The greatest crime against the State is disobedience.

Garner State Park is one of the more popular outdoor areas in Texas. The Frio River, with clear, cool water, and a limestone riverbed, runs though the length of the park. The river offers family friendly tubing, and a short dam near where the river exits the park offers a large area for swimming with calm water about 3-4 feet deep. There is a wildly popular nightly country dance that is attended by scores of families in an open pavilion beneath old oak trees. The park is popular among hikers, with several miles of challenging hike up craggy hills.

It was after completing a two hour hike around one of these hills that my family experienced the most unforgettable part of our trip. As we drove from the parking area back to our campsite, I inadvertently drove the wrong way down a one way street. The parking lot we used was about half way down this street, and when I left the lot, I had forgotten that it was a one way road.

Now I'm typically a safe person. I work in an industry where accidents can cause major injuries or even be fatal, and can cause damage to equipment than can cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. We are constantly being trained and retrained about working and living safely. All this safety training has overlapped into my home life and driving habits. 

I also tend to follow most traffic regulations for several other reasons. I have no desire to finance the government any more than I already do involuntarily through taxes, permit fees, and licensing requirements, by giving them a reason to issue me a traffic citation.  Because I film police performing traffic stops and arrests in my area, and because I often hold a sign warning drivers of police manning a speed trap near my home, I'm aware that the police know my face and vehicle and I assume that they watch me more closely to find me breaking one of their traffic rules. 

I haven't been pulled over in probably 10 years. So I was at first surprised when the police truck headed towards me flashed his lights at me, swerved in front of me, and motioned for me to roll down my window. But then it flashed through my head that I was in a one way street, headed the wrong way, and he probably just wanted to give me a heads up. This is pretty much what he did, except he added instructions for me to turn around and head the correct way. This surprised me because I was about 40 feet away from the two way road, and there was no other traffic. So I was technically breaking a rule designed for safety, but I wasn't actually being unsafe. If I were, I would have understood the instructions to turn around and I would have complied.

Now I understand the reason this road is designated for one way traffic.  It is about 3/4 as wide as a normal two lane road with, has no shoulder, and there are campsites packed along this road where families with young children camp.  It can be a busy place since it is in the most popular area of the park.  It might have made sense for me to turn around, even though I was so close to the beginning of two way traffic, if the area had been busy at the time.  But it was a Tuesday morning with no traffic and many empty camping sites.  And the first opportunity that I had to make a u-turn was actually about 15 feet from from the multilane road.  So as an adult who can determine what is safe and what is not and who can reason out what is sensible, I decided to ignore his instruction to turn around, drove the remaining distance to the terminus of one way traffic, and immediately pulled into the camp store parking lot to buy some ice.

I was in the store for several minutes, plenty of time for the cop to approach me and scold me if he choose to.  But he choose instead to follow me for a mile after leaving the store before pulling me over.  I suspect that he wished to avoid having a crowd of people see him reprimanding or citing a park guest.  Instead, he waited until I left the parking lot, then trailed about 10-15 feet behind me up and down steep roads until we reached a secluded spot before signaling with his lights for me to pull over.

Ostensibly,  the entire reason for this stop was because I created an unsafe condition by driving opposite the flow of traffic on an empty road.  But consider this:  the police officer swerved his truck into my path to originally get my attention, tailgated me as we drove steep roads with blind curves, and parked his truck in the flow of traffic as I pulled off the side of the road.  So this servant of public safety responded to my apparent breach of safe driving by putting me and other park guest in jeopardy three times.

Luckily, I have prepared my family for police encounters.  I have talked with my wife and daughters countless times about what their rights are when interacting with the State's law enforcement agents are, how to safely interact with them while exercising their rights,  and to always film any interactions they or their friends have with police.  So all it took was a simple reminder and we had 4 iPhones recording as the officer interacted with me.  The video tells the rest of the story. (Unfortunately none of the video was of the quality I would like, so I have posted the significant portion to Youtube.  Our family has reviewed the video and using this as a learning experience.)

I'll take the officer at his word that he usually writes a ticket.  But I don't believe his explanation as to why he didn't in this case.  He claims it's because I'm with my family.  But so are about 85% of the guests of the park.  So if he let people off when they are with their family, my guess is that he would almost never write tickets.

So why didn't he write a citation this time?  I suspect, but obviously can't prove, that it is because he saw 4 cameras recording him, and he choose not to take the chance of becoming a Youtube star for being a jerk at a park that is trying to attract families to visit.  This is not the outcome I expected.  When I chose not to roll my window down fully, control my voice so that I didn't sound like the sycophant I am sure he is normally used to dealing with, and to film him, I fully expected that I would be receiving a citation if for no other reason than to teach me some respect for law enforcement officers.  But, I was willing to pay the $150 for the opportunity to show that it is not only poor, young black people who are fed up with their gestapo tactics and violence, but also middle class, middle aged, white men too.

"Ordinarily I'd write you a ticket for not doing what I instructed you to do."  This statement by the officer is the most interesting of the entire experience.  He was considering issuing me a ticket not because I was unsafe or had harmed anyone or damaged any property, but because I had disobeyed him.  It is telling that an officer of the State views disobedience as a more dangerous crime than endangering public safety.

League City is getting a military vehicle

The League City Police Department is getting a tank-like vehicle from the military called an MRAP. MRAP stands for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected. The vehicle doesn't have weapons, but it can have a gun mounted on its top. Letting police department have military vehicles is a bad idea. I wrote a letter to the city council and mayor listing some of the reasons it's a bad idea. Here is the letter:

"It is my understanding that the city is accepting a military MRAP vehicle for use by the League City Police Department. I want to express my feelings that this is a bad idea and explain why. It is my hope that the City will work to get rid of the vehicle in the same way as the Davis, CA has recently done.

1. America has a history of resistance to becoming a police state. In that effort, the government passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which in its spirit is to keep the military from policing American citizens. Ever more frequently though, the federal goverment is finding ways around this Act. One of which is to arm, train, and equip existing local police departments with military weapons, clothing, training, and vehicles. The federal government's 1033 program that gives surplus military equimpent to police agencies has been making police forces look more and more like military units for years. It is unfortunate that a conservative community like League City has fallen victim to the lure of "free toys" and joined the rush to have it's police force become more militarized.

2. The police claim they need such vehicles as the MRAP for their safety. But the truth is that the job of police officer doesn't even make the list of top 10 most dangerous jobs in America. Roofers and garbage collectors rank higher on the list of dangerous jobs than police officers. In fact, it is more safe now to work as a police officer than it has been in decades.

3. Vehicles like this, instead of actually being used for police work where officers respond to emergencies, are often used as crowd control at peaceful demonstrations. Having a military vehicle show up at a peaceful rally or demonstration can have quite a chilling effect on free speech, something the government should be protecting, not discouraging.

4. Giving the police military vehicles, clothing, weapons, training, etc can only lead to police officers forgetting that they work to serve the people. Police officers are often recruited after military service, where they learn to follow orders without question and see the people around them as enemies and a potential threat. I don't want police officers to act on orders without thinking. If they are given an order to confiscate guns house to house, or to fire upon peaceful protestors, I want police who can think for themselves and realize which orders are good and which are bad. I don't want my local police department seeing my family as a potential threat, but to see them as citizens to be protected. Giving our police military toys only reinforces the military training they may have received, and the military attitude they probably experienced in the boot-camp-like police training they received. Give them something like an MRAP, and eventually they are going to find an excuse to use it.

Like anyone else, I want the police to go home safely to their families when their shift is over. But I don't believe their having an MRAP is necessary to make that happen, and in fact carries too much negative baggage. I hope that League City will return the MRAP and look at other ways to scale back the militirization of its police force before we see police activities like were recently seen in Ferguson, MO."

Is a cop stepping in front of speeding cars more dangerous than drivers that speed?

While out running today, I witnessed police employee Gonzales step in front of two lanes of cars that were moving about 50 mph.  He was working at a speed trap, and was signaling for one of the cars to stop so he could give them a ticket.

Driving faster than the speed limit may or may not be dangerous.  In a case like this, with most cars going at the same speed, dry roads, and sunny skies, I don't think it was dangerous at all for a driver to choose to go 5-15 mph faster than the speed limit.  But what is definitely dangerous is someone stepping in front of these moving cars to signal them to pull over to the shoulder.

Mr. Gonzales didn't just take a step into the road, but walked through a full lane of traffic, about 10 feet into the road.  Two vehicles had to quickly slow down to about 10 mph to avoid running him over.  This could be a danger to other drivers behind these first two cars who wouldn't be expecting anyone to slow down that much and who would not be able to see Mr. Gonzales standing in the road. I would also be a danger to the two drivers in front, who may have briefly glanced away from the road due to a some reason like adjusting their radio volume or responding to a young child in the back seat.  Looking back to the road to see Mr. Gonzales standing in front of them might cause them to use dangerous evasive maneuvers and drive into the oncoming lane of traffic or to swerve into each other.

Mr. Gonzales saw me filming him from across the street and yelled to me that he would do an interview with me after he finished with the driver he had just pulled over.  I checked with him to be sure it was okay for me to cross the road to him and hoped that he wasn't tricking me into giving me a  jaywalking ticket.

I'm getting better at my one-on-one interviews with police like this, but I still made several mistakes throughout this video.  Several times I raised my voice to talk over him instead of just allowing him to speak, then taking my turn.  I was too excited about making my point to him, and I wish I would have been a better listener.  Also, I was shaking pretty bad, but I always do in these situations, and I don't expect that to get any better with more experience.  My adrenaline always gets going, even though I didn't feel any fear while talking to him.  Can you see any other mistakes I made or any ways I could have been better?  It's important, in all the things we do, that we are always evaluating ourselves and looking for ways to improve.

At the end of the video Mr. Gonzales remembers me warning drivers of a speed trap.  As a reminder, here is the blog about that incident. Cop Blocking and Police Intimidation

Teenage Kid Knows Texas Law Better Than Cop

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: 

(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally refuses to give his name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has lawfully arrested the person and requested the information.
(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.

League City police being naughty

While I was out running last week, I was able to catch a few naughty police employees on camera.

This photo is from a nearby park.  Police often sit like this in their cars so they can chat with each other without getting out in the heat.  These men are employed to protect our lives and property, and could use their time patrolling neighborhoods to find criminals, or to scare criminals away before they can commit crimes like theft from homes and vehicles.  Instead, they are using their time to sit in this parking lot where nothing good is accomplished.  If the police were accountable to their employer like a normal employee is, this behavior would not be tolerated.  But police work for the government, and government employees are rarely held accountable for their mistakes or doing their job poorly, especially the police.  Police are often treated as heroes for doing their job, and every excuse is made to forgive their bad behavior.

Next, I came upon two young men who were being threatened by another police employee.  I heard the policeman raising his voice and threatening one of the young men, so I stopped to take video.



The cop was giving the young man a ticket for driving 35 mph in a school zone with a 20 mph speed limit.  The police would say this is for this is for the safety of the children, but there were no children walking home from school at that time.  But the police never pass up an opportunity to issue such an expensive ticket to drivers.  The young man was calmly trying to talk to the cop about the speeding ticket, which angered the policeman.  The police don't like people to challenge the authority they believe they have over us, and expect people to cower before their presence.  Any time someone does something that challenges the authority of the police, no matter how insignificantly, the police can become abusive and dangerous.  I hope that my presence there filming the interaction was enough to calm the policeman down.  It was at about that time that you can see him waving at me in the video, so I know that he was aware of me shortly after becoming hostile. 

In the end, the policeman wrote the young man a ticket for speeding, and declined to write him far less expensive tickets for not having a license to drive a motorcycle and not having a helmet.  Sometimes police do this to try and appear like they are nice guys, but it may also have been because he was being filmed and was embarrassed at having yelled at the young man.  But the officer would not let the young men ride the moped home.  He expected them to walk about 5 miles in the heat to get to their home.

Luckily, I was finishing my run and only about 1/2 mile from home, so I was able to run and get my truck and take them and their moped to their house.  It is important for us to help each other when the police are harrassing our friends, neighbors, family, and even strangers, first by filming the interactions, but in any other way we can also.

11 Year Old vs Police Sargent

This is a brave 11 year old who knows how to exercise his rights! He handles his interaction with this police officer as well as any adult could. If you choose to participate in filming police, just remember that it can be a dangerous activity. Police probably won't like what you are doing. They don't like when the public holds them accountable while doing their job. They can make up charges like "obstructing justice" or "interfering with a police officer" or "disorderly conduct" to arrest you. Don't assume that because you are a young person that they won't abuse and arrest you. The officer in this video has no problem threatening this brave boy. Police are not like the rest of us. They are all at least slightly sick in the head and don't have the same sense of compassion the rest of us have. Their job requires them to use violence on peaceful people every day, so you can't expect them to act rationally just because you are a child.
For more information about your rights dealing with police, check out these short podcasts:

Cop blocking and police intimidation
You have the right to film the police
How to deal with police

Cop blocking for some young fishermen.

Driving home from work yesterday I noticed some young boys walking on the sidewalk near our home with some fishing poles and a tackle box.  Then I saw a police officer pulling up behind them as they turned a corner.  I followed him around the corner because it looked like he was going to pull over and interview the boys.  As I rounded the corner, I saw that the cop was already out of his car and talking to the boys.  I pulled up and parked my truck in a safe spot where the cop couldn't hassle me for impeding traffic or parking illegally.  I got out of my truck and began recording with my iPhone as I walked over to where the cop was interrogating the children.  I was concerned about why he was stopping them, and concerned that he would try to violate their rights.  Police assume that kids don't know what there rights are, and can easily intimidate most kids into following illegal and unconstitutional commands.  Before I could get as close as I wanted, the officer let the boys go.  The interaction was short, so I'd like to think that he saw me filming and was embarrassed to be caught hassling these boys, and let them go rather than find himself on youtube doing something he knew was wrong.

The police officer with his dangerous "perps" all lined up. 

I asked the boys why he stopped them, and they told me that the cop was telling them that they couldn't fish where they had been fishing because it was too dangerous.  The place where they were fishing is a popular place for children in our neighborhood.  It is just a drainage ditch that collects water from several neighborhoods before it drains to Clear Creek.  There is usually a few feet of water trapped in the ditch, and local boys catch perch and catfish there.

The footing around the ditch can be dangerous.  It's a pretty steep climb down to the ledge, and fairly long fall if someone falls in.  But whether it's too dangerous to fish is up to the boys and their parents, not a police officer.

While I agree that it can be a dangerous place to fish, the police officer was lying when he told them they couldn't fish there.  Remember that not only is it legal for police to lie to you, but they are also trained to lie.  The ditch is public property, and there is no city ordinance that prohibits fishing there.  The police officer's intentions may have been good.  He may have actually been concerned about the boys safety.  But there is no need to lie to anyone about it.  Isn't it strange that instead of the cop just expressing his concern for their safety and maybe telling the boys that he didn't think it was a good idea for them to fish at the ditch, that he instead chose to lie?  It's a good reminder to us that police are not our friends, are not upright people, and are not to be trusted.

The good news is that I was able to talk to the boys about how to handle interactions with police, and share with them some of their rights.  One boy in particular was very surprised to find out that he didn't have to answer any questions the police ask.

As a refresher for you, remember that you shouldn't give permission for the police to search you or look at anything you are carrying.  Simply tell them, "Sir, I don't consent (or give permission) for any searches.  You don't have to answer any questions.  And pull out your cell phone, flip it sideways, and record everything that happens.

Check out these short podcasts for more advice on how to handle interactions with the police.
Cop blocking and police intimidation
You have the right to film police
How to deal with police

Simon Glik takes on the Boston Police...And Wins!

Find out why an incident between Simon Glik and the Boston Police is important to anyone wanting to hold the police accountable for their violent actions.

How to Deal With Police