Quote:
Originally Posted by Caligari
if a cop can claim he "heard" something in your apartment which allows him to break your door down, i hope you can extrapolate the rammifications of that idea. If probable cause enters the realm of "i heard something" then things are seriously screwed up. This gives the police carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want and know they have SCOTUS behind them.
warrantless search becomes the new norm.
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This has always been the case, this is nothing new. If the police are outside your door, and they hear someone inside yelling for help, or they hear gunshots, or fighting, or or or .. You better damn well be sure they're coming through that door. If they didn't, you'd be all up in arms about the police not protecting you.
As it has already been pointed out to you, probable cause is taken on a case by case basis. "I heard something". is not probable cause. "I heard somebody yelling for help." probably is.
It's not like police officers, in this case, are saying they entered the residence because they heard something. They smelled Marijuana, a distinctive odour, then heard something they claim to have construed as the destruction of evidence. Upon entering the residence, they found Marijuana. How is it not reasonable to assume they had probable cause here?