The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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September 21, 2006
'Operation Pullover' - a police state "success" Frank Denzler writing for the Rushville Republican has a simple, common story about local Rushville, Indiana police participation in a click-it-or-ticket program. It's nothing Earth shaking, but the common presumptions of the writer were of as much interest as the actual story. Therefore, I'm including here the write-up in order to analyze both.
The Rushville Police Department (RPD) participates in many of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute driving and safety programs each year.
Operation Pullover is one such program.
Operation Pullover is a fall carry-over of the "Click It or Ticket" campaign held in the spring. The program is designed to inform and promote awareness of seatbelt use and the reduction of injuries that their use can provide.
Local officers cited over 30 motorists and arrested four individuals over the recently concluded Labor Day weekend. The arrests and citations took place in addition to normal patrol hours and were accomplished in a 25 hour period.
The campaign was part of a comprehensive impaired driving prevention program organized by the U. S. Department of Transpiration's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that focuses on combining high visibility law enforcement with heightened public awareness through advertising and publicity.
"We were really hitting it. It is a lot more than writing citations. Just look at the DUI (driving under the influence) arrests made by officers after stopping motorists for a seatbelt violation," RPD officer Doug Keith said.
Two of the arrests locally also involved additional drug use charges being filed against the drivers.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the state used roving saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints in an effort to prevent unnecessary tragedies that result from impaired driving.
"Impaired driving is not a
'victimless crime' it is the most frequent violent crime committed in the United States today," executive director of the ICJI, Mike Cugegin, said.
He continued by saying, "Officers all over the state of Indiana should be commended for all of their hard work and hours of overtime they put into removing impaired drivers from the roadways."
When asked if they are winning the battle of removing impaired drivers from roads many county and local officers said, "No," indicating it is a battle they face each time they go on duty.
For starters, this quote is straight out of some government propaganda memo, "The program is designed to inform and promote awareness of seatbelt use and the reduction of injuries that their use can provide." Really? Pulling people over and charging them fines and from there apparently randomly searching vehicles is what this Operation Pullover was actually doing. How does that constitute being "designed to inform and promote awareness"? This would be awareness of what, exactly? Perhaps it's to inform you and make you aware that the police can stop you and search you for any or no reason.
Note that "the campaign was part of a comprehensive impaired driving prevention program." The nominal pretext was that they were stopping people for not wearing seatbelts. What possible argument could you offer that not having a seatbelt fastened around you impairs your driving? It would be a far better argument based on reality that the constrictions of wearing the seatbelt are at least a minor impairment to some people.
Note that the paper printed unchallenged this ridiculous quote from some government toadie, "Impaired driving is not a
'victimless crime' it is the most frequent violent crime committed in the United States today." Again, this is over a seatbelt enforcement effort. Not wearing a frickin' seatbelt is absolutely and inarguably the most clear possible example of a victimless crime you could possibly come up with.
They stopped 30 people like this over Labor Day weekend, and managed to find excuses to arrest 4 of them. They obviously were not in fact driving impaired. If they were driving badly, the cops wouldn't have needed the pretext of a seatbelt violation to justify stopping them. Wreckless driving would be perfectly legitimate probable cause for thinking that they might be impaired. Officers, do please stop such people and check them out. That's what we pay you for.
It doesn't surprise me that three or four randomly searched motorists over Labor Day weekend would turn out to be at least marginally legally intoxicated, and that a couple out of 30 might have a little weed on them. In other words, I see no likely statistical type relationship between not wearing a seat belt and drinking or carrying drugs- the things that are supposed to constitute impairment. Note also that merely carrying drugs certainly does not impair your driving.
So in fact, it appears that the local Rushville cops - as part of a federal program - were using the picayune excuse of a seatbelt violation to make random, warrantless, probable cause-less fishing expedition searches. By any rights, all these arrests should be thrown out, and all the governments involved reprimanded for this dishonest and unconstitutional behavior. Bad cop - no donut!
And the newspapers should be a little more skeptical of stupid press releases the government lays conveniently on their plate.
