Police Raid Car Enthusiast Gathering, Generate Revenue

http://thenewspaper.com/news/23/2302.asp

From the page: "Nine police agencies in Riverside, California sent more than one hundred police officers to surround a gathering of automotive enthusiasts. Owners of imported sport compact cars had gathered at the Canyon Crossing shopping center on Friday night to swap stories, talk about their passion for cars and show off the latest enhancements to their rides. At around 11pm police surprised participants by blocking all exits with fifty police cruisers. Officers then began a warrantless search and interrogation operation of the 150 vehicles that were present."

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The blog: Tofuball's Worklog

Read The Bible - it's the Word of God.

Warrantless search? You don't need a Warrant to search a car.

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I'm a jerk.

unless given consent, I thought you had to have a warrant to search a vehicle.

You would be wrong. Consent, plain sight infractions, probable cause, reasonable suspicion, officer's safety; hell even if they have the K-9 come and it barks for whatever reason, that's reason enough to search. It's been fought hard in the U.S. Supreme court stemming from a case in Upstate NY back in the 1980s. You have no expectation of privacy in a vehicle. Now even more so after the Patriot Act, a cop can chow down on some donuts and leave crumbs all over your upholstery if he wants to.

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I'm a jerk.

^not on private property, like, for instance, a parking lot^

But otherwise your right. And sometimes the police have authority even in parking lots if the owner consents. In this case there are usually signs at all of the entrances.

This meet from what I hear was a total fuck fest though. There were people doing donuts and burnouts and generally acting like dumbasses.

Well, yeah, it's in Cali, what do you expect? ;p

It depends on the private property. A mall parking lot is different than your driveway.

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Parking Lots are private property? Law enforcement officers aren't allowed to park?

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I'm a jerk.

When he's right, he's right. Wakka wakka wakka!

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I'm a jerk.

Yeah, it breaks down like this:
it's legal to buy it, it's legal to
own it and, if you're the
proprietor of a hash bar, it's
legal to sell it. It's legal to
carry it, which doesn't really
matter 'cause -- get a load of this
-- if the cops stop you, it's
illegal for this to search you.
Searching you is a right that the
cops in Amsterdam don't have.

It's a public access thing. I've forgotten how it all works now, but I used know it really well, spurring from an incident I had.

I spun the FC out once in a ice storm, in a Circuit City parking lot, in front of a cop. She called for backup.

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Law enforcement aren't aloud to enforce vehicle code infractions in private parking lots, unless whoever owns the parking lot specifies. Parking lots are not public property.

Does that apply in Cali?

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The blog: Tofuball's Worklog

Read The Bible - it's the Word of God.

It should apply nation wide. I know it definitely applies in Cali though. The business owners were probably pissed at the idiots doing burnouts through their parking lot, or the police already had permission to enforce vehicle code.

California is pretty liberal...ACLU loving...anti law enforcement.

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I'm a jerk.