Sunday, October 7, 2012

Life Imitating Art ...


Last week, I was watching The Good Wife.  I was acutely aware of how the show makes me nervous, especially that episode.  The lawyer's kid got pulled over for no real reason, and the police searched the car.  Things were complicated by the fact the kids' dad was the State's attorney.  Or maybe that could make it better.  I realized it made me nervous because the writers were intentionally creating situations that wouldn't really happen in normal life.  It was for effect.

Two days later, my daughter came home from hanging out with friends and told me she was pulled over by police for no real reason and her car was searched.  Things were complicated by the fact that her dad used to be a police officer in the county.  Or maybe that should have made things better.  It made me nervous because what made me nervous in the show happened to my daughter.  Luckily she didn't get arrested, and they didn't find any drugs - because she doesn't do drugs, and they didn't have any reason to suspect that except for the fact she got lost.  This did happen in real life and didn't have a good effect on me.

*Sigh*

My husband (my daughter's stepdad) urged me this evening to urge my daughter to know what her rights are - that she should have handled that differently. 

I disagreed - what I want her to gain from the experience is she should be careful who she's friends with and who she allows to get in the car.  People with pot in their pockets aren't necessarily the most attentive people - and stuff can fall out of a pocket.  Just sayin'.  

But after I thought about it, I searched the internet to see if there were other people profiled like that in our area.  I found nothing about police profiling or an individual's rights on the local police web sites (imagine that), but I found a great article on the ACLU's web site about what to do if the police stop you and ask to search your car.  It's geared toward immigrants in particular that are being profiled, but it seems to hold true for all of us. 

I poked around the site some more and found it to be incredibly helpful and enlightening.  I'm kind of in love with their site and want to join and send them money.  I want a membership card or maybe a sticker for the back of my car.

I'm no lawyer, but the bottom line that I got from the article is you have the right to remain silent even if they don't tell you that - even if you aren't under arrest.  Teens have the right to call their parents and/or a lawyer.  Everyone has the right to say no to the search.  But if the police say they are going to search anyway, you just need to say they don't have your consent so you can let your lawyer fight it later.  The article also stressed that the person being searched or questioned should remain polite and calm. 

I mentioned it to my daughter - she said she didn't want to argue with the police, which was my initial argument with my husband - I don't want her to argue with them either.  But no one's asking her to argue - we're asking her to say, "No, sir, and I'd like to call my mother," when an officer asks to search her car for no valid reason. 

19 comments:

  1. Scary stuff there. Sometimes police take too many liberties. Probably just hoping to make money off some tickets.

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    1. I think they should have to call parents before attempting a search of a minor's vehicle. It wasn't even her car. Luckily she knew the second officer that arrived as back up (that's right). She said, "What's up?" to him - she's helped her dad with FOP dinners several times.

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  2. I had a similar situation years ago where the officer followed me four miles to my house, put his lights on, and blocked me in my drive.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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    1. I find that now that I drive a mommy-mobile, I never get pulled over (I know - never day never, right?) even if I'm driving too fast or blow through a light. I'm not the people they are looking for apparently.

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  3. I had a friend who drove a very fancy car and was pulled over all the time due to profiling.
    I think they definitely should let a minor call her parents. One of those things you have to know though since they aren't going to tell you.
    And hope your daughter never lets anyone flaky ride in her car.

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    1. Maybe I'll write a letter to some state senators and see if they can't make that a law - the thing where parents should be immediately called.

      The thing is that I could have dropped a prescription bottle out of my mess of a purse when I was driving with her. That could have gotten her arrested, right?

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  4. Incidents with the police can be scary. It does pay to know your rights, but arguing with a police officer is always a delicate thing to do. They are in the power position.

    We were pulled over once in San Diego, for being from 'out of town'. Where do you expect tourists to be from??? They wanted to tell us our back window was blocked. Whew!

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    1. I agree arguing with the police is never good. But if they are truly protecting us, the taxpayers, we should be able to invoke our rights courteously and have nothing bad come of it.

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  5. Being pulled over at any time i s always scary and stressful, even if you aren't doing anything wrong. Glad you were able to inform your daughter of her rights. And yeah, it's hard with kids who will generally let friends of friends of friends into the car with no problem. Stuff like this doesn't really occur to them, so it's up to us to warn them.

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    1. Sad that I had to go online to figure out what rights she has as a teen - at school, they don't have exactly the normal rights that adults have - which makes them (and me) feel they don't have the same rights by default.

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  6. I have a great deal of respect for the police and their difficult and dangerous job, but my sons were also pulled over for no apparent reason and treated rudely a few months ago. They were painting for a friend in an affluent neighborhood and were pulled over by the police when they were leaving. No reason except they had an out of state plate and they were dressed in old clothing speckled with paint. The cops were lucky I wasn't in the car with my boys. I would have taken badge numbers and names.

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    1. If I hadn't had a chance to think about it first, I would have approved the search too. But now that I've had the opportunity to think about it, if it ever happens to me, I'll just say no thank you.

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  7. I have great respect for our law enforcement officers. But when they abuse their position, it gets scary. They are to protect us, not harass us.

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    1. There's been a lot of teen drug problems in our area and a huge drug bust recently - like in the tens of millions of dollars of drugs I think (maybe just millions). I get that they are trying to get drugs off the street and out of the hands of kids. Searching kids that didn't do anything wrong is wrong.

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  8. You are right in the comment you made above that they should have called her parents before searching the car of a minor. It's a tricky thing, getting pulled over by the cops, and of course you have to be careful they are really cops. I say that because there is a locally famous case of a college student who was raped and killed after being pulled over by a man posing as a cop, uniform and all. :( I think about this every time I pass the flower memorial for her on the local highway.

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    1. I was warned about that sort of thing when I was in high school and did not immediately pull over for a real cop until I found a well-lit spot. He was angry and seemed more worried about his inconvenience than my safety - until I told him my husband was a police officer, then it was all good, which is also not okay.

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    2. BTW, I wasn't married in high school.... :)

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  9. Wow. Dianne's comment above made me shudder. You never know.

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    1. Very true. I tell my kids to have their ninja on at all times. People are crazy.

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