opinion noir

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Personally i feel a lot safer with cops making these decisions than courts especially since much of the information used by the cops is twisted by defense attorneys and cant be used by the court. The whole "high crime area" is picked on crap is just that. There is a reason that it is a high crime area, a lot of crimes are committed there. This everything in the world is equal crap is just that. You talk a big game here but if you were walking down the street alone at night in a "high crime area" would the nervousness that you felt be considered racist? The rights of citizens in this country are well protected without this activism and the insinuations that somehow the cops are the issue here. The general tone in your posts suggests that you feel that police 'overagressiveness' is a greater danger than drug dealers. You must be a defense attorney.

Hmmm. No one ever accused me of being shy to take a side but these cases are so tough.

I do find it interesting that you feel safer with cops making judicial decisions than judges. That is indeed dangerous thinking. The notion that cops aren't at times just as dangerous or more dangerous than the criminals suggests a bit of naivete. Come to DC (to tony and joes on the waterfront) on a friday or saturday night and you tell me if you feel the same way. I digress.

Again, there is a fine line between keeping us free from crime while keeping us free from harassment.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

Hmmm. No one ever accused me of being shy to take a side but these cases are so tough.

I do find it interesting that you feel safer with cops making judicial decisions than judges. That is indeed dangerous thinking. The notion that cops aren't at times just as dangerous or more dangerous than the criminals suggests a bit of naivete. Come to DC (to tony and joes on the waterfront) on a friday or saturday night and you tell me if you feel the same way. I digress.

Again, there is a fine line between keeping us free from crime while keeping us free from harassment.

I didnt say that they make the decisions as opposed to judges. I just think narrowing the operational ability for arresting probable criminals is a bad way to go. They still have to be right and produce evidence. In this case they were right and the reason that the criminal was let off was because the court failed to see how they came to the conclusion a drug deal was taking place because they just saw something being passed as opposed to seeing "drugs" being passd and the fact that the criminals didnt run. So my contention is that if upheld couldnt drug dealers simply wrap the drugs in nice little bags and stand still when the police arrest them? No one wants to see civil rights eroded but by keep making the polices job 'technically' harder, you are moving the bar to favor those who break the law. If the police are not trusted to make these decisions as to who is engaging in criminal behavior than who is?

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

I didnt say that they make the decisions as opposed to judges. I just think narrowing the operational ability for arresting probable criminals is a bad way to go. They still have to be right and produce evidence. In this case they were right and the reason that the criminal was let off was because the court failed to see how they came to the conclusion a drug deal was taking place because they just saw something being passed as opposed to seeing "drugs" being passd and the fact that the criminals didnt run. So my contention is that if upheld couldnt drug dealers simply wrap the drugs in nice little bags and stand still when the police arrest them? No one wants to see civil rights eroded but by keep making the polices job 'technically' harder, you are moving the bar to favor those who break the law. If the police are not trusted to make these decisions as to who is engaging in criminal behavior than who is?

You make a good point. As shadow roll said, if a guy is standing there passing out these nice little bags, it is more than just one occurence. That would make it probable cause.

One isolated transaction? In my opinion, it could have been anything.