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blondie0420

This is old news to me. It's long been illegal in Connecticut to hang anything from your mirror which could detract from your view of the road.

As much as I love the ACLU and what they do, I think their lawyer is wrong in that anything that blocks your view must be the size of an open newspaper. Something as small as an air freshner could certainly make it impossible for you to see a small animal in the road (if it's standing in front of the small area of the road that the air freshner covers up...which is perfectly plausible). So you don't see the little kitten or puppy in the road in time for you to slow down, and by the time you do see it, you swerve and slam into oncoming traffic. It could happen. The law is meant to protect against such instances and worse.

And, honestly, isn't it easier to enforce a law that says that "anything that detracts from the driver's view" hanging from the rearview mirror is illegal rather than "anything bigger than ___ that detracts from the driver's view...."? I mean, suppose they set a particular limit...then what? Officers start pulling people over and pulling rulers out of their pockets to determine whether the particular hanging object is legal or not? That'd be the source of major headaches for lawmakers and lawbreakers alike.

I don't see how this is a major cause for concern anyway. It's a very simple and painless fix. You know it's illegal to have something hanging, so take whatever you've got hanging and put it somewhere else. The law is hardly forcing you to bend over backwards in order to comply, so I don't see why anyone wouldn't.

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kinghelwig

just dont hang anything from your rear view mirror then you just have to worry about everything else they can pull you over for.

king cola

I said in my post that they could pull you over if the law says it's illegal to have something hung from the rear-view mirror because it would be a violation of the law.

troublemaker_42

But you also said a narcotics officer could pull someone over for ANY reason under the guise of "reasonable suspicion" which is simply untrue. The simple fact of having an air freshner doesn't give the the officer grounds to believe you are committing a crime.

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king cola

Yeah but according to Barry Cooper narcotics officers do profiling on people. If the air freshner was legal and they saw you with it, wouldn't it still be a eye opener for them to look at you a little more closely and maybe think of a reason to pull you over?

In some states if it's legal to have things hang from the rear-view I think they make it clear that this is still going to go through a cops mind if theres a air freshner.

 

blondie0420

Just because Gamso (whoever the hell that is) said that and it was quoted in this article, that doesn't mean it's true (or legal). Air freshners are so popular among people who do and don't smoke marijuana, there'd be no reason to assume any big relation between the two. That'd be like saying wearing pants means you must be trying to conceal a weapon in your pocket. Sure, some weapons can be hidden in your pants pocket. But that doesn't mean everyone with pockets has a weapon in them. I'm sure some people do use those air freshners to attempt to cover up the smell of weed, but that doesn't mean that everyone who has an air freshner in their car has it for that reason. It'd be impossible for any officer to attempt to justify his reason for pulling someone over by saying that, "He had an air freshner, so I assumed he was covering up the smell of marijuana." That's just so implausible. It definitely wouldn't hold up in court.

troublemaker_42

I've never denied officers profile people, either. Please, bear with me here and read what I wrote, instead of what I didn't.. What I said was the presence of an air freshner, in and of itself, cannot be used to justify a "reasonable suspicion" stop. You implied that narcotics officers could pull someone over for anything more or less, calling it reasonable suspicion.

King Cola:

I've demonstrated that that is erroneous information, and that while it may CONTRIBUTE to an officer's suspicion, the mere presence of one item possibly connected to narcotics DOES NOT qualify as reasonable suspicion. I never said it wouldn't be an "eye opener" or that having said air freshener wouldn't CONTRIBUTE to an officer's belief of reasonable suspicion. However, thats a far cry different than the presence of an air freshner giving a cop legal authority to pull you over if said freshner was otherwise displayed in a completely legal manner that wouldn't give ANY cop the authority to pull you over. Narcotics cops have to play by the rules too. While our civil liberties are often under attack, we haven't become a country where cops are free to do as they please, so long as they have a "hunch". This is why the standards of "reasonable suspicion" and "probable cause" have been defined as legal terms, and are used as the standards that must be met when investigating, pulling someone over, searching, etc. Without these terms having a strict definition, too much is left to discretion, and fewer abuses of power are allowed to take place, ultimately protecting both officer and suspect.


I'm sorry, but while the Barry Cooper video contains a wealth of information, I'm beginning to despise the man, for the mere fact anyone who has seen his video seems to believe they are a legal expert at the end of the 60 minutes. Here's a heads-up-- Theres a reason law school, and even the police academy require more than watching a video before deeming people qualified to practice the law to any degree.

king cola

His videos do make things confusing like when he talks about pulling cars over if they have a college sticker or DARE sticker on the vehicle or a sports car driving by and someone rubbing their nose! Neither of those things are breaking the law. He made it sound like a narcotics officer could stop you on less than what a traffic cop could stop you for.

The only good information I got out of the video was reasonable suspicion but I already knew about probable cause but I got confused on the profiling and pulling the people over.

When I drive just to be on the safe side I don't leave anything around that could give the cop a reason to think i'm a marijuana user even if some things are legal to have. If it could get a cop to think i'm a pot user I just don't take the chance. Personally I never had a air freshner in my truck. I never thought about them making a cop think your trying to cover up a scent but I just keep the vehicle clean and felt I never needed one in there.

Next time I post on something like that I will question it in my post to see if someone else can verify it as being accurate.

Sejare

Hey Potshot, are you from Lorain County or just found that article somewhere in the web. Just wondering cause I am, and I get that paper everyday.

Plainsman1963

Since this is literally "old news" (posted over 2 years ago) and PotShot hasn't been online since August, you might not be getting an answer anytime soon.

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