Do you really know your rights? With the current wave of political “heat” and in particular the tea party, more and more Americans are becoming aware of the constitution and the importance of their rights assigned to them by this historic document. Thanks to the onslaught of 24 hour cable news and many other shows, there is much more awareness of what we have in the constitution and what we stand to lose if we are not careful.
Thanks to television shows, such as COPS, the American public has become quite a bit more aware of some of their rights. However, while people may be learning about some of their rights from action-packed sources such as this show, few people truly understand the protections that we, as citizens, do have. The 4th amendment probably exists in 99% of the COPS shows and criminal justice and legal based shows that flash across your TV screen. The 4th amendment protects you and I against unreasonable searches and seizures.
You’re driving home from a night out with some of your friends. You’ve had a few drinks and aren’t as alert as you should be. Suddenly, there are lights flashing from behind you. You find yourself pulling over to the side of the road and before you know it, the police officer standing at your window is smelling alcohol on your breath and clothing. They ask you to step out of your vehicle. Does that officer have the right to search your vehicle? Based on the fact that you blatantly smell like alcohol, yes, they have probable cause to do so. However, if you’re simply driving home from work and get pulled over and the officer asks you to step out of the vehicle because they want to search your car, no, there is no reason for them to search your car. The 4th amendment protects you against that. In fact, thanks to the 4th amendment, the term ‘probable cause’ has become pertinent in almost all criminal court cases.
What is probable cause? According to the 4th amendment, it is defined as “a reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime.” If your house has people coming and going at all hours of the day and night, staying for only a few moments at a time, it may look suspicious. To a police officer, it may look like you have drug activity taking place. The 4th amendment would define that behavior as giving law enforcement probable cause for a search of your property. If a police officer is bored on their shift one evening and just decides to randomly choose your house as practice for a search, that’s the kind of activity that the 4th amendment says cannot happen. The 4th amendment was created for your protection.
Nowadays, with all of the terror threats and activity occurring on a daily basis, more and more reasons exist for people and property being searched. At times, you have to wonder why more isn’t being done for our protection. While the 4th amendment is in place to protect our rights, sometimes, it can do some harm to the public as well. Just because someone looks suspicious to us, doesn’t meant that something can be done about it. If there isn’t probable cause, hands are tied. After something happens, we sit back and wonder why we didn’t catch it. Perhaps it could have been caught, but certain legal lines cannot be crossed until there is a definite reason to cross them.
Knowing your rights can and will protect you from becoming a victim in times when you may not be guilty. The 4th amendment is an important right to be familiar with in your everyday travels. However, it is also important to keep in mind that some of those very rights that are in place may also be the rights that create some hindrances in our world nowadays.
