It is common to get advice like “never look a polar bear in the eye.” The same appears to be true with Dayton police officers. Driver John Felton has posted a video of a pull over by a police officer who told him that he was pulled over because he “made direct eye contact” with him while driving by.
The officer remains polite in the video tape below but he admits near the end that he followed the driver (who is clearly upset) “Because you made direct eye contact with me and held onto it when I was passing you.”
The officer handed John Felton a warning for a traffic signal violation. Felton had to sit on the roadside after being following by the officer for some time.
The city arranged for Felton to have a conversation with the officer, facilitated by the Dayton Mediation Center. Felton, who has retained a lawyer, says that he was stopped because of his Michigan plates even though he grew up in the area.
The traffic violation of not signaling more than 100 feet before making a turn is something that most drivers have done repeatedly.
When Felton objected to the concept of suspicious eye contact, the officer said “I am not going to argue about it anymore with you, sir. I’ll just scan your license and give you a citation for the violation, and you could take it to court.”
Here is the video:
Source: CNN
We have a good friend who is a retired CHP from the LA area. The eye contact, among other things, can be a suspicious trigger to cause the officer to pull you over. Other things might be the type of car, the license plate being out of the area and not usual for that area, obviously your driving patterns. According to him, if you are either aggressively staring or frantically trying to avoid eye contact either can be a reason to suspect that the driver is engaged in doing something wrong. Drinking, drugs, outstanding warrants, bound woman in the trunk (just kidding sort of).
Most of the time those stops were a big nothing and he let the person go on their way without any citations. Of course, his retirement was before the police and CHP became more than just law officers and were giving quotas for revenue generation.
The biggest drug transporters and most successful are an older couple in a modest motor home traveling on a major highway……mainly because they are fairly innocuous. Ma and Pa Fricket on a camping trip with a motor home full of drugs and really no probable cause to pull them over.
Nick
Have the decency to make your argument rather than casting stones against those who disagree with your view.
What’s your case?
What do you make of the countless videos showing a man shot WHILE he was actually surrendering? Or at least showing that whatever the cop claimed justified the shooting was lie?
Are you saying that David Simon was there everytime? Or he dis his own investigation that revealed the cops were justified?
The driver failed Chris Rock University.
David Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He is a liberal, and creator of the great HBO Series The Wire and the not so great, Show Me a Hero. He covered many police shootings and he says in virtually every one he covered, there was someone saying, “The cop shot him like a dog, he was surrendering.” And, further investigation almost always revealed that not to be the case. You know, like in Ferguson.
alan tiger, Then can I put you down in the “He had it coming” category?
texas? did somebody say something about texas cops?
here’s just one more example of the fine police work done in bexar county, texas (san antonio), where two cops shot a man who was standing still with his hands in the air.
http://www.ksat.com/news/ksatcom-exclusive-unedited-video-of-fatal-deputy-involved-shooting
This exemplifes the slippery slope the Supreme Court engaged upon when it held that pretext stops were not unconstitutional. Now, many police officers seem to believe that they have the blessing of SCOTUS to harass whoever they want for whatever they want because they can articulate some real or imagined traffic violation.
DWB
In light of Whren v. U.S I don’t know how successful Mr. Felton will be if he pursues a legal action, unless there are common law restrictions upon pretext stops in Ohio that I am not aware.
Yet, this is another example of small petty stuff that mushrooms out of control.
Analysis: The video doesn’t capture to much. But the audio does.
The driver’s rant starts up with combative cursing and swearing. Then towards the end, the driver rant continues, stating that he’s going to escalate and “get out of his car”.
Then driver back talks and argues some more. That’s the problem.
The cop haters here are assembling. Daron Goforth is the Houston cop’s name. Maybe you can deride him by name. Some suggested phrases, “What goes around comes around.” Or, more directly, “Good, it’s payback time.” Own your hate.
Yep, as usual, blame the victim! In light of the countless dead in the name of law and order, to keep giving law enforcement the benefit of the doubt is to be supporting what is sure to sink us all.
As I said before, these are the lesser traumatic interactions between blacks and law enforcement. There is a lifelong state of PTSD in the black community, preceded by 400+ years of oppression, and there is seething rage underneath, coursing it, burning slow…and it will explode!
Have the decency then, when things go to hell, not to wonder what happened.
Regarding this stop. Eyeballing is not reasonable probable cause to pull someone over. But, my profession is reading people. And, when someone eyeballs you, it means something, and it ain’t nothin’ good! At least give the cop points for being truthful.
There was a cop executed in Houston. The DRUMBEAT of anti-cop rhetoric, always on full display here, has consequences. On the same day this father of two, good man, was cowardly shot from behind in the head and back 15 times in Houston, the Black Lives Matter people were marching in Minneapolis chanting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry the bacon!” The Sheriff in Houston put it well. He said there are bad apples in EVERY profession. But, the vast majority are good men and women. I see versions of that chant here.
I worked for a half blind guy who worked at a pig farm. He always said: “Never look a pig in the eye!.”
It sounds like a sloppy excuse, and coming amid a slew of strong evidence that particularly black people in America are being mistreated in interactions with police officers.
But in visualising it just now, I’m wondering if I’ve misunderstood the police officer. If a driver actually holds their gaze while passing an object, that’s worrying behaviour. You can’t be in control of a car if you’re not watching the road and other drivers.
It’s enough to give the police officer the benefit of the doubt, in my view.
Well … at least the officer did not try to impound the video. Apparently in Dayton you can video but you can’t look.
Raises the important question it the driver had lowered his gaze to the ground when passing the officer would the officer then issue a ticket for failure maintain full time an attention?
Absolutely the police officer wanted a reason to pull this driver over. I am glad he had a camera on. This is disturbing.
Hmmm … never look at Polar Bear carrying a firearm.
Reblogged this on The Insomniac Libertarian.