mr1337 wrote:
Unless you don't know something was illegal. Up until recently, Texas did not have knife law pre-emption. If you were pulled over in San Antonio or Corpus Christi on vacation and had a knife in your car that was against city ordinance, would you have known you were doing something illegal? Would the average Texas traveler have known? It's impossible to know every law in every jurisdiction that one passes through. Even if you are 100% certain you are doing nothing wrong, refusing a search is a good idea.
This.
It is unfortunate that it is the case, but it is. 99.9% of the time an infraction like this will lead an otherwise law-abiding citizen to a verbal warning "Sir, that lockback knife is illegal in San Antonio" but not always.
And while I'd prefer to be able to give the 99% of good officers their discretion, the 1% (or less) spoil the whole applecart.
I really don't have an issue (personally) with "let me have a look" -- but having once been on the wrong side of a bad situation in a small town, I can't afford to risk running into the 1% rogue type, and I'll never allow it again. I won't "STOP" it on the side of the road, but I'll go "on record" with my protest and refusal. And I hate how it makes me deal with the 99% who are good...
The world of constant surveillance, where everyone has a camera, has and will continue to improve that side of the situation, but it is a double-edge sword. I don't think ANY of us really want to have everything we do posted and repeated for the world to see over and over.
Also, since violating a city ordinance can be at most a class C misdemeanor, it's kind of unlikely you'll get arrested for it (though possible) and jail cannot be a penalty.
4/13/1996 Completed CHL Class, 4/16/1996 Fingerprints, Affidavits, and Application Mailed, 10/4/1996 Received CHL, renewed 1998, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2016...). "ATF... Uhhh...heh...heh....Alcohol, tobacco, and GUNS!! Cool!!!!"
I did a little searching for more info on this incident and discovered it was a prank video recorded by the officer ad a friend. It was still pretty scary though.
Jusme wrote:But the best policy is don't do illegal stuff.
And that works 99% of the time. Unfortunately, that 1% of the time that it doesn't, it can get ugly and expensive. It's been my experience that the very worst possible position from which to mount a defense can be that of actual innocence.
Of course, it's worth keeping in mind that even a "traffic stop" for anything besides open container or speeding in Texas is in fact an arrest, and as such a search can be performed as "Incident to Arrest" -- unless something has changed in the last few years.
That is why I will never (again) ever consent to any search under any circumstances...I will always politely decline. Fortunately, these days I guess I don't give off "that" vibe, but apparently I used to.
Yup and there is also a percentage of the time when you politely decline and the officer has a hissy fit.
Warning: Used of foul language.(Skip to 3:55 if you want to jump straight to the hissy fit)
