual assault while on duty
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/17/officer.sex.assault/index.html
The guy pled guilty, which is nice. What I don’t understand, though, is that he was brought up on federal civil rights charges. Oddly, there’s no mention of his being prosecuted by his county for the various felonies that he committed.
“In their defense, the officers said they had learned in police training that a person in the early stages of a diabetic emergency might seem, to an untrained observer, to have liquor on his breath.”
This makes about as much sense as the WV CPR incident: “I know he’s in an intimate relationship with another man, therefore he has AIDS so no one should give him CPR until EMS arrives. Scene safety.”
BS!
What the police did obviously violated this guy’s rights, but “the hag busybody” might have been correct in her assessment of the other driver’s condition.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/nationalbreaking/ci_12857731