Jailed for taking electricity worth 5 cents !

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: Trajan
Originally Posted By: TrevorS
But several people seem to be in denial that private property should not be searched and in denial that it is not ok to incarcerate a citizen for 15 hours for a 5c theft after they had 11 days to investigate.


You're still in denial of the concept of probable cause and reasonable suspicion.

The officer had a reasonable belief that the vehicle was abandoned. You can't prove that he didn't. And he didn't find anything incriminating as it was.

The officer broke no law searching it.


This is a stretch. If the cop paid attention in police academy he'd have learned how to stretch to cover this situation, though. IMO he should have entered the car if it were on a steep hill and he noticed the e-brake off and was concerned it would roll and cause injury or property damage. Or if the power cord were sparking or otherwise about to set a fire, or if he thought it led to a bomb.

A reasonable person would not assume a <2 year old car with (presumably) current registration, four round tires, no atmospheric fallout, etc was abandoned. This is not to say his specious reason won't hold up in a written report or in court, and I bet similar reasoning uncovers a lot of crimes. But when the car owner comes storming over asking WTH are you doing, be prepared that the excuse will sound a little left field.

 

[Propflux01]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

A reasonable person would not assume a div>


If it was parked in an area that is not normally used regularly by employees, or if the cop was familiar with the surroundings, a car that "just didn't fit" etc., then yes.

You would be surprised at the number of "less than 2 year old cars with current registration, etc.", that ends up being abandoned through abduction cases.

 

[cjcride]

Greening the world... on your dime.

 

[Cutehumor]

Maybe the guy needed a little juice to get home who knows. Some folks forget to charge their cell phones at home. I know I forgot to get gas over the weekend as I hate getting gas in morning rush hour. Now I realize every public building can be a victim of electricity theft. When electric car ranges exceed at least 250 miles this wont be a problem. First generation leaf's have 65 mile driving range?

 

[Vikas]

What exactly was the cop looking for inside the car? The cop could see the plate and could have called in for the registration.

I mean if he was worried about the electrical wires going in the car, then he should have been smart enough to use his head to think that may be it was booby trapped and opening the door would be the last thing he should be doing.

 

[TrevorS]

So let me ask another question.

If he found an electrical socket on the court, and charged his cellphone there, should he be charged for theft of electricity?

 

[Mykl]

Probably not. But I also don't feel that it was in good taste to arrest him for plugging in his car.

However, if you're a complete turd-bag when somebody asks you to not use their electricity...... you get what's coming to you. The golden rule is pretty easy to follow.

 

[TrevorS]

Originally Posted By: Trajan
Originally Posted By: TrevorS
But several people seem to be in denial that private property should not be searched and in denial that it is not ok to incarcerate a citizen for 15 hours for a 5c theft after they had 11 days to investigate.


You're still in denial of the concept of probable cause and reasonable suspicion.

The officer had a reasonable belief that the vehicle was abandoned. You can't prove that he didn't. And he didn't find anything incriminating as it was.

The officer broke no law searching it.

As I explained earlier, but you and others just go right past it. An unlocked vehicle on school property, the owner was not with the vehicle. And said vehicle was plugged into an outlet stealing power that he did not pay for. Which, again, is a crime.

It doesn't serve you to claim people are "jumping to conclusions not born out by facts.". as you have not presented *any* thing that would be recognized in a court as facts.

Bad spelling doesn't matter. A tennis coach doesn't matter. Claiming that a police report shows him to be a trouble maker, which is true by his own actions by the way.

The only fact that matters is he got caught stealing. Now of course he can defend himself in court, which is how it works, though his statement that he's done it many times before is no help.

But he can't argue that he couldn't find anyone to ask and prevail. He can't argue that he didn't know it was illegal and prevail. And he certainly can't use drinking water or people charging cell phones et al while inside the school as a defense and expect not to be laughed into a fine, if any.

Now, the judge could decide to just have him pay court costs and sentence him to time served. (Not familiar enough with Georgia law, not living or travelling there.)

But I guarantee you, if he is as arrogant in the courtroom as he was at the school, he could very well spend time as a guest there for contempt of court.


So I take it from the repeated times you and others have fully agreed with the police that you also agree that 15 hours in jail prior to a court case where ALL he will be charged with is the theft of 5c, is appropriate.

Trajan, I don't disagree with everything you say but much of what you say is laughable.

Reasonable belief of abandonment? It was plugged in. Who leaves a car plugged in when they abandon it?

And also consider that the officer claims he looked for the owner but the police chief also says the tennis court was in plain view if the vehicle, and we understand it was 35ft away and we understand the tennis coach spotted the police officer in the vehicle. It hardly sounds as if the police officer made an attempt to locate the owner does it.

The only way one can believe the officer did no wrong is if you agree, presumably with the officer, that he has the right to go into the vehicle if he feels like it. You feel he does, partly because of what you've learnt and feel about the owner, and are subsequently justifying the unlawful entry.

I have presented facts, such as the reasoning for why this was an unlawful entry which gives the owner a good reason to question the officer, who is NOT above the law. Any argument that took place can be said to have been instigated by the unlawful entry.

Bad spelling does matter because frankly we seem to have uneducated people in law enforcement which is a problem. You can find plenty if YouTube videos on officers who directly claim they can act above the law and unconstitutionally. In this case, this officer could not find people 35ft away and concluded that a vehicle plugged in for electricity was abandoned, and then did a unlawful search of private property without consent, when he had no evidence of a crime being committed.

The tennis coach matters because he spotted the officer but the officer claims he could not find anybody in connection with his "investigation" before entering the car.

"The only fact that matters is that he got caught stealing" - no the fact that matters is that after 11 days of investigation, the police should have realized that the theft was 5c and if they still wanted to prosecute this on the taxpayers dollars, they should have set up a court date without requiring 15 hours in jail.

Because what matters is not ONLY what is right or wrong but how we prosecute what is right or wrong in an even handed and proportionate manner.

 

[TrevorS]

Originally Posted By: Mykl
Probably not. But I also don't feel that it was in good taste to arrest him for plugging in his car.

However, if you're a complete turd-bag when somebody asks you to not use their electricity...... you get what's coming to you. The golden rule is pretty easy to follow.


But (in your definition not mine), he was being a turd bag after the police officer entered his car before he had been asked to not use the electricity, and before the police officer had established the schools position on this.

 

[TrevorS]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
What exactly was the cop looking for inside the car? The cop could see the plate and could have called in for the registration.

I mean if he was worried about the electrical wires going in the car, then he should have been smart enough to use his head to think that may be it was booby trapped and opening the door would be the last thing he should be doing.



Why stop with the vehicle? Why not search his house as well?

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: TrevorS
But (in your definition not mine), he was being a turd bag after the police officer entered his car before he had been asked to not use the electricity, and before the police officer had established the schools position on this.


Exactly who called to complain that he was stealing electricity?

I'm pretty sure that if this went to court they would find that the officer opening the car to look at a name on a piece of mail to determine the owner of the vehicle to be a reasonable search.

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: TrevorS
Because what matters is not ONLY what is right or wrong but how we prosecute what is right or wrong in an even handed and proportionate manner.

Well said.

 

[jrustles]

Tell me, if you're a Georgia citizen and you see this guy in a public car park plugging something from the car into a socket, honestly, being a news fed,hometown boy howdy Georgian, what are you going to do?

Stay away and call 911 perhaps?

 

[wvrailroader]

Originally Posted By: Mykl
I'm pretty sure that if this went to court they would find that the officer opening the car to look at a name on a piece of mail to determine the owner of the vehicle to be a reasonable search.


How would looking in the car be reasonable? If the officer wanted to know who the car belonged to, he could have just ran the plate number.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: Trav

IMO he is lucky the cops didn't give him a bit of VIP treatment for getting mouthy.


Funny you mentioned that, I was thinking along the same lines. Imagine the twists and turns this thread would have taken had they tuned him up a bit for mouthing off?

I'm a little surprised they didn't do that, plant drugs in his car, or both. Contempt of cop can be a capital crim, at least to the bullies in blue!

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: jrustles
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Some people wake up with a chip on their shoulder and are confrontational by nature. This guy with the Leaf could be one of those personalities.


I lol'd. You began describing a lot of the law enforcement out there, only to then appropriate the statement to regular citizens who just want to live their lives.

Imagine, a citizen driven by 'a chip on their shoulder' persuing and harrassing cops for any daily petty crimes they commit.

To all these hard-talkers that want to talk about "emotions" and legal zeal, keep pretending you're some type of SS robot operating under legal orders, while the rest of humanity acts like humans; flawed emotional humans complete with discretion, diligence, compassion, humility and empathy- character traits that are absent in the psychopath. You wouldn't send your own mother to jail or put her through that over something so petty, or stealing a piece of gum and mouthing off to a cop about how petty he's being. And if you would, even to make a point, then maybe you're a psychopath.

Quote:

But when participants imagined pain to others, these regions [of the brain] failed to become active in high psychopaths. Moreover, psychopaths showed an increased response in the ventral striatum, an area known to be involved in pleasure, when imagining others in pain.


Spot on!

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: Mykl
If you don't want to get harrassed by cops, don't give them a reason to harrass you,


?!?!?!??!?!?!


Translation: tug your forelock and say, "ya, massa!" to cops.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: KenO
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Originally Posted By: Vikas
I am shocked, shocked to see most of you have no problem for a cop to enter your car without warrant or any reasonable suspicion.

I was wondering something similar. With all the new laws and zero tolerance stuff going on, is it possible that the law is such that entry on school property constitutes consent to search?


On that note, am I the only one who seems to care about an arbitrary person (non-school administrator) using 911 for a non-emergency call?


He should be fined hugely (say, cost of the response x100 or $1,000,000, whichever is greater) for it. Misuse of the 911 system should be a felony!

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: TrevorS
I'm also leaning towards the fact that the police feel they are above the law and this person was not going to be intimidated. By entering a private vehicle for no reason apart from a belief you can get away with it, the police officer has displayed his disregard for the rights of citizens and his attitude about his power vs yours.


Of course police think they're above the law! In fact, they frequently are.

 

[TrevorS]

http://www.11alive.com/News/Odd/314921/186/Colbert-plans-segment-on-jailed-electric-car-owner-

Kamooneh says he is also meeting with an attorney next week, some of whom have offered to represent him at no charge. He says Chamblee Police have made numerous false statements about the incident, including

* that Kamooneh had been warned to stay off the tennis court at Chamblee Middle School previously. Kamooneh says he "emphatically" denies that.

* that Kamooneh was taking a tennis lesson on the court, not his son. Kamooneh re-stated that he was watching his son take the lesson on the court.


* that Kamooneh had been uncooperative with police who investigated the alleged theft. Kamooneh reiterated that he expressed disbelief that the officer was pondering a criminal charge, but cooperated fully.

Records show that a Chamblee police sergeant told a DeKalb judge that Kamooneh had swiped $10-25 worth of electricity during the incident. The judge issued the warrant for Kamooneh's arrest. Later, police admitted they didn't know the value of the electricity involved.