Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:26 am
A couple years ago, I posted about gov't overstepping its bounds... Again..
https://washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/01/11/why-the-wet-tea-leaves-drug-raid-was-outrageous/
A man went to a hydroponics shop to get supplies for a school science experiment with his kids... Growing tomatoes... Which they kept growing.
Well, drug task force officers were surveilling the store hoping to get a bust.... They run his license plate and gather all his info. 8 MONTHS later they go to his house and search his trash can, finding tea leaves... This cop then leaves.. He later tests the 'weed' with a field test that's been proven to be inaccurate up to 70% of the time... And.. Subsequently, requests a warrant, based on his sworn affidavit that these wet tea leaves looked to be marijuana.
They did nothing else to confirm anything... They waited 8 months to run through his trash, but couldn't wait a couple days to get a lab test. Why?
They wanted a huge number of raids on April 20th, yes, 4/20..so,they rounded up a swat team and forced their way into the house demanding to know where their grow operation was..
Clearly, the owners, BOTH FORMER CIA AGENTS, had no such grow operation... But that didn't stop the cops, they went from claiming it was a grow operatio to searching for 'personal use amounts' and tore up their house.
Finding nothing, the officers left. When the homeowners demanded information on why they were raided, the agency REFUSED to give any information, having to be sued in court to force them to divulge the information.
So, they sue.
Judge rules that having tea leaves and buying stuff from a store is PC for a search and not violative of the 4th amendment (WTF?!).
The case was appealed.
Just recently, in December the courts ruled that, although there were multiple errors, they were due to ignorance, stupidty, and overall incompetence... But, here's the problem. Incompetence is protected by qualified immunity. Yup, they had to prove the act was intentional and with malice. The only legal avenue they had was trying to prove the officers lied. Being fucking idiots wasn't good enough.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/15/no-damages-for-victims-of-kansas-pot-rai
So, now you have 2 court decisions, revolving around the same case, basically saying, 'If you drink tea and grow tomatoes, we can kick down your door'..
Just fucking great. Incompetence is enough to justify a raid and you won't get a dime for your home being invaded, being held at gunpoint, your house torn to shambles, etc.
I'm from the gov't, and I'm here to help.
https://washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/01/11/why-the-wet-tea-leaves-drug-raid-was-outrageous/
A man went to a hydroponics shop to get supplies for a school science experiment with his kids... Growing tomatoes... Which they kept growing.
Well, drug task force officers were surveilling the store hoping to get a bust.... They run his license plate and gather all his info. 8 MONTHS later they go to his house and search his trash can, finding tea leaves... This cop then leaves.. He later tests the 'weed' with a field test that's been proven to be inaccurate up to 70% of the time... And.. Subsequently, requests a warrant, based on his sworn affidavit that these wet tea leaves looked to be marijuana.
They did nothing else to confirm anything... They waited 8 months to run through his trash, but couldn't wait a couple days to get a lab test. Why?
They wanted a huge number of raids on April 20th, yes, 4/20..so,they rounded up a swat team and forced their way into the house demanding to know where their grow operation was..
Clearly, the owners, BOTH FORMER CIA AGENTS, had no such grow operation... But that didn't stop the cops, they went from claiming it was a grow operatio to searching for 'personal use amounts' and tore up their house.
Finding nothing, the officers left. When the homeowners demanded information on why they were raided, the agency REFUSED to give any information, having to be sued in court to force them to divulge the information.
So, they sue.
Judge rules that having tea leaves and buying stuff from a store is PC for a search and not violative of the 4th amendment (WTF?!).
The case was appealed.
Just recently, in December the courts ruled that, although there were multiple errors, they were due to ignorance, stupidty, and overall incompetence... But, here's the problem. Incompetence is protected by qualified immunity. Yup, they had to prove the act was intentional and with malice. The only legal avenue they had was trying to prove the officers lied. Being fucking idiots wasn't good enough.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/15/no-damages-for-victims-of-kansas-pot-rai
So, now you have 2 court decisions, revolving around the same case, basically saying, 'If you drink tea and grow tomatoes, we can kick down your door'..
Just fucking great. Incompetence is enough to justify a raid and you won't get a dime for your home being invaded, being held at gunpoint, your house torn to shambles, etc.
I'm from the gov't, and I'm here to help.
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 7:06 am
That does suck. Pretty sure when the system was set up originally, citizens would have recourse. Not roadblocks. At some point it will be too late (now?) or people will find out team Red and team Blue are not helping with this kind of shit.
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 7:40 am
Former CIA agents?
I'm surprised that all the LE officers in question haven't been singled out for all kinds of 'difficulties' from unknown sources...
I'm surprised that all the LE officers in question haven't been singled out for all kinds of 'difficulties' from unknown sources...
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 7:55 am
Selador wrote:Former CIA agents?
I'm surprised that all the LE officers in question haven't been singled out for all kinds of 'difficulties' from unknown sources...
Analysts, employees, agents... Who knows what their real title was. They worked for the CIA..lol.
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:35 am
TechnoWeenie wrote:Selador wrote:Former CIA agents?
I'm surprised that all the LE officers in question haven't been singled out for all kinds of 'difficulties' from unknown sources...
Analysts, employees, agents... Who knows what their real title was. They worked for the CIA..lol.
Even if they weren't agents, they have got to know some current ones...
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:49 am
TechnoWeenie wrote:the courts ruled that, although there were multiple errors, they were due to ignorance, stupidity, and overall incompetence... But, here's the problem. Incompetence is protected by qualified immunity. Yup, they had to prove the act was intentional and with malice. The only legal avenue they had was trying to prove the officers lied. Being fucking idiots wasn't good enough.
The same rules that apply to the government should apply to us. This means that ignorance of the law is now a valid defense.
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:53 am
snozzberries wrote:TechnoWeenie wrote:the courts ruled that, although there were multiple errors, they were due to ignorance, stupidity, and overall incompetence... But, here's the problem. Incompetence is protected by qualified immunity. Yup, they had to prove the act was intentional and with malice. The only legal avenue they had was trying to prove the officers lied. Being fucking idiots wasn't good enough.
The same rules that apply to the government should apply to us. This means that ignorance of the law is now a valid defense.
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Sat Jan 20, 2018 11:21 am
snozzberries wrote:TechnoWeenie wrote:the courts ruled that, although there were multiple errors, they were due to ignorance, stupidity, and overall incompetence... But, here's the problem. Incompetence is protected by qualified immunity. Yup, they had to prove the act was intentional and with malice. The only legal avenue they had was trying to prove the officers lied. Being fucking idiots wasn't good enough.
The same rules that apply to the government should apply to us. This means that ignorance of the law is now a valid defense.
+10000
if these victims were something other than white, there would be rioting in the streets
Re: Courts: PD incompetetence OK, raid house over tea leaves
Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:20 pm
TechnoWeenie wrote:Selador wrote:Former CIA agents?
I'm surprised that all the LE officers in question haven't been singled out for all kinds of 'difficulties' from unknown sources...
Analysts, employees, agents... Who knows what their real title was. They worked for the CIA..lol.
That's nothing. Now if they were former IRS auditors those cops would be in a world of shit!