()pen(arry
Regular Member
I would think (IMHO) it perfectly reasonable for the officer to issue a citation for violating RCW 9.41.050
Where is the RAS? That she could be lying and that the lie is easy and convenient are not grounds for reasonable suspicion. Even if someone were to think it probable that she were lying, that would not be grounds for suspicion, any more than a given ethnicity having statistically high crimes rates would be grounds for RAS to stop and frisk. In your scenario, the cop has *zero* specific evidence of a crime, while he *does* have specific evidence of no crime, however unreliable that evidence might be considered.
We either hold to a presumption of innocence, or we accept the Gestapo. There is no middle option. Unenforceability of a law is no excuse to disregard presumption of innocence.
Now. The cop *would* have specific evidence of a crime if the car's doors weren't locked. It would *not* be evidence of a crime committed by the woman, however, but by the person who supposedly placed the gun in the car.