What You Should Be Able to Say to a Cop
by
Eric Peters
EricPetersAutos.com
One word –
no.
It used to
be a word that carried a lot of weight. Not just morally but also
– and critically – legally. You could say no to
cop and, provided he didnÂ’t have a warrant issued by a judge
– or at the least, some specific probable cause that would
stand up before a judge – he had no choice, legally
speaking, but to back off. If he did not – if he say forced
his way into your house or forced you out of your car or forced
you onto the ground – the odds were pretty good that down the
road, any charges leveled against you would be dropped ( “fruit
of the poisoned tree” doctrine) and – even more significantly
– the cop himself would likely find himself looking for a new
line of work. Or at least chastened.
But that was
the past, alas.
One of the
greatest freedoms we have lost since 911 is that we have been deprived
of the power of no. Instead, we are told we must immediately Submit
and Obey – and failure to do so immediately now constitutes
“probable cause” in our Brave New World. If one says no
to a cop demanding ID, one can expect to be put in cuffs and thrown
face down over the hood of a cruiser. If one declines to open the
door to oneÂ’s home for a cop, it is entirely likely that the
cop will force his way in and if you do so much as put your
hands up to ward off the blows, you will very likely find yourself
charged with “resisting” and possibly “assault upon
a police officer.”
Much worse,
the law will back him up, not you.
Even if the
door kick-down at 2 in the morning and subsequent ransacking of
your home are later declared an “administrative mistake”
(they meant to bash in the door of the house across the street,
not yours) but you, in your fear and absolute innocence took
steps to defend yourself/your family and in the process shot a “law
enforcer,” guess who’ll be up on murder or attempted murder
charges?
This has actually
happened already. For instance, thereÂ’s the case of Ryan Frederick
of Chesapeake, Va.. He was charged with first degree murder for
shooting a cop who broke into his home on a trumped-up drug warrant.
Frederick, 28 at the time, had no criminal record and the warrant
was the result of a supposed police informant who claimed that Frederick
was growing pot plants. In fact, Frederick – an avid gardener
– was growing a Japanese Maple. On the basis of this, a no-knock
warrant was executed – just afew days after Frederick’s
home had been invaded by burglars. When FrederickÂ’s dogs began
barking and he heard someone breaking through his front door, he
grabbed his gun and – quite reasonably- fired at the intruder.
The intruder happened to be a cop and now Frederick awaits life
in prison – or a needle in the arm. (See
here for more.)
He was not
able to say no.
February
24, 2012
Eric Peters
[send him mail] is an automotive
columnist and author of Automotive
Atrocities and Road Hogs (2011). Visit his
website.
Copyright
© 2012 Eric Peters