Warrants for spying - public v.s. private residences

I was wondering if people living in public housing, or housing subsidized by the gov't, are given the same rights as someone living in a private residence as far as needing a warrant to spy on a house/apt. In public housing/section 8, the gov't is your landlord and I know they would be willing to work with local police in arresting anyone breaking the law. Thanks in advance.

What is the benefit of rights that cost your living?

Muffy said:

What is the benefit of rights that cost your living?

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If I understand your question correctly, I'd say they are invaluable.

JonTheBaptist said:

I was wondering if people living in public housing, or housing subsidized by the gov't, are given the same rights as someone living in a private residence as far as needing a warrant to spy on a house/apt. In public housing/section 8, the gov't is your landlord and I know they would be willing to work with local police in arresting anyone breaking the law. Thanks in advance.

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If you're in the US I'll answer your question for you. You're living on government property. So no they won't need a warrant at all. As a matter of fact at any point in time the police can and will walk right through the front door. No knocking or anything. Before doing that they'll drop by the managers office and get a copy of the key just in case it's locked.
I had a friend a about a decade ago that got into some rough times and had to move into govt housing for a minute. He was actually strait as an arrow and didn't get into trouble at all. His neighbor was a late 40s male ''drama queen'' and took a disliking to him. So anytime my friend had a buddy or 2 over the neighbor took it upon himself to call five-oh with some sort of insane accusation.
The police would in turn go strait to the managers office. Get keys. Then come through the front door. Usually just to come in. Act bothered by the fact they had to be there and then leave. I was personally there twice when it happened.
So yeah they can pretty much do whatever it is they want under those circumstances. At any point in time.

MonkeyGrinder said:

So yeah they can pretty much do whatever it is they want under those circumstances. At any point in time.

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Not legally.
You do not give up your fourth amendment rights just because you are living in government housing. Regardless of who owns the property, you are renting and that means that it is your home and you have the right to be secure in your house and posessions.
However, the police can and do perform warrantless searches and attempt to justify them after-the-fact. If that actually happened to your friend and they found something to arrest him for, a decent lawyer should be able to get the whole thing thrown out as fruit of the poisonous tree. Unless it is an emergency, even the landlord is supposed to give notice, usually at least 24 hours, before entering the dwelling, although this too is sometimes ignored and since they are not law enforcement, anything they find would be admissible.

mindphuk said:

Not legally.
You do not give up your fourth amendment rights just because you are living in government housing. Regardless of who owns the property, you are renting and that means that it is your home and you have the right to be secure in your house and posessions.
However, the police can and do perform warrantless searches and attempt to justify them after-the-fact. If that actually happened to your friend and they found something to arrest him for, a decent lawyer should be able to get the whole thing thrown out as fruit of the poisonous tree. Unless it is an emergency, even the landlord is supposed to give notice, usually at least 24 hours, before entering the dwelling, although this too is sometimes ignored and since they are not law enforcement, anything they find would be admissible.

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I have to agree, if that were the case cops would be opening everyone's door who lived in the projects, and you wouldn't hear about raids in the papers. Police do need a search warrant to enter your house, I know people in public housing who have been the victim of raids and police always had a search warrant. For the record they also don't get the keys from the manager, they bust your door down like any other.

My question is about FLIR though. I know that it is illegal to scan someones residence without a search warrant, but what if it is government housing? I think this will be a tough question to answer.

NYC stop-n-frisk?

Unfortunately that is legal

JonTheBaptist said:

Unfortunately that is legal

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What if you live in a box and you poke two holes to see through while you walk around with it over your head?

in the united states, home owns you.


but for real. every single day whether it is the local, state, federal, fbi, cia, DHS, TSA, the ''war on terrorism'' whatever you want to call it, the guvvment is slowly desensitizing people and police, destroying the consitution, the bill of rights, and eroding our freedom as citizens of America. I recently saw a report where DHS official suppliers were asked to send our police force and military lifelike shooting targets nicknamed ''no more hesitation''...the targets feature small children, both boy and girl, small elderly people and even a pregnant woman with a gun. now why in the fuck would the united states govt. need lifelike shooting targets of women and children and in general regular looking americans? and if that question in perplexing enough, over the past 6 monthes the US GOV has stocked piled well over a billion bullets. this is all true you can look it up...sadly.

A big problem is that more than 1/2 of American citizens dont even KNOW what the bill of rights and constitution says or means anymore. Let alone using it to protect themselves from the fed. my opinon on the matter is, whether you live in a 100 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere, a small apt in the middle of NYC, suburban or rural does not matter, at any given time, for any given reason, any level of law enforcement can break your measly door down, whether they really did smell pot or made it up, it doesnt matter,either way your most likley fucked at this point, but i digress...the main point of what im saying is. even if you know your rights very well, you could be arrested at any given time, whether you broke the law or not, and what would end up happening is you go in front of a judge and its your word ( 'the criminal' ) vs. the cant do wrong police men and women of America, now who do you think he would beleive, some random 20-30 year old punk that just got tossed in the clink for breaking a law, or his most likely friend police officer, whom work together on a daily basis....hmm, well im rambling at this point my advice to you is, technically, it is your home and no one can just barge in and go through your things and arrest you, but we do not live in a technical world. But for real...whether you live in sec. 8 or a huge mansion, if they want your ass and your not on a plane to Europe very quickly, you will be arrested and put in jail. nothing needed end of story.


your best chance is to keep it qiuiet. sorry for the novel.

It's illegal.