Timeline for Can I booby-trap my property against police?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
31 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| S Aug 8, 2020 at 19:05 | history | suggested | Rodrigo de Azevedo | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Fixed typo. Minor edit.
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| Aug 6, 2020 at 10:39 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Aug 8, 2020 at 19:05 | |||||
| May 19, 2020 at 18:36 | answer | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | timeline score: 8 | |
| May 19, 2020 at 4:03 | answer | added | Mazura | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 24, 2019 at 18:55 | comment | added | ohwilleke | Deadly traps have always been illegal at common law without fair warning. | |
| Jul 24, 2019 at 18:06 | history | protected | BlueDogRanch | ||
| Apr 13, 2017 at 13:00 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://law.stackexchange.com/ with https://law.stackexchange.com/
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| Jan 16, 2017 at 4:57 | history | unprotected | jimsug | ||
| Jul 19, 2016 at 9:29 | comment | added | JimmyB | Found it: Donald Lee Morse - Granted, he didn't post warning signs, but the danger involved in proceeding should have had become obvious by the time bomb squad was called. | |
| Jul 19, 2016 at 8:33 | comment | added | JimmyB | Can't find the source now, but there was a case where police found a pipe bomb inside a suspect's garage. The device went off as a bomb disposal person was trying to defuse it killing the man. Result: Conviction for murder. | |
| S Oct 11, 2015 at 13:58 | history | bounty ended | CommunityBot | ||
| S Oct 11, 2015 at 13:58 | history | notice removed | CommunityBot | ||
| Oct 9, 2015 at 20:30 | vote | accept | feetwet♦ | ||
| May 19, 2020 at 19:28 | |||||
| Oct 7, 2015 at 20:41 | answer | added | gracey209 | timeline score: 40 | |
| Oct 5, 2015 at 11:54 | answer | added | helena4 | timeline score: -5 | |
| Oct 3, 2015 at 16:24 | history | edited | feetwet♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added notes and clarifications
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| Oct 3, 2015 at 13:34 | history | protected | jimsug | ||
| S Oct 3, 2015 at 12:36 | history | bounty started | CommunityBot | ||
| S Oct 3, 2015 at 12:36 | history | notice added | user248 | Authoritative reference needed | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 14:34 | comment | added | feetwet♦ | @cpast - I'm revealing my mens rea in this question, but objectively I have merely secured the property and warned determined trespassers. The police can lawfully search, but do I have a duty to make my premises safe to search? Am I ex ante liable for their injuries, given the suitable warning? Or can they say, "If you don't make it safe to search, you're liable for our injuries?" At which point haven't they compelled me to incriminate myself, so I can disarm the traps but all the premises' contents are then "poisoned" evidence? | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 14:18 | comment | added | cpast | And just to be clear: The government can never compel you to help with anything. They can only punish you for refusing to help. But the punishment for a deadly device going off and killing a cop during a lawful search, where the device was intended to kill the cop, is generally either life in prison or death. The punishment for not helping when a court tells you to is being jailed for a while. Someone not deterred by the former isn't very likely to be deterred by the latter. | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 14:16 | comment | added | cpast | @feetwet I'm not sure what you mean by "no one against whom they can escalate." A trapped property is a serious risk to the public (including emergency responders who might need to respond to an incident there); even if it weren't, police have a warrant, so are quite entitled to do whatever is necessary to allow the search. Honestly, I don't think they'd trust you to help, given that you intended to possibly kill police with it. And the bomb squad is really trained as a more general "hazardous device squad." | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 13:14 | comment | added | feetwet♦ | @cpast - I agree with you in general. Even when a "problem" is instigated by police action I know the general response is to escalate. But here there is no counterparty against whom they can escalate: My property is just sitting there, let's say in the middle of the desert, not threatening anyone. They want to look inside of it. They could just cordone it off and come back another day. I just wanted to see if any theory could compel me to do anything to help/defuse. (Note also that I didn't say "bomb." The self-destruct could be a non-explosive but toxic or otherwise hazardous reaction.) | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 6:46 | comment | added | cpast | @feetwet It's at least conceivable you'd face murder charges if an officer dies. Since the penalties for murder are somewhat higher than the penalties for contempt of court, I doubt a real criminal would be swayed by a court order when they're willing to risk murder charges. Police departments really handle these situations with bomb squads, not court orders. | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 4:24 | history | edited | feetwet♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Clarification
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| Sep 25, 2015 at 4:11 | history | edited | feetwet♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Clarification: this is not an innocent trespasser case
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| Sep 25, 2015 at 3:48 | answer | added | jqning | timeline score: 10 | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 1:16 | comment | added | feetwet♦ | @NateEldredge - It would be fun to have a statute cage fight (i.e., you find a statute, I find another idea that doesn't violate it), but unfortunately SE doesn't allow for that format. So let's assume that yes, I've broken every law in the book booby-trapping my property. But note that, in this hypothetical, law enforcement doesn't even know that it's booby-trapped until they get a warrant, at which point the whole question is: What can they do about it? Can a court compel me to tell them about all the laws I broke? Or can I just say, "Proceed at your own risk?" | |
| Sep 25, 2015 at 0:17 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | I'm pretty sure that by making such devices, you'd ipso facto be in violation of terrorism statutes. | |
| Sep 24, 2015 at 22:50 | answer | added | moonman239 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Sep 24, 2015 at 19:06 | history | asked | feetwet♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |