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.
Anyone can be pulled over for speeding (1 mile over the limit.)
Apparently minus the closet part.
"I had a cop friend of mine tell me that if he wants to stop you, all he has to do is follow you for 10 minutes and he'll find a reason to pull you over."
Wow, what a manly man. Does he kick dogs too?
What does it matter? They're just expecting useless lumps of flesh anyway.... < /s>
You wanna bet? You park 4 cruisers out on a busy street in high crime areas and you will be amazed at what you find behind the wheel and under the front seat. Until people started complaining about racial profiling I knew of towns that would stop anyone that looked like they didn't live in an area so as to cut down on the crime rate.
If you were 17, dressed like a gang banger and driving into areas that it was obvious that you didn't live you got pulled.
And you believe that because the State told you so?
Amendment IX
I don't carry anything illegal in the Vette (actually I don't own anything that could be remotely considered illegal).
However, the Vette is filled with bits of this and that from the space program (ALL ACQUIRED LEGALLY) such as a meteorite, three axis Inertial Nav unit, carbon-carbon skin, MLI, shuttle tile material, sensors, PMTs, thermal OSRs, CCD focal plane assembly, honeycomb skin, solar panels, flight computer, spacecraft panels, mono-propellant fuel line, RF cable, solar sail material, Astro-Quartz, x-band dish antenna, microwave omni antennas, flat ceramic microwave antennas, an RF subsystem assembly, blue nomex flight suit, Carbon/Kevlar clean-room suit, Neutron detectors, Vela Satellite sensor assembly, Indium foil, Kapton, Mylar, Titanium struts, Cray 3 computer boards, ceramic parts, core memory arrays, waveguide, 76GHz microwave assembly with feed, ring laser 3 axis gyro assembly, beta cloth, gamma and xray detectors, etc.
I take this stuff around to schools so kids get a chance to handle actual spacecraft hardware. :-)
(at least four of these items have been flown in space)
Wonder what a LEO would think as all that got piled alongside the Vette?
Checkpoints would be a nice thing. Then again, I wonder what percentage of the people stopped would be skipped because they're in the US illegally.
"It's a good idea and it should be adopted around the country"
As soon as the new recruits at the Police Academies get the goose step down it will be.
"You wanna bet?"
Uhm, no thanks. You're going to have to do better than that.
How does your argument demonstrate that checkpoints are not fishing expeditions? The majority of people passing through them are law abiding citizens who must prove that they are law abiding before they are allowed to pass.
From Miriam-Webster's Dictionary: "Fishing Expedition" -- an investigation that does not stick to a stated objective but hopes to uncover incriminating or newsworthy evidence
It is not for anyone to determine what I "deserve" in that regard. Ben Franklin can stuff it.
The govenment uses this idiotic argument to keep us in line. We have the RIGHT to travel all over this country, that means we have the right to drive.
If you don't believe me show me where in the constitution it specifically forbids driving as a right?
As I said, it is one of the many unenumerated rights, reason tells us this and if you buy into the privilidge argument then I pity you.
If they had only issued 100 tickets, we could debate Constitutional allowance. But it was 1,834 tickets issued. Now it could be that people weren't carrying proof of insurance. They had it but they weren't carrying it. If you have ever been in an accident that wasn't your fault, you know the importance of the other guy having insurance. If he doesn't have a license or insurance, you are majorly screwed through no fault of your own. Your liberties are about to be trampled. You are going to the prom with your insurance company and YOU are going to be the one wearing your ankles for earrings.
In theory, it could be a violation of rights. In reality, you have to drive on the same roads as these people. Just remember: 1,834 tickets issued
You can drive all you want. On your own property. When you hit the public roads, you have to obey the public rules.
you are darn right. how about checking them for citizenship? thats what pisses me off, legal citizens caught in a police state, while illegals do what they want and simply run after an accident or make bail and dissapear into the underground economy. sickening, really.
Denial: de·ni·al (d-nl) n.
An unconscious defense mechanism characterized by refusal to acknowledge painful realities, thoughts, or feelings.
Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
It's a good idea and it should be adopted around the country
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About time...Good going Alabama.
I second that!
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