The story about the Nashua cops arresting and charging a man for taping police as they were on his porch (discussing how they might make the disabled veteran "more disabled" with a billy club) was if nothing else a cautionary reminder how fragile our private property rights really are.
.
Now comes this from the Union Leader (NH):
Manchester – Fifteen-year-old Mirage Rousseau said she came home Wednesday afternoon to find two Manchester police officers inside her home, peering into her and her older brother’s bedrooms..She asked them what they were doing inside her family’s 317 Rimmon St. apartment. They told her someone left the door open, and they walked in to search for a 14-year-old runaway..Mirage and her dad, Wilfred Rousseau, said the doors to their apartment are never left open because of their Persian cat, named "Kitty." They said the doors were definitely closed Wednesday because Kitty is in heat..Rousseau said, after learning of the officers being inside his home and talking to one of them, he called Manchester police to complain. He received an apology from Lt. James Stankiewicz, the night’s shift commander..Stankiewicz said he did apologize for the department because Rousseau was right — the officers should not have entered the apartment..The officers, whom he refused to identify because the issue has become a personnel matter, had no warrant and no one’s permission to enter the apartment, Stankiewicz said.
What about the police claims that the door was open? Was it open or just unlocked? Were the cops lying? Why? Perhaps the officers involved should re-read the 4th Amendment of our Constitution for guidance as they carry out their mission to protect and serve:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
I hope that what we are seeing isn’t the start of some heavy-handed trend here in NH – It certainly looks that way…
