Posted on 05/03/2014 11:24:54 AM PDT by granite
NEW MEXICO — A federal appeals court has ruled that driving with one’s hands at the “ten-and-two position” is reason enough to pull someone over for further investigation. No traffic laws have to actually be broken. Additionally, the court ruled that facial acne is reason enough to suspect a driver is a drug smuggler.
The ruling stems from an incident that took place on April 18, 2012, at roughly 7:45 p.m. A border patrol agent driving down Highway 80 saw a white Ford F-150 heading the opposite direction. This took place roughly 40 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border — well inside the United States.
Although the truck was witnessed breaking no traffic laws, Border Patrol Agent Joshua Semmerling claimed he noticed several things that drew his suspicions, while passing the truck at 60 miles per hour.
First, was the driver’s upright posture. The female driver was sitting up straight with her hands located on the upper part of the steering wheel. This was viewed as suspicious activity.
Secondly, the agent claimed that the truck’s tinted windows were suspicious. It remains unclear how the agent saw driver’s posture through the “suspicious” tint.
Lastly was the truck’s rear license plate — which the agent claims to have observed in his rear-view mirror while traveling at a high rate of speed in the opposite direction. He claimed that he noticed it was from out-of-state; another suspicious characteristic.
The agent decided to make a U-turn and stop the truck.
The driver identified herself as Cindy Lee Westhoven of Tucson, Arizona. Agent Semmerling then used his keen crime-detecting skills to justify a search of her truck. He saw that Mrs. Westhoven had “acne” on her face and claimed that it was grounds for suspecting her to be a methamphetamine user.
Mrs. Westhoven had already proven she was a U.S. citizen. She had no warrants and had broken no laws, yet Agent Semmerling claimed that he believed she might be smuggling illegal aliens and/or drugs. When she refused to consent to a search, the agent used a drug K9 to sniff her truck. The dog turned up a small amount of cannabis. Westhoven was arrested.
Later in court, Westhoven’s defense tried to overturn the arrest due to the shaky ground upon which the stop was performed. Her attorney argued that the evidence was obtained illegally. The effort was unsuccessful; the court accepted all of the agent’s dubious tactics.
“Driving stiffly, having tinted windows, slowing down when seeing law enforcement, and driving in an out-of-the-way area may be innocent conduct by themselves,” Judge Scott M. Matheson, Jr., wrote for the appellate panel. “But when taken together along with driving a vehicle with out-of-state plates in a mountainous smuggling corridor 40-45 miles away from the border, we conclude Agent Semmerling had reasonable suspicion Ms. Westhoven was involved in smuggling activity.”
The 3-judge panel on the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the search, and rejected Westhoven’s motion to suppress the evidence.
The acceptance of such flimsy suspicions in court is the practical acceptance of zero need for any real indication of a crime occurring before any American can be stopped and searched by federal agents.
Source: PDF File US v. Westhoven (US Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit, 4/24/2014)
“ten-and-two position”
That is considered the safest position.
Reminds me of the time a police officer pulled a guy over because he was steering with only his left hand and had his right arm around his girlfriend who was sitting in the middle of the front seat of his pickup. The officer told the guy he needed to use both hands, upon which the guy informed the officer that he could not use both hands safely because he needed one hand to steer.
That's not what they ruled. Did you read the article that you posted?
But only to those in power who suspect that the ordinary people are fed up and are ready to throw out the ruling cartel.
-PJ
Your extract reminds me of Monk. Taken together, I’d say the guy was very tuned in and doing his job. The reasoning for the ruling seems flimsy when parsed like it is prior to your post but he correctly exercised reasonable deduction several times over. Thanks for the whole story.
NM ping.
Hey you kids... Start Slouching.
LMAO!
For the most part, the cops and judges/courts are all on the same team and have their wages and lottery style retirement pensions padded and funded by all the fines and taxes they can squeeze out of the peons...
Since having read that 10 and 2 is the safest driving posture, I’ve driven that way. The reason is that if the airbag is deployed, that you run the least chance of bodily damage.
A while ago someone compiled all the driving characteristics that judges have ruled are “suspicious” and could be used to justify pulling over the vehicle. They included driving faster than the speed limit, driving slower than the speed limit, and driving exactly at the speed limit.
Yea, I read it, it’s the second paragraph, highlighted in red.
bfl
I saw an episode of “Cops” where they pulled over a car for putting the turn signal on more than 7 flashes before the turn.
Just sayin’ ...
Federal officers need their powers trimmed back. Just about any federal officer can stop any civilian for doing anything in any jurisdiction. It’s been like that since Reagan. States need to take back their power, and feds need to be neutered. Red states need to stop tolerating despotism, and maybe the other states will follow.
“Driving stiffly, having tinted windows, slowing down when seeing law enforcement, and driving in an out-of-the-way area may be innocent conduct by themselves,” Judge Scott M. Matheson, Jr., wrote for the appellate panel. “But when taken together along with driving a vehicle with out-of-state plates in a mountainous smuggling corridor 40-45 miles away from the border, we conclude Agent Semmerling had reasonable suspicion Ms. Westhoven was involved in smuggling activity.”
facecrime - Orwell’s definition : “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself — anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.”
If she had CO plates, the BP would have added that to the reason for stopping her. In Idaho, the state police used CO plates as an excuse to pull someone over. In that case a man slowed down when a cop pulled up behind him and exited the interstate at a rest stop. The cop followed him and while watching him he hit the curb with his car. That was enough for the cop to start interrogation and initiate a search of his car. He had no drugs but his arrest and impoundment of the car has led to a large lawsuit.
Lawsuit: Man Arrested, Searched For Marijuana Solely For Having Colorado License Plate
Correction, he was not arrested but “detained.”
Congratulations, Drug War fascists! You've gotten the America you deserve...
I was so oppositional in my teen years....I remember insisting I would agree to placing my hands at 9:45 and 2:15. so...I’m safe. :P
Yea, in Texas if the Po-Po wanna search your vehicle, they just claim the odor of marijuana. Bada bing, bada boom.
Not a damn thing you can do. If you even give a hint of refusal, you'll end up with your cheek being ground into the concrete.
Protect and serve? Yea, right.
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