Wirecutter over at Knukledraggin my Life Away points out a story of a tiny Alabama town that has discovered that it can use cops as a money making machine and has become the worst speed trap in the entire nation. The town has less than 1300 residents, but has at least sixteen full time cops and a number of part time cops. (The police chief, claiming “security” won’t tell how many cops he has) Those cops make over 1,000 arrests, write over 3,000 traffic citations, and have their own SWAT team, complete with an armored vehicle that they call a “riot control vehicle.” (How big of a riot can that small of a town have?)
Read the article that the post is based on, and think about this quote:
Chief Jones testified under oath that just one of the 10 Brookside vehicles is painted with police striping, but nine others bear no emblems, and seven are tinted all the way around, making it impossible to see inside. Jones testified his officers wear gray uniforms with no Brookside insignias.
These dumbasses think that they are badasses because they carry the authority of a badge that they don’t even wear. Thinking that they are some kid of secret agents, they act more like a street gang that is shaking down the citizens for protection money. They refer to themselves as “agents” and do not provide their identification, even on arrest affidavits:
The names of the officers were not listed on the tickets in secretive Brookside. Instead, the arresting officer was listed as “Agent JS,” while the assisting officer was “Agent AR.”
Arrests in Alabama come from all sorts of things that you wouldn’t think are a crime. For example: It is considered road rage in Alabama to drive in the left lane for more than a mile and a half. One of my favorite legal Youtube channels is Lehto’s Law. Take a look:
The entire thing is a scam. The traffic court judge is a local lawyer who was hired as the municipal traffic court judge to hold court one day a month. When audited, the town had no written budget. Wanna take odds on some skimming off the top by the police chief, Mayor, and judge?
These idiots are so predictable, it begs for an ambush. The kinder version would have a person with hidden cameras break a traffic law in full view of Roscoe Coaltrain, and when he pulls you over it seems like it would be easy to get some civil rights violations on film. Then they can be taken down by some good attorneys.
The more aggressive ambush would be to goad them into a traffic stop, coming to a halt in a kill zone, then having an ambush team light up one of these would be secret agents. Since they are in unmarked vehicles and wearing clothes with no insignia, one could argue that they look more like a criminal gang conducting an ambush than they do a legitimate police force.
5 Comments
It's just Boris · January 24, 2022 at 3:39 pm
It reads like a backstory brief for “The Dukes of Hazzard” right up to the point of unmarked cars, identification- and insignia-free uniforms, and nothing but abbreviations for the arresting “agent’s” name. That’s where it’s turns from “ha-ha stereotypical Southern town” to “creepy echoes out of history.”
I thought one had a right to know and face one’s accusers?
Anyway, my usual defense against speeding tickets and such is to not speed, as a general rule, and keep my vehicles in decent shape (e.g. all lights working). I suspect those tactics would be insufficient, however; spotting an out-of-town plate sounds like all it would take. (Also from DoH, but as part of a mocking song, not meant an instructional music video.)
ChuckInBama · January 24, 2022 at 4:19 pm
” For example: It is considered road rage in Alabama to drive in the left lane for more than a mile and a half. ” That is actually an anti road rage law; designed to punish morons that travel 40 mph in the left lane on the highway. I’ve yet to see it enforced in my AO.
Divemedic · January 24, 2022 at 4:29 pm
Preventing road rage may be what the law was intended for, but that is not how these cops are enforcing it. They are using that law as a weapon to arrest.
“A Brookside officer ticketed Brumlow under Alabama code section 32-5-77, which her lawyers contend does not contain a crime. But it’s a common charge in Brookside.
She argued that she only drove in the left lane to pass other vehicles, and her ticket – on May 26, 2019 – came five months before Alabama’s Anti-Road Rage Act, a law making it illegal to drive in the left lane of an interstate for more than a mile and a half, went into effect.”
ChuckInBama · January 24, 2022 at 8:07 pm
Not trying to justify anything those retards are doing there, as a resident of Alabama, idiots like these give us a bad name. What they were probably “strictly enforcing” were those signs traffic signs that stated “Slower traffic keep right”. It’s a sign just like a speed limit sign, and that may have been what they used to justify their rash of lawfare.
Hopefully, MeMaw Ivey will step in and do a bit of regulating and ticketing herself, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Rednecks are gonna redneck.
Bert · January 25, 2022 at 9:07 am
Nothing a good midnight blanket party for all those involved wouldn’t cure after the line of all those aggrieved have had their turn at swingin the soap. Those who abuse the color of law are of the same stripe as those who abuse children and the elderly in my opinion and should be mistreated by society as a whole. And I don’t give a fuck what your job title is.
Comments are closed.