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Police arrest 67 at checkpoints
The Mobile Press-Register ^ | 5/31/06 | Nadia M. Taylor

Posted on 05/31/2006 12:54:05 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691

Police arrest 67 at checkpoints Wednesday, May 31, 2006 By NADIA M. TAYLOR Staff Reporter Officers issued more than 1,800 tickets and arrested 67 people over the Memorial Day weekend at several driver's license checkpoints throughout the city, police said.

Most of the 1,834 tickets issued were for not having a driver's license or proof of insurance, according to interim Mobile police Chief Lester Hargrove.

Fifty-four people were arrested on outstanding misdemeanor warrants, and 13 people were arrested on felony warrants, Hargrove said. Most charges stemmed from traffic violations or drug offenses, police said.

One man, Carl Mitchell Washington, 22, was driving with his 2-year-old son when police stopped him at a checkpoint and found about 30 pills, which were believed to be Ecstasy, and $2,775 in cash, Hargrove said.

Washington was charged Sunday with possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child and was released on a $3,500 bond, according to the Mobile County Metro Jail log.

Under Alabama law, possession of a controlled substance is a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. Endangering the welfare of a child is a Class A misdemeanor, which can carry a sentence of up to one year in jail, according to state law.

In addition to the weekend arrests, police seized two handguns and towed 53 vehicles as a result of the checkpoints, Hargrove said.

The topic of roadblocks garnered substantial media attention last month after two men were shot to death at a McDonald's drive-through in northeast Mobile. After the April 5 killings, city officials called for more frequent random checkpoints to look for and seize illegal weapons.

The latest round of checkpoints -- which ran Friday through Monday -- was the third weekend since April 28 that police have set up roadblocks in Mobile. Police issued a total of 1,362 citations during the first two weekends, which took place April 28 and 29 and May 5 and 6.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: 4thamendment; banglist; billofrights; constitutionlist; damngoodidea; donutwatch; govwatch; jackbootedthugs; jbt; jbts; libertarians; notagoodidea; papersnow; policestate; roadblocks; statist; whatnoguns
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To: Dr. Nobel Dynamite
Okay, let's try taking your 17 foot wide paint brush, set it down, and let's pic up this artist brush okay??

I am a victim of circumstance because I did not know the law regarding a twenty some year old can of mace. Everyone knows however, that it is unlawful to put a gun to someone's head and blow their brains out because we want their car.

We all know that it is illegal to go to the border and buy ten kilos of Cocaine, and come back home with it and break it up in little envelopes and sell in on the street corner...Are you seeing the difference here? I'll try it another way, just in case you still don't get it...

The prosecution of the case has the murder weapon, 17 eye witnesses, a video tape, the defendants confession. Has all of this, so, within 30 days, fry the bastard.

Case number two... Joe Coke Head. Get's caught with 463 - 1 gram envelopes of cocaine on the corner of 3rd and Vine. He is asked what he is doing, and he says he selling coke..."Want some?" He gets busted with it all and the jury finds him guilty...lock 'em up and throw away the key...

Case number three.... Me... I'm driving down the road in my wife's car and get pulled over by the cops for doing 5 over. They want to search my wife's vehicle. I let them. They find a 20 + year old can of mace that is larger than the legal limit in the glove box. Her dad gave it to her when she got her license at 16. He said, "here honey, keep this with you, just in case you need it..." Around the same time, Michigan passed a law regarding 35grms was now the legal limit. This canister was 105grms. It is listed in section 14, sub section D, listing 14.D.7...Yea, I hobby reading Michigan Statute on Friday nights. Hardly... And one can go down the street here today, walk into a surplus store and pick between 2 or 3 different manufacturers 110 gram canisters...yes, still being sold on the shelf legally!!

Okay, ignorance is no excuse...I decide no on taking a plea, and go to court...to be judged by a Jury of my peers...they nullify it, and I go free... See the difference now???????

If you are FOUND guilty, then you do the time. If you are not, then you walk the line...simple as that.

181 posted on 06/01/2006 12:56:34 PM PDT by sit-rep (http://trulineint.com/latestposts.asp)
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To: AzaleaCity5691
In this county, almost anyone can get a pistol permit, if you are not a felon, and you can pay the very modest fee, then it's some paperwork, a few other things, and you are then sent on your way with your permit. It's not unreasonable to ask people to do this so they can carry their pistols with them.

Infringement of the right to keep and bear arms, even in modest cases such as you point out, is unconstitutional.

182 posted on 06/01/2006 1:00:56 PM PDT by jmc813 (The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails= 4 given.)
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To: Hazwaste
cops have been known to use certain techniques, such as fear and intimidation, to get into vehicles anyway.

All the police need to say is that they thought they saw what looked like contraband.

183 posted on 06/01/2006 1:04:29 PM PDT by Minutemen ("It's a Religion of Peace")
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To: flada
Always keep your contraband in a locked suitcase when you are in your car.

David Crosby (Crosby Stills & Nash) did just that and forgot and left his briefcase at an airport a couple years back!

184 posted on 06/01/2006 1:15:12 PM PDT by Minutemen ("It's a Religion of Peace")
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To: PghBaldy; HIDEK6
I pulled up to a sobriety checkpoint on a 4th of July evening a few years ago and I was STONE COLD SOBER. I rolled down the window and said with a hearty grin, "Yes officer, can I help you".

I guess he didn't like the smile on my face because he told me to "pull it over to the side, shut it off, and get out" and proceeded to put me through a full 'Field Sobriety Test'. He was very threatening the whole time.

When we were done with the 'walk-the-line-touch-the-nose-stand-on-one-foot-recite-the-alphabet'-stuff he said "Go" and walked away.

185 posted on 06/01/2006 1:16:59 PM PDT by DoctorMichael (A wall first. A wall now.)
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To: LK44-40; Dead Corpse; dcwusmc
I, too, am nostalgic for those days when this was a rural country and the government didn't need to do too much more than deliver the mail and hang the occasional pirate. I used to let the independent and self-sufficient spirit of those long-gone days inform my attitudes about how modern government should operate. Unlike most of our companions here, I let go of all that coonskin cap stuff and got serious. It seems obvious to me that the complexity, the density, and the interdependence of modern life means that our lives must be much more regulated.

That is the EXACT same logic that the gun-grabbers use to discredit the 2nd Amendment. Al Gore also agrees with your "living constitution" philosiphy.

186 posted on 06/01/2006 1:17:19 PM PDT by jmc813 (The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails= 4 given.)
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To: All

Does it strike anyone else as strange that they nabbed 67 people with outstanding warrants at these checkpoints?

How many outstanding warrants are there if they got that many by chance?

Why didn't they just go to the homes of those 67 people and execute the warrants?

I guess that the revenue from the 1800 tickets made it worthwhile to do it this way.


187 posted on 06/01/2006 1:20:12 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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To: LK44-40
Bovine Scatology. The basic principles used to formulate our governing structure were gleaned from thousands of years worth of history. Human nature does not change.

Also, there is a process for Amending the Constitution. Don't like it? Work to get things changed.

But you can drop the act right now. You are no "conservative", nor are you a "libertarian". You are an Authoritarian. Be proud of the company you keep in your ideological equals. Folks such as Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, Bill Clinton, and Kofi Annan.

188 posted on 06/01/2006 1:22:00 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.- Aeschylus)
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To: SteveMcKing

You deserve NOTHING if it comes at the expense of my liberty.

Safety is only a feeling. It is not an absolute state of being.


189 posted on 06/01/2006 1:22:20 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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To: misterrob
Unenumerated rights are a concept that opens doors to things like abortion, affirmative action and other bogus rulings.....

That has to be the most ignorant and uninformed post that I have ever seen anywhere. You obviously have no understanding of your rights as a free man and believe that you only have what government grants to you.

If the government can give it, the government can take it away. If that is the case, rights aren't rights, but privileges.

190 posted on 06/01/2006 1:30:30 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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To: Badray
"You deserve NOTHING if it comes at the expense of my liberty."

Had you emphasized "my", I would agree with you. I did not consider the trading of others liberty for my own safety, as that's plain foolish.

However, if I wish to purchase high security, lock doors obsessively, drive around my block to make sure I am not followed home (I do all of those things), then that is my compromise. I pay a certain price for all of that, and I will not be lectured by philosophers that I "deserve neither safety nor liberty" for those habits.

191 posted on 06/01/2006 1:39:27 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: Badray

I simply making the point that unenumerated rights (i.e. that which is not covered in the Constitution) have given the courts room to rule on matters that have no grounds to do so and plenty of people have complained about it.

Thanks for your value judgement. It annoyed me for all of about 3 seconds then I moved on to other more pressing matters......


192 posted on 06/01/2006 2:05:00 PM PDT by misterrob
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To: SteveMcKing
You completely missed the point that Ben wasn't talking about your voluntary actions, but actions in the legislatures making arbitrary regulations restricting individual Rights.

"Those who sell their liberty for security are understandable, if pitiable, creatures. Those who sell the liberty of others for wealth, power, or even a moment’s respite, deserve only the end of a rope... America’s historic misfortune is that her people have seldom been equal to the ideals upon which their nation was established." — L. Neil Smith, The American Zone (2001)

193 posted on 06/01/2006 2:05:03 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.- Aeschylus)
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To: LK44-40

Yup, coonskin caps pretty much all round, I guess.

Best of luck, my friend.


194 posted on 06/01/2006 2:06:30 PM PDT by 5050 no line
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To: LK44-40

I grew up in the inner city, but have never been the victim of crime.

As long as I can find a grocery store or a restaurant, I won't be in the woods looking for dinner.

I have to tell you that your kind of thinking is the main reason that I own firearms.

It's people like you and the politicians who pander to you with promises of safety to get your votes who think that you can run my life better than I can that are the real threat to liberty.

May your chains rest lightly.


195 posted on 06/01/2006 2:29:59 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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To: DoctorMichael

If I'm ever in that situation, I guarantee that I will intentionally foul up the entire field sobriety test and enjoy the look of disappointment on the Officer's face when I blow a 0.0 on the PBT.


196 posted on 06/01/2006 2:39:52 PM PDT by flada (Posting in a manner reminiscent of Jen-gis Kahn.)
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To: SteveMcKing

What you purchase with your own funds is your business and not the same as exchanging safety for liberty, which was the inference of your post.


197 posted on 06/01/2006 3:33:15 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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To: misterrob

And 3 seconds seems to be about the amount of time that you have given to the understanding of what it means to be free.


198 posted on 06/01/2006 3:35:43 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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To: Badray

Hear that? It's the sound or crickets chirping...


199 posted on 06/01/2006 4:12:57 PM PDT by misterrob
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To: misterrob

I'm so impressed with your witty replies. NOT!


200 posted on 06/01/2006 4:36:54 PM PDT by Badray (CFR my ass. There's not too much money in politics. There's too much money in government hands.)
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