Called out on second day of carry!!

[Liberty]

Because you were worried about being paranoid you took a big gamble with your life, your daughter's life and the life of everyone it the theater. Before 9/11/01 I would have thought nothing of this but today I would be very suspicious. I think you should have notified theatre management and got out of the area until he was checked out. There is no reason a person going to a movie has to carry a back pack in. It could have been left at home or locked in the car if anything of value was in it that he was so conserned out. It is our duty to protect each other to be on the look out for this type of behaviour. Maybe he was just testing the system this time to see if he could get away with it and he did. Who knows but we should be alert at all times now days.
I don't see why movie management let in in the first place. I know they would at least be very interested to see if he were smuggling in any snacks like candy bars that he didn't pay $3.00 for at the concession stand.

Maybe he had something valuable he didn't want someone to get. I wouldn't let anyone search me, unless it was a police officer, and He had a warrent or I actually had a concealed weapon.
This is America, and we have some rights. If folks don't like my crappy car my backback, fannypacks or whatever, they can leave. But darn it we have certain rights to privacy. and I can't remember when the last time in America someones backpack blew up and killed anyone. The transfat laced popcorn in the movietheater kills more Americans than exploding backpacks.

[Venus Pax]

The transfat laced popcorn in the movietheater kills more Americans than exploding backpacks.

True. Sad, but true.

[jbenat]

Liberty Quote;
Maybe he had something valuable he didn't want someone to get. I wouldn't let anyone search me, unless it was a police officer, and He had a warrent or I actually had a concealed weapon.
This is America, and we have some rights. If folks don't like my crappy car my backback, fannypacks or whatever, they can leave. But darn it we have certain rights to privacy. and I can't remember when the last time in America someones backpack blew up and killed anyone. The transfat laced popcorn in the movietheater kills more Americans than exploding backpacks.
_________________

I like liberty and freedom as much as anyone. But while your worried about important things like losing your freedom to wear a back pack in a crowded theatre and transfat laced popcorn I'm more conserned with my lose of liberty to go to crowded places and events without worrying about some idiot with a back pack full of C4. If it hasn't happened in America yet it probably will. It has happened in other places around the world. Unless you are a homeless person it's not likely you have to carry your valuables around with you in a back pack. Try carrying a back pack on a airplane sometime. Times have changed in case you haven't noticed.
By the way, a cop can search anyone suspected of a crime or of criminal intent without a warrant.

[LedJedi]

Because you were worried about being paranoid you took a big gamble with your life, your daughter's life and the life of everyone it the theater. Before 9/11/01 I would have thought nothing of this but today I would be very suspicious. I think you should have notified theatre management and got out of the area until he was checked out.

I actually tend to agree with this. It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you, and 911 proved that to me. Not a thing in the world wrong with being reasonably concerned and suspicious.

I believe I would have left and informed mgt and security. There's no such thing as a stupid question and "does that shifty looking guy with a backpack have a bomb?" qualifies as a question.

[txinvestigator]

By the way, a cop can search anyone suspected of a crime or of criminal intent without a warrant.

NEGATIVE!. mere suspicion is not sufficient. Generally a warrant is required to search a person; and no warrant shall be issued expect upon presentation of probable cause.

To search without a warrant, one of the exceptions to the search warrant requirment must be present before a LEO can search.

They are;

1. Search incident to arrest. An person arrested can be searched.

2. Plain View. Contraband in plain view can be seized.

3. Terry Search. This is a pat down for weapons ONLY and can only be made of places where weapons could be.

4. Consent

5. Exigent Circumstances-To determine whether exigent circumstances justified police conduct, a court must review the totality of the circumstances, including the gravity of the underlying offense and whether the suspect was fleeing or trying to escape. However, the surrounding circumstances must be tantamount to an emergency. Shots fired, screams heard, or fire emanating from inside a building have all been considered sufficiently exigent to dispense with the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. (explanation from Findlaw.com)

6. Automobile Searches- Terry AND Carroll searches are allowed, and generally are more liberal in nature; however, Carroll does require PC.

[Hoppes]

I think you should have notified theatre management and got out of the area until he was checked out. There is no reason a person going to a movie has to carry a back pack in. It could have been left at home or locked in the car if anything of value was in it that he was so conserned out. It is our duty to protect each other to be on the look out for this type of behaviour. Maybe he was just testing the system this time to see if he could get away with it and he did. Who knows but we should be alert at all times now days.

I don't see why movie management let in in the first place. I know they would at least be very interested to see if he were smuggling in any snacks like candy bars that he didn't pay $3.00 for at the concession stand.

I did notify the theatre management and they didn't object to the guy carrying that back pack in the theatre. They didn't confront the guy at all. It was in the afternoon when there are no police officers usually present. At night, there are several police officers and they usually take care of business.

Hoppes

[LedJedi]

I did notify the theatre management and they didn't object to the guy carrying that back pack in the theatre. They didn't confront the guy at all.

Wow, crazy. I would follow up with a letter to management of the theater then.

[Hoppes]

Because you were worried about being paranoid you took a big gamble with your life, your daughter's life and the life of everyone it the theater. Before 9/11/01 I would have thought nothing of this but today I would be very suspicious. I think you should have notified theatre management and got out of the area until he was checked out. There is no reason a person going to a movie has to carry a back pack in. It could have been left at home or locked in the car if anything of value was in it that he was so conserned out. It is our duty to protect each other to be on the look out for this type of behaviour. Maybe he was just testing the system this time to see if he could get away with it and he did. Who knows but we should be alert at all times now days.
I don't see why movie management let in in the first place. I know they would at least be very interested to see if he were smuggling in any snacks like candy bars that he didn't pay $3.00 for at the concession stand.

Maybe he had something valuable he didn't want someone to get. I wouldn't let anyone search me, unless it was a police officer, and He had a warrent or I actually had a concealed weapon.
This is America, and we have some rights. If folks don't like my crappy car my backback, fannypacks or whatever, they can leave. But darn it we have certain rights to privacy. and I can't remember when the last time in America someones backpack blew up and killed anyone. The transfat laced popcorn in the movietheater kills more Americans than exploding backpacks.

Liberty,

This is not America anymore. It is not the America I once knew. I am with you, I wish it was. But things have changed. It is a post 9/11 world whether we like it or not. What we can do is change the system, but that will take every American person who values liberty to change it. tha means practicing permanent vigilance and recognizing that citizens must provide our own protection instead of waiting for police to show up or for the goverment to help us. Let's go back to that day - 9/11. On a couple of planes, citizens and others sit in that plane and let terrorists use the plane to blow up more than one building and the Pentagon. the White House ordered additional planes shot down from the sky if they attacked. Where is the help? That would have still killed all aboard the plane, all the innocent people and the terrorists. And to think, our government tells us, leave the protection to them. Don't try to resist. Hmmm... I'd rather resist than have a missile shooting speeding towards me.

The incident of the remaining plane that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania illustrated a different outcome. Those people in that plane acted. I've often heard it said, "Action always beats reaction." To me, those people that went down in that Pennsylvania field still live on today as heros - heros that tasted the blood of true freedom and liberty because they didn't wait on the govermnet to save them. They took citizen action to try and stop the attack instead of waiting on George W. Bush and Company to save them.

Yes, we have some freedoms, but we must rationally defend them when we feel they are threatened. For that reason, I question why anybody needs to carry a back pack into a theatre to watch a movie. Perhaps I am paranoid. I'd rather walk out on two feet than be carried out on six wheels.

The thing that troubles me is that I am torn between the old America where we can't remember a back pack blowing up and today, when it could go off at any time. It could be anybody doing it for a myriad of reasons that we would never understand or accept. Still, we are dealing with minds, which are more deadly than the weapon itself. It is the mind that decides when to set that thing off.

Hoppes

[Hoppes]

The transfat laced popcorn in the movietheater kills more Americans than exploding backpacks.

True. Sad, but true.

Yes, I stopped eating pop corn years ago.

Hoppes

[Hoppes]

It has also broken down the "guns are scary and evil" walls that have been built up over the years of watching TV, movies, and Congressional hearings.

Yes, guns are scary and evil to many people. But guns are not bad, only dangerous. That is where we come in to educate those that are scared, right?

[jbenat]

Hoppes; You have made some very good points. How I miss the old days before 9/11. Those days will probably never return, at least not in my life time.

Txinvestigator; Thanks for enlightening me. Guess the search issue is not so simple and black and white as I thought.

[Huff9337]

I believe that was a backpack that blew up at the Alanta olimpics (sp).

[Liberty]

I believe that was a backpack that blew up at the Alanta olimpics (sp).

You may be right. 10 years ago one person in this vast country of ours used a backpack bomb and killed 3 people. The popcorn surely is deadlier than packpacks.

The goal of terrorist is to cause terror or fear. When we live in fear we let them win. I suppose there needs to be common sense applied, and that a line needs to be drawn somewhere, between safety and freedom. Freedom surely is worth some reduction of safety

[Hoppes]

I believe that was a backpack that blew up at the Alanta olimpics (sp).

You may be right. 10 years ago one person in this vast country of ours used a backpack bomb and killed 3 people. The popcorn surely is deadlier than packpacks.

The goal of terrorist is to cause terror or fear. When we live in fear we let them win. I suppose there needs to be common sense applied, and that a line needs to be drawn somewhere, between safety and freedom. Freedom surely is worth some reduction of safety

Part of the reason that I am paranoid to an extent are my past life experiences. I've had 9MM Uzis and other machine guns pointed at my nose while working in the Middle East. When a person is pointing that gun at you and you two can't communicate, it makes things much worse. I am sure you can imagine what is going on in my head as I look at that little round hole on the business end of those fully automatic guns. I can't speak that language and the person pointing at me was about fifteen years old. Mental stability in a fifteen year old? Probably not that great.

So I look around at people to see what might happen. I am not always condition white, even at home with my doors locked, because I live in a rural area. Crime could come knocking day or night. You are right, when we live in fear we are in reaction mode. That is not a good thing most of the time. You can never minimalize reaction, but you can capitalize on mental training and action (proactive) and overcome the reaction in many instances. If we decide to let our government protect us, you can bet there will be a disaster. I am an American, but I don't think the government has our interest at heart anymore because I can see how many times it has failed us, and how many time Americans have told the government in masses that something is wrong and the government just brushes our warning off and does something totally idiotic.

That's why that back pack scared me. That's why I alerted the theatre staff some guy was cuddling a back pack in the theatre.

Hoppes

[pbandjelly]

OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE.

a flippin' back pack. really?

I carry a back pack everywhere I go. you see, scrubs don't really have that many pockets, and the way my particular job works, I may be at the OutPatient center, or the main hospital, or both, or neither.
so, it's MY mobile locker.

or students. shewt, I wouldn't have wanted to leave my laptop in the car, what with a weirdo eye-ballin' me. what with his daughter going to an R-rated movie. beside the point... anyway

now, if the guy gets up and LEAVES the backpack. be concerned.
otherwise, really? a back pack?

saw a guy in a coat, and had to plug'em. no tellin' what was under that coat.... it was only 60degrees....

sometimes, we go too far. from observant, to apparently ruined your movie experience.