How does arguing in favor of something constitute probable cause?

As most things I post here, this is ridiculous. This article from The Blaze describes a situation where police were issued a warrant to search a woman’s house on the basis that her son argued in support of marijuana during a school event. The school then called child protection services and the police were included. Prior to receiving the warrant the officers would not allow the woman to enter her own house, which I understand and do not disagree with in general, but this is an example where a warrant should have never been issued. Yes, the woman had cannabis oil in the house, but that should be inadmissible because that search warrant should not have been issued in the first place.

My chief complaint about this whole ordeal revolves around that warrant and how “probable cause” was obtained. It was not because she had been caught buying the cannabis oil. From the article it was purely based on her sons pro-marijuana argument at school. Obviously we do not know whether or not he said there was items in their house, but that still shouldn’t matter because that was the *only* thing they had against her. Courts that actually follow the Constitution and laws would not have considered that to be enough.

MO puts its foot down against federal overreach

I’m glad to see someone in Missouri finally doing something about the federal government overreach. Unfortunately, the Republican majority in Missouri is comprised of a bunch of idiots.

For those who don’t know, State Rep. Mike Moon introduced a bill that would basically stop any agency in Missouri from enforcing federal laws unless they are approved by the state legislature. This means any federal law would need to be reviewed by the legislature, debated, voted upon, and approved by the Governor. This obviously would not stop federal agents from enforcing federal laws within the state, but it does stop state and local agencies from using their funding to enforce laws that haven’t been approved.

This is likely to stir up other problems, such as loss of federal funding for a variety of programs and projects, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. Citizens in different states should not be funding projects and programs here in Missouri. By losing federal funding and forcing those within the state to fully fund local projects people will begin to see where their money is going and, therefore, can more easily hold those in power accountable.

This also begins to put a price on the enforcement of federal laws because costs cannot be pawned off on local agencies and hidden from view. Right now all we really know is that state agency X received Y amount as part of a program. Does that mean the local agency utilized that money in the best way possible? No. Is it possible that the local costs of the program exceeded the funding they received? Yes, but we don’t know.

I doubt this will ever receive any real momentum, but I believe that if states started creating this kind of law and following them that we could begin to reign in those who continue to exceed their constitutional powers.

h/t Tenth Amendment Center

Resigning won’t stop the threats

The Blaze is reporting that Officer Darren Wilson has resigned his position on the Ferguson Police Department despite the lack of indictment by a grand jury for the death of Michael Brown. The reason for his resignation is for the safety of his fellow officers after threats against the police department and its officers. Wilson has said he was not “willing to let someone else get hurt because of me.”

The problem is that it won’t matter. Those who are violently protesting didn’t give a crap about justice. Justice was served with the decision by the grand jury based on evidence and testimony. I believe that some of the threats will continue to be carried out against the department and its officers despite Wilson’s resignation. I commend him for making the decision to attempt to keep others safe, but I do not expect it to make a difference.

My belief is backed by a statement in the article: “Many seemed unfazed by the resignation. Several merely shrugged their shoulders when asked what they thought, while Rick Campbell flatly said he didn’t care about the resignation, noting: ‘I’ve been protesting out here since August.'”

Time will tell, but I doubt the resignation makes Ferguson officers any more safe than they were immediately after the grand jury decision.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Under Fire

Even though the prosecuting attorney is a Democrat, I agree with his decision to send the case to the grand jury. Otherwise, the fate of the case would have been decided by a single judge. I’d rather have the jury be given too much information than not though. For one, a grand jury does not decide guilt. They only decide if their is enough evidence to support charging the person with a crime. That does not mean the person is guilty. It only means there might be enough evidence to show that they are guilty. Most cases do not go to a grand jury and for good reason, because there is more than enough proof against the person or there is no proof against the person. A grand jury makes decisions for those cases in the middle.

This prosecuting attorney does not deserve to lose his job for the handling of this case because it was handled appropriately on his part. Sure, there were problems with the media being complete dumbasses and the governor being a complete dumbass, but this attorney did his job. That job does not consist of charging someone with a crime that cannot be proven. It does not consist of succumbing to the pressures of a violent mob. It consists of enforcing the law of the State of Missouri and the United States.d

What people fail to consider is that a lot of the testimony was from black witnesses. Many of whom changed their story when they weren’t in front of a TV camera or whose story was already consistent with Officer Wilson’s story. If you’ve got several black witnesses giving the same story as the white defendant, that really make it difficult to claim the decision was racist.