Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops

[3Miro]

[*]If you have nothing to hide, then ideally you shouldn't have any worries.

Define "nothing to hide". A sexing from my girlfriend or wife? What if there is an inappropriate picture, does an officer get to see it?

There are more gray areas here. What if I am involved with Wikileaks spreading information about the government? Or perhaps I am making donations to a political organization trying to legalize marijuana, perfectly legal, yet perhaps not something I would do openly. There are many people that have to hide their sexual identity or religious believe or political convictions in order to keep their jobs or status in society. What if I was a gay soldiers before the appeal of "don't ask don't tell" and the officer finds out sexing messages on my phone form another guy. This varies form a place to a place and a situation to a situation, but social discrimination for perfectly legal actions does exist.

What is someone has cheated on their spouse. We would probably all agree that it is illegal, but I, for one, want police catching criminals, not sorting out random Joe's family affairs.

Furthermore, regardless of whether you think the government is corrupt or not, individual officers can be and sometimes are corrupt. This can give an officer a way to destroy incriminating evidence or blackmail people even if they have done nothing wrong.

No offence but "Nothing to hide" is an ignorant excuse. Even if you don't go to the extreme of "I am hiding (Jews/dissidents to the communist government/escaped Negroes) in my basement", there are many case where one has done nothing wrong or even illegal and yet no authority figure should know about it.

[Rasa1111]

Thanks Oliphant. <3

Yeah there are definitely good "cops",
but the bad ones do sadly kind of stain the uniform for all.

Often times, When I talk about these kind of things..
People automatically assume that I "hate cops" or something. lol
But that couldn't be further from the truth.
I know some very, very good people who happen to be in law enforcement,
who do their jobs properly and with integrity.
I respect those kind of people a lot.
Most of my brothers friends are sheriffs/detectives/cops..
and some of them are the coolest cops you could ever hope to run into.
Unless you give them reason to bash your head in the pavement. haha
But, I also dislike (to the extreme) those who abuse their positions,
and take advantage of knowing the fact that most people really do not fully know their rights.

Here's an example of someone knowing their rights.. (in regards to the ID thing)
and the officer actually accepting it. lol
He just gives up and slams the doors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFzWa3D2qho

<3

[PhillyPhil]

If you have nothing to hide, then ideally you shouldn't have any worries.

This is a sentence I'd be happy to never see again. It's just used as (incredibly weak) justification for any restrictive or invasive move by authorities.

Even if I don't have anything to hide I don't want my rights eroded. And one day, your idea of ''nothing'' may not match their idea of ''nothing''.

[dwhite]

thanks Oliphant

[Zerocool Djx]

Sounds like big brother is ramming us in the rear again..

Let it be known, my phone is MY phone,... I'll leave it at that

[SEisch]

Another reason I'm glad I don't have a cell phone.
I'd like to see them hook up that thing to my old rotary-dial telephone and get information off of it.

[Rasa1111]

@ 3Miro~
Very well said. <3
Couldn't agree more.
You addressed many of my concerns and thoughts. thanks.

PhillyPhil~
also well said, man.
thanks<3

lol@ zerocool..
you know it.

[false truths]

Considering the only cell phone I've ever owned only had a power plug, no data ports of any sort, they'd have a very hard time getting data off it with that thing... Either way, that violates privacy rights, and although I don't really care who sees my phone's data, it's constitutionally not okay for the police to gather it without permission unless they have a warrant, and blanket warrants legalising things like that are, again, unconstitutional.