“Any police department (or university faculty, or military unit, etc.) is only as good as the worst psycho they tolerate.” ~ H/T RedStateRocker
Posted on 10/27/2023 10:40:28 AM PDT by algore
HAZELWOOD, Mo. (KMOV) - Hazelwood Police Chief James Hudanick says an internal investigation is underway after a traffic stop Wednesday night.
It happened around 11:30 pm near Lindberg and McDonnell. Joseph Hibler was pulled over for an expired license plate on his way home from a funeral.
Hibler says the officer told him he had an open warrant. The warrant stemmed from a citation from 2018 over no vehicle insurance. He described what was going through his mind when the officer told him to get out of the car and handcuff him.
“My children are in the car. There’s no way they’re going to take me away from my children,” Hibler said
A bystander captured the traffic stop on camera. Hibler is heard saying it “isn’t even serious” as police hold him against the squad car and moments later tase him.
Meanwhile, the four kids, ages 14, 13, 11 and one year old, sit in the car. The video shows police drive Hibler away and then check on the kids, asking if any of them have a driver’s license. But then officers leave the scene. Video from the bystander shows the car on the side of the road with the children inside.
“What the hell? Who would leave minors in the car by themselves late at night,” is the question JaCee Robertson can’t stop asking.
She was still at her father’s funeral when she got the text from her fiancé that he had been pulled over. She finally reached her children who were hysterical. She drove the route home and found them.
“We see them on the side of the road, with the door open, the headlights on, the car still running,” said Robertson.
Hazelwood Police Chief Hudanick says it is their policy that minors should not be left unattended. The internal investigation will look into use of force from this incident as well as the policy surrounding passengers in the car. First Alert Four is working to learn the status of the offices and additional details of the investigation.
Hibler was released Thursday morning and no charges have been filed surrounding the traffic stop at this time.
The car still running?
11:30 at night?
Who lets their boyfriend with no insurance drive her kids home at midnight?
On paper the cops are wrong as can be. One could have stayed or the could have waited for the mother when she finished partying
Which is a whole other issue
What?
This warrant was from five years ago.
The warrant for the arrest of Gabriel Metcalf for a separate city charge, in the Gun Free School Zone case in Montana, was three years old.
Sadly, that is not nearly absurd as it sounds at first read.
While I do not dispute that we need adequate law enforcement, it is a mistake to assume the police are here for your safety and are your friends.
As it continues to get more difficult to recruit quality personnel for LE this sort of thing will become more common. More and more, those who want to be cops are just those we don't want as cops.
Hopefully he collects enough from the PD to pay for insurance and tags for the car.
The cop is an idiot, but remember that half the people are dumber than the average person, and I guess in some places you have to settle on the average person being a cop.
[...waited for the mother when she finished partying.]
...She was still at her father’s funeral when she got the text from her fiancé
Some people think insurance and tags are optional...
That was not handled well. Those minor children should not have just been left there at night, like so many bags of laundry.
Midnight funerals, that’s something new to me.
I’m Irish American catholic. New York. Huge extended family. Huge friend base of huge families
I know funerals. Tailgating, kegs, 3 day long, cigarette smoking, living room guitar mandolin fiddle playing funerals
And booze
Kids too
A funeral is in the morning. The reception can go for 3 days. You have 4 minor kids with an infant you’re going home at 8. You’re not sending them with your drinking boyfriend known to the cops at midnight. You can yell that the cops are dopes all day long but you’re trusting a stupid boyfriend and dopey cops to take care of your 1 year old on the road at midnight
Nope. I mean yes, if you’re a dope.
Those kids are so done with her antics
“Midnight funerals, that’s something new to me.”
Ya. Still at the funeral. Pshaw.
We don’t know that he didn’t have insurance 5 years ago. Sometimes, when you change insurance carriers, the notice of cancellation misses the notice of insurance from the new carrier and viola, “no insurance” violation. Also, in Florida, this resulted in a suspended license (never happened to me but I know of a lot of people it did happen to) that you wouldn’t find out about until you got pulled over. Thankfully, that issue has been corrected but it can happen. Also, Mom was at her Father’s funeral (I suspect the wake). Wouldn’t call it partying.
Tags are a way of collecting taxes, and insurance is something that primarily is seen as benefiting insurance companies.
Arguably, insurance only secondarily benefits insurance companies.
If it is a choice between feeding the kids, putting a roof over one’s head, and putting tags on the car, I think it is a no-brainer.
While I can appreciate arresting a person in some circumstances over it, the cop needs to see if he can get a refund on his lobotomy.
We don’t know…insurance bla bla bla
Go home sober with your kids at 8. The most drinking Irish funeral RECEPTIONS I know of have rules. This is one.
“Any police department (or university faculty, or military unit, etc.) is only as good as the worst psycho they tolerate.” ~ H/T RedStateRocker
I am reminded of the story from a few years ago of a locality in CT that would not accept someone as a police officer if they scored too high on an exam. They didn’t want “thinkers” on the police force. They wanted people who would enforce the rules no matter, without pausing to think about it.
“The car still running?” And a door open and lights on. You’d think 13 & 14 year olds would have phones and would at least close the door and lock the doors.
Probably he had a Trump bumper sticker on his car.
The police are not our friends, in spite of what PDJT, et al., say.
“could have waited for the mother when she finished partying”
I went to MY father’s funeral; there was no “partying” going on. (Sometimes, read the whole thing.)
“Who lets their boyfriend with no insurance drive her kids home at midnight?”
I believe the guy was uninsured five years ago. Did it say he was uninsured when this occurred?
True, but in this case that should have been an insignificant consideration compared to making sure the kids were OK. This smacks of the time Barney Fife was left in charge for a day and ended up locking up every citizen of Mayberry. “By the book” only goes so far; at some point a cop needs to exercise good judgment.
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