from the scofflaws-not-even-bothering-to-break-the-law-anymore dept
Must be tough out there for cops. Literally everything is suspicious. And there are only so many hours in the day. Since no court is willing to end the tradition of pretextual stops, anything that can be described as suspicious has been used to initiate fishing expeditions.
A few courts have called out this tendency to view almost everything humans do as indicative of criminal behavior. This is one of the better call-outs, as it gives some indication of just how many "training and experience" assertions the court has had to wade through while dealing with law enforcement assertions about reasonable suspicion.
A logical reasoning sequence based upon some “training and experience” — because drug traffickers have been seen breathing, then breathing is an indicia of drug trafficking. Because they normally have two hands, then having two hands is an indicia of drug smuggling. Silly — maybe, but one can wonder if that is the direction we are heading. Whether it be driving a clean vehicle, or looking at a peace officer, or looking away from a peace officer, or a young person driving a newer vehicle, or someone driving in a car with meal wrappers, or someone driving carefully, or driving on an interstate, most anything can be considered as indicia of drug trafficking to law enforcement personnel.
Maybe this is because drug smugglers just happen to be human beings and being such, they tend to engage in the same innocuous acts in which law abiding citizens engage. See Gonzalez-Galindo v. State, 306 S.W.3d at 896 (observing that “[c]riminals come in all makes and colors. Some have hair, some do not. Some are men, some are not. Some drive cars, some do not. Some wear suits, some do not. Some have baseball caps, some do not. Some want attention, some do not. Some have nice cars, some do not. Some eat spaghetti, some do not. And, sometimes, some even engage in innocent activity.”)
This is in addition to these data points, all presumed to be "suspicious" behavior by law enforcement officers:
- Refusing to consent to a search
- Driving on a public road at night
- Driving attentively while black
- Driving a registered vehicle
That's the standard law enforcement holds itself to. Fortunately, some courts refuse to accept this lower standard of suspicion. The Arizona Court of Appeals is one of those courts. This recent decision [PDF] overturns a lower court's inexplicable support of a cop's extremely dubious "reasonable suspicion" claims. (via The Newspaper)
The defendant was pulled over by a police officer shortly after leaving a bar. According to the unnamed officer, the defendant's driving was suspicious. Here's what the officer observed:
At the June 2018 evidentiary hearing, the officer testified that, while on patrol for a DUI task force on December 7, 2017 around 9:30 p.m., he first observed Flynn when he was exiting a strip mall parking lot near Dobson and Guadalupe Roads in Mesa. The strip mall contained several restaurants that were open at the time but, because the officer knew there was a hole in a fence on the opposite side of the complex that separated the strip mall parking lot from an adjacent bar, he followed Flynn for approximately two miles. During this time, the officer estimated Flynn’s speed at between twenty-eight and thirty-five miles per hour, never reaching the posted limit of forty-five miles per hour. In the course of following Flynn, the officer observed no traffic violations or other clues of impairment.
This was the entirety of the officer's assertion: that he had observed literally nothing else than a person leaving a strip mall and driving home while obeying all traffic laws and otherwise appearing to be sober.
The officer tried to claim that the driver's inability to hit the posted speed limit was itself suspicious. This ignores that fact that a speed limit limits top speed. It does not make driving at a lower speed illegal, nor necessarily indicate the driver is impaired.
On top of that, the officer could not deliver any reliable testimony about his speed limit-related observations.
The officer testified he initiated the stop solely because Flynn left the vicinity of a bar and then traveled at a speed that varied but remained below the posted limit. However, the officer did not remember how many times Flynn’s speed varied. He did not have any clear recollection of where the fluctuations occurred or whether Flynn had been required to stop or slow down for any of the seven light-controlled intersections the pair encountered. Nor was he able to testify as to how frequent or great a speed variance would need to be to qualify as a clue of impairment.
With that, the suppression order is reinstated and the prosecution loses all the evidence the cop obtained during his suspicionless stop. The problem, of course, is that a ruling like this won't deter officers from performing suspicionless stops. It will just make them work a bit harder when crafting their assertions. People are still going to get stopped for completely bullshit reasons and allow taxpayers to fund the redress of grievances.
#1: Gatlin To: Deckard (#0)
Yes, it is – It most Definitely is …Please Join in Honoring Officers Killed in 2019 -
Master Police Officer Joseph William Shinners
Provo Police Department, UT
EOW: Saturday, January 5, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Dale James Woods
Colerain Township Police Department, OH
EOW: Monday, January 7, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Police Officer Clayton Joel Townsend
Salt River Police Department, TR
EOW: Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Police Officer Natalie Becky Corona
Davis Police Department, CA
EOW: Thursday, January 10, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Trooper Christopher Lambert
Illinois State Police, IL
EOW: Saturday, January 12, 2019
Cause: Vehicular assault
Sergeant WyTasha Lamar Carter
Birmingham Police Department, AL
EOW: Sunday, January 13, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Norman D. Merkel
United States Department of Justice - United States Marshals Service, US
EOW: Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Deputy Sheriff Ray Elwin Horn, III
Comal County Sheriff's Office, TX
EOW: Thursday, January 17, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Police Officer Sean Paul Tuder
Mobile Police Department, AL
EOW: Sunday, January 20, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Lieutenant Robert "Bo" McCallister
Susquehanna Township Police Department, PA
EOW: Sunday, January 20, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Joshua Bryan "LJ" Ryer, Jr.
Glascock County Sheriff's Office, GA
EOW: Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Corporal Shane Michael Totty
Baton Rouge Police Department, LA
EOW: Friday, February 1, 2019
Cause: Motorcycle crash
Detective William Lee Brewer
Clermont County Sheriff's Office, OH
EOW: Saturday, February 2, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Border Patrol Agent Donna Doss
United States Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - United States Border Patrol, US
EOW: Saturday, February 2, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Trooper Lucas Bartley Dowell
Virginia State Police, VA
EOW: Monday, February 4, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Matthew J. Rittner
Milwaukee Police Department, WI
EOW: Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Detective Brian P. Simonsen
New York City Police Department, NY
EOW: Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Cause: Gunfire (Inadvertent)
Chief of Police David P. Hewitt
Rising Sun Police Department, IN
EOW: Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Agent Alfred Zanyet-Pérez
Puerto Rico Police Department, PR
EOW: Friday, February 15, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Lieutenant Daniel Duane Hinton
Florida Highway Patrol, FL
EOW: Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Undersheriff Monty Thomas Johnson
Pawnee County Sheriff's Office, OK
EOW: Thursday, February 21, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Police Officer Nicholas Scott Galinger
Chattanooga Police Department, TN
EOW: Sunday, February 24, 2019
Cause: Vehicular assault
Sergeant Steve Hinkle
Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, TN
EOW: Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Nathan Hayden Heidelberg
Midland Police Department, TX
EOW: Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Jacob Howard Keltner
McHenry County Sheriff's Office, IL
EOW: Thursday, March 7, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Corporal Daniel H. Groves
Colorado State Patrol, CO
EOW: Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Deputy Sheriff Ryan Shane Thompson
Kittitas County Sheriff's Office, WA
EOW: Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Paul Thomas Rutherford
Phoenix Police Department, AZ
EOW: Thursday, March 21, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Deputy Sheriff Peter Herrera
El Paso County Sheriff's Office, TX
EOW: Sunday, March 24, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Trooper Brooke Jones-Story
Illinois State Police, IL
EOW: Thursday, March 28, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Trooper Gerald Wayne Ellis
Illinois State Police, IL
EOW: Saturday, March 30, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Detective Benjamin J. Campbell
Maine State Police, ME
EOW: Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Cause: Accidental
Deputy Sheriff II Spencer Allen Englett
Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, GA
EOW: Thursday, April 4, 2019
Cause: Duty related illness
Sergeant Steven Lawrence Licon
California Highway Patrol, CA
EOW: Saturday, April 6, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Deputy Sheriff Justin Richard DeRosier
Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office, WA
EOW: Sunday, April 14, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Kyle David Olinger
Montgomery County Police Department, MD
EOW: Thursday, April 18, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Conservation Officer Eugene Wynn, Jr.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - Enforcement Division, MN
EOW: Friday, April 19, 2019
Cause: Drowned
Special Agent in Charge Liquat A. "Leo" Khan
United States Army Criminal Investigation Division, US
EOW: Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
K9 Officer Jordan Harris Sheldon
Mooresville Police Department, NC
EOW: Saturday, May 4, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Robert McKeithen
Biloxi Police Department, MS
EOW: Sunday, May 5, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Anthony Neri
Sanibel Police Department, FL
EOW: Monday, May 6, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Trooper Matthew Elias Gatti
Tennessee Highway Patrol, TN
EOW: Monday, May 6, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Constable Willie Houston "Hoot" West
Lowndes County Constable's Office, MS
EOW: Thursday, May 9, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Sergeant Kelvin Ansari
Savannah Police Department, GA
EOW: Saturday, May 11, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer William Ray Buechner, Jr.
Auburn Police Division, AL
EOW: Sunday, May 19, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Jesus Marrero-Martínez
Manatí Municipal Police Department, PR
EOW: Saturday, May 25, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Lieutenant Joseph P. Johnson
Seminole Police Department, TR
EOW: Thursday, May 30, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Lieutenant Steven Dewayne Whitstine
East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, LA
EOW: Thursday, May 30, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Police Officer William James Leahy
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, NY
EOW: Thursday, June 6, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Police Officer Albert Ramirez Castaneda, Jr.
Grand Prairie Police Department, TX
EOW: Friday, June 7, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Police Officer Esmeralda Ponce Ramirez
Los Angeles Police Department, CA
EOW: Sunday, June 9, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Sergeant David Jones Fitzpatrick
The Colony Police Department, TX
EOW: Monday, June 10, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Deputy Sheriff Julius Jamal "Jay" Dailey
Monroe County Sheriff's Office, AL
EOW: Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Police Officer Steven James Brown
Port St. Lucie Police Department, FL
EOW: Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Trooper William Moden
Colorado State Patrol, CO
EOW: Friday, June 14, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Lieutenant Robert Jones
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, NY
EOW: Saturday, June 15, 2019
Cause: Duty related illness
Patrol Officer John David Hetland
Racine Police Department, WI
EOW: Monday, June 17, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Tara Christina O'Sullivan
Sacramento Police Department, CA
EOW: Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Trooper Jerry Louis Smith, Jr.
Nebraska State Patrol, NE
EOW: Thursday, June 20, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Corporal Jose Luis "Speedy" Espericueta, Jr.
Mission Police Department, TX
EOW: Thursday, June 20, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Police Officer Michael Vincent Langsdorf
North County Police Cooperative, MO
EOW: Sunday, June 23, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Troy P. Chisum
Fulton County Sheriff's Office, IL
EOW: Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Detective Luis Alvarez
New York City Police Department, NY
EOW: Saturday, June 29, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Deputy Sheriff Carlos A. Ramirez
Kendall County Sheriff's Office, TX
EOW: Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Cause: Struck by vehicle
Police Officer John Ralph Anderson, IV
Metro Nashville Police Department, TN
EOW: Thursday, July 4, 2019
Cause: Vehicular assault
Deputy Sheriff Omar Diaz
Harris County Sheriff's Office, TX
EOW: Saturday, July 6, 2019
Cause: Duty related illness
Deputy Sheriff Nicholas Blane Dixon
Hall County Sheriff's Office, GA
EOW: Sunday, July 7, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Conservation Officer Shannon Lee "Opie" Barron
Red Lake Nation Conservation Department, TR
EOW: Sunday, July 7, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Sergeant Michael Stephen
Stone County Sheriff's Office, AR
EOW: Thursday, July 18, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Detective Christopher Cranston
New York City Police Department, NY
EOW: Saturday, July 20, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Deputy Sheriff Benjamin Nimtz
Broward County Sheriff's Office, FL
EOW: Sunday, July 21, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Police Officer Juan Jose Diaz
Los Angeles Police Department, CA
EOW: Saturday, July 27, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Detective James J. Biello
Atlanta Police Department, GA
EOW: Sunday, July 28, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Correctional Officer Pedro J. Rodríguez-Mateo
Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, PR
EOW: Thursday, August 1, 2019
Cause: Assault
Police Officer Raymond Harris
New York City Police Department, NY
EOW: Sunday, August 4, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Correctional Administrator Debra Johnson
Tennessee Department of Correction, TN
EOW: Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Cause: Assault
Sergeant Jeffrey Cicora
New York State Police, NY
EOW: Saturday, August 10, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Officer Andre Maurice Moye, Jr.
California Highway Patrol, CA
EOW: Monday, August 12, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Stephanie Schreurs
Lyon County Sheriff's Office, IA
EOW: Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Deputy Sheriff Carlos Cammon
Orange County Sheriff's Department, CA
EOW: Friday, August 23, 2019
Cause: Duty related illness
Trooper Nicholas J. Hopkins
Illinois State Police, IL
EOW: Friday, August 23, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Jose Luis Blancarte
Kinney County Sheriff's Office, TX
EOW: Friday, August 23, 2019
Cause: Heart attack
Trooper Moises Sanchez
Texas Department of Public Safety - Texas Highway Patrol, TX
EOW: Saturday, August 24, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Voyles
Chickasaw County Sheriff's Department, MS
EOW: Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Cause: Automobile crash
Undersheriff Stephen B. McLoud
Cayuga County Sheriff's Office, NY
EOW: Thursday, August 29, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Detective Joseph Paolillo
New York City Police Department, NY
EOW: Monday, September 9, 2019
Cause: 9/11 related illness
Investigator Dornell Cousette
Tuscaloosa Police Department, AL
EOW: Monday, September 16, 2019
Cause: Gunfire
Gatlin
Gatlin posted on 2019-09-20 17:53:33 Reply Private Reply
#2: Gatlin To: Deckard (#0)
Gatlin posted on 2019-09-20 17:55:00 Reply Private Reply
#3: Deckard To: Gatlin (#2)
Any comments on this?
This was the entirety of the officer's assertion: that he had observed literally nothing else than a person leaving a strip mall and driving home while obeying all traffic laws and otherwise appearing to be sober.
The officer tried to claim that the driver's inability to hit the posted speed limit was itself suspicious. This ignores that fact that a speed limit limits top speed. It does not make driving at a lower speed illegal, nor necessarily indicate the driver is impaired.
On top of that, the officer could not deliver any reliable testimony about his speed limit-related observations.
Deckard posted on 2019-09-20 19:36:17 Reply Private Reply
#4: GrandIsland To: Gatlin (#1)
RIP my brothers & sisters.
Thanks for posting this, Gatlin
GrandIsland posted on 2019-09-20 21:57:44 Reply Private Reply
#5: sneakypete To: Deckard (#3)
Yeah,MY thoughts are this is a public message board,where anyone who wants to comment is free to do so,and also free to express any lawful opinions he or she may have,regardless of who,if anyone,agrees with them or not.
You have a problem with that?
sneakypete posted on 2019-09-20 23:31:31 Reply Private Reply
#6: Gatlin To: Deckard (#3)
Please allow me to call to your attention that today 23 law enforcement officers from the total of 850,000 sworn law enforcement officers in America will be investigated or disciplined for misconduct.
While today, the remaining 849.977 dedicated law enforcement officers with begin investigating what will become a total of 8,969,768 crimes for the year.
Look at the numbers:
I stand to honor those other 849.977 brave and dedicated law enforcement officers.Please join with President Trump to honor fallen police officers:
Salute,
Gatlin
Gatlin posted on 2019-09-21 01:51:29 Reply Private Reply
#7: Gatlin To: GrandIsland (#4)
… de nada …
Respect goes both ways:
Thank you ...
Salute,
Gatlin
Gatlin posted on 2019-09-21 02:20:45 Reply Private Reply
#8: Deckard To: sneakypete (#5)
Not at all. I have a problem when someone deliberately spams the thread and does so only to derail any discussion about the actual article.
Deckard posted on 2019-09-21 08:45:04 Reply Private Reply
#9: sneakypete To: Deckard (#8)
Ok. I didn't personally see that,but I still have chemo-brain,so I suppose it is possible.
Could you point it out to me/explain it?
sneakypete posted on 2019-09-21 13:00:07 Reply Private Reply