Posted on 11/13/2005 11:00:52 AM PST by ncountylee
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A state trooper was arrested after authorities accused him of taking thousands of dollars from Hispanic motorists instead of issuing traffic tickets.
Lance Cpl. Stephen A. Watts, 28, of Pelion was charged with misconduct after he collected $40 from a driver instead of writing a ticket during a traffic stop Oct. 30 in Lexington County near Columbia, according to an arrest warrant.
More charges were expected.
Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said investigators were tipped off by a farmer's query on whether police were acting appropriately by stopping migrant workers and taking money without issuing a ticket.
Witnesses and victims spoke little to no English, the sheriff said.
Watts was suspended without pay.
It sure looks fishy. I think it would have been worth letters to the state's Attorney General and to the FBI.
I have heard over the years that this type of "cash on the barrelhead and we'll forget this" is also traditional in the Palmetto state.
Institutionalized traffic shakedowns are a ten billion dollar a year industry.
Corrupt police running a shakedown on their own take in a few thousand dollars here and there.
Which one is the outrage?
"It sure looks fishy. I think it would have been worth letters to the state's Attorney General and to the FBI."
These days I would do something like that - but I was 18 and in my first quarter as a co-op student and not looking to make waves... it was only one state away from Atlanta but it seemed like a different world.
For example I was stunned at my new apartment complex when I joined a group of 9 guys standing by the basketball court and asked if I could play and was asked "are you an idiot? We don't have enough white guys." It was 5 black guys and four white guys and they never considered the possibility of playing together.
If proved, this piece of garbage should never work in law enforcement again. And his next victim would be justified in sticking a shotgun in his face.
How proud these highway patrolmen must be to have grown up to be tax collectors.
Bad cop. Go to jail.
There is no excuse for stealing and in this case it is worse than someone else violating the law. Any person with this kind of authority and abusing it should be put in jail.
It amazes me that, if this article is accurate, a member of a respected profession would throw everything away for peanuts.
It's a very small step moving from shakedown artist for the State to just a regular shakedown artist.
We had 3 veteran firefighters here get sent to prison for arson about 2 years ago. They burned down a building because the owner would not pay a fellow firefighter for ocnstruction he did, and said firefighter paid his brothers $100 each to torch the place.
Now that is an amazingly stupid example of flushing a great career down the toilet for pennies.
Was he even allowed to arrest them?
Was he even allowed to arrest them?
If he would just give the guy a receipt, sheesh. What is the difference between the cop and the judge, a receipt?
Are they going to charge him with stealing tax money?
TT
Even if its just close they'll get the idea! ;-)
bttt
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