tvc184

Yes, I have seen it face-to-face for almost 40 years. As with any situation there are probably 100 different answers as to why people are in that position. But… for the most part I believe it is from drug abuse and mental illness. A lot of that mental illness might be from drug abuse so they kind of go hand-in-hand. Because of the length of time I dealt with it, I saw a couple of generations of people grow up. I saw a lot of people get their brains fried on drugs and even if they got off at them later, I believe the damage was done. So did the mental illness at an early age make them turn to drugs or did the drug use cause the mental illness later in life? I don’t know. There is certainly a percentage they just made poor or lazy choices in life. They might be a high school dropout that lived with mama and daddy until they passed away or kicked them out, etc. Then they have nowhere to turn and for some reason have no desire to better themselves. Let’s face it, they are all kinds of people in the world and some people are just not motivated to do anything except breathe. Is that in itself a form of mental illness? In someways I still worry about being homeless. I say in retirement, I just want a roof over my head and some food. Anything else is extra. But I always think if worst came to worst and my life savings and all the years I have worked for a pension and Social Security, if it went away would I simply stand on the side of the road with a cup in my hand hoping for a handout? I don’t think so but hopefully I will never find out. In my opinion, most homelessness is caused by mental illness or drug abuse or some combination of both. I believe there is certainly a percentage that simply made poor choices in life. Maybe they have a criminal record and no job skills and now at 40 - 60 years old are basically unemployable. Even if they wanted to, could they make a livable wage?

The first thing on a Google search said Women’s League of Burma. I can see where that got someone in trouble….

We got a tip so it wasn’t random but I stopped I think it was a Nissan Altima with about 5 kilos of cocaine. We were actually looking for a different vehicle from a tip and this one was in the area so I stopped it.

Here is an article from 7 years ago that said they have stopped at least 14 fake government vehicles with contraband. In that story one school bus had over a ton. I read a story of another school but with 4.5 tons. [Hidden Content]

In south Texas they found a fake TXDOT truck loaded.

Everybody is aware. They just don’t think they will get caught like any criminal or anyone making a stupid decision. It’s like saying, well he’s a lawyer so he knows that bribery is wrong. He is a school principal so he should know the child molesting is not right. She is an EMT so she should know that drunk driving is dangerous. They all know that all of those things are very wrong and not because of their profession. People simply think they are not going to get caught , certainly not at this time. I might get caught one day but it’s not going to be today.

When I worked interdiction about 25 years ago we looked for just such a vehicles. One of the bigger arrests in this area a couple of friends of mine made, there’s a couple of good ol’ boys heading to the lake towing a bass boat… Except the bass boat had more than fishing tackle. Another was a grandmother just driving down the highway. That is one of the first things I learned. It is like looking for a child molester or a murderer. What do they look like? If they were easy to spot then we would have nearly a 100% clearance rate. The grandmother, a couple of rednecks heading home from a duck hunting trip, wreckers, 18 wheelers, buses, a man and his wife heading for vacation,… What does a drug dealer look like?

I doubt it but there might be a very smidgen of the truth to it. I don’t think there are that many confidential informants to routinely justify stopping very many people at that location. What likely happens is that there are officers out on the highway looking for drugs. About 99% of the time that is what they are doing which is profiling. If they happen to get a tip from a confidential informant or a police officer from another agency for example, certainly they would look for that vehicle. That would have to be some very serious information on what vehicle, when, etc. It just does not come that often. The reason that you might see a lot of vehicle stops in that area is because that is where the officers set up. When I worked highway introduction there were two or three spots we worked and that was it. Sometimes those locations are strategic such as near where someone can get off according to head to how we were profiling.

And how can you tell your age by saying you were 17 and had a 68 Firebird? You could be 60 today and have a 68 Firebird, you could be 18 today and have a 68 Firebird……….

It was an apparition which is probably why you only heard from the guy. There used to be a house off of the woods at that location. On a rainy night long ago they were killed several miles away in a car accident and on certain conditions of a rainy night, they are trying to get back home.

Then you woke up and wondered where the empty bottle of Strawberry Hill came from…

They are absolutely necessary but you got a love attorneys and their rationale for court. I mean that is what they get paid to do but sometimes it is interesting. Her attorney said when Britney spoke, the world listened…. and it was amazing. Huh???

Not really.

Omg… the Facebook lawyers!!! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Their stuff is so funny and several times a year I see people post their webpage and believe that is a true article. The way they write their articles, it is like an actual maybe a story.

When I saw the title I thought, this has got to be a BB story. YEP!!!

Yes, we could what if all kinds of scenarios. What if he said, yes I have a bill of sale here for 50 cars and they’re going to be trucked back to South Carolina? Here is a number you can call to confirm. Having worked in that position I would suspect it did not quite go like that. Of course the guy can shut his mouth and not answer any questions whatsoever and he has that right. My guess is that he opened his mouth and they easily were able to prove or suspected that he was lying. I have made some of my best arrest by people who agree to talk and it is not usually hard to prove that someone is lying even the side of the street. If there are two people and they agree to talk it is so simple to discover a lie, it’s almost like cheating. I was riding with a couple of Beaumont PD officers one time and they made an interdiction stop. A white male with Georgia license plates was heading eastbound in a pick up. The pick up was registered in his name. He agreed to talk and he gave some story about he left a week ago to go visit a friend in Houston and he was on the way back home. Then they start asking what his friends name was and all of a sudden he did not remember. They asked him where the friend lived so they can send Houston PD by the check and he did not remember that either. The officers would take turns talking to him while he was outside of his truck. He would talk freely with a little nervousness but every time an officer got near the tailgate he would lock up stiff as a board and shut up. It was almost comical. Walk a few feet away and he would loosen up and start talking again. Then the big question, do you mind us looking around your truck? The answer was no, I don’t mind. One of the officers looked under the truck and saw that the spare tire was brand new. It had no mud on it whatsoever and looked like it had just been mounted the day before. So then the follow up question. How long have you had this truck? He might’ve said two or three years. Have you had any flats? No. Are all of your tires original including a spare? Yes. Hmmmm…… Well……. The officer took the spare out from under the truck and rolled it down the side of the shoulder. For some reason it rolled faster at some spots and slower at some spots like there was something heavy inside. Then the tire was bounced a few times and we noticed part of the tire was more stiff in the other parts. The pickup was take him to the city garage about 3 miles away. The spare tire was opened and 6 kilos of marijuana popped out. If a person opens his mouth he decides to lie, it is not usually very hard to figure it out. At the Police Academy I have a allowed two cadets to go outside and make up any story that they wished. The premise was that they had just robbed someplace but they had time to get their stories together. I would give them as much time as I needed to make up the story. They could even write it down on paper if they wanted to. I would then bring one back in the class and question him. I would then have him leave the class and bring the other person in and question him in front of the other cadets. It was almost comical how quickly it was discovered that they were lying. It is because you cannot anticipate all the questions that will be asked. A person has the right to remain silent. If he gives up that write anything he says can and will be used against him in a court of law. I suspect in this case and going by the article, the guy decided he would talk, probably believing he could give a reasonable explanation to whatever they ask.

Some or most of it is but it has to be obtained through another channel. Using the FBI/police computer is a crime. When I used to work for Lamar Port Arthur, they would want me to run the license plate of people who would receive citations for parking on the campus. I could not provide it. They were a government agency since they were in public school and they could go down to the Jefferson County tax office and requested and would receive it for free through them.

I worked highway interdiction. I’ve never made a single drug arrest from a tip in that position. I and my partner at one time made what I believe was the largest crack cocaine seizure and some cash (not the biggest) in Jefferson County. Of course that was about 25 years ago. Since the police probably stop about one out of every 500 or less, every time they get tied up with any arrest, it is safe to say several people drove past them with more drugs and money.

No. Merely running an ID will not return out-of-state convictions or records or even in Texas however a routine check on a drivers license will show traffic citations within the last few years. There has to be a specific reason to run a persons criminal history. Any officer can request it however he has to tell the dispatcher at that moment why it is being run and that reason has to be logged into the FBI database immediately. The officer that at time is pretty much locked into his reasoning so if he lies, he is committing a crime and the FBI has the evidence. There are several reasons that we can run such as the suspect in an active criminal investigation, a detention such as a traffic stop or a criminal activity is suspected, criminal histories to a person applying for the police department, etc. I can assure you that you do not want to be running your ex girlfriend’s current boyfriend to see what kind of record he has and get caught. I would not want to go to prison to find out who is dating who. It is also a crime to divulge criminal history to someone other than the police and if you sell the information, it is a felony in Texas. For example if someone that I know says I’ll give you $20 if you tell me if this guy has been arrested and I use the FBI database, if I get caught I might as well get ready for the big house.

I started to post my response but I will use your post as a nexus and yes you are probably correct, it sure did not help him. Money laundering is a crime. Money laundering under Texas law is to possess money with intent to commit a crime or were the proceeds from a crime. The man in the article was arrested for money laundering. He was not taken into custody for possession of money or the money was not seized for a civil forfeiture. To justify an arrest and a seizure of money for evidence the officers had to have probable cause which is under the 4A to the United States Constitution. Probable cause is a reasonable belief by a person of caution, who knows the facts that the officer knows at the time of the arrest or search, that will lead the person to believe that a crime it’s probably happening or has happened. So what do we know about this case going strictly by the article? Will these facts make a reasonable person believe that a crime has likely happened or about to happen? Probable cause is a looking at the totality of the circumstances and not any single item which in itself might be legal. 1. A traffic stop was made IH10. 2. The driver was from South Carolina so at least several hundred miles from home. 3. The article says the officer spoke with him and he gave indications that something was up. I’m going to speculate that he was overly nervous or simply gave an answer that made absolutely no sense. Either of the situations might not mean much alone however I can give inference that a crime has been committed. This is especially true if you’re caught in a lie. 4. Due to these indications a narcotics dog was brought to the scene. 5. The dog alerted on the vehicle meaning it is very likely there were drugs for in the vehicle or had recently been in the vehicle. 6. A search of the vehicle with probable cause let’s do the discovery of almost $1 million in cash. 7. A check of the man’s record shows that he has not only been arrested but been convicted for drug charges, possibly selling drugs. We do not know what the guy said that tipped the officers off that something was up but I’m sure it will be on camera. Also unlike the sidewalk lawyers on Facebook, a warrant is not needed to search a vehicle on the roadway. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that waiting for a warrant on the side of the road was unreasonable so a warrant was not needed for a vehicle. The 4A to the Constitution guarantees the right against “unreasonable” searches and seizures. They have ruled that is not unreasonable to search it vehicle without a warrant. A warrant might take two or more hours and it would be unreasonable to believe the suspect will still be sitting there waiting for the cop two hours later. So the officers very likely had probable cause to make the stop, the search and ultimately arrest the suspect. It was not a single fact that the guy had cash on him. Out of curiosity and honesty, with the seven things that I just listed, how many people believe this guy was just riding down the road with almost $1 million cash or if he had just made a drug transaction or was in route to a drug transaction?

Go to Facebook if you want to see some comedy on this story. I did not realize there were so many lawyers in this area.

Yes It is the government’s job to prove it and beyond a reasonable doubt. He was charged with a crime and arrested, not a civil forfeiture.

Yes professional courtesy does still exist however breaks still exist across the board. I stopped a guy one night going 85 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone on a motorcycle about 2 AM. There was no one in the vicinity and he quickly pulled over. I told him to slow down and he almost passed out. If I am going to give a person I don’t know a break for 50 miles an hour over the speed limit, why would I give another police officer a citation for going 15 miles an hour over? I stopped at car one night speeding and then it went through a red light at about 30 miles an hour. By the time I pull the car over a few blocks away, it was pulling into the back of the hospital. It was a doctor on the way to an emergency so she was naturally in a hurry. The law on speeding actually allows doctors going to an emergency the ability to speed as if an emergency vehicle without receiving a citation just as it does for police officers. It does not give them the authority to run red lights and especially at 30 miles an hour. I did not write her a citation out of professional courtesy. It was early in the morning and there was no traffic and she could see that it was clear. Should I have written her a citation? I am sure there are people that are angry that I allowed her to go with a warning while they might have received a citation in the same situation. With discretion, that’s just the way it is. Like in your situation, I and most other officers simply handle the problem at the same if given the chance. For every person arrested or given a citation they are probably 15 others that were given a break.

I have worked with at least four officers that have lost a career over a DWI. I worked with at least one more that was terminated for public intoxication. I feel bad that they made stupid decisions but have no sympathy for the outcome.