Let us warn you about traveling in small towns before the age of video cameras. Also traveling in large town in the age of video recording unless you, yourself have a video recording of your police encounter.
Imagine stopping on the side of the road and then having police pull up behind you and start searching your vehicle. Then you protest, because it’s your right to not be searched without probable cause.
Then imagine being issued citations for something that didn’t happen. You take it to court. In the process of trying to clear your name, the prosecutor “gives you advice” that shocks you.
The man known as his YouTube name “snesin” was given a copy of dashcam footage then told by the prosecutor, Todd Greenwood that they had to watch the video together. snesin already had the DVD in his own laptop and was told by Greenwood that he had not been given the DVD, that he must hand it back. In this case it actually turns out well for the motorist, but what the prosecutor told him should scare every single one of you:
Prosecutor: “Let me tell you how this would have worked in the ‘sos, or the early ’90s. There would have been no audio. You would have been in a small town that didn’t have audio or video equipped, and there are still some if you go towards Lubbock that don’t. You would have been here, we wouldn’ta had audio or video to look at and the officer, if you pressed it the way you are now, you pressed your rights, the officer would have taken the stand and testified that you laid hands on him. OK?
“And a few of them who are worse than Ellis, in your opinion … Ellis or Wood. Some of those guys out in west Texas, what they would have done is put you on the ground in front of your family, handcuffed you, let you spend the night in jail, and they would have said it was because you put hands on them. Your family would have all been witnesses, in your favor, at trial, but the officers, taking the stand in a small rural community would have gone, the jury would have gone with those officers, more than likely.“And even if they didn’t, no one gives a damn, because it’s all … you’re having to do all the work driving out there, and doing all the heavy lifting. So either way they would have won. My bottom line, and this is nothing to you except a little preaching is, I get … I get clients in your position who don’t win. The old expression is ‘You may beat the rap, but you don’t beat the ride.’ The ride to jail? …
”There’re some bad people out there, and they wear badges, and they wear badges so they can get away with it, and they will bend you up. And at the end of the day, unless you’ve got real good evidence against them, you’re not gonna get their badge, you may get worse than that. So be careful,
OK? …“I’m gonna ask you a question I don’t want you to answer: do you have a criminal history? The reason I would ask you that question is because, if you go to a trial without an audio or video, and you are in your situation, and somebody was wrongfully arrested, and you have a criminal history, you’re gonna lose. Because they’re gonna believe the officer, and not the guy with the conviction. And you’re not even from that town, and the officer is, and he goes to Sunday school with the people on the jury. In small rural communities, that’s how it works. You ever seen the movie
“Alright? So be careful when you get outside of suburbs, outside of the donut, because you are it’s a different world. People, you know, when they’re from the suburbs, they don’t necessarily realize when you … what’s written down in the Constitution is one thing, and the real practice is another – and you’re just not in the same kind of protection as you have in Allen and Plano and Richardson, and places like that.”
snesin: “So we do live in a jackboot society.”
Greenwood: “Sometimes, and we shouldn’t … (Sigh) Sometimes it’s better just to, better just to stand there and let it all roll over.”
Again – We never advise anyone to go to court without a lawyer. This guy just happened to be very good, and very lucky.