Thursday, February 19, 2009

is Oklahoma OK??

OKC officer pulls man over for anti-Obama sign on vehicle

read all about it

9 comments:

"Grammie" or whatever name he wants to call me!! said...

An assault on free speech! Isn't free speech what liberals hold sacred? Unless, or course, you're conservative. There's more to come.

Spider said...

I would be very interested in knowing the officers race. I assume the driver to be White. Also, the actions of the SS are not at all out of the norm given the circumstances. Aside from that, this guy's a fool if he doesn't sue. It's true he may not get very far, since he would have to prove the officers action was an intentional attempt to stifle political speech, which it "probably" was not.

It's also odd, although not at all surprising, that the ACLU isn't all over this case. This is their bread and butter.

Schteveo said...

I would have gladly pulled over and talked to Officer Obie, but he WOULD NOT have gotten my sign. Under what authority does he to take the sign, but not arrest the person committing the "threat"? Seems the LEO was wrong on both sides of this. He would have had to arrest my fat ass.

Had that happened, the guy would have had a case.

Anonymous said...

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

Anonymous said...

Karl Rove

nerd said...

I was stopped by a cop recently for a burned out tail light. Mysteriously, the tail light had begun working again when I asked the officer to show me which light was out. I knew that he was probably looking for a car similar to mine and used the tail light as a pretext to stop me. He asked if would be okay for him to to "look" in my car. I asked him if I was under arrest. He said no. I said that it was not okay for him to "look" in my car. He was pissed. Finally, I told him to either arrest me and take me to jail so I could bond out or to let me go. He said, "I might just do that, smart guy." I told him that I was an ambulance chaser and all it would cost me to sue his dumb ass and his department were the filing fees. I have generally had good relations with the police after getting over the stupid shit I did in my younger days; but this asshole was out of line. He threw my driver's license at me and drove off.

Schteveo said...

nerd,
years ago I drove a "friend" to his cousins house because the cousin owed him money. This friend owed me money, I figured if he had money I might get my money back. I was young and foolish.

The next day, on the way to work I got stopped by a Deputy Sheriff for no apparent reason. He asked for my license, insurance card and registration. All of it was up to date. He said he stopped me for a seat belt violation. (in NC the aren't allowed to stop you for JUST that)

He asked if he could search my car, like you I told him, "NO".

"Well, waddya got ta HIDE?"

"Are we done here? I'm going to be late for work..."

He gave me my license back, and I went to work, never thinking anything about it. I'm a freak, I lived in the country, he was a redneck deputy, yadda yadda.


I got stopped 3 more times in 4 days, once with my son in the car. The last time I told them if I got stopped again for BS, they better have a warrant.

2 days later they stopped me, 3 cars, 4 deputies and a sargeant, WITH a warrant. They finally told me, after a 30 minute stay in the back seat of the cruiser, that 10 minutes after I left my "friend's" cousin's house, they busted him with a bunch of pot in the house. I had been on the surveillance tapes. I wasn't worried about them finding anything, at the time I was under possibility of being pissed tested so I was clean and not holding.

Twothings always pissed me off about all that. One was the draconian, foot dragging, idiot way the cops went about it. If they thought I was holding, they should have gotten a damn warrant. If they couldn't get one and if I didn't let them search me, why did they keep asking?

The other thing was that my "friend" didn't get his (my) money from his cousin because he claimed he was broke. That SOB had to have money, the caught him with POUNDS of dope!! The prick.

Anonymous said...

The reason most Officers will ask for your permission to search is simply to make it easier for them to satisfy their curiosity. No warrant needed. Of course, if the Officer suspects drugs and you say no to a search, he doesn't need a warrant, just a drug dog who will pick it up from outside the vehicle. Then you're done!

The car stop is a tricky situation. If you're an innocent motorist, you see nothing wrong with saying no to having your car searched. To an experienced Police Officer, the thought process is somewhat reversed. If he's innocent, why would he object?

Sometimes, if we just put ourselves in the other guy's shoes, things become a lot clearer.

nerd said...

Hey, Steve,

I hear ya, bud. I generally don't have a problem with cops. I know that doing their jobs for any length of time would be a killer. One of my high school buddies was a cop in Garland, Texas (pop. +/- 150,000) for 33 years. He never had to fire his weapon in all that time. He, however shot himself in the thigh with a 9 mm pistol while practicing a quick draw with a little too much booze on board. He also shot his TV stand with an "unloaded" .357 revolver and his washing machine with yet another "unloaded" sawed-off shotgun.

I used to ride along with him. He made Lt. but always stayed in the patrol division and liked to work deep nights. Said that's where all the action was. One night we pulled over an old beater of a station wagon with the back end jam packed with clothes, shoes, bedding and groceries. He stopped the driver because the car had no license plate on the rear. Long story short, the driver was wanted for murder. He called for backup and arrested the guy with no trouble. After one of his guys had taken the driver to jail I was helping him go through all the crap in the back end of the station wagon. I grabbed a shoe to throw it out. Lo and behold it was attached to a foot and a leg and a body! I nearly shit all over myself. There was another guy hiding under all that stuff in the back and we had completely missed him. If he'd had a gun we would have been in deep shit. That gave me a new appreciation for the risks that cops take on a daily basis.