Police Routinely Violate Our Rights

 I want to mention up front, that I still support our police.  But I've gotten to the point about how much support I'm willing to give.  I definitely support the concept of the police and wanting law enforcement.  But I don't want that law abused while the police are doing their jobs.  They should enforce the law, not break it.  And the fact is, they routinely abuse the law.  They routinely violate our rights (because they think they're protecting us from a bigger evil).

For instance, on a routine traffic stop, police will often ask the driver where they are coming from, or where they are headed.  And this is a trick question.  No matter how you answer that, they are calculating your answers in a way that they can go on a "fishing expedition" to search your car and/or detain you longer than necessary for a broke tail light.

No matter how you answer their seemingly innocent question about where you are coming from, when you tell them something like "I've been at a friend's house and am driving home", or something like that.  They can now infer that while you were at your friend's, you might've had a drink or two (or a joint or two).  They can claim you slurred your words during the conversation. They can then claim in court that they thought they smelled alcohol, and felt that this might require the driver to do a field sobriety test and a search of the vehicle.

And there's a whole rabbit hole I can go down to cover this subject more, but the issue is that they are that innocent question, which the driver isn't even required to tell them where they are coming from.  But if the driver refuses to answer, the cop can use this as another way to further delve into your privacy; well beyond whatever the original reason was for pulling you over.

And for the record, other than the driver, no occupants in the car are required to identify themselves unless there is a probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed.  But police will routinely ask passengers n the car to identify themselves.  This is a violation of your constitutional rights to unreasonal search and seizure.  But they do it.

The police routinely violate our rights this way, and they will say that the results allow them to get more impaired drivers off the roads.  The thing is, it still comes back to violating our rights to "keep us safe".

and we've given up our rights over the years, and this is standard practice, and most police officers really believe that they are doing nothing wrong by doing it.

and if a person refuses and sticks up for their rights, the chances are very good that they are going to suffer a lot more trouble, than if they had just answered, shown their ID, and allowed the cop to do what he wanted.  Sticking up for your rights will cause your traffic stop to take much longer, and in some cases, could even land you in jail.