Posted on 03/13/2015 8:13:22 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
A routine traffic stop turned into a drug interrogation for an elderly couple in Walton County.
CBS46 began investigating the incident when the couple passing through Georgia complained that a deputy crossed the line.
Charles Tharp, 69, never expected that his family vacation would end the way it did.
He and his wife had just visited their grandchild in Texas and were headed back home to North Carolina when a Walton County Sheriff's deputy stopped them.
“It just seemed a little unusual because we're not speeding and we're always careful drivers,” said Charles Tharp.
Tharp and his wife were told their windows were too dark. The deputy checked the tint and found it was not within the legal limit. But, on the contrary, the Tharp's Toyota dealership tested the tint and got a different reading that was legal.
“I thought that was awfully strange since these are factory tinted Toyota windows and it seems so peculiar that someone would stop you for something like that,” said Charles Tharp.
It turns out the window tinting was just the beginning of their troubles.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs46.com ...
Doesn’t work that way. The cop would have to arrest them if he wanted to question them. Since there is only his reasonable suspicion and no probable cause, his detention of them is limited in the amount of time and in the scope his “investigation” can take.
This guy was a K9 Unit officer as well. Guarantee if you refused to let him search your vehicle he would have made sure his long nailed Malinois was up on the hood and sides of your car making sure it got scratched to crap.
This kind of policing is virtually inevitable while conducting a losing war on drugs.
I’d call my lawyer, he’d show up, you’d let me go, and the lawsuit would filed agaist you and your department before your shift ended.
I assume you're talking about the lack of physical standards being listed. I'm assuming you don't believe the being college educated automatically makes someone a better candidate.
So that makes everybody a suspect.
We are each guilty until proven innocent - welcome to the War on Drugs aka War on Citizens.
I hear ya. I seem to have some characteristic that they are looking for and I never figured out what it was. I’m just an average white guy, I don’t even have any tattoos or anything. But every damned time, I get pulled out of the boarding line for an extra search. The last time I flew, they confiscated my pair of mini-wire cutters out of my tool bag and were trying to take apart my Fluke meter with a screwdriver and I went off on them. I actually vowed to never fly again because of harassment, I just drive now so I guess the bastards won.
I think college may not make someone automatically a better candidate, but it does produce a transcript that can tell how they think. As I said military experience same thing.
My wife was stopped by a fresh out of academy female highway patrol rookie for too dark window tint. She said this county has zero tolerance for that offense, although we have used it here for four years without any problems and still haven’t changed it. I guess they send the newbies out to stop white suburban housewives to practice writing tickets.
What that man said: I trust the cops less now... That is what bad cops are doing to our society and to their profession. They are wrecking our system of justice making people lose confidence in it.
That cops should be fired for being an idiot.
I’ve posted this little story on FR before so bear with me if you’ve heard it already.
I got pulled over for speeding in TN on I75. 78 in a 70. Brand new Lincoln LS with my 4 year old son in a child seat in back. Seat was up on a short cardboard box filled with books. I did that to let my son look out the window between Naples FL and Cincinnati OH.
State Trooper says, “That child seat looks like it needs adjusted. Mind if I look in your car and fix it for you?”
I said, “Yea, sure.”
Cop immediately opens front passenger door and starts looking under the front seat.
I said, “Hey, what are you doing? I thought you were going to fix my kid’s seat!”
Response, “Are you now refusing to allow me to search your car?”
Of course I told him to stop. I now believe they are trained to weasel a search any way they can.
End result: 3 tickets. Speeding, improper restraints, and TV Screen in view of driver for having Winnie the Pooh playing on a portable DVD player between the seats.
I feel the same way as the 79 year old man in the story.
Looks like he was carrying out his mission - that's where the serious idiocy is found:
'“Our deputy is trained to take an extra step,” said Chief Deputy Keith Brooks. “He is actually attached to our narcotics unit and he is primarily support for them. However, when he is out on the road and not supporting them, he conducts traffic stops. His primary function is to look for criminal activity.”'
:-)
We had a cop in our town that was constantly stopping cars for window tinting. Someone finally noticed all the drivers were attractive blonds.
Issues with policing are not fixed by legalizing drugs.
My wife and I just got back from Florida two days ago. On the way down I got in the wrong line. I didn’t realize that our tickets said “TSA PRE” on them which meant that we wouldn’t have had to take our computers out of their bags or take our shoes off.
But when I was told of my error when I finally got to the first TSA person I figured it would be easier to just go through the normal line. WRONG! After going through the X-Ray machines they took everything out of my bags and put some type of residue detecting tape on everything from my cell phone to my wife’s hair brush. They spent half an hour looking over a bunch harmless normal travel stuff that they should have been able to clear in two minutes. At least I didn’t get strip searched this time.
But the real kicker was on the way down we were sitting next to a Middle Eastern looking girl who could barely speak English. When we asked her where she was going she said Chico which didn’t make any sense. The plane made a stop in Albuquerque on its way to Dallas and we were suppose to be able to get out and stretch our legs after a head count. They kept counting over and over again but kept coming up with one to many people. So I finally got one of the flight attendants attention and told her that I thought that our little friend who could barely speak English might have got on the wrong plane. Sure enough; she was trying to go to Chicago and they led her off the plane.
So security wasted half an hour going through my little draggy bag with socks and underwear that didn’t have anything suspicious at all, but we had a foreign stowaway sitting next to us for a thousand miles who couldn’t speak English.
“The government is the enemy, pure and simple. EVERYTHING they do is interpreted within that context. And as I read more and more stories like this, that is a very healthy perspective.”
Yes, and the I-95 corridor from New York to Florida has become a “ free fire zone” for every red neck cop and sheriff since the days of the “double nickel.” When the 55 mph “federal speed limit” went away, they turned to drug and gun “interdiction” for revenue (which includes civil forfeiture). And these accounts are nearly all against people who are non-residents of the state wherein the stops are made. Now are cops mirror those in Mexico where they get “free bullets” and are told to go out and “make themnselves a living.” And the cops wonder why they are hated.
By the way, what year did the GA supreme court throw out that law? I can’t find any record of it.
“When the only tool in your belt is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
And when the only tool in your belt is a pistol, everything looks like a suitable target.
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