Ok, I have looked at some of the links you have provided. The main thing I see as a potential issue, beyond the potential excessive force issue (which, from what I can tell, may go either way), is: How did they know to go to THOSE houses? What was their probable cause?
I also want to know HOW they got inside? Did the people there just let them in? Tell them they could look around? When you give the police consent it is basically a carte blanche--these people would have known that, almost certainly. So that means something incriminating would have had to be in plain view in order to permit the officers to legally search the rest of the place. I'm also not convinced that something like a laptop can be legally seized as evidence, although I would need to read caselaw on that--conspiracy to riot is a pretty obscure charge.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-31 05:55 pm (UTC)I also want to know HOW they got inside? Did the people there just let them in? Tell them they could look around? When you give the police consent it is basically a carte blanche--these people would have known that, almost certainly. So that means something incriminating would have had to be in plain view in order to permit the officers to legally search the rest of the place. I'm also not convinced that something like a laptop can be legally seized as evidence, although I would need to read caselaw on that--conspiracy to riot is a pretty obscure charge.