Posted on 07/01/2014 7:29:53 AM PDT by circlecity
From a news release:
Indianapolis - The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit Friday on behalf of a woman who was pulled over and interrogated after her bumper sticker caught the attention of Indianapolis police officers, violating her First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights.
On June 17, Pamela Konchinsky of Indianapolis was turning into the Merchants Garage on South Meridian Street in her silver Toyota minivan when two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers entered the garage immediately behind her. One of the officers told Konchinsky that she was being detained because of a bumper sticker taped to the rear window of her minivan, which read: "Unmarked Police Car." The officer told Konchinsky that people would think she was impersonating a police officer and that someone might shoot her. After reviewing her license and registration, Konchinsky was ordered to get out of her car and remove the bumper sticker.
IMPD officers' subjecting Konchinsky to detention, questioning, intimidation and harassment over the message on her bumper sticker violates two constitutional amendments: the First Amendment protecting free expression and the Fourth Amendment prohibiting unreasonable and suspicionless seizures.
"We contend that the police officers who detained and interrogated our client without legal grounds to do so violated her constitutional rights, said ACLU of Indiana Staff Attorney Kelly Eskew. "The promise of our Constitution is that these lines cannot be crossed."
The lawsuit, Pamela Konchinsky v. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officers John Doe I and John Doe II, Cause No. 1:14-cv-1078,was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division, on June 27, 2014.
My Kid’s Crown Vic (solid gray-green) did look like an undercover cop car, without pushbar or light.
People did behave around him.
(Sort of) Reminds me of the 2 guys walk into a bar with their dogs. One is a German Shepherd and the other a Cocker Spaniel.
The bartender told them they had to leave and the one with the German Shepherd said “I am blind and this is my Service Dog”.
His buddy nodded at the sign that said ‘Service Dogs Allowed’.
Bartender turns to the Buddy and says “You will have to go, and don’t try the blind routine on me, you just read the sign”.
“No sir, I have a Police Dog”
“Don’t look like any Police Dog I have ever seen”.
“SHHHH!!!! -— He is undercover sir”.
You said 5 little words.
Sums it all up perfectly.
Thanks, friend.
But that is the genius of it! If an undercover cop wore a t-shirt saying “undercover cop”, no one would think he was actually an undercover cop!
They need to be arrested and prosecuted, I would think. Now that I think about it, we need a Special Prosecutor to look into the whole bumper sticker business.
You or I or most here would get a chuckle out of it, but there's at least 40% out there that wouldn't - mebbe more. I think the police could have handled it better but side with them on this one.
But that is the genius of it! If an undercover cop wore a t-shirt saying undercover cop, no one would think he was actually an undercover cop!
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That may be true, BUT what about the one that reads
“I AM NOT AN UNDERCOVER COP”
wouldn’t you tend to believe he may (or may not) be one?
Everything is so cornfusing when one forgets his/her meds<: <: <:
>> Stopping the car just to determine if someone was really “claiming to be a cop is reasonable.
Its probably over your head, but the whole point of her humor (and it IS humor) is that no unmarked police car could possibly be labeled as such. Or it would be a marked police car and then the label would be false. Get it now?”
I think you are over looking the IQ of the average dimoKKKRAT voter. The poster is correct considering the nut jobs out there.
Nope. But do I think some nut might be putting stickers on his car and playing cop. Probably not. But it's a possibility and I don't want to be the patrolman who ignored it if it turns out he was. It's close but I can see a cop thinking he had to check it out. Make it as quick as possible, be polite, case closed. If they were being real dicks about the whole thing, then that's a different story altogether.
She was impersonating a police officer. She deserved more punishment than merely being asked to remove the sticker.
I don’t put bumper stickers on my car because I know I’ll get keyed. Sad world we live in.
I have a NRA sticker on my front door and the lib friends go ballistic when they see it. Once after a party in my own home - with a couple of lib friends and others - my photo of John Wayne in my office was keyed. I never found out who did it although I have my suspicions. Libs are freaks.
I agree! That package of Dunkin Donuts next to her in the car was a dead giveaway she was impersonating a cop!
I think the cop was just bored and for kicks decided to harass a soccer mom in her minivan,
Write a ticket for what?
And are they going to ask, “Have you been impersonating a police officer?”
I agree a polite stop to suggest that she’s putting herself at risk would have been appropriate. All the rest of it was more of the growing, inappropriate, police harassment.
An equipment violation for unlawful emergency vehicle markings.
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In college, I had an "Eat More Possum" bumper sticker.
Now, I'm wondering if anyone took the advice.....heh.....
This isn’t doing much to improve the stereotype of Americans not understanding the concept of irony...
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