Shining flashlight down pants unreasonable

http://www.policeone.com/legal/articles/634398/

Law enforcement officers shined a flashlight down the pants, towards the groin of a drug dealer to reveal a crack vial near his. . .uh. . . crack.

North Carolina court rules that this is unreasonable search (consent was given by drug dealer, but objected to the pants being pulled away.) Conviction for selling cocaine is overturned. 10 1/2 to 14 year prison sentence (habitual offender) is erased.

Are you really that surprised? I'm not.....

dragoman

Me neither, that's where I hide my crack when I get pulled over, so thank g0d.

Anyway, I've done it too, (shined a light on someone's crack), and it WAS in-appropriate, and got bad looks for doing it. I'll try to be more discreet next time.

Casual Flashlight User said:

Yep, good old human right/civil liberties laws to the rescue...truly a Godsend to rapists, murderers, molestors, dealers, terrorists and all other assorted worthless scum around the civilised Western World.

Click to expand...

Also a godsend to reasonable, law abiding citizens such as you and I that keeps us safe and protected from unreasonable searches. :scowl:

Make no mistake, I'm certain that 99.9999x% of police officers are "good cops" just conscienciously doing their jobs. But there are those out there who will cross the line, either from malice or from over-zealously trying to "get the bad guy". This kind of ruling, while letting a bad guy go THIS TIME, is what protects you and I from harassment, etc.

There is no such thing as perfect system. That being the case, if the scale has to lean either toward 1) putting the innocent away or 2) letting the guilty go, I'd much rather have a guilty person go free than have an innocent person in jail.

I agree with the ruling. He was out of line. :thumbsdow

Closed. This thread will get nasty, real fast.

-dan