Good on this boy's parents for teaching him his rights, and good on both these boys for having the courage to resist the bullying tactics of this policeman and record their interaction with this police employee. I like how there is a silent stand off at about the 2 minute mark when the police officer doesn't know how to respond, and this young hero is just waiting for the cop to make his next move. The cop's best comeback is, "Why are you nervous?" Cops like to act that just because someone gets nervous that it must be because they have committed a crime. But it's only natural for most people to get a pump of adrenaline when they are confronted by a person with a gun who acts like they have authority over them and regularly uses violence against peaceful people. I actually think the young man was remarkable composed, thoughtful, and well spoken.
The boy is correct that he doesn't have to provide any identification. The cop just made up a reason to pull him over that wasn't even legitimate. He said the cars registration was expired. The registration has to be renewed yearly on cars in Texas, and when you register you get a sticker on your windshield that shows the date. Since it is night time and the sticker is small, I'm sure the officer is lying about seeing it was expired and just made that up as a reason to stop someone he was looking to harass.
The State doesn't write laws in a way that is always easy to understand or fun to read, but this is what Texas law says about being required to provide ID to cops:
The Texas Failure to Identify law is fairly simple. Why don’t police get it? It states:
(b) A person commits an offense if he intentionally gives a false or fictitious name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has:
(1) lawfully arrested the person;
(2) lawfully detained the person; or
(3) requested the information from a person that the peace officer has good cause to believe is a witness to a criminal offense.
The teen was not legally detained, nor arrested, therefore, according to state law he did not have to produce ID.
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