Posted on 09/15/2022 9:18:03 AM PDT by MeganC
(Text for the vide from this link: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/08/05/police-harass-innocent-citizens-on-their-porch-lawsuit-filed-today/ )
Police Harass Innocent Citizens on Their Porch – Lawsuit Filed Today
Posted on August 5, 2022
What you’re about to see here is outrageous body cam footage that has never before been seen by anyone, other than law enforcement. It shows what happened to my clients, Jason Tartt, the property owner and landlord, as well as Donnie and Ventriss Hairston, his innocent and mistreated tenants, on August 7, 2020, when they were subjected to civil rights violations by two deputies with the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office, Dalton Martin and Jordan Horn.
Today we filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, which is posted below. But you can watch the footage for yourself. Before the body cams were turned on, what you need to know is that there was a complaint received that an abandoned church, in an overgrown parcel of land not owned by any of these individuals, apparently had four marijuana plants growing there, among the thick brush. Crime of the century, right? The perpetrators must be one of the elderly African American residents nearby, of course. Instead of treating them as human beings, let’s accuse them first thing, then mistreat, harass, and retaliate against, them if they dare to get uppity, or not know their place.
Donnie and Ventriss Hairston were sitting on the front porch of their rural home, when two deputies approached and began to harass and intimidate them. Their landlord, who lives next door, joined them shortly afterwards and began to ask questions. When they asserted their opinions and rights, retaliation ensued. The landlord, Jason Tartt, was seized and arrested. The Hairstons were shoved into their home against their will. This is never before seen footage, outside of law enforcement of course. Take a look and form your own opinion about what happened.
Yep... Absolutely. I have a couple false arrests under my belt. Both were immediately dropped by the DA with an apology because they were blatantly false. Yet those arrests have followed me around and harmed me with employment, credit, Etc. all my life.
“innocent until proven guilty” should be mandatory at the very moment of approach, interaction, and detainment. This is what they meant by this right in the Constitution. Not arrest them “just in case” and throw it into the courts as they do now. If they don’t have any immediate evidence against you, such as an eye witness to a crime, then they need to go away until they actually do period.
This is not directly related to the video you posted about but is illustrative of the sad state of relations between the people WHO SERVE US, and The People.
Judge Steven Prevett Thinks He’s A Legislator, Mindless Order Followers Obey Him
(u-toob) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwsSEGkgOgI
“When he went back to the car to call in the situation his supervisor asks if it was a white male or a black male. After he answers Black male the supervisor says 10-4 and nothing else.”
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That question from the cop’s supervisor is the MONEY QUESTION.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, if I’m on a jury, I will decide for the plaintiff because the supervisor is giving the cope instructions based ONLY on race in a situation that was NEVER about personal identification during an alleged criminal act.
How damn dumb is the supervisor?????
Yeah, pretty telling to me also.
We all have a 4th Amendment right of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The cop did not present a warrant, which he would have had to have obtained due to having some form of proof or reasonable suspicion, which he did not have.
The people of course were afraid of how he was acting. They never said, “You’re just doing this because we’re black.” Any normal person who did not know their rights would be afraid in this situation. Cop escalated, and his ego became the “warrant”. He arrested a respected military veteran. That was a disgrace.
Kids throw alcohol bottles in the woods directly behind my house frequently. What if instead, they had rolled a joint and some seeds fell out and took root? It could happen to anyone.
I hope that cop is severely disciplined and if they keep him on, he needs considerable retraining. Which his county probably can't afford. He acted a fool.
Well said.
Officer’s personal discretion just does not negate Constitutional presumption of innocence.
The Veteran thing bothers me too, he was a former military COP! So much for the blue brotherhood...
Jackboot lickers gotta lick jackboots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes
Here is the answer to Mr Lawyers insistence that the police have the right to enter anyone’s property and accuse them of a crime.
They can park on the driveway, walk up to the door on a path or sidewalk and knock and then make their contact. That is it. They CAN NOT, stroll around the property and look for evidence WITHOUT A WARRANT.
BTW, they have to inform the person they are contacting of the reason they are there FIRST AFTER they ID themselves.
Just about everywhere a closed in porch like that is considered another room inside your home and taxed accordingly. So legally they were standing inside their home castle. They didn’t have to do or say jack, and when the officer went onto the porch he entered their private home without a warrant.
Marijuana grow? Four plants??? Looks to me like they were growing out of a couple of discarded garbage bags that had been there for a long time judging by the weeds that covered them.
Then perhaps you can tell us why the arresting officer never showed up in court and the case was thrown out? Furthermore, what is the foundation for the Miranda
So who do you think is going to win in the lawsuit that has been brought against the sheriff's dept?
North Carolina has no “stop and identify” statute. This means that, as a general rule, a person who is stopped by police in North Carolina is NOT required to provide his or her name or produce identification, especially if on the porch of your own house.
Since you seem to know, please tell us......
Correction, West Virginia, not NC. However, there is a McDowell County in NC
Sure hope those deputies aren’t charged under 18 U.S. Code § 242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law.
They could spend years in federal prison!
Also, you KNOW there is more to this story
Since you seem to know, please tell us......
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Yeah, I guess my track record is really bad. After all, I was the same guy who predicted “more to the story” regarding:
1) Gentle Giant Mike Brown who, after my prediction, was outed as having attacked a 7-11 clerk.
2) The “jogger” in GA who, after my prediction, was discover on surveillance video “jogging” through a house under construction and was wearing khaki shorts hanging down his ass.
3) The George Floyd “I can’t breathe”—it later turned out, after my prediction, that he was yelling “I can’t breathe” while cuffed sitting alone in the back of a squad car.
In fact, EVERY SINGLE “racial” event turns out to be either a fraud or much more nuanced than the plaintiff’s lawyer/press tell us. Intelligent people wait for all of the facts. We’ve been burned too many times.
Yet, in vid I saw, he replied that he did when asked by the po-po.
Then perhaps you can tell us why the arresting officer never showed up in court and the case was thrown out? Furthermore, what is the foundation for the Miranda
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Let me put this into context. Police officers have a very difficult job. They are not constitutional law experts. And many times their job is akin to making Big Macs: We all love Big Macs, but nobody is particularly itching to watch the cows be butchered. It is not clear from the EDITED video why the police showed up at this house. And it is not uncommon for people to illegally grow marijuana and do it just off of their property (just ask about 10 of my former clients). I watched the video and these idiots were completely uncooperative and verbally obstinate with the police.
As to why the cop didn’t show up in court....As a former prosecutor, I can tell you that we routinely dropped cases based on the concept of “abated by arrest.” In other words, we knew that the cops on occasion made questionable arrests and that the arrest itself was enough punishment for the defendant whether a crime had or had not been committed. 90% of these abated by arrest cases were just like this case where the knuckleheads were obstinate. BTW, I laughed for two minutes when I heard the woman say that “she was scared of the police.” BS.
We should be encouraging citizens to show respect for the authority of the police, not sit back, be Monday morning QBs, and nit-pick every decision they make. Unfortunately, the nit-pickers and the anti-police rhetoric have caused the number of these incidents to substantially rise over the last several years.
The video is edited, so we don’t know the full background. We also don’t know why the cops came there in the first place. Was the arrest questionable? Yes. Was the arrest very, very avoidable? Yes. Be polite and cooperative with the police and I can assure you that 99.9% of the time you will be happy with the outcome.
“Yet, in vid I saw, he replied that he did when asked by the po-po.”
That’s incorrect. At 5m14s in the video he says he did not own the property where the weed was growing.
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