When cops knock, can they barge in? "No" says the court

[Liberal_in_LA]

When cops knock, can they barge in?

Police came to Maria Huff's Burbank home in 2007 after hearing that her son had written a letter threatening to shoot up his high school. They asked Huff if they could come in and she said no, not without a warrant. When they asked if there were any guns in the house, Huff said she would get her husband, then headed inside, followed by her son, who was also at the doorway, and four officers.

After remaining for five to 10 minutes and finding no evidence of a crime, the officers left. In short order they were hit with a civil suit by Huff, her husband and son -- who had written no such threatening letter -- for entering the home without any legal justification.

A federal judge dismissed the suit, saying the officers had reason to believe there might be guns in the home and that the family could be in danger. But a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled this week that "mere speculation" doesn't justify entering a home without consent from the residents, a warrant or actual evidence of a crime.

The officers "were not pursuing a fleeing felon," the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling that reinstated the suit. "No crime had been committed. No crime was in progress. ... The officers were investigating rumors of threats."

The officers said they faced unusual circumstances: Huff didn't answer the door when they first knocked, hung up the phone on the first officer who called, and wouldn't tell them whether there were any guns in the home. In addition, her son, a victim of bullying at his school, had been absent for two days.

But the court said none of that added up to evidence of a crime that justified entering without a warrant or the owner's consent. That is the law that "continues to protect the privacy and sanctity of the home today," the majority said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/crime/detail?entry_id=80876#ixzz1AyMy0zAe

[msongs]

1. reason to believe lol the blanket lie they use every day nt

[Leftist Agitator]

2. And when this gets appealed to the SCOTUS...

The rightists will vacate that ruling, and another element of our 4th Amendment rights will be destroyed.

I have a neighbor whose home was broken into because his father called the local PD and falsely claimed that his son was suicidal. As it turns out, the father was simply pissed that his son refused to speak with him or have anything to do with him more generally.

He was in the shower when they knocked on his door, and the cops pulled his AC window unit out and were in the process of climbing through the window when he, having gotten out of the shower and thinking he was being burglarized, racked the slide on his 12 gauge and said, "That's far enough."

He's damn lucky that they were still in the process of climbing through, or he would have gotten shot and possibly killed because the stupid bastards thought that a completely unsubstantiated complaint was reason enough to illegally enter his residence.

It sounds to me that this case is very similar to the situation that he dealt with. It's just too bad that the Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court will undoubtedly hold that the cops were in the right, because to those troglodytes, the cops are *always* right...

[Hoopla Phil]

3. Great ruling, I hope it sticks. This is also why I never open my door to police. I do

and have, open a window for police but I will NEVER open my door.