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posted by CoolHand on Thursday September 22 2016, @07:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the keeping-an-eye-on-big-bro dept.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/09/cops-record-themselves-allegedly-fabricating-charges-with-suspects-camera/

In a US federal civil rights lawsuit, a Connecticut man has shared footage to bolster his claims that police illegally confronted the pedestrian because he was filming one of them. Authorities seized Michael Picard's camera and his permitted pistol, and the officers involved then accidentally recorded themselves allegedly fabricating charges against the man.

Picard's police encounter began as he was protesting a sobriety checkpoint while lawfully carrying a handgun in a holster. The plaintiff often protests near sobriety checkpoints in the Hartford region and is known by locals and police in the area, according to court documents. "Cops Ahead: Keep Calm and Remain Silent," read the 3-foot-by-2-foot sign Picard held up to motorists ahead of the checkpoint in West Hartford last year.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by butthurt on Thursday September 22 2016, @10:27PM

    by butthurt (6141) on Thursday September 22 2016, @10:27PM (#405311) Journal

    There seems to have been a racial aspect to these check-points, as they were implemented in California:

    For years, activists and some city officials have charged that police are increasingly punishing illegal immigrants who cannot get driver's licenses by towing and sometimes impounding their cars for 30 days. Once a car is impounded, fees to release the vehicles can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

    http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/13/local/la-me-towing-20110314 [latimes.com]

    The checkpoints net about 10 unlicensed drivers for every drunk driver; and the vast majority of unlicensed drivers are undocumented immigrants.

    http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/mar/12/escondido-police-under-fire/ [kpbs.org]

    And while the checkpoints are ostensibly intended to snare drunken drivers, officers impounded six cars for every one DUI arrest made, according to data from the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at UC Berkeley.

    [...]Vehicle seizures totaled 17,419 last fiscal year. An investigation by California Watch and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley found most of the motorists losing their cars at the operations were sober, unlicensed illegal immigrants.

    http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/year-checkpoint-delivered-thousands-impounds-9482 [californiawatch.org]

    In California, a law went into effect at the beginning of 2012, prohibiting the impounding of vehicles purely because the driver had no license.

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/california-impounding-practices-change-for-unlicensed-drivers/ [pbs.org]
    https://web.archive.org/save/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/25/california-to-ban-police-from-towing-cars-unlicensed-drivers.html [archive.org]

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 23 2016, @02:22PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 23 2016, @02:22PM (#405542) Journal
    Driving without a license is illegal in a way that being an undocumented immigrant is not. Perhaps the penalty is out of line, though a thousand dollars in fines and charges doesn't sound out of line to me. And impounding a vehicle for someone who doesn't have any other assets to seize in case of nonpayment and who can and probably will vanish at a moment's notice is reasonable.

    What I find interesting here is the prioritization of lawbreaking undocumented immigrants over public safety. That indeed has a racial aspect to it.
    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday September 24 2016, @06:13AM

      by butthurt (6141) on Saturday September 24 2016, @06:13AM (#405865) Journal

      As I understand it, in the United States the federal government enforces only federal laws, whilst state governments (and lower) enforce only state and local laws. Travel between the states, or across the national border, is a federal matter.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 24 2016, @06:52AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 24 2016, @06:52AM (#405870) Journal

        As I understand it, in the United States the federal government enforces only federal laws, whilst state governments (and lower) enforce only state and local laws. Travel between the states, or across the national border, is a federal matter.

        The obvious rebuttal would be that traffic safety and licensing of drivers is a state concern. It's of course common for state concerns to overlap with national-level concerns (immigration being an obvious example) and for ulterior motives to occur with laws (perhaps with the tactic of impounding vehicles and likely vote buying with the law against the impounding of vehicles).

        • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday September 24 2016, @09:50AM

          by butthurt (6141) on Saturday September 24 2016, @09:50AM (#405888) Journal

          I understand less than I thought. I had no idea that non-citizens had the vote.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 24 2016, @10:25AM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 24 2016, @10:25AM (#405890) Journal

            I had no idea that non-citizens had the vote.

            First, non-citizens often have citizen relatives. Second, expediting a path to citizenship is a notorious, old political tactic in the US for creating and buying votes. It's a key driver of the political differences on immigration both past and present.