Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/388

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HUNTER v. BRYANT Stevens, J., dissenting

ing more than hunches or suspicion—in taking precautions to avoid the ever-present danger of assassination. Mere suspicion is obviously a sufficient justification for a host of protective measures such as, for example, careful surveillance of a person like respondent. The question that is presented, however, is whether a reasonable trained law enforcement officer could have concluded that the evidence available to petitioners at the time they arrested respondent constituted probable cause to believe that he had committed the crime of threatening the life of President Reagan. The evidence on which the officers relied to support their conclusion that probable cause existed is summarized in two affidavits which they filed in support of their motion for summary judgment. That evidence includes three relevant components: (1) a rambling, confusing letter written by respondent contained statements indicating that a “Mr Image” intended to assassinate the President while he was in Germany; (2) the officers “believed that the use of the term Mr. Image may have been a pseudonym for [respondent] Bryant and that Bryant was writing in the third person,” App. to Pet. for Cert. 48a, 54a; and (3) when respondent delivered a copy of the letter to Veronica Tincher in the budget office of the University of Southern California, he “said something about ‘across the throat,’ while simultaneously moving his hand horizontally across his throat to simulate a cutting action,” id., at 43a. The affidavits explained that in addition to the above facts, the affiants were “concerned that Bryant might pose a threat to the President’s well-being.” Id., at 48a, 54a. It is also noteworthy that when the officers visited Bryant in his apartment, he allowed them to enter and voluntarily consented to a search for weapons in plain view, and then to a second search of the entire residence. That search resulted in nothing more than the discovery of the original of the letter.