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.

If You Were King

What would you do if you were made king and given the power to do whatever you wanted? Would you use your power to help others, to feed the homeless, to cure the sick?

What's up with Presidential Hero Worship?

American's love their presidents, especially Abe Lincoln and George Washington, but are these men really worthy of honor and respect?

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."

-Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858

"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof, including that a person's held to labor or service by laws of said State."

-Abraham Lincoln-March of 1861

Is it right for a large group of people to use government to rule a smaller group of people?

This is a pretty simple diagram that shows us a pretty important idea. I'd just like to re-state what each of the boxes says to be sure you understand the idea of the diagram.

The first box has an idea that will seem naturally logical to us, that if John told you that you had to obey him or he would violate you, that would be wrong. By violate, the author means to steal from, kidnap, cage, or murder you. So to put it in other words, it would be wrong for John to make you pay a fine, lock you in handcuffs, put you in jail, or kill you if you didn't obey him. None of your friends, family, or neighbors have the right to do any of this to you.

The second box has another idea that will naturally seem logical to us. Nothing changes about what was said in the first box, even if John can get 2 or 3 or even 10 friends to join him in trying to make you obey him. As a group, they still don't have the right to violate your rights to force you to obey them.

These first two boxes make sense to most people. But the ideas in the third box seem un-natural to most people. Government schools teach you that when people get together and have a vote, that somehow(they never explain how) the winners of the vote get to use the power of the government to force the losers of the vote to obey the winners. The winners of the vote are given control of the police, jails, and courts to force anyone who doesn't agree to follow their rules to pay fines, go to court, be locked in a cage in jail, or even be shot and killed by the police.

What I hope you have been learning from my podcasts and blogging and our discussions is that John cannot give any power to the government that he doesn't have himself. So if there is any action it would be wrong for John to do, the same action is wrong for the government to do. Let me finish with an example: It would be wrong for John to force you to pay him for a piece of paper that allows you to get married. Since that action is wrong for John, it is also wrong for the government to require us to buy a license from them before getting married.

How Government is Like the Mafia

The Mafia uses a scheme called a "protection racket" to force people to pay them money. Government uses a scheme called "taxation" to force people to pay them money. Learn how "taxation" is a type of protection racket, and how the government is similar in many ways to the Mafia.

Government Denies 11 year old Chloe Stirling her Dream

Chloe Stirling is an 11 year old cupcake baker who had her business shut down by the government. Hear about her story and why it happened.

Original story from the local paper
Follow-up story after her business was shut down