A knock at the door Constitutional war rages in the wee hours of the morning
In the sleepy-cold hours before dawn, adversity pounds unexpectedly at Antonio's door. As he slides out of bed in a T-shirt and boxers, an authoritative male voice cuts the air.
"Police! Open Up!"
Without time to put on his glasses, Antonio runs and opens his apartment door. Two of Metro's finest stand there. "Can we come in and take a look around?"
"No," Antonio says, gently but firmly. "Why do you want to look around?"
"Just step aside so we can come in and look around."
"I'm not going to just let you in my house unless I know why you're here," Antonio explains.
"We have information you're running a meth lab here. Do you know how dangerous that is? You could blow people up. If you have nothing to hide, why won't you let us in?"
The officer has the sound of a man used to getting his way. He's not used to hearing no for an answer.
"I am not running a meth lab," Antonio responds. "You are not coming in. I know my rights. Do you guys have a warrant?"
"No," the officer says coldly.
"Then you're not coming in."
"Why are you having such an attitude about this?" one of the cops asks.
"I'm not the one with the attitude. I'm not the one knocking on someone's door at 3 in the morning. If you guys have a warrant, you can come in. If you don't, you need to get lost."
Hey, Antonio...you can't hear or see me at the moment...but it's me...your buddy Al. I'm worried about you, pal.
Why not tell the cops you're a criminal defense lawyer and if they don't leave, you'll have their badges? But you won't do that, will you? You never bully anyone. You always try to reason with people, to take the high road.
Besides you're in the middle of a constitutional firefight with two cops with a strong lust to make a bust. Good luck, Antonio. You'll need it. These two guys don't sound like reasonable truth seekers. They sound more like professional ball-busters with badges.
This is the ugly part of the "war on drugs" that Metro, the FBI, DEA, the district attorney and the Justice Department don't like to talk about. The part where innocent citizens like you, good people who I'd I have over for dinner, are treated like dogshit.
Hey, you two guys with the badges...you guys at Antonio's door, peering over his shoulders into his apartment. I wish you could hear or see me, because if you could, this is what I'd say. I'd ask whether you're harassing Antonio under the guise of trying to make this world better for your fellow man. Or is it because you're stunned he has the stones to assert his rights under the Fourth Amendment?
You remember that one, fellas. Don't you? They teach it to you in the academy. That's the amendment that deals with the right of the people to be secure in their persons and houses against unreasonable searches and seizures. So, if you want to enter Antonio's apartment, you need a warrant. And to get a warrant you need probable cause, which no way in hell do you have, because Antonio does not use, sell or manufacture drugs.
What's it going to take for you to leave people like Antonio alone? If you want to bang on doors and barge into homes in the middle of the night, go to China. It's all the rage there. How would you like it if I were a cop? Banged on your door at 3 a.m. and asked to check your house, because someone told me you were selling dope? I get the feeling you'd yell at me to leave. Maybe kick my ass.
So don't try to tell me I'm out of line here, or that you are just doing your job.
Is it so unfathomable that an innocent person would object to the violation of their privacy?
The cops notice a whiff of smoke coming out of the chimney from the fireplace in Antonio's apartment.
Time for more ball-busting.
"Don't you know it's against the law to burn a wood fire in Clark County?" one of the cops asks. "I should be able to come inside based on that alone."
"I didn't know that," Antonio answers. "I didn't know you can only burn gas fires in Clark County. That's kind of strange since the builder didn't put a gas connection to my fireplace."
"If we wanted, we could go downstairs right now and call the fire marshal and he'd be over here in a second."
In case you're wondering, readers, let me assure you that a burning fireplace is not one of the telltale signs of a meth lab. In fact, it should be a good indicator to the cops that there is no meth lab here, since flames from a burning fireplace might cause such a lab to explode.
"Well, that's fine, " Antonio says. "If the fire marshal comes back with a warrant , he can come in. If you come back with a warrant, you can come in. If you guys pull out your guns and force your way in, you can come in too. But it will be against my consent. Look, I'm going to close the door slowly and I hope you guys leave."
Antonio closes his door to the voices of angry cops.
The officers go downstairs. They shine their patrol car headlights into the first-floor apartment directly beneath Antonio's place. Presumably, the folks who live in the first-floor apartment are not home. But some of the light is pouring through Antonio's window. Antonio presumes the harassment is directed at him.
Eventually the cops go. Antonio is too hyped up to go back to sleep. Instead, he gets dressed. He wonders if the police will come back to his home. He wonders if when they return, they will rifle through his closets and drawers in an attempt to find something. He gets dressed just in case the cops come back. Because if they do, Antonio doesn't want to spend the night in jail in his red boxers.
He decides to take a drive in his car. The crazy thing is, he feels safer driving around town at this crazy hour than he does at home. After a while he drives back home feeling violated.
Days later, Antonio reflects with me about what happened.
"There are two reasons why I didn't let the police in my apartment," he says. "The first is just the personal violation. I have nothing to hide in my apartment, but that's just it. It's my apartment. I didn' t want two strangers coming in and looking around. To me that is abhorrent.
"The second thing is I wanted to send a message to these two officers that some people do know their rights. Just because a person says no to the police in a situation like this doesn't automatically mean they have something to hide.
"From a legal standpoint, my rights were not violated because the officers didn't cross the threshold to my home. There's nothing I can do about this, but is this the way police should do business? Clearly not.
"We can disagree as to what the Founding Fathers would have thought about abortion, gun control and all sorts of contemporary issues. But one of the main freedoms encompassed by the Bill of Rights is freedom from invasion into one's home.
"And while the officers may have lived up to the letter of the law in that they didn't cross my threshold, they definitely violated the spirit of the Bill of Rights."
And so there you have it...a Las Vegas story of adversity in the sleepy-cold hours before the dawn. Unfortunately, most of us don't get too upset about these types of problems until they personally happen to us.
I wonder if the cops who knocked on Antonio's door are reading this? If they are, I encourage them to apologize to Antonio. He's a good man.
And one more thing: If stuff like this keeps happening, watch out. Cause this ol' boy just may become a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
Al Tobin is a criminal defense investigator in Las Vegas. His friend Antonio asked that only his middle name be used for this story.
Las Vegas NORML
P.O. Box 34473
Las Vegas, NV 89133
Ph: (702) 380-7869
www.lvnorml.com
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