Appellate Law

CA1: what it takes to stop poor people

By S. COTUS

US v. Soares, No. 07-1479. A guy was driving with his headlights on in a high-crime area (i.e. poor).  The cops saw ?furtive movements.?  A ?pat-frisk? found a gun.  The facts get a little silly as a defendant is termed ?verbally abusive? when he says that he was stopped for ?driving while black.? Applying United States v. Romain, 393 F.3d 63 (1st Cir. 2004), the First comes up with some stuff about how the officers reasonably believed that their safety was at risk or something.  Then it says something about how the ?character of a neighborhood? doesn?t substitute for reasonable suspicion, but it then sends a message that the ?character of a neighborhood? really does matter.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on March 28, 2008 (boomark / email).