Illinois Traffic Stop Of Star Trek Fans Raises Concerns About Drug Searches, Police Dogs, Bad Cops

[Logical]

Radley Balko is a great writer about police abuse. Worth bookmarking his area......

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Last December, filmmaker Terrance Huff and his friend Jon Seaton were returning to Ohio after attending a "Star Trek" convention in St. Louis. As they passed through a small town in Illinois, a police officer, Michael Reichert, pulled Huff's red PT Cruiser over to the side of the road, allegedly for an unsafe lane change. Over the next hour, Reichert interrogated the two men, employing a variety of police tactics civil rights attorneys say were aimed at tricking them into giving up their Fourth Amendment rights. Reichert conducted a sweep of Huff's car with a K-9 dog, then searched Huff's car by hand. Ultimately, he sent Huff and Seaton on their way with a warning.

Earlier this month, Huff posted to YouTube audio and video footage of the stop taken from Reichert's dashboard camera. No shots were fired in the incident. No one was beaten, arrested or even handcuffed. Reichert found no measurable amount of contraband in Huff's car. But Huff's 17-and-a-half minute video raises important questions about law enforcement and the criminal justice system, including the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, the drug war, profiling and why it's so difficult to take problematic cops out of the police force.

THE STOP

The stop itself happened Dec. 4 on Interstate 70 in Collinsville, a town of 26,000 people just outside of St. Louis. Law enforcement officials say this stretch of highway is a drug-trafficking corridor. The account that follows is based on Huff’s video, the unedited dashboard footage from Reichert's vehicle and a Huffington Post interview with Huff.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/31/drug-search-trekies-stopped-searched-illinois_n_1364087.html

[Ian David]

1. If a cop wants an excuse to pull you over, he will find one.

That is why I always pull into a parking lot or something as soon as there is a cop behind me.

[Zorra]

10. +1

[Dawson Leery]

2. Coppers can legally make up any nonsense reason to request a search.

Also, this:
"Reagan's opinion, along with the fact that Reichert was also convicted on federal charges of selling knockoff designer sunglasses, led to Reichert's dismissal from the Collinsville Police Department in 2006. But with the help of the police union, Reichert sued to get his job back."

This is why I oppose police unions.

The intellectual professor is the only true protector of freedom:

[seattleblah]

3. If you have an irrational hatred of unions...

maybe this isn't the place for your kind.

[Dawson Leery]

4. I am strongly pro unions in most cases.

I strongly support unions for teachers, firemen, public and private workers.
I cannot support unions for those who are charged to protect the status quo.

[seattleblah]

6. My apologies if I missed your April Fools joke

.

[Dawson Leery]

7. No joke. The FOP is the most corrupt union around.

Not only will they fight to the end to defend corrupt coppers, the FOP has been instrumental in eroding our civil rights.
I must oppose any such organization.

Police union pays "bounties" to cops who shoot suspects:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/us/albuquerque-police-union-to-end-officer-payments.html?_r=1&ref=policebrutalityandmisconduct

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/payments-to-albuquerque-officers-involved-in-shootings-called-bounty-system.html?ref=policebrutalityandmisconduct

[seattleblah]

8. Ha, you got me again!

I almost posted an angry reply before I realized you were posting jokes.

[Zalatix]

13. Please address the person's cites instead of accusing them of "joking".

Either this is true

Under pressure over its policy of paying officers involved in shootings, the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association said Thursday that it was ending the practice.

and Dawson Leery's post is correct, or it is not true.

I for one want to know if you read facts or if you just get angry without reading the facts.

Get angry if you want - that doesn't intimidate me. I still want to know.

[Major Nikon]

9. The FOP is not corrupt because they defend their membership

It's not the FOP's job to police the police force just like it's not any union's job to police their membership. A union doesn't have the option not to defend someone simply because they may not agree with what they did. Failure to represent is a chargeable action by the NLRB. Not only can a union be sanctioned for it or face decertification, but someone who doesn't receive representation can turn around and sue the union. Faulting the FOP because they don't get rid of 'bad cops' makes no more sense than the wingnuts who incessently whine about the NEA for not getting rid of bad teachers.

[Fumesucker]

5. Welcome to DU!

I hope you enjoy your stay.

[Zalatix]

11. Police unions are QUITE unique

They are the thug enforcer arm of the Plutocracy.

[Dawson Leery]

14. +1

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. This story raises important issues about the corrupting influence of asset forfeiture.

And the use of drug dogs. Thanks, Supreme Court, for the bizarro world ruling that a drug dog sniff is not a search under the Fourth Amendment.

And, of course, it's all about the war on drugs. A real cash cow for cops, in oh, so many ways.