Comment · Tue, May 28, 2013
My Encounter With LE and Things I Learned
Original post in this thread
dancing_psychonaut · 26 points
So I'm driving in Detroit on my way to DEMF (music festival this past weekend) and accidentally make a wrong turn towards the bridge to Canada. Woops, my bad, I'll just turn around and be on my way! Hey, I'll ask these police officers if I can turn around, surely they will understand as this has to have happened before.
"Uh, hey guys, my bad, I made a wrong turn, is there anyway I can turn around?"
One of the police officers looks at me and goes "Oh, you think you can do whatever you want? Let me see some ID." shows ID "Pull your car this way." drives car to some enclosed parking area "Ok, where's the dope."
Yes, that is exactly what happened. I didn't have any time to explain anything, I literally made a wrong turn and a number of police officers began immediately asserting I had drugs on me, treating me like complete shit. They quickly told me I wasn't protected under the 4th amendment as I was no longer under federal law because I was between U.S. and Canadian borders and that they had drug dogs and would find the drugs sooner or later.
At this point I thought I was fucked so I came clean and admitted I had drugs. I stepped out of the car and was promptly handcuffed…
What they were answering
dancing_psychonaut · 9 points
It's easy to say you can keep your cool during a situation like this but until it's actually happening you have no idea what it feels like. I made some mistakes, but otherwise I think I made the best of that situation by being compliant. Also, as far as I know, there is a border search exception to the 4th amendment.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
You are correct. If you were indeed between the two border checkpoints, they will do pretty much whatever they want. The DHS considers that an exclusion zone. You could probably fight it afterwards with a good lawyer and enough money, but that doesn't help you during.