Florida Police Obtain Warrant to Search ‘All Persons’ in Apartment Complex

By Join Or DIE on February 16, 2011 in News 25

WTF?!? These people got searched for living (or visiting someone who lived) in a certain area. Anthony Cormier writes in the Herald Tribune:

NEWTOWN — For months, Sarasota police officers watched drug dealers openly sell crack cocaine and marijuana from a vacant lot behind the Mediterranean Apartments in Newtown. Officers tried to arrest dealers, but suspects often fled and managed to disappear into the neighborhood.

The pressure to make arrests peaked in July 2009, when a man’s mutilated body was found in one of the apartment units. So that December, the agency tried something it had never done before. It sought permission from a judge to search anyone and everyone who parked or set foot in the apartment complex parking lot.

More than a dozen officers and the city’s SWAT team flooded the area. They had permission to detain and pat down anyone they saw in the area. During the two-hour raid, a dozen people were searched and, even though officers justified the wide search by telling a judge no “innocent persons” congregated in the abandoned lot, only four people were charged with drug crimes. An 80-year-old man was among those detained, then released, during the operation.

Read More in the Herald Tribune

Civil Liberties, Florida, Law, Police, Search & Seizure, Society, War On Drugs, WTF

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quartz99

The only surprising thing about this story is my total lack of surprise. It’s lose/lose. Either the cases will be (rightly) thrown out and people who may actually be guilty will be put back on the streets to continue selling, or the precedent will be set that you can stop and search any person in any area without probable cause.
- DeepCough
  
  “you can stop and search any person in any area without probable cause. ”
  
  That precedent has been around since the Drug War started.
  - grooveboss
    
    patriot act with local turbo boost.
  - quartz99
    
    Not like this though. They still have to pretend they have a legitimate reason. “You walked past this building” wouldn’t normally constitute a valid legal reason.
Anonymous

The only surprising thing about this story is my total lack of surprise. It’s lose/lose. Either the cases will be (rightly) thrown out and people who may actually be guilty will be put back on the streets to continue selling, or the precedent will be set that you can stop and search any person in any area without probable cause.
DeepCough

“you can stop and search any person in any area without probable cause. ”

That precedent has been around since the Drug War started.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

What??? Are you telling me that some cops lied to a sympathetic judge and he let them do whatever they wanted??? In Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck’s America??? Oh, clutch the pearls! Say it ain’t so!

I wish I could be surprised anymore. I really do. I miss the days when I could be shocked by law enforcement overreaching their authority and the judicial branch just torching the Bill Of Rights on command. I miss that sense of innocence and faith that people knew there was something better possible. I;d like to have that back just for a little while.
- http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient
  
  When people who care have lost their sense of outrage, all is lost.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

What??? Are you telling me that some cops lied to a sympathetic judge and he let them do whatever they wanted??? In Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck’s America??? Oh, clutch the pearls! Say it ain’t so!

I wish I could be surprised anymore. I really do. I miss the days when I could be shocked by law enforcement overreaching their authority and the judicial branch just torching the Bill Of Rights on command. I miss that sense of innocence and faith that people knew there was something better possible. I;d like to have that back just for a little while.
grooveboss

patriot act with local turbo boost.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4K3KM67XITZTXUE45K42KS4OEE brian

So how long till police get a warrant for a Whole town? A whole city? A whole State?…..etc., etc.
Not a good precedent……not at all….
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4K3KM67XITZTXUE45K42KS4OEE brian

So how long till police get a warrant for a Whole town? A whole city? A whole State?…..etc., etc.
Not a good precedent……not at all….
Guest

Eric Carlson and Joan Wagar started having an affair with each other in early 2005! Eric Carlson is almost a twin to Joan Wagar’s husband Terry Wagar! Joan Wagar started calling Eric Carlson Doubleclick as a nick name! after Joan Wagar introduced her daughters to Doubleclick she asked her daughters to lie for her about him! After that Joan Wagar started poisoning her husband Terry Wagar and a few weeks later Doubleclick was calling Joan Wagar Mrs Dash! Mrs Dash wanted her daughters to know about the nick names but nobody wanted Terry Wagar to know about them! Doubleclick and Mrs Dash recruited co-workers at East Port Walmart to hide their secrets from others! Doubleclick and Mrs Dash started emailing each other and they admit in their emails that they have it out for Doubleclick’s wife as well! After Terry Wagar figured out what was going on he tried to warn Doubleclick’s wife and Mrs Dash poisoned Terry Wagar so badly that he could hardly walk or talk! When Terry Wagar went to emergency at OHSU hospital Doubleclick’s brother in law enforcement covered it up by labeling Terry Wagar as a bad guy to his doctor repeatedly until the doctor got the hint to shut up about it! Doubleclick and Mrs Dash had it planned out from the beginning!
Guest

Eric Carlson and Joan Wagar started having an affair with each other in early 2005! Eric Carlson is almost a twin to Joan Wagar’s husband Terry Wagar! Joan Wagar started calling Eric Carlson Doubleclick as a nick name! after Joan Wagar introduced her daughters to Doubleclick she asked her daughters to lie for her about him! After that Joan Wagar started poisoning her husband Terry Wagar and a few weeks later Doubleclick was calling Joan Wagar Mrs Dash! Mrs Dash wanted her daughters to know about the nick names but nobody wanted Terry Wagar to know about them! Doubleclick and Mrs Dash recruited co-workers at East Port Walmart to hide their secrets from others! Doubleclick and Mrs Dash started emailing each other and they admit in their emails that they have it out for Doubleclick’s wife as well! After Terry Wagar figured out what was going on he tried to warn Doubleclick’s wife and Mrs Dash poisoned Terry Wagar so badly that he could hardly walk or talk! When Terry Wagar went to emergency at OHSU hospital Doubleclick’s brother in law enforcement covered it up by labeling Terry Wagar as a bad guy to his doctor repeatedly until the doctor got the hint to shut up about it! Doubleclick and Mrs Dash had it planned out from the beginning!
Davebaack

Just look at that shithole. There’s NO WAY the people who live there are total pieces of shit. Look, people: it’s called Florida. We should search that whole state. And before you go asking, “Well, where do you draw the line?” I recommend you look at a map of Florida. Florida is a total wasteland.
- quartz99
  
  Being poor doesn’t make someone a “total piece of shit”. There are plenty of people who just are trying to make it the best they can with what they have. Economics is a zero sum game and the people who end up in places like that are the ones who lost the game, usually through no fault of their own or even because they were trying to play it straight in a world that rewards fraud. Criminals use poor areas to conduct their business because the middle and upper class do their best to ignore those areas and pretend they don’t exist except when they want to toss a little money at a charity (but only so long as they don’t have to enter those neighborhoods themselves to make the donation) to make themselves feel a little less like the uncaring bastards they really are and because the poor usually can’t afford private security or are the wrong color or social class to get equal police protection. Once that happens, social order breaks down and you get a lot more Wild West and Might Makes Right in the area, but that doesn’t mean everyone or even most of the people there are in any way “pieces of shit.”
  - Thepriss
    
    Thank you, sir.
    
    Internet access is currently my only form of entertainment, due to just really crappy luck. It’s good to know that there are still people who realize that we’re not shit simply because things didn’t go as planned.
    
    And it’s not a terrible thing, either. We have food, shelter, and still live better than a large majority of the world population.
    
    We see how Americans treat their own poor, and wonder why the rest of the world looks at us like we’re garbage
    - quartz99
      
      I’ve been there myself. And I’ve done work with a couple charities now that I’m not in that situation anymore. I think people who’ve never been poor don’t understand how much harder it is to take the kind of risks or do the things that it takes to climb back out if you’ve got a family to take care of, or how much bigger the roadblocks are at the bottom. Even simple things like having clothes that are in decent shape for a job interview can be impossible obstacles when your choice is “feed my kids for three weeks or buy this pair of discount slacks in the hopes I may get an interview sometime in the future”. It’s especially bad for the working poor, who work full time and still can’t pay their rent or keep their kids clothed because they’re making minimum wage, which is not a living wage in any part of the country.
Davebaack

Just look at that shithole. There’s NO WAY the people who live there are total pieces of shit. Look, people: it’s called Florida. We should search that whole state. And before you go asking, “Well, where do you draw the line?” I recommend you look at a map of Florida. Florida is a total wasteland.
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

When people who care have lost their sense of outrage, all is lost.
Anonymous

Not like this though. They still have to pretend they have a legitimate reason. “You walked past this building” wouldn’t normally constitute a valid legal reason.
Anonymous

Being poor doesn’t make someone a “total piece of shit”. There are plenty of people who just are trying to make it the best they can with what they have. Economics is a zero sum game and the people who end up in places like that are the ones who lost the game, usually through no fault of their own or even because they were trying to play it straight in a world that rewards fraud. Criminals use poor areas to conduct their business because the middle and upper class do their best to ignore those areas and pretend they don’t exist except when they want to toss a little money at a charity (but only so long as they don’t have to enter those neighborhoods themselves to make the donation) to make themselves feel a little less like the uncaring bastards they really are and because the poor usually can’t afford private security or are the wrong color or social class to get equal police protection. Once that happens, social order breaks down and you get a lot more Wild West and Might Makes Right in the area, but that doesn’t mean everyone or even most of the people there are in any way “pieces of shit.”
Thepriss

Thank you, sir.

Internet access is currently my only form of entertainment, due to just really crappy luck. It’s good to know that there are still people who realize that we’re not shit simply because things didn’t go as planned.

And it’s not a terrible thing, either. We have food, shelter, and still live better than a large majority of the world population.

We see how Americans treat their own poor, and wonder why the rest of the world looks at us like we’re garbage
Anonymous

I’ve been there myself. And I’ve done work with a couple charities now that I’m not in that situation anymore. I think people who’ve never been poor don’t understand how much harder it is to take the kind of risks or do the things that it takes to climb back out if you’ve got a family to take care of, or how much bigger the roadblocks are at the bottom. Even simple things like having clothes that are in decent shape for a job interview can be impossible obstacles when your choice is “feed my kids for three weeks or buy this pair of discount slacks in the hopes I may get an interview sometime in the future”. It’s especially bad for the working poor, who work full time and still can’t pay their rent or keep their kids clothed because they’re making minimum wage, which is not a living wage in any part of the country.
Anonymous

I’ve been there myself. And I’ve done work with a couple charities now that I’m not in that situation anymore. I think people who’ve never been poor don’t understand how much harder it is to take the kind of risks or do the things that it takes to climb back out if you’ve got a family to take care of, or how much bigger the roadblocks are at the bottom. Even simple things like having clothes that are in decent shape for a job interview can be impossible obstacles when your choice is “feed my kids for three weeks or buy this pair of discount slacks in the hopes I may get an interview sometime in the future”. It’s especially bad for the working poor, who work full time and still can’t pay their rent or keep their kids clothed because they’re making minimum wage, which is not a living wage in any part of the country.