Posted: Jan 17, 2011 12:14 am
CdesignProponentsist wrote:hotshoe wrote:Cops are not allowed to perform traffic stops unless they have - at minimum - reasonable suspicion that an infraction has been committed.
That actually isn't true. Some cities have "Good Samaritan" traffic stops where they cite someone for acts of safe and polite driving practices. I think I would still be pissed for being pulled over but they do implement this.
They however cannot cite you an actual violation if they did not have probable cause when they pulled you over. In order to cite they have to have an initial reason for the stop, but they can pull you over for no reason.
That's not true, legally. In practice, police can get away with pulling you over for no reason - and if the citizen is upset enough to file a complaint about being stopped for no reason, the police almost certainly can invent some reason retroactively to keep the officer out of trouble. But legally, police can detain a citizen only for certain specific reasons:
for committing a traffic violation
for suspicion of being involved in a criminal activity
to arrest the person for a criminal act
A traffic stop - with the lights/siren or just with the officer waving the car over - must be for one of those three purposes to be legal. A local ordinance which allows "good samaritan" traffic stops is a completely irrelevant for purposes of this discussion about trespassing and the deputy pulling the women over in a traffic stop to issue a "trespassing warning".
Was the woman committing a traffic violation ? No.
Was the woman suspected of being involved in a criminal activity ? No. Even if she was suspected of trespassing, trespassing doesn't become criminal until one refuses to leave/resists attempts to make one leave. And she already had left, ferchrissakes. Even a dumb deputy couldn't be confused about whether this fit the definition of criminal trespasssing.
Was the woman arrested ? No.
The officer overstepped his authority, doing the bidding of the church, using secular force to detain the women to issue the trespassing warning. The officer should face disciplinary action.
And the priest should be arrested for filing a false police report - if he did so.
You're quite right not to be impressed.Believe it or not, me and my friends were pulled over because we waved at cop. A "Hello there" and a smile type wave, not a "help me, I'm being kidnapped" wave. It didn't help our stereotypical impressions of cops
