Miguel Flores was convicted of several charges in 2007 after fleeing from police and being discovered with a loaded firearm in his waistband. He was sentenced to 3 years probation for these charges. He appealed on the basis that the conviction violated his right to bear arms.

The California 4^th District Court of Appeals ruled that the arrest and subsequent conviction did not violate Mr. Flores 2^nd amendment rights and his conviction and sentence were upheld.

What the Supreme Court did rule was that 2 specific DC laws were in direct violation of the 2^nd amendment. Supreme Court justices ruled 5 to 4 that the right to bear arms applied to people “possessing and carrying weapons in case of confrontation”.

This interpretation meant that DC laws prohibiting firearms in the home for self-defense were unconstitutional, and rightfully so. A man’s home is his castle and I don’t know of many people that would be comfortable being told they couldn’t have a gun in their home. Even those of us who don’t own firearms would likely take issue with such a law.

Second Amendment rights are frequently discussed by people who don’t fully understand their purpose and application. While we do have a right to protect ourselves and to own weapons, there are laws that must be applied to control this freedom in fear of it being taken advantage of.

Knowing and acting within the laws governing weapons and firearms can be confusing and easy to misinterpret. A few of the more common CA weapons offenses are described here. Check out the legal language used here, however, in the state law books.

It’s easy to see how people can misunderstand and break the laws regarding firearms. There really isn’t any doubt that running from police with a gun in your waistband is illegal but not all cases are this cut and dry.

License Plate Scanning System Used in Lomita, CA (photo credit)

The latest license plate scanners in California belong to the Lomita CA Sheriff’s department. There is a nice picture of the unit (right) in the article that hints at the impressive capabilities of these systems.

The license plate scanner is able to identify and track 1000 vehicles an hour by using three camera systems mounted on the police vehicle. It can scan and identify vehicle license plates while parked stationary by the side of the road, or moving rapidly down the highway.

When a vehicle with a known license plate and associated legal issue is spotted by the system, the officer in the vehicle is instantly alerted with an audible beeping tone.

Currently, these license plate scanning systems in California and nationwide are most commonly used to locate stolen cars. Vehicles that have been registered in the database as stolen are matched on the spot, in real time. A sheriff’s or police cruisers equipped with these license tag scanner systems just has to be within camera range. The driver of a stolen vehicle is quickly caught and arrested, and the vehicle is impounded, and ultimately returned to it’s owner. Stolen car recover percentages are expected to significantly increase due to these systems

These scanners can be used to identify vehicles or drivers with a variety of legal issues, from active “Amber Alerts”, to the locations of registered sex offenders, and whether they are keeping a legal distance from schools and playgrounds as required by law and the terms of their probation and release.

Other common uses for these scanners in California include identifying outstanding criminal warrants for failure to appear in court, or people whose drivers licenses are under suspension. The system can easily be adapted by cities and towns to flag cars with too many parking or traffic tickets.

The most disturbing element of this technology may be it’s capacity for massive data gathering. By matching license plate data and storing the GPS location, date and time, these systems are capturing and storing data on millions of law abiding citizens. As different police and sheriff’s department across California and nationwide are sharing these data, the government is essentially tracking your movements. Where your car has been spotted at any time in the past can be accessed.

The government will use this for data mining experiments to determine patterns of traffic and behavior. Some uses will be to flag houses that have significant visitor patterns that could suggest drug sales going on at that location.

Ultimately, this data can be combined and used in extremely intrusive ways. Constitutional law and civil liberties have yet to catch up to and defend citizens from this near constant spying surveillance. The use of this technology will require careful scrutiny.

—

If you are charged with any criminal offense in California, please contact our attorneys for a free case evaluation.

This article does a very good job highlighting some of the many potential civil liberties issues and government abuses that are possible with this technology.

These license plate scanners photograph and scan all license plates within range of the police vehicle. The license tags are translated into text and matched with an on-board database of license plates identified to have any outstanding government-identified issues.

The primary mission of these systems is said to be locating stolen cars. But with a push of a button the systems are easily configured to identify driver’s who many have criminal warrants, hit and run driver’s, back tax payments, suspended driver’s licenses, or lapsed auto insurance

Even more troubling is the vast tracking capability and historical data that is captured and stored by these systems. Each plate captures is saved and matched by it’s location at the time via an onboard GPS.

So it is entirely possible for police officers to review your past history, and find out where your plate has been scanned at anytime in the past.

With more and more police and law enforcement agents using these systems, now is the time to be concerned about safeguarding our Constitutional liberties and protetions.

These units will only become cheaper, and will likely be standard equipment on all police vehicles in the very near future. And database tracking and sharing will only become more robust. Your driving history and patterns are essentially an open record. And unlike with EZ Pass toll systems, you are not allowed to opt out of this government surveillance.

—

If your are facing any criminal offense in the state of California, take advantage of our free legal defense consultation on any California criminal charge.

RFID chips are used in a host of consumer devices, from credit cards, ID cards, and keyless lock mechanisms for cars and office doors. They communicate data wirelessly to authenticate a wide variety of different transactions.

The penalty for this misdeameanor charge is up to 1 year in jail, and a $1500 fine, just for accessing and downloading the data in the RFID device. In many cases, doing so is for purposes of fraud, theft, or other criminal violations, so other related offenses may also be brought in these cases.

—

If you are accused of any kind of theft, fraud, or other criminal offense in California, please contact us for a legal case evaluation and consultation.

As noted by one local editorial board, the measure will:

• Require yearly criminal background checks on anyone living in California public housing; and
• It will create a new state agency tasked to created and distribute public services announcements about crime issues.

These may or may not be worthwhile efforts, but the sheer complexity and bureaucracy of this effort is staggering. A ballot measure that has the primary goal of helping to reduce gang violence and criminal conduct by creating tougher penalties, and providing additional law enforcement resources in that effort is really a billion dollar gift to every state law enforcement agency’s wish list.

These ideas should be argued on their individual merits, and considered in the context of California’s severe budget problems.

Everyone wants safer streets, but it is impossible to judge the merits of such a complicated and expensive bill. And money spent here will have real trade-offs and impact other existing and proposed efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone in California.

UPDATE: the San Jose Mercury News Editorial Board comes down hard against this proposal, calling it a “hand out” to prosecutors, sherrifs, and police. They suggest that this massive bill is simply throwing more money at many failed law enforcement initiatives, at a time when crime is going down, and the state budget is facing critical shortfalls.

According to the news article, less than 10% of the property and assault related crimes reported to city police resulted in charges filed, though it’s unclear how many of those cases were not pursued simply due to limited prosecution resources. But the goal is this program is to prosecute more of these crimes that affect the livability of the city neighborhoods.

It is unclear whether the result of these additional prosecution resources will be stepped up enforcement of these kinds of charges by Oakland police, or simply a more efficient and targeted response to existing incidents.

–

Charged with a criminal offense in California courts? Contact our experienced defense attorneys for a free consultation and legal evaluation of the charges against you.

The most typical use is to locate vehicles that have been stolen. License plate scanning technology is also used to find drivers/car owners who may have outstanding warrants for failure to appear, or have a suspended license. Because of the increasing use of these passive systems, it is incredibly risky to drive if you face any of these charges. The odds of being caught are just too great.

If you know you have an outstanding failure to appear, you should attempt to deal with the problem immediately, before you are stopped and arrested. Your options to “explaining it away” and avoiding spending additional time in jail are best when you have some leverage, and are showing good faith in resolving the problem.

We can help you try to fix the warrant for failing to appear in court, and possibly get you a new court date with no additional penalties.

Please contact us for a consultation on your case, and we’ll go over the situation with you. We can suggest options, and tell you exactly what we think we can do to help you in this difficult situation.

Among the initiatives are:

• Increase penalties and toughen law enforcement procedures and processes for any crime deemed to be “gang related”
• Gang related criminal charges include car theft and methamphetamine distribution. Any meth possession will also become a felony charge.
• Increased funding for many different criminal law enforcement related functions primarily local police and sheriffs offices, as well as probation programs, juvenile justice programs, offender rehabilitation, construction of new county jails,
• Allowed admission of “hearsay evidence” in criminal court will be expanded to include cases where someone has “tampered with or otherwise intimidated a witness”

The full text of the proposition is here, as well as a detailed analysis.

A broad coalition of law enforcement agencies such as the California Police Chief’s Association, and the California District Attorney Association support the bill. That is not surprising, and they are not objective parties, since they are likely to benefit significantly with increased resources from the bill.

Opponents of Proposition 6 is largely based around the enormous costs of the proposal, at a time when California has significant budget shortfall.

—

If you are charged with a criminal offense in California, please contact our law offices for a free legal consultation on you case.

Advocates for marijuana law reform and legalization in California will no doubt argue that this increase is clear evidence that enforcement efforts have failed, and it would be difficult to dispute that conclusion. Despite decades of effort to prevent and discourage marijuana use, there is no evidence that criminal marijuana possession laws have reduced demand.

Prohibition of marijuana use has failed on every level. And the cost of fighting a continuous drug war are extraordinary.

California jails are packed with non-violent drug offenders. This results in absurd choices between letting violent offenders out sooner, or building more jails at tremendous taxpayer costs.

California has lead the way on marijuana law reform in many respects, such as lessened penalties for simple possession, and improved medical marijuana laws. But there is a long way to go to get to a point where marijuana laws are truly decriminalized. Marijuana use should be treated in rational manner in accordance with the true costs of and benefits of and endless war.

—

If you are facing a marijuana or other criminal drug charge in California courts, please contact our experienced drug defense attorneys for a free case evaluation on the charges you are facing. There is no obligation for our initial consultation and advice.

Supporters of the bill suggest that current crime victims rights and procedures are inadequate. The biggest item is the funding to insure that prisons have sufficient funding to keep criminals in prison for the entire term of their sentence. One of the current issues with how California prisons manage criminals is that prison overcapacity and overcrowding does often result in earlier release times for some prisoners.

Among the additional proposed provisions are:

• Fewer parole hearings for the most serious offenders
• Required advanced notification to victims/families when criminals are scheduled for parole hearings

Critics say that California law already consists of a statutory crime victims bill of rights, and the Constitutional amendment would be redundant and unnecessary.

In addition, the requirement to fund full prison sentences would add hundreds of millions in costs in building new prisons, as well as additional costs in managing the states prison and probation systems to California’s already massive budget deficit.