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On Mon, 03 May 2010 16:00:13 -0400, Warp wrote:
> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospam com> wrote:
>> Further, under US law,
>> if they *did* find illegal substances in my car, if the traffic stop
>> was not legal, they would not be able to prosecute because they would
>> have lacked probable cause to pull me over in the first place.
>
> That's one thing I have never understood.
The ends don't justify the means. To be effective in enforcing the law,
the police have to follow the law. The penalty they suffer by not
following the law is that someone who is guilty may go free - so the
incentive is for them to follow established police procedures. Getting a
warrant before a search (or permission from the property owner) is
standard procedure.
If the state doesn't follow the rules, the state doesn't get to benefit
from the rules being broken. Otherwise, you set up a "whoops, we'll do
better next time" scenario that repeats itself.
Jim
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