Florida Cop Dresses as Electric Company Worker to Snoop For Pot Without Warrant

[23536]

Florida cops, it seems, will do just about anything to find that marijuana plant growing in your closet. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether Miami police violated the Constitution by routinely sniffing around suspected grow houses with drug-smelling dogs without first getting a search warrant.

In Tampa, meanwhile, police are dealing with backlash this morning after admitting in court they used a list of questionable tactics in pot busts, including dressing up as electric company workers to get into houses and spying on customers at a hydroponics shop using a hidden camera -- all without warrants.

The revelations came during a hearing with an attorney representing a number of people arrested on marijuana charges in Pinellas County.

A detective named Paul Giovannoni admitted that he'd approached one man's house wearing a Progress Energy shirt and let a homeowner take him around into the house's backyard believing he was there to check the meters.

Giovannoni had no warrant or probable cause to search the house, he admitted, but said "it was just a ruse ... to see if I smelled marijuana."

more http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/03/florida_cop_dresses_as_electri.php

 

[TheLostBoys]

I hear people dressing up in electric company outfits to burglarize homes in broad day light.......is it legal to dress like this & walk around neighborhoods checking out houses? Of course not so why should it be legal for these cops............

 

[Newbierock]

As paranoid as it may make me seem, if I had a grow on any visitors would have to provide paperwork. What with criminals being known to use this tactic, and now the police?! wtf.

 

[Mob Rules]

no way! police infringing on Basic AMERICAN principles to bust people for drugs? Oh my this is unheard of.

Well at least its not AS bad as New York cops PLANTING drugs on people

How do people still believe that cops are there to protect us?

Government is turning generations of people untrustworthy towards them whether it be about drugs or national security or wealth in-eqaulity, or trying to stop people from sharing music and movies from each other (the big bad P, Piracy) government is consistently answering to the lobbies and not the people.

I've come up with a new term that im sure i stole from somewhere. Civilian democracy and corporate democracy. Can you guess which one we, in the western world, live in?

 

[TheLostBoys]

no way! police infringing on Basic AMERICAN principles to bust people for drugs? Oh my this is unheard of.

Well at least its not AS bad as New York cops PLANTING drugs on people

How do people still believe that cops are there to protect us?

Government is turning generations of people untrustworthy towards them whether it be about drugs or national security or wealth in-eqaulity, or trying to stop people from sharing music and movies from each other (the big bad P, Piracy) government is consistently answering to the lobbies and not the people.

I've come up with a new term that im sure i stole from somewhere. Civilian democracy and corporate democracy. Can you guess which one we, in the western world, live in?

There will come a day & I do believe we will see it when the police state run by the government will be fighting the civilians in gun fights, etc........just like we have seen in futuristic movies & what not. No way the public is gonna stand for a totalitarian society.........I mean, they are paving the road for this for years now but when the time comes where they want our guns & ammo, look out, sh*t will hit the fan.............

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

The police are just as bad as the criminals they should be after, except they are too busy playing dress up to give a shit about people breaking in. This is such a huge waste of money and it just shows that the cops want easy arrests. Just saying, I'm more worried about somebody breaking in and stealing my shit than I am about some guy who is growing weed. I mean, shit, if the crime doesn't affect me or anyone else, should it really be a crime?

 

[kaywholed]

rcmp use hidden cameras to watch chemical companies to bust drug labs...

 

[Solide]

There will come a day & I do believe we will see it when the police state run by the government will be fighting the civilians in gun fights, etc........just like we have seen in futuristic movies & what not. No way the public is gonna stand for a totalitarian society.........I mean, they are paving the road for this for years now but when the time comes where they want our guns & ammo, look out, sh*t will hit the fan.............

I think that's a little naive. For the largest part of human history people have not lived in a democracy or a state where they actually have a say in matters. They live, serve and die. Most people have a sort of built-in adherence to or respect for authority¹ and unless shit gets really fucked up (think brutal oppressive dictatorship) people will comply with what their government/king/ruler does if they get to live safely and comfortably. Democracy is dying. And it's dying slowly enough that western society will accept it. But that's just my own very pessimistic POV

The police are just as bad as the criminals they should be after

I think don't think cops are that different from regular people. There's some dickheads, there a couple of honorable people but most of them will just do what their superior tells them to do.

¹Remember the Milgram experiments for example

 

[23536]

I think don't think cops are that different from regular people. There's some dickheads, there a couple of honorable people but most of them will just do what their superior tells them to do.[/SIZE]

This is known as the Nuremberg defense. For instance:

When the prosecution rested, Eichmann's defense lawyers, Robert Servatius and Dieter Wechtenbruch, opened up the defense by explaining why they did not cross-examine any of the prosecution witnesses. Eichmann, speaking in his own defense, said that he did not dispute the facts of what happened during the Holocaust. During the whole trial, Eichmann insisted that he was only "following orders"—the same Nuremberg Defense used by some of the Nazi war criminals during the 1945–1946 Nuremberg Trials. He explicitly declared that he had abdicated his conscience in order to follow the Führerprinzip. Eichmann claimed that he was merely a "transmitter" with very little power. He testified that: "I never did anything, great or small, without obtaining in advance express instructions from Adolf Hitler or any of my superiors."

During cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner asked Eichmann if he considered himself guilty of the murder of millions of Jews. Eichmann replied: "Legally not, but in the human sense ... yes, for I am guilty of having deported them". When Hausner produced as evidence a quote by Eichmann in 1945 stating: "I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction." Eichmann countered the claim saying that he was referring only to "enemies of the Reich".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann

 

[Solide]

This is known as the Nuremberg defense. For instance:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann

Well, I'm not saying they're innocent, but that they're not all out to fuck over civilians for the hell of it because they're dicks. Some are more than happy to follow orders such as 'plant these drugs on this person and ruin his life', but most won't be doing it gleefully. They'll do it, and they're guilty, but wouldn't have thought about doing it without someone ordering them to do it.