Search Warrants Quotes
The judge found that Blacks and Hispanics were stopped and frisked at a much higher rate than whites despite the fact that whites, when they were stopped and searched had a higher rate of carrying an illegal gun or illegal substances.
See also Coke's Reports, Semayne's Case, 1605. Compare Blackstone, above.
The Writs of Assistance allowed the English authorities to issue general search warrants without any charges being filed and without any kind of probably cause or review by an independent judge. The practice outraged the colonists and Otis argued in court against its legitimacy. He lost the case, but galvanized the nation. When the Constitution was up for ratification, people remembered and the price of ratification was eliminating this abuse, and others in the Bill of Rights. Ironically, the favorite argument given by the English authorities for the broad search warrants was the same as many police and politicians give today. “If a person has done nothing wrong, what is so terrible about searching his house?” If there is nothing to hide, nothing will be found. That argument of course begs the question and was even being passionately debated in 2006 over the renewal of the Patriot Act.
Turner exposed many of the illegal activities of the FBI including “black bag jobs,” warrantless searches, bugs and wiretaps and criticized the FBI for avoiding investigations of organized crime. He had personally been directed to engage in these activities. When he went public, he was fired but no one has denied the specifics of the illegal activities he reported in his books and articles.
