Thursday, November 20, 2014
Don’t Cops Have Better Things to Do?!
Should it be legal for law enforcement to cut your Internet, electricity, or water, then show up at your door posing as repairmen in order to gain access to your home? A recent FBI sting operation may serve as a test case that answers that question.
Agents suspected some high rollers staying at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas of illegal sports betting (the horror!). The feds didn’t have enough evidence to obtain a warrant, so they got creative: They cut the suite’s Internet, then showed up posing as repairmen.
Once they gained access to the suite, they sneakily collected enough evidence to persuade a judge to issue a warrant. They then returned to the suite and arrested eight men for allegedly running an illegal gambling operation.
Defense attorney Tom Goldstein argues the evidence was obtained illegally, claiming the federal agents failed to mention their “cable guy” shenanigans when they approached a federal magistrate judge seeking a warrant.
The federal case is working its way through the courts and the outcome may allow law enforcement to go further than ever before in using trickery to enter private homes.
"The theory behind this search is scary," says George Washington University law professor Stephen Saltzburg. "It means the government can cut off your service, intentionally, and then pretend to be a repair person, and then while they're there, they spend extra time searching your house. It is scary beyond belief."
In other news, the FBI’s most wanted list indicates that plenty of suspected violent criminals, including a man wanted for the murder of his mother, wife, and three children, are still at large.
2 minutes, 14 seconds.
Follow the show on Twitter (@DontCops), and submit your nominees for next month.
"Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?" is written and directed by Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker). Produced and edited by Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Music by audionautix.com and "The Contessa" is by Maurice and the Beejays (Magnatune Records).
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THE CIA WAS WARNED SEVERAL TIMES ABOUT THESE TERRORISTS IN BOSTON AND THE CIA DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN, WHY?
ReplyDeleteTHE SAME THING WITH 911, THE CII WAS INFORMED AND IT THE TERRORISTS WERE AIDED BY THE CIA, AIR TRAFFIC, AND OTHER AGENCIES AND ALLOWED 911, AND THEN MADE A FALSE RELATION WITH IRAQ WHICH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 911 AS THE TERRORISTS WERE SAUDIS.
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? WHATEVER IT IS, BUSH, CHENEY, RUMSFELC & CO. WILL NEVER GIVE YOU THE RIGHT INFORMATION, BECAUSE OUR OWN POLOTITICNA INSIDE THE CIA, FBI POLITICIANS ARE THE TERRORISTS, BUT YOU DON´T GET IT YET. WHY? rw
WELL, AND ALSO THE WRITER IS AN ENTITLED WHITE PERSON WHO THINKS THE POLICE ARE ACTUALLY THERE TO PROTECT THEM. THIS IS WHAT WE CALL "WHITE ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY." SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THAT BLACK THUGS NOW HAVE THE ATTITUDE OF A 3RD WORLDER. THE POLICE ARE OUT THERE TO HURT YOU, THEY ARE THE ENEMY, YOU RUN OR FIGHT WHEN YOU SEE THEM! IT'S JUST THAT SIMPLE. YOU'RE NOT ENTITLED FOR THE POLICE TO PROTECT YOU.
ReplyDeleteYOU HAVE TO GET A GUN YOURSELF.
A WOMAN SHOULD NOT BE WITHOUT A MAN, AND IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MAN THEN YOU'RE A LOSER, AND AN EASY MARK FOR ALL KINDS OF PREDATORS!
I SO CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THE PRISONS CLOSE DOWN DUE TO AUSTERITY, AND THE POLICE FORCE IS REDUCED BY 2/3RDS BY GETTING RID OF ALL LOCAL POLICE FORCES.