Posted on 08/26/2014 8:41:13 AM PDT by servo1969
ST. ALBANS (VT) — Police video and documents provided to the St. Albans Messenger show how an ordinary traffic stop last week degenerated into a physical altercation, which further disintegrated into the use of ethnic and homophobic slurs.
Local attorney Peter J.R. Martin, 74, was stopped by Officer Mike Malinowski of the St. Albans Police Dept. (SAPD) Thursday, June 12, at 5:30 p.m. for having tinted windows, which are not legal in Vermont. The incident occurred on Lake Road near Cherry Street at St. Albans Bay. Martin was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He has pleaded not guilty.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
I have to admit when I saw the title I thought, "Which do I root for?"
Twenty years ago...probably less than one percent of all cars in America had tinted windows. Today, I’d make a guess that it’s closer to twenty percent. So driving across state borders is a bigger deal.
Yeh who doesn’t know you have to pay the tow truck? Dumb.
It is the officers job to clear the roadway
The cop had a good, polite attitude, and dealt with a struggle, a gun, and a knife, and maintained his professionalism and detachment all the way through.
Don’t the states have to recognize the acts of other states? If your home state was willing to register your car the way it is, can they ban it?
I am not sure but most states require you, if you have a carry permit, to notify the police if you have a gun in the car. The lawyer should know. He should be charged with that too if that’s the case.
This man is an idiot on so many levels. .
I didn’t watch the video. The story puts me on the side of the cop, and the reason for the stop in the first place puts me there also. So, how the driver behaved in the moment is the driver’s problem. So is the result.
The fact that he was carrying while being discourteous to a cop is the beginning of a big mistake.
That he is an attorney who would rather not be stopped brings tears to my eyes, how about you? /s
I have to admit when I saw the title I thought, “Which do I root for?”
....
Some of the less virulent anti-cop trolls are probably asking themselves the same question. The rest are out looking for bad news about cops they can post on FR.
No tears.
But we have too many laws. Too many cops. Too many stops. Too many reasons to make stops. Too many ways to be fined.
Every activity is regulated.
Before a man can do anything he must wonder, “is this legal”? Well no worries. It probably isn’t.
Formerly our lack of laws was the problem. Now the avalanche of laws is the problem.
“Don’t the states have to recognize the acts of other states? If your home state was willing to register your car the way it is, can they ban it?”
Ask the dudes in Montana bringing back dope from Colorado ...
http://libraries.vermont.gov/sites/libraries/files/supct/163/eo95-074.txt
ENTRY ORDER
SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 95-074
MARCH TERM, 1995
In re Peter J.R. Martin, Esq. } APPEALED FROM:
}
}
} Professional Conduct Board
}
}
} DOCKET NO. 93.05
In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:
Pursuant to the recommendation of the Professional Conduct Board
filed February 9, 1995, and approval thereof, it is hereby ordered that Peter
J.R. Martin, Esq., be publicly reprimanded for the reasons set forth in the
board’s Notice of Decision attached hereto for publication as part of the
order of this Court. A.O. 9, Rule 8E.
Not sure what the lawyer’s problem was ....He was a lawyer. Now days the judicial and executive systems can make their own laws anytime they want.
The cop never pulls out his gun!
Fact is a lot of lawyers feel they have more rights than others because they have access to free legal aid and appear before people they are familiar with who often just slap them on the wrist for things we go to jail for!!!
What does that have to do with what's legal for a motor vehicle in one state versus another?
This is like an officer in Idaho pulling someone over driving a car from New Mexico. In Idaho, two license plates are required, by law, one on the front of the vehicle, one on the back. New Mexico only requires one (on the back) and only issues one.
“Don’t the states have to recognize the acts of other states? If your home state was willing to register your car the way it is, can they ban it?”
This is an interesting point. One of the concerns with the North American free trade agreement was that Mexican trucks could travel in the US without meeting our safety standards. Does anyone understand when states have the right to enforce stringent standards and when not?
What you say is true. And there is something to be said for civil disobedience when it is called for.
However, I did not think it was called for in this case, and I thought the driver was simply being a jerk.
I believe in treating people with courtesy and respect by default, unless they have demonstrated in some way they are not going to reciprocate, as this person clearly did.
Also, I believe that when you are carrying a weapon, you have a higher responsibility to avoid escalating situations, even if it means you have to go against your natural inclinations in a given situation to do so.
I am not pro or anti-police. I believe that most of them are trying to do their job the best that they can, and on each end of the curve, there are people who shouldn’t be in law enforcement. In this case, I thought the officer was being courteous.
And I say this as someone who swore at a Connecticut State Trooper and threatened to lay down in front of my car to prevent it from being towed. (I think I was fully justified in my behavior and anger, and it was quite different than the one in the video. And I wasn’t carrying a weapon.)
I was wrong.
Idiot is too kind of a descriptive. :)
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