Police stop dozens of cars, handcuff all drivers looking for a bank robbery suspect

[barbk]

...though they didn't know what the bank robber looked like. All adults in cars near the intersection (a major intersection on the way to Denver International Airport) were handcuffed, some for up to two hours, until they found the car with the bank robber.

I cannot believe police -- even in Aurora -- could be this stupid, and I feel sorry for the community that is likely to end up paying the legal bills from this idiocy.

Unbelievable.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...37/detail.html (ABC Affiliate in Denver)

[Glide2]

freaky weird. outrageous. and this is in the united states.

[Jot the Dot Dot]

This goes beyond disturbing. If there is no disciplining the officers, or restitution to the people rounded up, I can imagine it getting national coverage as a serious issue: How much carte blanche are the police allowed to have?

[milanessa]

One of the comments on that article really disturbed me (and it's been said on this board in various threads) -

ok, knowing I was innocent, Mayhem 2002, I would have no problem with the police doing what they need to do....even if it was an inconvenience. Give it up!
3 days ago, 6:02:00 PM

Really?

[barbk]

The police chief defends the decision, but the local newspaper editor isn't persuaded:
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/opinio...-seizure-laws/

Can you imagine what it must have been like for kids to see a parent handcuffed? That's quite the civics lesson.

[triple_toe]

Edit: nvm

[Sassafras]

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/c...k-bank-robber/

I have met the man - he is the father of a skater who used to train at my rink. Some of you may recognize the last name. He is the most unassuming,gentle person you would ever meet. I never would have thought he could do something like this.

[Prancer]

I have met the man - he is the father of a skater who used to train at my rink. Some of you may recognize the last name. He is the most unassuming,gentle person you would ever meet. I never would have thought he could do something like this.

He is being given a mental health evaluation, so I suspect that he had some sort of breakdown. But still .

[barbk]

Holy crimminy. That is way too small a world. How sad for his family, however it turns out.

I still can't believe that there hasn't been more hullabaloo over the police handcuffing everyone in sight.

[milanessa]

I still can't believe that there hasn't been more hullabaloo over the police handcuffing everyone in sight.

I'm not but that gets into PI territory.

[Sassafras]

update

[Artistic Skaters]

And now all the evidence in the case could be thrown out by a judge.

Did anyone watch to see the details of why all the evidence could be thrown out by the judge? Does it have anything to do with them stopping so many people to handcuff them & search their cars they are unable to support the claim of probable cause for that particular suspect & his vehicle?

This is an interesting case. It does not seem like it was a high enough sum of money stolen (bank robbers seem to be robbing banks everyday with tellers willingly putting the $$$ in the bags for them) to endanger so many lives including those of children. It might've just as easily gone the other way, with innocent lives lost because they handcuffed parents & adults to cars or whatever & the bank robber decided to go down in some kind of shoot 'em out with the police.

Usually it seems the commentary is for police not endangering so many using these power plays to chase the bad guys. In this case, quite a few don't seem to mind giving up individual rights. I don't understand the philosophy of "search my car, I've done nothing wrong" because I'm against it in principle. Handcuffing so many people to recover $50,000 from 1 of possibly 40 or more of them is beyond my comprehension.

But then, I grew up in the '70's.