Driver Arrested In Ohio For Secret Car Compartment Full of Nothing 670
schwit1 writes about the hazards of driving through Ohio in a car with a secret compartment in the trunk. From the article: "Norman Gurley, 30, is facing drug-related charges in Lorain County, Ohio, despite the fact that state troopers did not actually find any drugs in his possession. Ohio passed a law in 2012 making it a felony to alter a vehicle to add a secret compartment with the 'intent' of using it to conceal drugs for trafficking."
This is the first person arrested under the strange law.
Read section (I) of the law for the whole story (Score:5, Informative)
(I) This section does not apply to a box, safe, container, or other item added to a vehicle for the purpose of securing valuables, electronics, or firearms provided that at the time of discovery the box, safe, container, or other item added to the vehicle does not contain a controlled substance or visible residue of a controlled substance.
So it's OK to have a hidden compartment in your car as long as it does not contain a controlled substance or visible residue of a controlled substance. For the record, I still think the law is crap but it's not as bad as the article makes it out to be.
Re:How did they prove intent? (Score:5, Informative)
From the original article (but not any of the ones discussing it, of course):
"Troopers noticed an overwhelming smell of raw marijuana which gave them probable cause to search the car."
I love how people pick and choose their "facts" on these "issues".
The police pulled a guy over, smelled pot, searched his car, and found a hidden compartment. Not necessarily an open and shut case, but not "absurd" like some describe it.
Will be interesting if they do find traces of drugs in the compartment
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How did they prove intent? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: How did they prove intent? (Score:2, Informative)
Cops are specially trained, things they see can be secret, but visible without a warrant. I site prior rulings, notjcommon sense. Plain site for a cop is different than for a citizen according to the courts.
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, if I had a secret compartment in my car, I would keep a copy of the King James Bible, a copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and a registered handgun in there.
[sarc]
Terrorist!
Those are far, far worse than illegal drugs!
Carrying a copy of the US Constitution, according to the US government, is an indicator of someone possibly being a domestic terrorist, as is anyone who is a military vet, or a Christian, or a member of the TEA Party, or who talks about making the world a better place.
Enjoy your stay at GITMO.
[/sarc]
Strat
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
This law has nothing to do with our rights or protecting against crime. It serves three things:
1: It provides the police legal ammo to threaten a person with disassembling their ride unless they immediately consent to search.
2: It provides a seized vehicle. Vehicle seizures are big money. Just 1-2 a day of cars can provide a department an added income in the millions of dollars from the police auctions. This is a civil action, so even if found innocent, one's ride is gone.
3: Ohio is notorious for their private prisons. Private prisons have a very strong lobby, and DAs and judges are forced to convict, or next election cycle, replaced by a candidate who will (with plenty of campaign dollars in their war chest coming in.) On March 27, 2012, Ohio signed a contract that they will keep all private prisons 90% full or else pay fines by the diem.
Private prison stock is of course having an Apple-esque rise due to this.
Because of the pressure to keep the private prisons full, it would not be surprising that even the cops on the beat may have an arrest quota, just like a ticket quota, but relying on how many people cuffs go on.
So, this law is a no-brainer. It gets cash-strapped areas free cars to sell, it puts people in the system who end up paying hundreds of thousands regardless of innocence/guilt, and the guilty ones make two private, well-heeled, powerful companies even more richer, on taxpayer dollars (which makes the state even more cash-strapped.)
Re:Strange indeed (Score:4, Informative)
Does this law apply if you buy a used car and you don't even know about the hidden compartment? Surely this can't be Constitutional.
I don't know if this law is written this way, but it is possible to write a law, even a criminal law, with strict liability. That means you're guilty regardless of your intent or even what actions you took to ensure you weren't breaking the law. Nice, huh? Definitely not how things where done in the past. The common law required mens rea (guilty mind). Even absent that, generally due diligence was an acceptable defense. Strict liability in criminal law should be reserved for police states.
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
No, the article proves that having a car that reeks of marijuana and has a secret compartment is enough to get you arrested.
Strangely, they forgot to copy that line from the article that spawned the story.
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
It's still total bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
The US has more prisoners per capita and also more total prisoners than any other country on earth. This is a huge drag on the economy. Not only is there a massive cost for keeping all of these mostly non-violent people imprisoned, we are also deprived of their contribution to the economy. Locking someone up often destroys not just their life but the lives of their children and other family members.
Passing more laws against non-violent crimes to lock up more non-violent people is going full tilt in the WRONG DIRECTION!
FTFA:
"We apparently caught them between runs, so to speak, so this takes away one tool they have in their illegal trade. The law does help us and is on our side," says [Lt. Michael Combs with State Highway Patrol].
Lt. Combs is delusional if he thinks his "side" can possibly win their war on drugs. It is possible that outlawing secret compartments is a natural extension of the war on drugs but that just shows how idiotic and insane the war on drugs is. Even if they took away all of our remaining civil liberties, the war on drugs would still be unwinnable. How much more must the American people sacrifice for the sake of this unwinnable war?
OTOH, Mr. Gurley is lucky he was not pulled over in the state of New Mexico where at least two different people have been forced to undergo enemas, colonoscopies, and anal probing [cnn.com] based on acting nervous after a routine traffic stop:
After Eckert was pulled over, a Deming police officer said that he saw Eckert "was avoiding eye contact with me," his "left hand began to shake," and he stood "erect (with) his legs together,"
We are wasting billions of dollars; we are destroying millions of lives; we are militarizing our civil police departments; we are trashing our civil liberties; and we are destroying at least one neighboring country all in the name of a war on drugs that is impossible to win. It is stupid, it is sick, it is insane. It must stop.
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
Make sure to check you local laws mate, unless you want to be some cop bate.
Re:Not the only state with this law (Score:5, Informative)
Just plain wrong. Many states share reciprocity and honor CCP's issued by other states in the union. It's really not that much different from marriage licenses.
http://www.usacarry.com/concealed_carry_permit_reciprocity_maps.html [usacarry.com]