Border Patrol Wrongly Detains & Harasses TX Soldier then Deletes Cell Phone Video of Incident

Texas Conservative Republican News ^ | 4/2/2012 | David Bellow

[davidbellow]

A Texas National Guard soldier has filed an official complaint and a freedom of information request regarding an incident where the Border Patrol wrongfully detained him, harassed him, made fun of the National Guard, and even took his cell phone and deleted the video of the incident before setting him free after determining that he had done nothing wrong.

David and James Bellow with Congressman Ted Poe

The individual filing the complaint is my brother, James Bellow. He has served with the Border Patrol on the Texas border in the Army National Guard. He completely supports securing the border and completely supports catching drug traffickers as they travel across the border and through Texas. On the other hand, he knows that there is a level of professionalism that federal officers are expected to adhere to. What happened to him was in no way professional and possibly illegal due to them deleting video from his cell phone. He called me and told me what happened. I told him to immediately file a complaint and request the video from the checkpoint as evidence.

Below is the Body of the Complaint that was Filed Against the Border Patrol:

On April 2nd, 2012 at approximately 4:10 p.m., as I was passing through the Falfurrias checkpoint

[shibumi]

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 11:29:24 AM · 27 of 31
davidbellow to Larry Lucido

Thanks for the tip! I have never posted on FR before so I did not know I could just post my full article. Thanks!
Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies

Having a little trouble with your posting? No Sweat! Just do not check the box that says "This is an excerpt" and you can put the whole thing here.

FReepers will love you for it!

[kingu]

While I might not agree with Google’s politics, I sure do enjoy using their automatic archive service for pictures and videos. Go ahead and delete it off my phone - it's already uploaded to Google’s servers, and you'd better believe it'll be on YouTube before I make it a mile down the road, officer.

[humblegunner]

(Excerpt) Read more at hardincountyconservatives.blogspot.com ...

Could you summarize the remainder here?

[bcsco]

This is a ping list promoting Immigration Enforcement and Congressional Reform.
If you wish to be added or removed from this ping list, please contact me.

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[davidbellow]

can someone show me how to have links appear in my FR post and how to have a pictures appear in the article that I am posting on FR?

I really am new to posting to FR and it is true that I have had someone tell me that I can post the whole article because I wrote it, but the reason I clicked this is an excerpt is because the article I wrote includes a picture of my brother in uniform to prove he is a soldier and this is not all made up. I did not know how to post my full article with the picture, and also sometimes my articles have links to other important info and I do not know the html to post the link. That is why I just clicked this is an excerpt.

If someone would be so kind as to show me how to post links and pictures when I post my article I would be grateful!

[davidbellow]

this is the rest of the article:

On April 2nd, 2012 at approximately 4:10 p.m., as I was passing through the Falfurrias checkpoint (not a border crossing but one of the checkpoints well inside of Texas), Border Patrol agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection directed me to pull over because they said their trained K-9 alerted them to something even though the K-9 had not given any visual or verbal signs. I pulled into the spot that they directed me to and I used my cell phone to record the incident and them searching my vehicle. They did not like that very much at all and I overheard questions like “why is he recording”.

I work for a lawn company. I mow yards every day. So when they found some grass blades on my floorboard they told me that they “got me now” and I was “going to be placed under arrested” for marijuana. I told the officers that it was just grass and they told me to be quiet until my rights were read. They told me that they are trained to distinguish the difference between regular grass and marijuana. In this time they took my phone and detained me inside. They tested the grass and of course it came back negative. They let me go but they first erased the entire video of their actions from my personal cell phone.

I am in the Army National Guard and served on the border last year. In the time that I was detained inside a female agent was insulting me and the National Guard stationed on the border by telling me “so what you wanted to be an agent and couldn’t be so you don’t like us” “I bet you wanted to be one of us and you couldn’t so now you’re mad”. I also had a male agent threatening my National Guard future. Saying “I promise you that I’m going to contact your unit and tell them that I don’t ever want you working with the border patrol on a mission ever again” “you just wait I’m going to call them and tell them everything”. I was also told that “if I don’t like waiting at the checkpoint then why don’t you stay on your side of it.” These agents are supposed to be trained to act in a professional manner. I understand they have a job to do, but acting completely unprofessional, antagonizing, and threaten a United States citizen in an unprofessional manner is completely and downright wrong. I am of course going to be mad when I know for a fact that I am a law abiding citizen that serves my country in the military and then I have people telling me that I’m committing a crime. Making false accusations against me and tampering with my personal belongings is extremely outrageous. It almost seems like they think that they have the right to do whatever they want just because they are federal agents, but I know that federal agents are held to a higher standard of professionalism than this.

They were not very professional in the fact that there were no narcotics in my vehicle but they swore up and down that they were trained to know what it looks and smells like. They mistook grass blades for marijuana.

They were completely unprofessional in the way they treated me and the things they said to me and directed towards the Army National Guard.

They even tried to say I was tried to hit an agent with my vehicle as he walked out from behind another vehicle when I was pulling into the spot that they were directing me into.

I was falsely accused of trying to hit an agent, I was falsely accused of having marijuana, I was detained and harassed and insulted in an unprofessional manner while I was detained. Lastly and worst of all, they deleted the video I made of their unprofessional and embarrassing actions while they were searching my vehicle. This was highly unprofessional coming from “trained” United States Federal Agents.

Along with this official complaint that I expect to get a response back from you about, I am also requesting (through the Freedom of Information Act) a copy of the border patrol security cameras from the time that I was there so that I can properly prove my allegations as I take further action to prevent unprofessional conduct like this against American citizens in the future.

[humblegunner]

See if this helps:

http://www.psacake.com/web/dy.asp

It lists basic HTML for lots of things, including live links and image posting.

[GladesGuru]

I would be curious as to the racial and ethnic issues that may be simmering underneath this story.

Or is it just the Obamoid mentality spreading through the Federal agencies?

In any case, the Ubermenschen Mentality of all too many AgencyPersons has to be dealt with.

[deport]

Spend five minutes on this practice thread and you'll get the hang of using basic HTML.

HTML Sandbox 2012

[Georgia Girl 2]

This is mild. The border patrol beat the ever lovin stew out of a pastor who refused to get out of his truck on constitutional grounds and filmed the whole incident. You can watch that on You Tube. Those internal checkpoints are illegal to begin with. American citizens have the 4th ammendment right to travel freely within the United States without having to show papers or be detained without good cause.

[deport]

Those internal checkpoints are illegal to begin with.

--------------------------

That maybe true but until it is deemed so in a court of Law the legislative authorization provides for the BP jurisdiction within a 100 mile radius of the Border. The following is a map showing the 32 permanent check points along the Southern Border with Mexico.

[Georgia Girl 2]

The US govt is not going to let a little thing like the constitution get in their way of taking our personal freedoms.

[Lurker]

A kind and helpful Freeper might offer some advice and assistance to a new person such as yourself. You know, like maybe ask if you need any help navigating the forum or anything instead of just posting a snarky remark.

If you need any assistance in that regard feel free to ping me. I may not get back to you right away but I will get back to you. Certain Freepers around here might want to step up and do the same thing, that is if they’re not too busy with their self-appointed thread policing duties or anything.

Welcome to FR Mr. Bellow.

[humblegunner]

See post #8, captain snarky-pants.

[af_vet_rr]

Those internal checkpoints are illegal to begin with. American citizens have the 4th ammendment right to travel freely within the United States without having to show papers or be detained without good cause.

Why don't you write Governor Rick Perry and let him know they are illegal. Get back to us when you get a response from his office. I guarantee you I will win the lottery long before you hear from Perry.

Like them or not, they are here, and it pisses me off everytime I encounter one, but the Republican politicians in Texas aren't going to do anything about it.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“A tireless vocal minority” Thats how we get rid of this stuff. Its not easy for sure.