Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
First off, he didn't stop me at random. He saw my tags expire in that month so he punched my license plate number into their system and it showed that they were in fact already expired so he then pulled me over. That is a legitimate stop. I was in violation of a law he was stopping me for it.
He never asked me where I was coming from, but as I said above he did ask me where I was going. I don't know what his intentions were with the question. I happen to know and am friends with a bunch of cops so I know a lot of times the seemingly innocent question isn't so.
You are right, I had done nothing wrong and therefore he had no reason to search my car. Had he decided he wanted to do that for whatever reason I would have told him that I was not consenting to the search. Had he decided to get a warrant or if he told me he has probable cause I would have insisted that he wait to conduct the search until I had legal council present to observe it.
It is one thing to bite you tongue and not be a smartass when asked a question that is meaningless to you. It is another all together to have your constitutional rights violated. Again, in life you have to choose your battles. Searching my car (or house or anything) for no reason is one that I would choose to fight.
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Any patrol cop will tell you a traffic stop is a potential felony arrest, you got pulled over because the cop was hoping his little minnow he just caught could turn into a fish or a whale, not because your tags expired a few days before. Cops get promoted based on the amount of arrests they have, and felony arrests score higher points, so they are hoping for drugs, DUI, and yes, assault on a police officer. They have incentive to escalate the situation.
NYPD Narcotics Detective Admits Cops Regularly Plant Drugs