4th Amendment Rights, Do They Still Exist????
I recently had the displeasure of being paid a visit by the local sheriffs department. I also recently wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper about this visit to try and see what the general public’s reaction to this ordeal may be. Below please read the Letter-To-The-Editor that was published in The Hampshire County Review on Wednesday June 20 2012.
Titled: A reasonable right to privacy
Editor
On Thursday, April 12, 2012, I was in my home hanging drywall with the assistance of a hired worker. Suddenly, two men wearing Hampshire County Sheriff Deputy uniforms appeared in my open doorway. One man asked if my name was David Hill and I replied that my name was David Hill, Sr. He then stated that he had two capiases for a David Hill. I immediately informed the apparent deputy that the capiases were probably issued for my 22 year old son, not me. I also informed him that my son was not in my house and had not lived at my home for more than six months.
Disregarding my statements, the deputy entered my house without invitation, drew and pointed a Taser gun at me, and demanded that I turnaround and put my hands behind my back. He cuffed me and forcibly removed me from my house while my hired worker stared in amazement and disbelief.
Suffering from a longtime shoulder injury, I immediately experienced severe cramps in my right shoulder because I was cuffed with my hands behind my back. I pleaded for the deputy to remove the cuffs and the deputy disrespectfully replied, “Shut Up”. After a minute or two, I again pleaded with him to move the cuffs to the front but to no avail.
The second deputy then entered my house and forced my hired worker against the wall, searched him, and demanded identification. At no point during this entire ordeal did I or my worker show any sign of aggression or resistance; but I did request legal justification for the unjust intrusion of my person and property.
Any alert, astute law enforcement official should have realized the capiases were defective on their face – no physical description, age, or identifying information of the person to be apprehended. I am 55, over 250 pounds, and graying hair. My son is 22, 165 pounds, and brown hair. After the deputies called dispatch to obtain additional description, I was released by the deputies but no apology for their wrongful attempt to arrest and detain.
Do the citizens of Hampshire County have a reasonable right to privacy and security in their own home as guaranteed by the 4th Amendment? Apparently not if the Hampshire County Sheriff Deputies who have sworn to uphold the law act on obviously defective capiases as occurred in this case.
David M Hill Sr Paw Paw
Trust me when I tell you that this is a very edited down version of the whole story due to being limited to 400 words or less if you want your story published. I will gladly write the whole story if enough interest is shown in the comment section. This whole ordeal could have been easily avoided had the Deputy Sheriffs that were involved in this chosen the course of deescalating the scenario instead of escalating it into something it never should have became. In my opinion they had the intent to arrest someone right or wrong and would stop at nothing short of that. I would be very interested in others opinions on this so please leave your comments . I would also be very interested in speaking directly with anyone that has legal knowledge on what they think would be the best course of action to insure that no one else has to endure the pain and humiliation that I have endured over this ordeal.
Have we already lost all of our Constitutional rights in this country?
Should law enforcement agencies have the right to enter your house and detain you without complete information of who they are looking for?
It is my belief that if left unchecked by ordinary law abiding citizens like myself, issues like this one will become the norm not the exception to the rule.
The word of incidents like this must be made public and hopefully thru the use of the internet stories like this will be shared every place that everyone has the ability to re post them. Please feel free to re publish this story, put up links to this story, report this story in your youtube videos, etc etc etc….Please help this story go viral on the internet. Only thru public outcry can we ever have a chance to put a stop to law enforcement running wild and doing whatever they want to do regardless of our protection from them under our constitutional rights.
When I sent this story to the editor of the local paper it also went to the Governor of the state of West Virginia, The local elected Sheriff of Hampshire County,The State Attorney Generals office, and all of our elected representatives. There has not to date been a single reply to me by anyone. I fully understand no elected official wants any problems during an election year but I fully expect all of them to have concerns when it comes to protecting my constitutional rights.
I know this is no Rodney King story but abuse of our Constitutional Rights of any kind by the very agencies that are sworn to protect and serve the citizens they are employed by must stop. Period!!!!
Date: August 6, 2012
