Judge Napolitano: "Who Polices The Police?"

June 13, 2011 @ 6:45PM

Judge Napolitano: "Who Polices The Police?"

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News

Judge Andrew Napolitano discussed the Miami Beach Memorial Day police shooting incident on his show last week, highlighting the fact that police confiscated cameras from witnesses.

Also, the New York Daily News ran a poll in its article asking whether police should have the right to confiscate cameras from witnesses.

Surprisingly (because most Americans tend to be sheeple in this matter), most readers disagreed. Earlier this evening, the poll had 84 percent of readers voting that police do not have the right to confiscate your camera.

Comments

Frank

11 months ago

And in other news, an appellate court told the OK state trooper who bitch-choked a paramedic a while back that he didn't have qualified immunity.

Bergman

11 months ago

@Frank:

Link?

Tim J

11 months ago

Who judges the judges as they judge you?

Slk

11 months ago

Appellate court judges.

Tim J

11 months ago

Who judges them?

11 months ago

It's turtles all the way down.

Slk

11 months ago

The State Supreme court. To prevent further embarrassment try using Google to fill in such education gaps, or just ask a second grader.

Tim J

11 months ago

"We know from a local news station that the police stole and destroyed one of it's cameras".

How do we know that, because the news station said so? Sounds like some pretty biased reporting to me. I hope he is not that biased when he is on the bench.

Of course you have the right to watch and record, and the police have the right to secure evidence.

Oh but he is selling a book so I guess he has no agenda. This guy is a clown.

WMS

11 months ago

Actually as I recall my introduction to police practices the correct answer was no, but the evidence could be protected until a warrant was made available.

The question involved responding to a domestic disturbance, Where a gunshot was heard as the officers approached the front door. First part of the question was due the officers have the right to force entry, if I recall correctly under those circumstances They did have probable cause. After forcing the door open they see them man sitting with a very confused look on his face a firearm in his hand which he was apparently trying to clean, And a large quantity of drugs on a table beside him.The court second question was to do the police have the right to seize the drug evidence. As I recall the correct answer was no we detain the individual and oh wait a warrant.

Tim J

11 months ago

You can seize that evidence because you made a legal entry and the drugs were in plain view. You would need a warrant to search the rest of the house but you could go through it to check for other suspects/victims and make the house safe.

I mean lets say for some reason you didn't want to search the rest of the house. You could arrest the guy and take the drugs as evidence without getting a warrant.

kilroy238

7 months ago

So a camera is just as illegal as a big plate of coke then?

Cops don't need warrants to seize illegible items but they do to seize personal property.

bryan broyles

11 months ago

"the police have the right to secure evidence." Sure, if they follow procedure and the law. What they don't have the right to do is seize private property that was not used in the commission of a crime.

Oldphoto678

11 months ago

If the police think that you have evidence then they should get a court order to take it. When cops have to much power they tend to become lawless.

Jeff Wilcox

11 months ago

Tim J,

I almost sounds like you are letting your politics get in the way of truth. The Judge is right on this issue.

Jeff Wilcox

11 months ago

It's nice to see this issue being talked about in a very public way.

CitizenX

11 months ago

warrants? warrants..... WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING WARRANTS! (paraphrased from a statement made by the pictured Washington Co Sheriff's Officer, Arkansas)