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Sep. 21st, 2007 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogThe story linked from fark about a fellow who was arrested for refusing to show ID to a police officer after refusing to produce his store receipt for a Circuit City bag checker dude and had all charges against him dropped got me really interested in what my rights are as a citizen of The United States and of Wisconsin, and a worker in Illinois. I did a little searching while at work and found this. There's a lot of good stuff there at Flex Your Rights that you should probably at least be familiar with. It's a hard thing to say to to a police office who commands you out of your vehicle and wants to search your car. I get really freaked out and the adrenalin starts pumping when I'm pulled over, and the endorphines cloud the details of the time a few years ago that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wooisme and I were stopped and told to leave our vehicle at the side of a highway west of Detroit. I seem to remember the officer giving the inside of our car at least a cursory examination. (Supposedly, I was pulled over for changing lanes without signaling which, while perhaps not impossible, is highly out of character for me and I suspect it was a pretext.)
It's good to keep in mind that a police officer does not have the authority to search you, your vehicle, any bags or containers you have with, or your property without a warrant, reasonable cause to think you are committing a crime, or your consent. A lot of people, I among them, would probably be tempted to consent to an otherwise unreasonable and illegal search because we have this ingrained notion that you can't say no to a cop. Well, you really can. Flex Your Rights explains when you can't, when you can, and some of what to expect when you do. Well worth reading.
This has lead me to decide that I'm going to email the Kenosha Police office and ask a few questions about rights in Kenosha as relates to carrying ID, showing ID, or being asked to allow a search of your possessions or recent purchases. You never know; it might be important for me to know this at some point.
In other news, I've never read much (or really, any) modern history before, but while cleaning up the library I found my six volume history of World War II by Winston Churchill that I grabbed at a thrift store a few years ago and decided to bring the first book with me to work to start on. History is really a good thing to know about, and who knows; maybe it will actually be interesting.
wooisme and I were stopped and told to leave our vehicle at the side of a highway west of Detroit. I seem to remember the officer giving the inside of our car at least a cursory examination. (Supposedly, I was pulled over for changing lanes without signaling which, while perhaps not impossible, is highly out of character for me and I suspect it was a pretext.)It's good to keep in mind that a police officer does not have the authority to search you, your vehicle, any bags or containers you have with, or your property without a warrant, reasonable cause to think you are committing a crime, or your consent. A lot of people, I among them, would probably be tempted to consent to an otherwise unreasonable and illegal search because we have this ingrained notion that you can't say no to a cop. Well, you really can. Flex Your Rights explains when you can't, when you can, and some of what to expect when you do. Well worth reading.
This has lead me to decide that I'm going to email the Kenosha Police office and ask a few questions about rights in Kenosha as relates to carrying ID, showing ID, or being asked to allow a search of your possessions or recent purchases. You never know; it might be important for me to know this at some point.
In other news, I've never read much (or really, any) modern history before, but while cleaning up the library I found my six volume history of World War II by Winston Churchill that I grabbed at a thrift store a few years ago and decided to bring the first book with me to work to start on. History is really a good thing to know about, and who knows; maybe it will actually be interesting.
