The Fourth Amendment is one of the cornerstones of our freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution

by | Nov 21, 2021 | criminal law

The Fourth Amendment is one of the cornerstones of our freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It protects people against unreasonable search and seizure of their person, property, and belongings. Law enforcement officers must work to ensure they do not violate the Fourth Amendment while performing their duties. They have a responsibility to protect people’s rights and not invalidate evidence for any future court cases.In this assignment, you will analyze a case study based on an actual case to determine whether police officers’ search and seizure actions related to suspected illegal drug activities were constitutional. Here is the case study you will analyze in your assignment.

Case Study
In the Los Angeles Brentwood neighborhood, neighbors have notified the police that they have seen vehicles coming and going from one specific home. The incidents occur between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. The neighbors believe drug activity may be taking place. The local police division assigns officers Williams and Martinez to investigate possible drug activity at that location.Officer Williams contacts the neighborhood’s regular trash collection service and asks it to put the contents of the subject’s (defendant’s) garbage left at the curb in plastic bags so as to not mix the subject’s garbage with others. He also asked the trash collector to turn the subject’s bags over to him at the end of trash day collections. The trash collector did as Officer Williams requested. Officer Williams’s partner, Officer Martinez, searched through the garbage and found items indicative of narcotics use. Officer Williams and Officer Martinez then listed the information obtained from the trash in an affidavit to support a warrant to search the defendant’s home. Officer Martinez and Officer Williams encountered the defendant at the house later that day upon execution of the warrant. The officers found quantities of cocaine and heroin during the search and arrested the defendant on felony narcotics charges.Note: As you complete this assignment, it will be helpful to you to read the actual case on which this case study is based: California v. Greenwood.

Instructions
Write a three- to four-page analysis of this case study in which you:

Explain in your own words the Fourth Amendment, which governs the officers’ actions.
Determine which of the following doctrines apply to this case study: plain view, abandonment, open fields, or border searches.

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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