It is a favorite recipe of Law & Order to remind us of our glorious 4th amendment, except that it lets murderers and rapists walk on technicalities sometimes.
The protection from unreasonable search and seizure is sensible. Who wants to live in a world where some person has a right to inspect your property just to see if anything is up? What has evolved in the U.S., however, is a federal mandate to apply a rule excluding evidence, merely because certain arbitrary rules weren't followed.
For a detailed analysis of why the exclusionary rule is not only unlibertarian but even unconstitutional, read Stephan Kinsella's In Defense of Evidence: Against the Exclusionary Rule and Against Libertarian Centralism. [PDF version]
For those of you unaware of this aspect of power from your upcoming police state, infrared technology allows for police, or whomever, to "see through walls". The supreme court apparently ruled in favor of the exclusionary rule and requiring warrants to use infrared technology because "it is not in common use". How funny it is that establishing whether a crime has actually been committed has fallen by the wayside with the rule of the legislative judiciary.
Has anyone a defense of the exclusionary rule in conjunction with the use of infrared technology in a free society?
Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.—Karl Kraus.
E. R. Olovetto:How funny it is that establishing whether a crime has actually been committed has fallen by the wayside with the rule of the legislative judiciary.
The police don't provide justice. More limits on the police means more freedom for you.
I'm all for allowing illegal evidence, but only if illegal searches that produce no evidence are punished.
Peace
"The police don't provide justice."
Agreed. 'Police' are glorified "order pickers". That they might someday conceive of justice properly and contribute beyond their title is irrelevant to basic description.
"More limits on the police means more freedom for you."
to a point. Taken to an extreme, this proposition means the rule of free will and absence of any law.
"I'm all for allowing illegal evidence, but only if illegal searches that produce no evidence are punished."
What evidence should be illegal besides those resulting from property invasion and which don't result in legitimate convictions? Yes, it is a dire risk to violate individual property rights and not come back with tangible evidence of criminality.
E. R. Olovetto:It is a favorite recipe of Law & Order to remind us of our glorious 4th amendment, except that it lets murderers and rapists walk on technicalities sometimes.
On a tangent here, but are you referring to the TV program "Law & Order"? I used to like that show, the first few seasons they had good plots and character conflicts etc. Lately, L&O and its spinoffs have devolved. I know it's just a TV show, but the way they glorify "the ends justify the means"... I stopped watching it years ago.
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David Z
"The issue is always the same, the government or the market. There is no third solution."
E. R. Olovetto:What evidence should be illegal besides those resulting from property invasion and which don't result in legitimate convictions? Yes, it is a dire risk to violate individual property rights and not come back with tangible evidence of criminality.
I was speaking about our current legal system. Illegal evidence being evidence obtained against the 4th Amendment.
Infrared surveillance is primarily used against indoor marijuana growing hobbyist and businessmen, the crimes for which they are charged lack the proper elements of corpora delicti and thus are really not crimes. In these and similar non-crimes, I'm glad there is an exclusionary rule.
I can't really think of a case where this type of technology could be applied in gathering evidence for real crimes. It doesn't really allow cops to see thrthrough walls like superman, rather it just shows hot spots on walls and roofs. I suppose they could use it to weed out people from public areas that had a fever?
Sadly the USSA police state has been here for many decades. Today it houses around 1 out of 7 prisoners in the world and has the highest per capita rate of incarceration.
We are the soldiers for righteousnessAnd we are not sent here by the politicians you drink with - L. Dube, rip