The Law Itself - Today's Police State, Revisited

I tried America...I SWEAR I tried.  I wanted the post below this one to be my final post, but the sins keep coming in, and I just can't keep my mouth shut about it!!

Now, (not unlike every other article I write), I want you to know that, when it comes to "The Law" and our current, much-perverted justice system, I tend to jump around a lot.  Stay with me, and you'll understand what this is about, I guarantee it.  Follow where you can, and there won't be a chance that you won't get it, I'm sure.

WELL?

Q.  Are we officially, "A police State?"  I believe the answer to this question to be a resounding yes.

So, why is it that I think we are a police state?

Well, for one, go to youtube, and search for "Police Audit".  Watch around 3 of those, and I guarantee you will vehemently agree with this general assessment.  Scarier still, there are approximately...not 3 such videos, but well over 300,000 nationwide.

Another reason I can safely allege this scary fact,,, or better yet, let me just ask a question instead. When was the last time you ever went (IF ever) to a city council meeting?  I've been to a few.  Almost every meeting gives over 10 minutes of speech time to a representative of the police force, where they almost inevitably ask for 2 things - more officers, and more money to operate.

The most important recognizant fact I use to assess this, however, is occurrences of accountability.  This is better termed as an absolute lack of accountability.  There are, of course, very good reasons for no police accountability, and 2 of them are glaringly obvious.

1.  Police unions, and those representing those unions and their members in courts of "law."

2.  IA's, better defined as INTERNAL AUDITS, the ability of Police Departments to conduct their own investigations and oversee and punish THEMSELVES.  I'm still amazed that this has ever been allowed, not just for PD;'s, but for ANY Governmental function or department on any level.  How in the world can you expect accountability from an agency that doesn't have an unbiased panel of regular people (you know, CITIZENS, the ones paying their salaries!) overseeing what's happening??

NOTE:  Who are the snakiest snakes of the human race?  Lawyers...and they get the same privilege!  Only judges are allowed to oversee what they do.  Judges are what again?  FORMER LAWYERS.

Watch a few more of those audit videos (I recommend around 10 from different spots around the country for a less obvious bias.  Of course, the police in California are going to be way crazier than those in Vermont, or so the average person would think.) and a few things become disturbingly clear.  For one, few police actually know THE LAW.  Yes, they know what makes the city money...speeding tickets and burnt-out head, turn and tail lights are always a sure and accepted thing.  They're pretty good at harassing the homeless population, and either jailing them or moving them away from the view of the public, to ensure those that aren't homeless won't have to look at the problem and feel guilty about not helping them in any way.  But ask these "law enforcers" about what law they're arresting you or attempting to charge you with, and you get...well, you get one of 3 things:  A blank stare, an angry officer, or made-up law.  Worse than that, however, if you know the law and they don't?  You'll see a side of officers you may not want to.  One could almost swear they don't know the law at all.

POLICE OFFICERS DO NOT KNOW THE LAW 

They don't.  I'm sorry, but call me crazy...shouldn't a law enforcement enforcer KNOW THE LAW?  As a matter of fact, it almost seems as though most of them are making the law up as they go along.  They ARE.  And, thanks to the Supreme Court decision in both Frazier vs. Cupp and Oregon vs. Matthiason, the police are allowed...BY LAW, to LIE TO YOU, to accomplish whatever it is they are trying to accomplish...and that, of course, extends to those who actually don't know any law, therefore, they are ALLOWED by the same rulings to make it up as they go along, and get you arrested if they want that to happen.  And that's about all they need to happen.  Who cares if you actually did what you did or not, or the circumstances surrounding it, or the reasons.  They got what they needed...your arrest, or your ticket.  Let the courts and its officers sort out the rest.

The truly messed up addendum to only this fact is, that to get out of jail, or take care of this ticket, is almost 90% of the time going to involve you PAYING UP AND MAKING IT GO AWAY.  We just don't have the time anymore to go to court and fight it; added to losing pay while you do so.  And, should any rights be violated, or violence happen against you by officers, it's OK, because what they did will almost always be internally investigated and justified for the officer under THEIR circumstances and their own interpretation of their policies; and your officer will more than likely be held accountable through paid leave or NOTHING AT ALL.  Most certainly, they will keep their jobs and continue their rule of terror.  Good officers are just too hard to find....actually, that's an error.  What I should have said is good ORDER FOLLOWERS are so hard to find...because that is the quality that most police departments look for in their officers.  First, do they train well?  Second, do they follow orders unconditionally, or do they question why?  If you resemble the 2nd part of that sentence, they rule you out.  They aren't after those who independently think for themselves, or know anything about the law at all.  Some departments actually weed out officer candidates that are TOO SMART.  No joke.

A FINAL RELATION OF PROOF

Finally, I present to you my own facts.  I'll grant to you, most of this is pretty yawn-worthy, so if you're the kind that likes a good yarn and excitement in your day, I highly recommend another of my articles, relating my police experience with the Sioux Falls Police Department.  You'll be biting your nails and waiting for the next episode in no time:

https://themightyswordamericasdeadlysins.blogspot.com/2019/10/what-happened-living-man-goes-to-jail.html

And, of course, it wouldn't be nice of me to not give you the conclusion of that abuse of power:

https://themightyswordamericasdeadlysins.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-living-man-goes-free-sorry.html

Here are the events that have occurred to me and my family (which now only consists of my wife of 16 years and my doggie of now 10 years.) in the last 2 years, whilst in Huntsville, Alabama.  Sure, I've been arrested, prosecuted, and persecuted for around 10 years now, and select of you know why that is...but this is different.  These events have happened while life was more normal.  There's been no exigent or extenuating circumstances...except for COVID, which was winding down around the country for the most part by now.  Alabama?  Was just a little behind.  And of course, COVID Joe wasn't helping this at all, either, on the Federal level.

Anyway, my wife and I arrived in Alabama in the spring of 2021, on our way to the Florida Panhandle.  We had been on the road, traveling, for a while since COVID began, and it was time for a rest.  After a couple of days camping out in a Huntsville, AL state park, I decided to participate in some day labor for some extra traveling cash.

I was hardly unfamiliar with the Huntsville area.  I actually lived in Huntsville for over a year, back in the late 90's (when the town wasn't much more than a burgh).

3 years before this particular arrival, I had visited for over 3 weeks to refamiliarize myself with the area.  During that time, I worked for a local day labor spot.  It was here that I chose to get an assignment for the day.

I was barely over 60 years old at this time, so when they assigned me to an apartment complex to do demo work. I was a bit hesitant to accept it since I hadn't done any hard labor in a few eons.  But I was primarily in pretty good shape healthwise for my age, so I accepted it.  After 9 hours, I was pretty beat and began the drive back to the park.  Maybe 1/8 of a mile away from the campsite, however, my exhaustion caught up to me, and I fell asleep at the wheel for maybe 5 seconds.  I was only driving at a speed of 30 mph, but it was enough.  I woke up in front of a tree.  The tree survived.  Our only car, however, did not survive the crash.

So here we were, carless, with no way to transport our belongings out of the state park, and essentially without means of survival.  We managed to get our belongings out, thankfully, The United Way had set up a deal where you could get up to a total of 10 free cab rides for emergency purposes, and we took full advantage.  As for making money, being homeless and carless didn't present many opportunities, so I did what I didn't want to do at all...I made up a sign that stated only this:

HOMELESS VET, WIFE, AND DOG STRANDED IN HUNTSVILLE NEED HELP.

and proceeded to show this sign to oncoming traffic in a heavily trafficked area.  Now, I suppose you could consider this to be panhandling...but the facts were clearly stated, it wasn't untrue, and it didn't ask for money; nor was I beating anyone over the head to give me money, or obstructing any sort of traffic, whether vehicular or pedestrian...but an officer, who obviously had nothing better to do, witnessed me accepting money (which evidently, is when they can accost you and accuse you of panhandling) and "Pulled me over."  Upon exercising my right to remain silent and refusing to show him my I.D., he clearly stated (on his body cam footage, TWICE) that he wasn't going to arrest me until I refused to show him my I.D., which for those of you who don't know, is my right if I am not being arrested, and cannot be used IN AND OF ITSELF as a reason to arrest someone, in AL and many other states.  Oh, and there was no charge of "Panhandling".  I was thereby, arrested for "Loitering" instead.  "Loitering", as I always thought, was the crime of hanging around a certain spot with the intent of committing a crime.  Of course, I had no such intent.  I love the use of the word "intent" in the law.  How is it that someone...or anyone for that matter, can determine another person's intent to do anything?  That one has ALWAYS mystified me.

The story so far begs a rather good question.  If an officer witnesses someone giving me money, isn't the person giving it to me as guilty as I am?  Isn't it fair to state here that I would not be committing the crime of taking someone's money without asking for it, if there wasn't someone who thought I needed it giving it to me?  I think that if you're going to arrest people for receiving money from people, the people giving that money to them should be arrested for the same crime as well.  Somewhere along the line, someone must have deduced that the person taking the money is a bad person, a criminal...and the person giving it, a saint, evidently.

Since I had still not produced an ID, upon being booked in, I was facially ID'd using facial recognition...to me, it was yet another violation of my right to remain silent...but who am I?

Upon transfer to jail, a fat racoon-looking jailer told me to put on a mask.  I politely declined.  I was then thrown into solitary confinement, denied a phone call for 12 hours, denied both food and water for the same 12 hours, and when I got angry about it, I was then tasered and maced...and not just directly in the eyes, but in my private parts as well, by the same fat guard.

Needless to say, I was NOT a happy little camper.  All of this over a mask.

Monday morning came along, and I was told that if I plead guilty to the charge I would be instantly released.  Should I plead not guilty, I might see a judge sometime in the next 30 days (unless I bonded out, something I wasn't able to do, and even so, my wife and dog were out there someplace, wondering where in the Heck I was.)  As you might have guessed, I plead guilty.

Fast forward to a time when things were better (by this time, we had both gained employment and had a place), about a year later.  We had been depending on Huntsville's not-so-wonderful and badly in need of updating bus system and had grown quite weary of it.  We saved up our money and purchased a minivan for $1500.  The less-than-honest seller didn't inform us of the majority of what was actually wrong with the vehicle, and worse yet, had allowed us to use his plate until we got our own, with a plate that didn't actually go to the vehicle.

Around this time, we had decided to go to Pensacola Florida to "check it out" for possible permanency.  Remember, in Alabama anyway, we had a period of 20 days to plate and register the vehicle.  We drove 500 miles with the mismatched plate still on the vehicle.

After determining that this was HARDLY a smart move (to get a place in Pensacola, you needed to have a MINIMUM of $3000 in your hand.  They charged for first, current, AND next month in advance, and varying non-refundable deposits for pets, background checks, etc.)  we ran back to Huntsville with our tail btwn. our legs.  We decided to go plateless (what a dummy I AM) since we weren't exactly sure the plate deal was a good one.  We forged a bill of sale to make it seem like we had just bought the vehicle in FL and were driving it back to AL to get it registered.

Upon driving through a small town in the county of Baldwin, AL (Bay Minette), we were stopped by an officer for "Not having plates on our vehicle".  Now, if you ride with me when a police officer pulls me over, I do NOT just start handing over documents.  I do NOT roll down my window all the way on demand, and I do NOT answer an officer's stupid questions (where are coming from, where are you going, etc.).  More so, I very much exercise my "right to remain silent" until I am arrested for an articulated, arrestable crime.  Upon asking for my license, and finding out that I was being stopped for not having plates on the vehicle, I exercised that right and refused.  He then threatened to tear me out of the vehicle to get what he was after, and I asked for a supervisor.

Within 10 minutes, there were a minimum of 9 police cars behind me, an even mix of State, County, and city police officers.  Each of these made the trip to my vehicle, where I again vehemently exercised my right to remain silent.  One officer, a rather nice state trooper, weaseled my driver's license information out of me (Name, DOB, and address) so that he could verify that I was indeed legally licensed to drive in AL.  And that SHOULD have been enough, considering the bill of sale was within 20 days (a state law, by the by).  The last person to my window, after everyone else had left, was the original stop's officer, who proceeded to hand me 3 tickets.  They were:  No insurance (I had it, didn't show the doc), driving with no license (which they had verified I did, in fact, have, I just didn't SHOW it to them.  Again, this is not a primary offense or a violation, it is defined in our nation as a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT, the right to remain SILENT.  You cannot by law, rule or ordinance, criminalize the act of exercising a Constitutional right.), and driving through Bay Minette with an unregistered vehicle...an ordinance that, in fact, flew in the face of the state law stating I had 20 days to register it.  I could have beat all 3 tickets, had I just remained in Bay Minette for 30 days (with no job, etc.) or picked a time 30 days later to unnecessarily drive 500 miles BACK there, but needless to say, all of those tickets went to warrant.

We returned to Huntsville, where we both re-acquired our jobs and went about our lives.

We were driving along one day, and I looked up to notice an officer following me.  After a 1/2 mile or so, he began to turn off...then jerked back in and ran his lights.  He began by telling me that the plate did NOT match my vehicle, but this is not what he pulled me over for.  If you're not getting it, the man was bored out of his mind, and, equipped with a plate reader that INSTANTLY reads plates and brings up the record of it, and the person driving it.

He was following me, waiting for me to screw up somehow so he could justify pulling me over.  He discovered, before giving up, that one...OF TWO plate lights the vehicle was equipped with was out, and pulled me over for this HEINOUS violation.  He issued me a ticket for the tag light (but oddly, NOT for the plate mismatch) and let me go.  Now remember...I am NOT from Alabama, and had no idea what a "fix-it" ticket was, or how it worked.  What I THOUGHT he said was, that I had 30 days (he actually said THREE days) to fix/remedy this "violation", then bring it in with the ticket to have it witnessed, and then the ticket would be invalidated.  By the time I figured out it was 3 days and not 30, it was too late, my appearance date had passed, and 2 warrants had been issued for my arrest...one for the ticket itself, and one for the failure to appear.  Either way, this van was a lemon from Hell, and it died of compression failure 3 days after getting this ticket, so there would have been no way for me to get out of paying this ticket.  I refused to deal with the ticket, primarily because I didn't feel I should have to pay out $260 because some cop, bored out of his mind was out driving around with technology able to read plates in seconds was randomly running plates and looking for any reason to stop me because mine didn't jibe with my vehicle.

Now here's where things get sticky.

Keep in mind here, that the person driving the vehicle may...or may NOT be the person who owns the vehicle.  Here is how these officers are justifying this practice:  They are taking criminals off of the street.  Really?  What if the person driving is the owner of the vehicle's BROTHER, an upstanding citizen who just happened to be running up to the store to get his brother more beer for his Superbowl party and borrowed the car to do so?  "Aha...but it would all be OK, once the driver explains and identifies himself to the officer, so it's cool."  Uh, no...it's NOT.  He wouldn't need to identify himself at all, if this bored officer hadn't had so little to do that he was out driving around randomly running plates, essentially, LOOKING FOR CRIME/CRIMINALS.  This is what the city attorney here in Madison AL is expressing his approval of, and he sincerely believes that the citizens of this city (including the 10-20 nightly recipients of tickets received due to this insanely un-Constitutional practice) are behind him and his officers all the way...and what a segueway this is into the next part of the story.  For it is in Madison that this whole thing finally came to a head.

Just so you, the reader, are aware, I lost my license to drive.  Not because of my driving.  Not because of any vehicular offense.  But because I didn't pay for violating some ordinance someplace in Alabama.  You may not as yet be aware, but the State....and this is EVERY state now, has become the official collection agency for every town, burgh and city IN your state.  In other words, the Government is tired of you not paying your due to them for every little law they manage to squeak by you, often without your consent, without your input and more than likely, without your approval.  Thereby, should the ticket happy cops in YOUR podunk town issue you a ticket, and you disagree with it, or don't pay it?  Your license is instantly auto-suspended by the state until you do.  Let that sink in.  Roll that around on your tongue for a while, I guarantee you're not going to get along with the taste of it.

Unfortunately, in my case, this tactic did, in fact, work.  This isn't the point people.  Think about it...in what world should the state get involved with matters of any one town?  Isn't that what the City Attorney's job is?  Legal collections and the like?  Since when did any of us consent to the state punishing us, and collecting the money we didn't fork over to the Podunk, AL Municipal Court because their officer wrote me a ticket for jaywalking; all because he couldn't figure out any other way to make money for the force/the mayor?

This, by the way, was the very FIRST time my license has EVER been suspended....in all 48 years of my being able to drive.  Something, I might also mention, I should never have needed the state's permission or license to do.

FUN FACT:  Did you know that, in the beginning, the only people who have ever been required, by law, to have a Driver's License were those crossing state lines to make money (a commercially regulated activity) and those working for the Government in anything to do with transportation?  Just like marriage licenses, this was a boom of an idea (applying this practice out to the general public as well) to make money to keep those people working for the Government in their jobs.  More than any other Government idea, the Department of "Transport" brings in more revenue than any other office by far.  It puts food on the table for the State employees, County employees, and City employees.  And if you cross state lines?  It puts plenty of food on those employed by our Federal Government as well.  Where did this happen?  How is it that sane people ever allowed such a law to pass?  Fun Fact Part B:  Those are STILL the only people in this country required to have a driver's license by law.  Read up on a little bit of law I call the UCC...The Uniform Commercial Code.

In my opinion, the same thought should be readily applied to licenses for marriage.  Since when do I need the state's go-ahead to marry the woman I love?  The answer, boys and girls, is that I don't.  It's called a REVENUE STREAM.

FUN FACT:  Did you know that there wasn't a license to marry until after the civil war.  Would you care to know how this practice started?  Because back in them thar days, they didn't want recently freed black men and women marrying white people.  So they figured they'd put it out there that you needed a license to marry just so they'd know and could shame the Hell out of the white person signing up for this; or worse still, so they could somehow punish the offensive black person marrying the white person, and keep tabs on him.  Once it became the norm for that, they just applied this practice to everyone, since it was bringing in the bucks.

Have you ever wondered how it is that so much money flows to the city to do the most outlandish things...build that parking ramp (for 7 million dollars), Open the local dog park (for 3 million).  Build new bathrooms for City Hall (for several thousand dollars).  You need only look to the Department of Transportation.  The average person's driver's license fees for the states ALONE should be the dead giveaway.  The fees for this average out at around $33 per state, per driver.  There are approximately 233 million licensed drivers in the U.S.  That comes out to...(carry the one, 2 zeroes on the next line, account for suspended drivers, carry a two) approximately 7.689 BILLION dollars...just in license fees!  Remember, that's also every 2-6 years.  I guarantee you, the funds coming in from those now $200 - $300 a ticket tickets issued each of those 233 million drivers over the period of their lives - from the State Trooper to the County Sheriff to your local force?  Is a surplus I would not venture a guess for, as to a viable amount.  Mix in the State as the collector supreme for those tickets?  What more could Governments everywhere want?  "Gimme the blueprint, Yankee boy!!"

If that's not enough for ya, you have to factor in:  Commercial licenses and all the classes needed to get those, SR-22 Insurance, Driver's courses (all those teaching people to drive must be approved...and LICENSED to do so by the state), "Re-instatement"  fees for when you get your license returned to you at the whim of the state (Isn't it great?  They can yank that license away from you for a host of varying reasons now, and then they conveniently charge you to get the privelege returned, somewhere around $300.)  Testing fees (to get your license in the first place, and when it's deemed by the state for you to test again), Registrations, tags and titles for your newly purchased vehicles...need I go on?  And this is all for building and maintaining the roads you travel on....or is that the Gas tax?  I can never keep that straight...

I'm sorry....shiny object.  Back to the story.  So I'm driving my wife home from work, again with a mismatched tag on my newly purchased car...Stay with me, here's why.  I was buying a car off of a Used Car Lot, when it came to their (and their insurance company's) attention that I was no longer in possession of a valid license to operate a vehicle in the State of Alabama.  The car had to be returned to the lot because the insurance company was not able to insure a non-licensed driver (understandable, I suppose).  I lost the downpayment and all the money I put into said vehicle, by the by.  I had the plate for that car on the car I purchased after it.  You may think this was wrong...but hear me out.

In Alabama, you cannot title or register a car until you have insurance on it.  The insurance can't happen unless you are legitimately licensed to drive...and I was suspended.  How am I going to survive unless I have transportation to work?  So now you know...

Anyway, I'm just about to pull into my place, and the lights come on...it's the Madison police, pulling me over.  Did I do something wrong?  No.  My plate didn't match the car.  ONCE AGAIN, bored, obviously not-needed officers are roaming the streets, looking for crimes/criminals (revenue), and I am that practice's lucky recipient.  Upon further investigation, I find that this happens a lot, after dark, primarily on the road I travel most in this town.  One night, I looked over the horizon to see not one, not 3, but 4 locations up and down the boulevard of people who had been victims of this practice ALSO.  It should be mentioned, that by this time, I had turned myself in for the "Fix-it ticket" in Huntsville...I am in the middle of paying over $571 in fines.  It was then (now) that I received 2 NEW tickets, for driving while suspended, and without insurance, something I really couldn't help but not have (see earlier explanation in the paragraph prior.) It was then (now), also, that I received news of something called a "hardship licence."  Now.  AFTER being suspended for over a year.  Why, when they were suspending my license, did they not offer this alternative then?  I think we know the answer here.  What would the non-relevant police do if they couldn't just run plates at random?  How could their bored officers remain relevant (as well as employed) if they couldn't legally do this and get away with it?

Which begs yet another question:  How much have the police gotten away with, because Americans haven't spoken out against them?

The answer to this rhetorical question?  A lot more lately than ever before.  Not just because of qualified immunity, which a good portion of us are privy to, but because of many court rulings of late.  I highly recommend this article to find out just what most police are immune to.  It's surprising what they've been allowed to do by such rulings.  Please, read it until the end, because the most shocking part of all sits right at the bottom.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-empowered-lie-about-investigations-after-federal-appeals-court-ruling-2022-07-20/

I remember when the seatbelt law was first enforced, on January 1st of some year I can't exactly remember.  I was one of the first to ever get one in the whole country.  Would you like to know what I paid for that ticket?  $25 whole dollars.  What's the average price for a seatbelt ticket today?  Btwn. 200-300 dollars, my friends.  This, I hate to tellya, is not because of "Inflation"....I LOVE that answer.  No, the reason seatbelt tickets are this much more ridiculous is because instead of going to court and opening your mouth and not saying NO when you're doing so is why.  It's because, when you get one, you assume that you have "broken the law"....and you open your wallet, and you PAY IT.  This then becomes a nod to those you have put over you in Governance to give it to you some more...and more...and more, because they know that you will, of course, open up your wallet and PAY IT...and you won't be complaining either, because if you do?  A.  We may tow your car.  B.  We may arrest you.  C.  We may put all that on your driving record and get your "privilege" to drive SUSPENDED, or revoked altogether..

 To finish this off, in my travels in this city of, oh, 215,000 or so, every traffic stop I see after dark?  There are anywhere from 2-4 EXTRA police cars piled up behind the cop who initiated the stop.  Does that tell you anything?  It tells me quite a bit.  That tells me that there are way too many officers on the streets in any one place ALREADY, and that we're giving them TOO MANY officers, and entirely too much money to operate.