Fruit of the forbidden tree. Without probable cause all evidence is useless.

 

This happened in Winnipeg. The police there don't need a warrant if the person has a previous criminal history and is flagged as a HA member or associate. There is also no law in Canada that says without probable cause the evidence is useless or can't be used. He was caught with drugs and drug manufacturing supplies. He does not have a legal leg to stand on.

 

In reading the article It said the front door to the business open to the general public was.... open. Any reasonable person would expect the open door indicated that at that moment the business was indeed open to the public for business. I own a business in a bad neighborhood and can't tell you how many times police officers have walked into my place either to introduce themselves or check on my welfare. If the Leo had simply walked in to do a welfare check after having witnessed a known bad guy enter the place and then found the suspicious activity that would be fine in my book. Who conducts drug activity in a shop open to the public with the front door unlocked and wide open?!?!? In the old days when we had walking police patrols in my neighborhood the local beat cops would check for open doors after business hours or any other suspicious activity. As a business owner I for one was happy to have the extra attention paid to my business and wish they still did this. Sadly to often the Police cars drive through my block faster than the taxi cabs! Short story this guy was as dumb as a box of rocks. IF he goes to jail he will be the laughing stock for a long time. I expect to see this one on our local bloopers tv show.

 

Good news! A probable win for the good guys. I have no problems with zero due process for drug cookers.

 

Again jesus they never seem to tire of this **** . Dick beating 101 ...............

 

Not sympathetic to the drug issues but I do question procedure and rights. Drug war is nothing but a money pit that drags down our economy and diverts funds to a lost cause. Prohibition of any sort has never worked and only inflated or created more opportunity for expanded criminal enterprise.

 

Does Canuckistan have a ALCU like organization?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section...s_and_Freedoms

 

The Winnipeg police department has been put on a system where they need to have a Crown Prosecutor's permission to file charges. This was done because of the mass number of bogus charges against innocent people that they wanted to bust, not to mention the number of cases that were dropped due to procedural errors.


A couple of years ago my cousin was arrested, charged, and denied bail for a white collar theft that occurred while he was in Vegas with the rest of my family at his brother's wedding. He spent two weeks in jail even though he had a bulletproof alibi. The arresting officer was the brother in law of his former boss, who has since been convicted of the crime they tried to peg on my cousin.

 

I hope the former boss got a necktie party!

 

It's not something I can make my mind up about, the specific instance that is, from just reading the article. From what's given, my opinion is the cop was overzealous, and made a story up after the fact to try to justify his actions under the law.

In general, laws against unlawful search and seizure are one of the things protecting U.S. citizens from a police state. Canada has a different justice system, so I'm not sure how these kinds of things are viewed up there (similar, evidently).

It's sometimes frustrating, but in order to remain a free people (I'm talking primarily about the US because that's where I live), there are going to be times when the nod's going to go to the criminal just because you have to keep the police from being too aggressive and forceful.

To greatly oversimplify: What would you rather do...throw one innocent guy in jail? Or let one criminal go free? I'd rather see the criminal go free than to ruin an innocent man's life. My thought is, a criminal will eventually be caught. I realize this guy is effectively 'guilty' and is trying to get off on a technicality. But the same laws that protect him, the criminal, are the same here in the US that protect you, and me, law-abiding citizens.

Alan