In a statement, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, S. Andrew Schaffer, who has advised Mr. Kelly on the matter, said that Mr. Mukasey’s contention that Mr. Kelly had proposed an illegal course of conduct was “preposterous and categorically untrue.”
“We have asserted,” the statement continued, “based on actual cases, that FISA warrants were not sought in a timely manner in part because of a self-imposed standard of probable cause which is higher than that required by Supreme Court precedent.”
What, the NYPD has a problem with high standards of probable cause? Do tell!
While the letters do not specifically identify the target of the eavesdropping requests, Mr. Mukasey said that the Police Department had sought authority in one of them to eavesdrop on “numerous communications facilities” without providing an adequate basis for their requests. Some officials who have been briefed on the cases said the requests, from the police Intelligence Division, were unusually broad, and included telephones in public places, like train or subway stations, rather than phones used by a specific individual.
Apparently Mr. Kelly doesn't realize that just because the phone is in public it does not make it city property. And since a pay phone is actually the property of whatever phone company that has leased the spot that the phone sits on, then yes, you need a warrant. Secondly, that a phone is public doesn't mean that what conversation is had with it is public. It's like your car. If you have something in clear view of an officer, they can stop and ask you about it. However; just because they can se in your vehicle does not grant them the right to search it for things that are not in plain sight.
I suggest Mr. Kelly get his house in order, starting with Sean Bell's killer and then moving on to that officer that assaulted a citizen on a bike in Times Square earlier this year.
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