Yes. Minors generally have the same rights as adults. For example, minors can refuse searches and decline to answer questions without an attorney present. Nevertheless, minors face unique challenges when attempting to exercise these rights...
The sad fact is that most people believe that they are under some kind of obligation to acquiesce when an officer contacts them and asks permission to search them or their belongings. The truth is exactly the opposite...
Unfortunately, many people get fooled by some version of this commonly used police officer's line: "Everything will be easier if you just cooperate". That's true to some extent -- it will make things much easier for the police officer who's trying to arrest you! -- but when it comes to you consenting to searches and answering incriminating questions, it couldn't be further from the truth...
As a general rule, searches conducted without a valid search warrant signed by a judge violate the Fourth Amendment, but like most rules of law, there are a number of explicit exceptions. In fact, most searches occur without warrants because police take advantage of these exceptions to the Fourth Amendment...
No. We believe that most police officers are good, hardworking people who are doing a tough job. We need police to safeguard the life, liberty, and property of all people. To do this best, police officers should...
No. We teach people that they have rights, and that these rights are secured by the principal documents that guarantee our civil liberties -- the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. An informed individual who invokes his constitutional protections is doing exactly what our nation's founders intended. They created these documents to...
Everyone should be trained to assert their constitutional rights under the 4th Amendment in order to avoid the hassle and humiliation of police misconduct and illegal searches. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report on citizen-police contacts...
This is one of those "it depends on the circumstances" questions. Police can obtain consent to search from anyone with control over the property; however any occupant of a residence can refuse consent, even if other occupants agree to a search. Unfortunately, you must be present in order to assert your refusal. The Supreme Court has ruled that...
During a legitimate traffic stop, police may order the driver and any passengers out of the vehicle. This rule is intended to protect officers' safety, but it's often used for investigatory purposes...
No. The courts have made it clear that police officers do not have to tell people that they can refuse to consent to a warrantless search. Also, contrary to the belief perpetuated by popular police television shows, a person will not be read their rights subsequent to being taken into custody. A person only needs to be Mirandized when...
Be aware that private security personnel outnumber police officers in the United States by three to one. As a result, you may be more likely to be confronted by a security guard than by a police officer. You must also be aware of the following places where security personnel (governmental or otherwise) are permitted to search you without a warrant...
No. If a police officer asks your permission to search, you are under no obligation to consent. The main reason why officers ask is because they don't have enough evidence to search without your consent. Don't expect an officer to tell you of your right not to consent. Any time you consent to a search request you are naively waiving your constitutional rights.
Videotaping or photographing police in public places is usually legal, so long as you don't interfere with their activities. Nonetheless, doing so will often get you arrested...
Simply put, the number of arrests an officer makes is a major factor used to determine his job performance. Police officers know that the easiest way to make arrests is to find people in possession of illegal drugs, so they want to search everyone they can find...
The TSA got more than they bargained for when they detained Steve Bierfeldt, a staffer at Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty. They wanted to know why he was carrying $4,700 and he wanted to know whether he was legally obligated to tell them. Fortunately, he was able to record the incident on his phone. This FOX News clip has the audio:
All he did was ask what his rights are in this situation and they start cursing and threatening to call in the DEA. It's ridiculous. There are an infinite number of perfectly legitimate reasons why someone might travel with cash (in this case, the money came from selling merchandise at a conference).
Bierfeldt made it perfectly clear that he would answer the question if the law required him to do so. He wanted to know his rights and there's no excuse for public officials refusing to help a citizen understand the law, especially when the individual has been detained for allegedly suspicious activity.
Fortunately, TSA has now acknowledged that their staff handled the situation badly:
The tone and language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate. TSA holds its employees to the highest professional standards. TSA will continue to investigate this matter and take appropriate action.
This provides yet another example of the potency of recorded evidence towards exposing questionable behavior by public officials. Without the recording, I highly doubt Bierfeldt could have convincingly demonstrated the rudeness to which he was subjected.
Hopefully, TSA will do more than just remind its employees not to curse and insult people. All government officials should be trained to give an honest and helpful response when citizens ask questions about the law.
TSA will not do a damn thing to prevent this from happening. The only reason why they issued an apology is because they got caught. However, it will resume to business as usual unless formal policy changes are documented.
With the rampant amount of "what is fair" concerning our 4th Amendment, why, when, what and who is going to teach our Law Enforcement a beautiful asset of how to protect their own job description? It's the Constitution itself that provides them a job to begin with unless we as citizen want willy nilly. Have we forgot who's in charge of our own Country? Isn't it us? The Good law abiding Citizens of the United States of America? If you don't know the answer, it's YES we are. Nothing further to say about it.
They will fix it to where it doesn't happen again. They'll definitely make sure they have your cellphone and any other devices in their possession (unless it's illegal to take it from you, which i think it would be).
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