LASHKAR GAH, AFGHANISTAN – APRIL 01: (FILE IMAGE) U.S. Army Col. Paul Calbos walks through an opium poppy field on April 1, 2006 near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. European cities risk higher numbers of heroin overdoses as Afghanistan’s record opium poppy crop floods cities with the drug, the UN has warned. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else. In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit. Weeds are people’s idea, not nature’s. ~Author Unknown
While we try to get rid of crabgrass in America in parts of Africa crabgrass (fonio) is a staple grain, and as forage it can produce a whopping 17 tons per acre.
Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and there is no known way to kill it that does not involve nuclear weapons. ~Dave Barry
We can in fact only define a weed, mutatis mutandis, in terms of the well-known definition of dirt – as matter out of place. What we call a weed is in fact merely a plant growing where we do not want it. ~E.J. Salisbury, The Living Garden, 1935
“What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment,” Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, wrote in her new book, “Why Dirt Is Good” (Kaplan). “Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.”
Soil contains microorganisms, decaying organic matter, earthworms and other insects. Soil is a living environment. The earthworms and insects aerate the soil and add to the organic matter of the soil through their waste and when their bodies decay.
Dirt is basically dead soil. It does not contain any of the above. You can add organic matter (compost) to dirt to revitalize it. The organic matter will provide food for beneficial microorganisms so that the ecological system can start to regenerate.
“If a healthy soil is full of death, it is also full of life: worms, fungi, microorganisms of all kinds … Given only the health of the soil, nothing that dies is dead for very long.”
– Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977
“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
– James Oppenheim
“If I wanted to have a happy garden, I must ally myself with my soil; study and help it to the utmost, untiringly. Always, the soil must come first.”
– Marion Cran, If I Where Beginning Again
Decayed leaves create what is called leaf mulch.The structure we used to know as a leaf breaks down into a loose lace-like texture that eventually decomposes quickly into the soil. Leaf mulch in bare soil will be pulled down into the soil by earthworms: it is their favorite food!
Below is my final assignment for Angie Goodloe’s Herbalist 101 course. Be warned, it’s lengthy! But there’s a surprise at the end. If you have any interest in herbalism, I highly recommend Angie’s course. It’s full of information, provides plenty of opportunity for you to get intimate with herbs and make those medicines. And Angie provides plenty of feedback and encouragement in her responses to the assignments. Fun stuff!
Also, Angie is currently offering the course at an absurdly low price ($35!). I assure you, the course is worth far, far more than that!
California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
Alternate names: Copa de ora, Dormidera (the Drowsy One, since this ‘sun-worshipping flower’ closes its blooms at night)
Family: Papaveraceae
Patterns of the Poppy family are showy flowers with 2-3 sepals that shed early, petals in multiples of four, lots of stamens. They often have milky sap in their stems. Many plants in this family contain narcotic alkaloids. Narcotics depress the central nervous system, sedating and offering relief from the feeling of pain (analgesic). [I’m noting Family characteristics in anticipation of work I’m doing with the Kamana Naturalist Training Program. Currently in that program I’m journaling Plants, which will soon include detailing all the native plant families of my area.]
With that “Family background” in mind, let’s explore this beautiful herb …
The state flower of California, California Poppy is aptly chosen for this honor. For countless generations the native peoples of California carefully cultivated this plant–as they did with many others–for food and medicine in monocropped expanses on hillside and in valleys. European settlers thought they had arrived in untouched wilderness. Not so. The native peoples practiced sustainable harvesting and sowing that involved controlled burns as part of their land management.
It is said that north of Pasadena early Spanish sailors guided by a golden hillside in spring — a hillside shining with the bright orange-gold of the California Poppy. It is also said that this was one reason they dubbed this coast “the Land of Fire” (the other reason being that there were indeed fires a-plenty due to lightning strikes as well as due to the dry, arid summers).
The Yuki tribe used it for toothaches, it was food for the Sierra Miwoks, the Ohlone used it for sleep, the Wintu used it to heal newborn baby belly buttons
The Nisenan ate the leaves either boiled or roasted with hot stones and then laid in water. The Pomo mashed the seedpod or a decoction of it on a nursing mother’s breast to dry up her milk. And the plant was given to babies as a sedative and placed under the bed for better sleep. Other tribes rubbed a decoction of the flowers into the hair to kill lice. The root juice was taken to relieve stomachaches and tuberculosis, and as a wash for weeping sores.
The plant itself: is a perennial or annual (further north) to 2 ft. tall with mostly basal with bluish-green lacelike leaves. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, the plant was an annual. Here in my backyard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the plant is definitely a perennial. The plant in these photographs is one that has been thriving since our arrival here last June.
The flowers sit atop a flattened rim on long stalks. The flowers are of four shiny petals bright orange to yellow in color, sepals fused into cap, and falling off when it flowers. Many stamens. The fruit is long and slender, containing many black seeds. It’s so satisfying to collect the seeds! Just pluck off the dried pods and pop them into an envelope. The plant flowers from February through November.
The plant is found in grasslands, hillsides, and open areas, in well-drained and poor soil, from Southern California up through Washington.
In terms of modern-day herbalism California Poppy has these characteristics.
Taste: Bitter
Energy: Cool
Organs affected: Liver, Heart
Actions (according to Lesley Tierra): calm the Spirit (I most definitely agree!)
Dose: rounded teaspoon of chopped plant as tea, drink 1-3 times daily; fresh plant tincture: 20-60 drops 1-4 times daily. For sleep problems, take 20-40 drops one hour before sleep, then again right before bedtime. For bedwetting in children over 5 years old, use with horsetail, 10 drops of each twice/day.
A mild sedative and analgesic, this plant is suitable even for children, though may cause a mild ‘hangover’ headache the next morning if used in excessive quantities. Lesley Tierra writes: “California poppy wonderfully sedates, calms and relaxes the nervous system, treating symptoms of anxiety, nervous tension and agitation. As well, it repairs nerves and alleviates nerve pain, especially from sciatica, herpes and shingles. It is also used for heart palpitations and insomnia due to nervousness.
Contraindications: large amounts used sometimes cause nausia. Better not to use it during pregnancy.
Collecting: Gather the whole above ground plant and dry it. Or tincture the whole fresh plant. When I tinctured California Poppy in the past, I used the whole plant, including
Coca leaf is rich in beneficial antioxidants, including ones that help to protect the integrity of blood vessels.coca leaf, which is used as a flavoring ingredient in Coca-Cola.
Nutrition Benefits of the Coca Leaf
The coca leaf has been found to be a valuable dietary supplement. Several studies analyzed the nutrition characteristics of the coca leaf. Two notable ones include, a 2009 study published in the Food & Nutrition Bulletin (Can coca leaves contribute to improving the nutritional status of the Andean population?, Penny, Zavaleta, et al.) and a1975 Harvard study (Nutritional Value of Coca Leaf, Duke, Aulick, Plowman). They found that per 100g the leaves contained:
the Incas domesticated this plant, tells the story of the Inca army made an extract of the leaf and chewing (to a bolus of leaves in the buccal mucosa) and extracted the juice from the leaf to mitigate the cold, hunger and fatigue, so the coca leaf was a vital element in the survival Inca
A “yes” vote is a vote in favor of legalizing marijuana and hemp under state law and enacting certain sales and cultivation taxes.
A “no” vote is a vote against legalizing marijuana and hemp under state law and enacting certain sales and cultivation taxes.
Multiple, separate initiatives designed to legalize marijuana were filed in 2016. A full list of the initiatives filed and cleared for signature gathering can be found here.
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” — George Orwell
Statutory limitations on individual freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are examined for substantive authority and content as well as for definiteness or certainty of expression. The void-for-vagueness doctrine requires that a penal statute define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement. Vague Terms like acting Irate, resisting, gang are undefinable as a human action. successful as
Florida v. Royer, 460 U. S. 491, 500 (1983) (plurality opinion). I am not persuaded that the mere fact that someone standing on a sidewalk looked in the direction of a passing car before starting to run is sufficient to justify a forcible stop and frisk.
The disparate treatment in the American criminal justice system begins at the very first stage of that system: Equal Protection Clause
Probable cause and reasonable suspicion are two of the most important concepts in deciding the when it is appropriate for police to make an arrest, search for evidence and stop a person for questioning.
The investigation of suspected criminal activity by law enforcement agents.
Police departments disproportionately politically economically target, skewing at the outset the racial composition of the population ultimately charged, convicted and incarcerated. And too often the police employ tactics against minorities that simply shock the conscience.
The Court hinted that the California statute compromised the constitutional right to freedom of movement.[Note 1][Note 2]]
The Constitution does not offer a definition probable cause.-Making Probable Cause a “Black Code” Reason
“weighs testimony, whilst the latter, conscious perhaps of its inability to do so or careless of the consequences of error, at times rejects whole portions en masse , and at others converts pieces of evidence into rules of law by investing with conclusive effect some whose probative force has been found to be in general considerable. . . .” SCOTUS
SCOTUS–How
do
Cops
Lie? By Generalities Terms
The Court hinted that the California statute compromised the constitutional right to freedom of movement.[Note 1][Note 2]]
African Americans arrested and convicted under the Black Codes could be, and usually were, forced to work on plantations. Since most African-Americans had until recently been unpaid slaves, few possessed money to pay the fines assessed for their “crimes.”
The first private prison in the U.S. was an immigration detention center. In 1983, CCA won the first federal contract to build a facility in Houston, Texas. Before the facility was even finished, CCA began detaining immigrants in rented motel rooms.
Prison Industry Revenues and stock prices are skyrocketing for private prison companies that build immigration prisons, like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, Inc.
John D Ferguson Missouri Prison Industry/Slaver
These companies have an incentive to urge the government to build more jails, and in fact, regularly lobby in Washington, DC for more detention, even if it is not the most effective use of taxpayer dollars.
Corrections Corporation of America “We’ve never seen the wind at our back like it is today.” -CCA President and CEO John D. Ferguson, May 2006
#santabarbara refugio state beach in california @californianewsn Big Oil Spill Along Refugio Coast … #oilspill #oilspill @SFGate #CA Governor Oh, #sboilspill #SantaBarbaraOilSpill
Invoice Prison Industry
Prison Industry Jury nulification
Prison Industry
Prison Industry Military Industry
Prison Industry Free Prison Labor makes your world go around
Leter from China Prison
Land Grab Probable Cause
Land Grab Baltimore Detroit Chicago New York
Hemp will clean it up
Global Prison Industry
weighs testimony, conscious of its inability to do so, careless of the consequences of error
Gentrification is any facet of urban renewal that inevitably leads to displacement of the occupying demographic. This is a common and widespread controversial topic and term in urban planning.[1]
Bobby JinDal The Fourth Amendment requires that the police have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed before stopping a suspect.
Eric Garner, body search New York Patrick Lynch
Donta Allen shared Freddie Gray’s last ride inside a paddy-wagon arrested for weed which is not an arrestable offense in Baltimore
Body Search Propable Cause Baltimore FOP Anthony Batts
Orphan “Black Code” Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi is operated by Mississippi Security Services
Corp Prison Industry Ferguson, John D. Missouri CCA
Darren wilson’s testimony that Mike Brown had his hands up.
In the United States, the “ORPHAN/Black Codes”
Children are tortured in police custody. They are held in prisons in inhuman and degrading conditions. They are denied the due process which should guarantee them fair trials. They are held for years without charge. They are forgotten by the world that walks past the bars of their existence.
These laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War. These laws had the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans’ freedom, and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt.
Ronald Brockmeyer, the municipal judge in Ferguson, has resigned less than a week after a scathing federal report called his court little more than an ATM for the city. And the Missouri Supreme Court has ordered all Ferguson municipal court cases transferred to Judge Roy L. Richter of the Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Ferguson collected $2.6 million in court fines and fees. Ferguson officials “have built a municipal scheme designed to brutalize, to punish, and to profit.”
Plus 2. Blue fed Tax dollars also pay the tab for the same in-mate care.
Fed Blue Tax Dollars paid to governors Red and Blue
GEO Group is one of the largest security firms in the world and the nation’s second largest for-profit prison operator. GEO operates 50 facilities in 16 states and one in Guantanamo Bay.
In 2008, GEO Group earned $1.14 billion in U.S. revenue with a net income of $59.8 million.
CCA has been able to charge up to $200/day per bed in the Don T. Hutto family Immigration detention facility in Texas.
Plus 3. Private prisons profit on the Free-prison Labor .
Plus 4. Forfeitures are available to arresting officers.
Being paid for the same fees by all cycles of the prison industry lends to motive, lack of probable cause and enforcement of Black Codes.
Last year, NPR’s investigative series Guilty and Charged revealed that all 50 states add long lists of fines and fees for court services, including the cost of a public defender, and room and board for jail stays. The investigation also found that when the poor struggle to pay those fees — often with penalties that push costs to hundreds or thousands of dollars — they are sent to jail for not paying the fines, even though debtors prisons were outlawed before the Civil War.
Written by J. Hirby | Fact checked by The Law Dictionary staff |
Probable cause and reasonable suspicion are two of the most important concepts in deciding the when it is appropriate for police to make an arrest, search for evidence and stop a person for questioning. Probable cause and reasonable suspicion have evolved through state and federal court decisions, but they began in the U.S. Supreme Court.
“A person, however conscious of innocence, might not have courage to stand a trial, but might, although innocent, think it necessary to consult his safety by flight. It may be,”
added the learned judge,
“a conscious anticipation of punishment for guilt, as the guilty will always anticipate the
Page 160 U. S. 419
consequences; but at the same time it may possibly be, according to the frame of mind, merely an inclination to consult his safety by flight, rather than stand his trial on a charge so heinous and scandalous as this.”
The Due Process Clause prohibits state and local government officials from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without legislative authorization.
to the United States Constitution states that people have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. It goes on to specify that a search warrant cannot be issued unless there is probable cause for doing so.
The Constitution does not offer a definition probable cause.-Making probable Cause a “Black Code”
Providing a definition was left to the justices of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment use of the word “seizure” to mean both the seizure of evidence and, as in an arrest, the seizure of a person. The Court also applied probable cause to searches, seizures and arrests conducted without a warrant.
According to the Supreme Court, probable cause to make an arrest exists when an officer has knowledge of such facts as would lead a reasonable person to believe that a particularindividual is committing, has committed or is about to commit a criminal act. The officer must be able to articulate the facts and circumstances forming the basis for probable cause.
Black Codes and Stop and Frisk: A body of laws,statutes,andrulesenacted by southernstatesimmediatelyaftertheCivilWar to regaincontroloverthefreedslaves,maintainwhitesupremacy,andensurethecontinuedsupply of cheaplabor.
TheUnion’svictoryovertheSouth in theCivilWarsignaledtheendfortheinstitution of Slavery in theUnitedStates.Ratified in 1865,theThirteenth Amendment to theU.S.Constitutionformalizedthisresult in U.S.law,abolishingslaverythroughoutthecountryandeveryterritorysubject to itsjurisdiction.
Scheme:For thenextseveralmonths,southernstatessought a way to restoreforthewhitemajoritywhattheCivilWarandtheThirteenthAmendmenthadtried to denythem,supremacy,control,andeconomicpoweroverthefate of AfricanAmericans.
Underslavery,whiteshaddisciplinedtheblackslargelyoutsidethelaw,throughextralegalwhippingsadministered by slaversandtheiroverseers.
Process: Aftertheslaveswereemancipated,panickywhitesfearedthatblackswouldseekrevengeagainstthemfortheirharshandinhumanetreatment on thesouthernplantations.Formerslaveownersfearedforthemselves,theirfamilies,andtheirproperty.
WhilesomewhitesouthernersthoughtthatAfrican-AmericanswerebestcontrolledthroughVigilantism, Mississippiwhitesbeganpassinglaws to takeawaytheformerslaves’newfoundfreedom.
Juvenile Justice
Thefirstsuchlawwasenacted on November22,1865. It directedcivilofficers to hireorphanedAfricanAmericansandforbadetheorphans to leavetheirplace of employmentforanyreason.
Orphan “Black Code” Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi is operated by Mississippi Security Services
Orphansweretypicallycompensatedwith a freeplace to live,freemeals,andsometype of nominalwage.Otherwhiteemployerswereprohibitedfromofferinganyenticement to blacks“employed” by someoneelse.
Using the construction of the California appellate court in Solomon, the Court held that the law was unconstitutionally vague because it gave excessive discretion to the police (in the absence of probable cause to arrest) whether to stop and interrogate a suspect or leave him alone.[3] The Court hinted that the California statute compromised the constitutional right to freedom of movement.[Note 1][Note 2]]
TheMississippilegislaturenextpassed a Vagrancylaw,definingvagrants as workerswho“neglectedtheircalling or employment or misspentwhattheyearned.”
AnotherMississippilawrequiredAfricanAmericans to:
carrywiththemwrittenevidence of theirpresentemployment at alltimes, a practicethatwashauntinglyreminiscent of theoldpasssystemunderslavery.
Thefinalpiece to thepuzzlecamewhenMississippiestablished a system of specialcountycourts to punishblackschargedwithviolatingone of thenewstateemploymentlaws.Thelawimposeddraconianpunishments,including“corporalchastisement”forblackswhorefused to work or otherwisetried to [frustrate] thesystem.AfricanAmericanswhocommittedrealcrimes,such as stealing,could be hung by theirthumbs.
Prison IndustryWidelyconsidered to be thefirstset of BlackCodes passed in thesouthaftertheCivilWar,theseMississippilawsrepresented a concertedeffort by whitelawmakers to restorethemaster-slaverelationshipunder a newname.Within a fewmonthsafterMississippipasseditsfirstsuchlaw,Alabama,Georgia,Louisiana,Florida,Tennessee,Virginia,and NorthCarolina followedsuit by enactingsimilarlaws of theirown.
Congressquicklyresponded to theBlackCodes by passingthe civilrightsact of 1866,whichmade it illegal to discriminateagainstblacks by assigningthem an inferiorlegalandeconomicstatus.Twoyearslaterthestatesratifiedthe Fourteenth Amendment, whichguaranteed“equalprotection of thelaws” to theresidents of everystate.
Butthesouthernstateswerenotdeterred.Theysoonpassed a newset of lawsthatpermittedlocalofficials to informallydiscriminateagainstblacks,withoutspecificstatutoryauthority.Thethrust-and-parryexchangesbetweenCongressandthesouthernstatescontinuedthroughouttheperiodReconstruction(1865-77)andthroughthefirsthalf of thetwentiethcentury.
Black Codes = Stop and Frisk: Freddy Gray, Eric Garner, Walter Scott
John D Ferguson Missouri Prison Industry/Slaver
John D Ferguson Missouri Prison Industry/Slaver
Prison Industry Revenues and stock prices are skyrocketing for private prison companies that build immigration prisons, like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, Inc.
The first private prison in the U.S. was an immigration detention center. In 1983, CCA won the first federal contract to build a facility in Houston, Texas. Before the facility was even finished, CCA began detaining immigrants in rented motel rooms.
A brief, non-intrusive, police stop of a suspect. The Fourth Amendment requires that the police have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed before stopping a suspect. If the police reasonably suspect the person is armed and dangerous, they may conduct a frisk, a quick pat-down of the person’s outer clothing. See Terry v Ohio, 392 US 1, (1967).
Terry v. OhioEven assuming we know that a person runs because he sees the police, the inference to be drawn may still vary from case to case. Flight to escape police detection, we have said, may have an entirely innocent motivation: “[I]t is a matter of common knowledge that men who are entirely innocent do sometimes fly from the scene of a crime through fear of being apprehended as the guilty parties, or from an unwillingness to appear as witnesses.
Nor is it true as an accepted axiom of criminal law that `the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.‘
Innocent men sometimes hesitate to confront a jury–not necessarily because they fear that the jury will not protect them, but because they do not wish their names to appear in connection with criminal acts, are humiliated at being obliged to incur the popular odium of an arrest and trial, or because they do not wish to be put to the annoyance or expense of defending themselves.”Alberty v. United States, 162 U. S. 499, 511 (1896).
is a function of the varied circumstances in which it occurs. Sometimes those inferences are entirely consistent with the presumption of innocence, sometimes they justify further investigation, and sometimes they justify an immediate stop and search for weapons.
Freddie Gray Police Report and why cops lie: Lack of Probable Cause as described by Law
These considerations have led us to avoid categorical rules concerning a person’s flight and the presumptions to be drawn therefrom:
“Few things distinguish an enlightened system of judicature from a rude and barbarous one more than the manner in which they deal with evidence. The former weighs testimony, whilst the latter, conscious perhaps of its inability to do so or careless of the consequences of error, at times rejects whole portions en masse , and at others converts pieces of evidence into rules of law by investing with conclusive effect some whose probative force has been found to be in general considerable. . . .
Our ancestors, observing that guilty persons usually fled from justice, adopted the hasty conclusion that it was only the guilty who did so . . . so that under the old law, a man who fled to avoid being tried for felony forfeited all his goods even though he were acquitted … .
In modern times more correct views have prevailed, and the evasion of or flight from justice seems now nearly reduced to its true place in the administration of the criminal law, namely, that of a circumstance—
a fact which it is always of importance to take into consideration, and combined with others may afford strong evidence of guilt, but which, like any other piece of presumptive evidence,
it is equally absurd and dangerous to invest with infallibility.” Hickory v. United States , 160 U. S. 408, 419-420 (1896) (internal quotation marks omitted).
“Unprovoked flight,”
in short, describes a category of activity too broad and varied to permit a per se reasonable inference regarding the motivation for the activity. While the innocent explanations surely do not establish that the Fourth Amendment is always violated whenever someone is stopped solely on the basis of an unprovoked flight,
neither do the suspicious motivations establish that the Fourth Amendment is never violated when a Terry stop is predicated on that fact alone. For these reasons, the Court is surely correct in refusing to embrace either per se rule advocated by the parties. The totality of the circumstances, as always, must dictate the result. 13
II
Guided by that totality-of-the-circumstances test, the Court concludes that Officer Nolan had reasonable suspicion to stop respondent. Ante , at 5. In this respect, my view differs from the Court’s. The entire justification for the stop is articulated in the brief testimony of Officer Nolan. Some facts are perfectly clear; others are not. This factual insufficiency leads me to conclude that the Court’s judgment is mistaken.
Respondent Wardlow was arrested a few minutes after noon on September 9, 1995. 183 Ill. 2d 306, 308, n. 1, 701 N. E. 2d 484, 485, n. 1 (1998). 14 Nolan was part of an eight-officer, four-car caravan patrol team. The officers were headed for “one of the areas in the 11th District [of Chicago] that’s high [in] narcotics traffic.” App. 8. 15 The reason why four cars were in the caravan was that “[n]ormally in these different areas there’s an enormous amount of people, sometimes lookouts, customers.” Ibid. Officer Nolan testified that he was in uniform on that day, but he did not recall whether he was driving a marked or an unmarked car. Id., at 4.
Officer Nolan and his partner were in the last of the four patrol cars that “were all caravaning eastbound down Van Buren.” Id., at 8. Nolan first observed respondent “in front of 4035 West Van Buren.” Id., at 7. Wardlow “looked in our direction and began fleeing.” Id., at 9. Nolan then “began driving southbound down the street observing [respondent] running through the gangway and the alley southbound,” and observed that Wardlow was carrying a white, opaque bag under his arm. Id., at 6, 9. After the car turned south and intercepted respondent as he “ran right towards us,” Officer Nolan stopped him and conducted a “protective search,” which revealed that the bag under respondent’s arm contained a loaded handgun. Id., at 9-11.
This terse testimony is most noticeable for what it fails to reveal. Though asked whether he was in a marked or unmarked car, Officer Nolan could not recall the answer. Id., at 4. He was not asked whether any of the other three cars in the caravan were marked, or whether any of the other seven officers were in uniform. Though he explained that the size of the caravan was because “[n]ormally in these different areas there’s an enormous amount of people, sometimes lookouts, customers,” Officer Nolan did not testify as to whether anyone besides Wardlow was nearby 4035 West Van Buren. Nor is it clear that that address was the intended destination of the caravan. As the Appellate Court of Illinois interpreted the record, “it appears that the officers were simply driving by, on their way to some unidentified location, when they noticed defendant standing at 4035 West Van Buren.” 287 Ill. App. 3d 367, 370-371, 678 N. E. 2d 65, 67 (1997). 16 Officer Nolan’s testimony also does not reveal how fast the officers were driving. It does not indicate whether he saw respondent notice the other patrol cars. And it does not say whether the caravan, or any part of it, had already passed Wardlow by before he began to run.
Indeed, the Appellate Court thought the record was even “too vague to support the inference that … defendant’s flight was related to his expectation of police focus on him.” Id., at 371, 678 N. E. 2d, at 67. Presumably, respondent did not react to the first three cars, and we cannot even be sure that he recognized the occupants of the fourth as police officers. The adverse inference is based entirely on the officer’s statement: “He looked in our direction and began fleeing.” App. 9. 17
No other factors sufficiently support a finding of reasonable suspicion. Though respondent was carrying a white, opaque bag under his arm, there is nothing at all suspicious about that. Certainly the time of day–shortly after noon–does not support Illinois’ argument. Nor were the officers “responding to any call or report of suspicious activity in the area.” 183 Ill. 2d, at 315, 701 N. E. 2d, at 488. Officer Nolan did testify that he expected to find “an enormous amount of people,” including drug customers or lookouts, App. 8, and the Court points out that “[i]t was in this context that Officer Nolan decided to investigate Wardlow after observing him flee.” Ante, at 4. This observation, in my view, lends insufficient weight to the reasonable suspicion analysis; indeed, in light of the absence of testimony that anyone else was nearby when respondent began to run, this observation points in the opposite direction.
The State, along with the majority of the Court, relies as well on the assumption that this flight occurred in a high crime area. Even if that assumption is accurate, it is insufficient because even in a high crime neighborhood unprovoked flight does not invariably lead to reasonable suspicion. On the contrary, because many factors providing innocent motivations for unprovoked flight are concentrated in high crime areas, the character of the neighborhood arguably makes an inference of guilt less appropriate, rather than more so. Like unprovoked flight itself, presence in a high crime neighborhood is a fact too generic and susceptible to innocent explanation to satisfy the reasonable suspicion inquiry. See Brown v. Texas, 443 U. S. 47, 52 (1979); see also n. 15, supra .
It is the State’s burden to articulate facts sufficient to support reasonable suspicion. Brown v. Texas, 443 U. S. 47, 52 (1979); see also Florida v. Royer, 460 U. S. 491, 500 (1983) (plurality opinion). In my judgment, Illinois has failed to discharge that burden. I am not persuaded that the mere fact that someone standing on a sidewalk looked in the direction of a passing car before starting to run is sufficient to justify a forcible stop and frisk.
I therefore respectfully dissent from the Court’s judgment to reverse the court below.
Black Codes
Throughout the Democratic-dominated South, state governments enacted laws designed specifically to put African-Americans back to work.
Though the South had lost the war, President Andrew Johnson, who took office after the assassination of Lincoln in April 1865, allowed former Confederate leaders back into the government with relative ease.
These “Black Codes” applied to African-Americans living in southern states.
African-Americans wandering without proof of employment faced charges of vagrancy, for example.
African Americans arrested and convicted under the Black Codes could be, and usually were, forced to work on plantations. Since most African-Americans had until recently been unpaid slaves, few possessed money to pay the fines assessed for their “crimes.”
Fourteenth Amendment
In direct response to the Black Codes, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the 14th Amendment on July 28, 1868, to guarantee citizenship and civil rights to African-Americans.
For the first time in the nation’s history, the government felt a need to define citizenship. All persons born or naturalized within the borders of the United States were automatically citizens both of the nation and the state in which they resided. African-Americans, who’d had a presence in America since 1619, generally fell into this category.
Furthermore, the amendment prevented state governments from creating laws that apply only to specific groups. This provision theoretically made the Black Codes unconstitutional.
has racist roots and remains a pretext for hassling young black men. “Too often we see an officer who may or may not understand the law arrest somebody for having an illegal knife that isn’t illegal,” Ritter tells him. “We too often see that kind of either blatant ignorance of the law or willful ignorance of the law, in an effort to abuse citizens’ rights to carry this tool.”
A person can not be required to furnish identification if not reasonably suspected of any criminal conduct.
A reasonable suspicion of criminal activity alone is insufficient to justify a patdown search
The person stopped is not obliged to answer, answers may not be compelled, and refusal to answer furnishes no basis for an arrest.
Vagrancy ordinances cannot turn otherwise innocent conduct into a crime.
Personal liberty, which is guaranteed to every citizen under U.S. Constitution and laws, consists of the right of locomotion, to go where one pleases, and when, and to do that which may lead to one’s business or pleasure, only so far restrained as the rights of others may make it necessary for the welfare of all other citizens. One may travel along the public highways or in public places; and while conducting themselves in a decent and orderly manner, disturbing no other, and interfering with the rights of no other citizens, there, they will be protected under the law, not only their persons, but in their safe conduct. Any law that would place the keeping and safe conduct of another in the hands of even a conservator of the peace, unless for some breach of the peace committed in his presence, or upon suspicion of felony, would be most oppressive and unjust, and destroy all the rights, which the Constitution guarantees.
An innocent person cannot generally know when a police officer has reasonable cause to believe that his behavior warrants further investigation for criminal activity, and therefore cannot know when refusal to identify himself will be a crime.
No one may be required under peril of life, liberty or property to speculate as to the meaning of penal statutes.
Police knowledge of the identity of an individual they have deemed “suspicious” grants the police unfettered discretion to initiate or continue investigation of the person long after the detention has ended. Information concerning the stop, the arrest and the individual’s identity may become part of a large scale data bank. The serious intrusion on personal security outweighs the mere possibility that identification may provide a link leading to arrest.[4]
US Supreme Court’s own holdings:
While police have the right to request citizens to answer voluntarily questions concerning unsolved crimes they have no right to compel them to answer.
Fourth Amendment concerns are implicated where a state statute permits investigative detentions in situations where the police officers lack a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity based on objective facts.
The concern with curbing criminal activity cannot justify legislation that would otherwise fail to meet constitutional standards for definiteness and clarity.
A state criminal statute that requires persons who loiter or wander on the streets to provide a credible and reliable identification and to account for their presence when requested by a peace officer under circumstances that would justify a valid stop is unconstitutionally vague on its face within the meaning of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it encourages arbitrary enforcement by failing to clarify what is contemplated by the requirement that a suspect provide a credible and reliable identification.
Statutory limitations on individual freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are examined for substantive authority and content as well as for definiteness or certainty of expression. The void-for-vagueness doctrine requires that a penal statute define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.
In providing that a detention under a state statute may occur only where there is the level of suspicion sufficient to justify a constitutional stop, a state insures the existence of neutral limitations on the conduct of individual officers.[5]