puma guy wrote:cb1000rider wrote:puma guy wrote: Never agree to a search!
IMHO, about 50% of the time they'll search if they want. Very little downside. If you're a bad guy, they catch you and you lose your stuff. You get away only after some time and a lot of lawyer fees. That's versus letting you drive away.
If you're a good guy and they don't find anything, how many good guys actually follow through with a complaint? It'd cost a lot more than you're going to win to sue.
Seems pretty clear to me why it's not as simple as just saying no to a search, at least in some cases.
I have absolutely nothing to hide and I know they'll search if they want to, but
w/o permission or PC it's not a legal search. At least from my understanding of the 4th A.
IMHO that understanding of the 4th Amendment, as interpreted by the courts, is incomplete and reliance on such an understanding can lead one into difficulty.
For example, a search with neither permission nor probable cause is not illegal by way of being unconstitutional if under the circumstances it is not "unreasonable."
I write this not to be critical of the poster, but instead to caution new members to take care in considering shorthand definitions of difficult legal concepts here to be trustworthy when one's physical safety, liberty or possessions might be at stake. Nor do I suggest that whether or not a search without permission or probable cause is in fact "reasonable" is a simple test, easily answered while perhaps under stress by one looking for certainty in the law.
Jim
