Texas police accused of highway robberies
CNN reports that police are accused of having robbed at least 150 drivers in Tenaha, Texas. The amount stolen is close to $3 million, says a lawyer who has filed a class action suit against the town and police department there.
Some of the victims (who are mostly African American) said that when they complained to the police about the police, the police threatened to take the victims' children away.
In one case, the district attorney sent a couple who'd been robbed a form letter to sign that said, in exchange for forfeiting the $6000 that had been stolen from them, "...no criminal charges shall be filed...and our children shall not be turned over to [child protective services]."
The video is loaded with lots of other tragicomically sordid details.
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Let's get the inevitable out of the way.
Texas sucks!
No, it doesn't!
Welcome to the wonderful world of US Civil Asset Forfeiture Law. It's a result of the war on drugs, and it can be very profitable for police departments.
So the moral of the story is don't own anything valuable if you don't want it to get stolen?
The moral is do everything you can to fight civil asset forfeiture. In the mean time, don't travel with anything valuable.
The police can seize your cash without due process, even if they don't have reason to believe it was used in a crime. It is then incumbent upon you to prove that it wasn't used in a crime. The backwards guilty-until-proven-innocent nature of these laws is because it's handled by the civil law system, not the criminal law system.
Here are some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_forfeiture#Asset_forfeiture_in_the_United_States
http://www.law.cornell.edu/background/forfeiture/
http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/factsheets/civil_asset_2001.cfm
The only reason these laws exist is because most people simply don't know about them, or understand them.
Isn't this also a problem on the Florida border as well for tourists?
Yes it does!
@1 Thanks Antinous
Wow, I was initially skeptical but the video is pretty damning. You know what they say, Texas is like a whole 'nother country.
What is this?
Corruption that involves the police, the district attorney and the local government?
Targeting "those colored folk?"
In the South?
Shocking, Simply Shocking. How could something like this happen to a part of the nation full of racist rednecks who live and breathe the "good old boys club?"
Best of all, they gave thousands of dollars of stolen money to a Baptist church (have to appease the Jebus!) and gave one of their fellow armed robbers $10,000 for "investigative costs"
http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/05/06/small-town-texas-cops-accused-of-highway-robbery/
Before you write some response calling me a jerk or defending the south, please remember - the only reason you're hearing about this is because there was a class action lawsuit filed and the thieves running this scam were stupid.
This goes on all the time.
Texas: Police State. There oughtta be a graphic for that.
@Loraksus:
This happens all over. It's not limited to the south.
A couple random examples:
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=3384
and
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10231335
The last two paragraphs of the Omaha story really demonstrate why this system is so susceptible to abuse:
Investigators don't know if they will be able to connect the money to a drug operation, Hanson said, but the important work already has been done.
"The big thing is he grabbed 69 (thousand dollars) and took it away from them," Hanson said of the money seized. "That's going right straight to the heart of the matter."
$3 million divided by 150 is an average of $20K. Does no one find this amount kind of on the high side? I would say it would be suspicious to find people travelling with wads of cash.
But perhaps seizing the money for no good reason is not the best solution either.
@11
I believe they said the 3 million dollars was the total amount seized, which includes more people than are included in the lawsuit.
omg...what the heck is this crazy captcha thing...makes me not even want to comment here.
Traveling with cash to buy cars and other expensive items across the border happens all the time. In Washington State, the sales tax is quite high (9.x%), depending on the city and county), so consumers routinely drive across the border into Oregon where there is no sales tax (0%) to buy expensive items like automobiles, boats, electronics, etc.
I'm not sure if this applies to eastern Texas, but its easy to imagine cops nabbing this kind of money.
I hope Texas succeeds in seceding (say that five times fast!). I can genuinely say that I wouldn't miss 'em.
http://www.texassecede.com/faq.htm
...Tenaha isn't the only Texas shittown whose police force is nothing more than a fleecing operation against those "just passing through". The joint town of Selma/Schertz just north of San Antonio had a national notoriety for illegal speed traps until the late 70's, complete with 20MPH drops in the speed limit within 5', and radar guns deliberately tuned so they returned speed ratings at least 15MHP higher than actual. Elgin, Mexia and several dozen one-horse towns had similar traps until they made the mistake of trying to hustle some politicians, and state laws were passed to eliminate most of the traps outright. In the case of Selma/Schertz, they restructured the highway so that the off-ramps were eliminated 3 miles either side of the towns, and damn near starved the towns to death economically until the cops were all replaced!
...Williamson County's excuse for law enforcement is known as the answer to the question of "What would happen if Barney Fife was trained by the Gestapo?", and drivers ranging from 16-21 are frequently fleeced like this, with the bribe being in exchange for not filing drug possession or DWI charges even though a breathalyzer test proves totally negative. If you can't pay on the spot, down to the jail you go. I've actually had to bail out several friends in the past who've been scammed like this.
...Texas doesn't suck, kids/yankees, as a whole. It's just the small towns where the po-lice think they're the reincarnation of Judge Roy Bean that constitute maximum suckage.
Texas does suck.
In fact, they execute the mentally retarded because if it was deemed unconstitutional to do so, they couldn't execute anyone in the state of Texas.
(paaaaaa-zing!]
In all seriousness though, NYPD takes the cake for corruption.
OK, I am letting myself get suckered in again...
This IS NOT a Texas thing - it happens all over. This story is about it happening in Texas but it does happen all over - the first time I heard about it was in upstate NY with cops targeting minority workers in the apple orchards near where I grew up in Upstate NY (Clinton County) returning south with large amounts of cash from the seasonal work.
The mayor has held office for 54 years? That town's got to be crooked as hell. Got to be.
I've got to comment about this, and no it's not the first time I've expressed this, although I don't think I've done so here in these exact terms:
What I don't understand is why the rest of the nation - or at least those that post in Boingboing comments - hates Texans so much. I think it's fascinating that, typically, when Texans make fun of people from other parts of the country, it's in good nature and with no hatred, but people from other parts of the world seem to HATE us. Not everyone in Texas is a redneck/racist that wants to secede. In fact, I'd say the vast majority of Texans AREN'T, and trust me, Rick Perry has been mocked seriously since his rampant stupidity became national news (again). Yes, many small towns in Texas are corrupt and pretty much run by their sheriffs (Smith county is an awful example, and Tyler, TX isn't exactly tiny), but that's also the way it is in Louisiana, and Illinois state politics are corrupt as hell. With the exception of some sniping at Blagojevich, nobody makes fun of them. Why? People seem to forget that LBJ - who had a poor record with Vietnam, yes - was the man that politically supported most of the Civil Rights legislation during the 1960s. He was a Texan, too. Up until recent history, Texas was historically a state of Democrats. When John McCain began calling himself a Maverick, Sam Maverick's descendents were furious, because good old Sam was a staunch Democrat (he's the guy the term "Maverick" was coined for, because he refused to brand his cattle, thereby bucking the trend). It amazes me that so many of the commentators that decry Texas for its ignorance are ignorant themselves of Texas history.
And seriously, if Texas is so awful, then why the hell do what we refer to jokingly as goddammedyankees keep moving here? Because it's a nice place to live, if you can stand the heat in the summer, not to mention the humidity, with folks that, with the exception of the police force in the city in question, are generally friendly, welcoming, and open to new ideas.
It's frustrating, as a well-educated and socially liberal yet fiscally conservative Texan who is proud of her heritage, that we're all tarred with the same brush. Thanks anyways for the (apparently vain) attempt to quell the Tex-hatred, Antinous. Sorry for the rant. But not really. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go drink a Shiner.
Here's my take on Texashategate.
1) Commenters regularly make fun of Boston for its humiliating security gaffes. Yet, one never sees Bostonians complaining about the Boston jokes, despite the fact that Boston has been one of the most important cultural and intellectual cities in the Western hemisphere for nearly four centuries. They just laugh it off.
2) Texas generates more stories about corrupt cops and human rights violations than most of the rest of the US combined. Texas executes lots of people, including mentally retarded people. .
3) Maybe people joke about Boston and hate Texas because of the nature of the news that they generate. Sometimes when everybody is angry at you, you have to consider that the problem might be you.
4) Wouldn't it be easier to just load Austin onto a flatbed truck and move it to another state?
As a Texan, I'm outraged that no commenter has yet to notice the missing "of" in the title. Because being a stickler for grammar is way nicer than hatin on a region for *some* of its inhabitants. At the end of the day, this happened in the good ol USA.
Speaking from my international vantage point, I can tell you that there isn't really any kind of particular dislike of Texas, that I'm aware of, in the outside world.
Besides the Bush connection, there is maybe an element of UberAmericanism (big everything and an extra serving of oil) to Texas that makes it an easy target for generalist mud-pies, but I doubt anyone outside of the US has taken it to its conclusion and decided that Texas is the problem.
In the inverse of that, however, I would say that Europe generally feels closer to Boston culturally, and California for its liberalism.
Knw why y cnt gt dcnt bj n Txs?
Bcs ll ths ccksckrs mvd t Clrd xD
I have met and known some real nice people though from Texas (although I cannot vouch for their oral aptitude). It's just like any other large, mostly rural state..completely assbackwards and things won't change, till they do.
@21 You forgot:
5) Most of the "haters" live in NY, a state known to produce more arrogant SOB's per capita than any State in the Union.
REPREZENT!
@ #20 Architexas:
You raise that question in a very even-handed and thought-provoking way. Thanks for not being angry, and for not posting in a knee-jerk manner.
(BTW: Note that my posts here have been making the point that this is a national problem, not a Texas problem. Nevertheless, I will try to answer your question, since you asked it so well.)
You are correct, there are crooked cops, crooked politicians, and morons in plenty of other states. I've had plenty of Texan friends who are sane, good people, and I've visited Texas a few times myself and emerged unscarred. But I too share this prejudice against Texas. Why?
First of all, I associate Texas with the Bush family and with the oil lobby. This association goes back to the '80s for me. Perhaps it's unfair, but Texas has been branded with "corrupt, destructive, hope-crushing politics" in my mind. (Older people might associate Texas with the Kennedy assassination? If so, this association goes back a long way!)
Opponents of the death penalty point to Texas as the main offender, as Antinous has pointed out.
Texas's size also makes it more damaging than other states, in some respects. An example: Texas is one of the only states to have a state-wide body that approves textbooks for secondary education. Because it's Texas, this body has a substantial christian fundamentalist slant. Because it's such a big market, textbook publishers have to kowtow to Texas's illogical requests to include "Intelligent Design" in science textbooks, for example. If it were North Dakota making this demand, it wouldn't matter so much. Being big makes Texas more influential, and therefore more dangerous.
All of this is truly unfair to average Texans, though, so your point is well taken.
@ Antinous #21: Texas generates more stories about corrupt cops and human rights violations than most of the rest of the US combined.
Did you just make that up, or can you provide a citation? Honestly, I'd love to see reliable per-capita numbers for this sort of thing! I found this Southern Poverty Law Center map for hate groups, which actually puts California before Texas in this regard.
@21 Antinous
In response to your texashategate points:
1) There are many big difference between jokes about a city and jokes about a whole state. First and foremost, IMO, is that the difference in focus - making fun of boston for things done in Boston is far more focused than making fun of all of Texas for things done in one small part of it. If the hate was directed at just the town or county it happened in rather than the whole state I'd be far more likely to be right there taking a shot of my own
2) To the first part - maybe more stories that get covered on BB but otherwise hardly - that was an innaccurate cheap shot in its own right. As for executions, yeah we got a problem there and much of it comes from the fact that we don't dispute letting the people like those in this story from voting but every state with the death penalty has some serious embarassments
3) Again, I say focus - the problem is not all of Texas it is part(s) of Texas. Show me a state without assholes and then cast some stones
4)Not without it succumbing to the real estate collapse and other problems - I am very happy with Austin in Texas and my resulting climate and still increasing home value
And now a general reminder - Bush is not Texan. My father who lives in and was born in NY is more Texan than Bush in every possible way but the address of the land he owns.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, If I owned Texas I would rent it out an live in hell.
#5 is invalid; WE ALL HATE TEXAS. Some of it out of force of habit, like hating the french, but mostly because it is seen as a state full of racists, rednecks, and asshats. A place where black people are dragged behind cars, where homosexuals are beaten to death, where the gobbernor doesnt notice the federal gobberment is oppressive until his party loses, and the locals are all zealous about being texas and embracing ignorance, hatred, and stupidity. Giving the world GW Bush doesnt help. That accent says: Stupid and cruel. The dont mess with texas BS makes ppl want to punch texians right in the face.
What will change this view? Nothing. If texas spontaneously resolved its issues its current reputation would remain the same for unknown scores of years. Memories of bad deeds are longer than those of good deeds. Life is like that. It pays to not be an asshat to begin with.
Outside of that... This kinda corruption has infected the entire country thanks to the war on drugs. This story was about texas, but you will see this sort of thing everywhere.
In china they execute corrupt officials. Shame they dont do that here.
Bruce Sterling is from Texas.
I should say in Texas's defense that California is just as bad in everything except the large numbers of executions. And we have earthquakes. But we have a film industry that allows us to present our state however we want.
If you create an account and sign in, then there is no Captcha.
@ #30 Antinous: California is just as bad in everything except the large numbers of executions. And we have earthquakes. But we have a film industry that allows us to present our state however we want. =D As an at-first-enthusiastic-then-backpeddling-reluctant Californian, I can testify that "California" is the biggest sham running. ;)
@ #29Kieran O'Neill: So is James McMurtry, the only country music person that I adore! Thank dog for James McMurty; otherwise an entire genre of music would be closed off to me!
Bruce Sterling is, in fact, sterling. However, he quitted Texas for Europe in a flash.
I lobby for Texas and Florida to join.
#32 - he's living in Italy now, right? So who's more insane and embarrassing, Governor Rick Parry or President Silvio Berlusconi?
A small town terrorized by corrupt cops with the backing of crooked politicians? Sounds like a job for the A-Team!
I have a clear memory of 20/20 doing an show on this kind of police piracy going on in Louisiana over 10 years ago. They had a room full of people who all had the same story of being pulled over for the crime of driving a rental car on a Louisiana highway, taken to a police station, relieved of assets, then released without charges. The reporters had trouble believing it so they took a rental loaded with hidden cameras out and sure enough they were pulled over and accused of speeding (cameras showed they weren't) then of weaving across lanes (again cameras showed they weren't). The highway patrol was basically on a fishing expedition but got nervous and let them go when the started asking to many questions. When they confronted the Governor with the tape his answer was basically that this was all okay in the name of "the war on drugs" and any war will have innocent casualties, and all is good.
Anyone else remember this episode? I can't find it on the 20/20 website because their search system is nearly useless. Sad that a decade later it is still (or again) going on.
It Happened To Me! Or similar, anyway; different details, same old scam. In Oklahoma, which is admittedly pretty near to Texas. It was even (like the town in the video) the first town over the state line. Learn from my example, kids, and remember the magic words: I have nothing to say until I speak with a lawyer.
#36, Observe The Banana:
I use to live in LA during that time. I forget what town 20/20 cited as being corrupt, but the Atchafalaya River Basin was rife with such police behaviors along HWY 190. My family, although residents of the state, always dreaded going through that area since our plates still read Texas.
Jack's Smirking Revenge @17:
Dull joke. That one yours?Actually, no, it doesn't.Not feeling impressed here.
This story is appalling.
That said, I can't believe I'm getting sucked into this either. I know there have been alot of high profile Terrible Things that have happened here (TX), but show me a state without a Hate Crime and I'll show you one that doesn't exist.
Remember Rodney King, Gwen Araujo? Both not in Texas, in the Liberal Mecca of California even...
I'll be the first to admit that Texas is effed in many, many ways and perhaps its marginally more institutionalized than other states, but being so is certainly not exclusive to Texas.
All these things that are being brought up are systemic to American society, maybe even human culture, and pointing fingers, (ie the problem is over there with you guys) is devisive and unhelpful. See evidence here in this thread where we're talking about whether or not Texas actually does suck rather than police corruption, also see anywhere in Political discourse where everything is generally the fault of "those guys" rather than flawed policy.
Anyway, I'm not even Texan, I'm a Jew from CA and I often wonder how I ended up in such a conservative Christian state, and why I put up with a lot of the political/cultural BS. That's how hyperbolic the anti-Texanism here seems.
And just do you know, Texas residents do have a sense of humor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHeXm7t-aAY (kinda nsfw, since its got the F word prominently featured...)
It's not about Texas, nosehat is right.
I know of a family in Philadelphia that was destroyed by state forfeiture of assets two decades ago. Last I heard, the kids that survived were crack dealers; they figure it's just as well to be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. Their mom died in jail, probably for the crime of being an uppity black woman (she was never proven to have committed any crime other than resisting arrest) and the dad was shot dead by police for the crime of driving while black (officially, for failure to comply with a police officers' orders & resisting arrest). The seizure of all the family property and money was based on a dollar bill in the father's wallet being picked out by a drug-sniffing dog, and later proved to be contaminated with cocaine residue.
This shit will not stop, because it is targeted at the underpeople.
My feeling is that the main reason non-Texans spew so much hate about Texas originates in how Texans act when visiting other parts of the US. That is to say: badly.
I went to grad school in Colorado, and the only people more poorly-behaved than visiting Texans were Californians.
So, sadly, all of those nice Texans that we keep hearing about in BB comments aren't the ones representing Texas to the rest of the Union.
Not everyone in Texas is a redneck/racist that wants to secede. In fact, I'd say the vast majority of Texans AREN'T, and trust me, Rick Perry has been mocked seriously since his rampant stupidity became national news (again).
Well the vast majority of Texans seem to love Rick Perry:
Perry has broken all prior records in terms of Texas gubernatorial tenure, breaking Bill Clements' total service record of eight years over two non-consecutive terms in December 2008, and Allan Shivers' consecutive service record of 7 1/2 years in June 2008. As a result, according to the Dallas Morning News, Perry has had the distinction of being the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every possible state office, board, or commission to which a Governor of Texas can appoint someone (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as five of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court). Should Perry complete his current term in 2010, he will become the first Governor of Texas to complete two consecutive four-year terms.
As for Illinois, well we are quite aware of how corrupt things are. I'd say the major difference is that our corrupt officials are *moderate* corrupt officials. They don't seem to want to execute people, retarded or no, in fact there is a moratorium on the death penalty, instituted by a Republican. They are not obsessed with 'teh gays', Intelligent Design, Jeebus, abortion, sodomy and such other urgent issues.
We gave the U.S. Barack Obama, you gave us Bush, Rove, Delay etc.
I'm sorry but as for the rest of us it just seems like there's some kind of *jaw dropping* news item coming out of Texas weekly.
I don't hate Texas ... I know this stuff happens everywhere. I'm glad someone is fighting it.
Just remember, it's the small handful of stupid comments and haters that stands out. If you actually tally up the comments, a very small percentage of them is actually claiming hatred for Texas.
@38
Please read my profile so you can see that I suck at life in general.
Thank you.
IMO, for the foremost Texas does not suck.. i've lived here for 31 years.. when it does suck, it does in a very meaningful way..
for people who live in other states, the Texas Government is not structured like other states.. Rick Perry is more of a figurehead than anything, the Lieutenant Governor has the power..
again, this situation is not exclusive to Texas..
there's a larger problem with law enforcement being unchecked.. it seems that law enforcement is becoming more and more paramilitary, and has taken the attitude of being a paramilitary organization.. we are no longer citizens, we are referred to as "civilians".. they no longer protect and serve, they "enforce" standing laws and directives..
this applies to the situation in Texas.. it's not the clothing, but the attitude that is taken.. "we are correct, until we are proven wrong".. and the supposed defense that they were "just taking orders" or "following the law's interpretation of the DA"..
there's been many times i've been stopped on Texas Highways, and they are not dressed, nor act as LEOs.. but as a paramilitary action..
honestly, i'd rather have Barney Fife, than the gestapo..
i'm just as worried about getting shot from a traffic stop, as i am a mugging or robbery.. and being worried about getting shot from a LEO does not come from doing anything wrong, but from the general attitude that most LEOs have now..
AND..
i'm really tired of LEOs not knowing the Texas Penal Code.. if you are a Texan, it would be your best bet to purchase a current one.. read it, know it and keep it in your vehicle..
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS..
...The problem isn't that Texas sucks, it's that small towns are allowed to make up their own rules and break State and Federal laws with relative impunity solely because they have the support of the local populace, who feel that the corrupt cops are keeping them safe from the "evuls of them thar big cities of sin!" Their view is so long as they're not having to pay the cops salaries, it's otay for them to fleece travellers passing through with trumped-up traffic fines. There's actually been interviews of the locals regarding corruption and speed trap towns, and when they manage to get one of the locals to actually speak on camera it's usually some toothless old dirt farmer who says something to the effect of "Screw them city folks! They shouldn't be speedin' thru our town! Let the cops throw'em in jail and take their money! It pays for our being protected from their drugs and rapists and all the trash!"
...The answer would be to establish state-wide unified laws that the small towns could not deviate from. Not that it'll ever happen.
To all of you who responded in a logical manner and with respect to my "rant": thank you. I agree that our method of executing criminals is seriously flawed (and will be voting for Kinky Friedman AGAIN if he runs in 2010). I apologize for the poor behavior of Texans in Colorado; I've been witness to their behavior both in Texas and abroad (meaning in foreign countries, not necessarily just in the US). I assure you that, in Texas, not everyone is so inclined to misbehavior, just as all Californians are not inclined to misbehavior.
As far as small town law enforcement goes in Texas, you'll find that the Sheriff really does run the town, and it is a serious problem.
I appreciate everyone's patience with me, and thank you again for tolerating my deviation from the topic of corrupt law enforcement, against Antinous' wishes.
Reminds me of the "bake sales" in Bruce Sterling's Distraction...
http://www.amazon.com/Distraction-Bruce-Sterling/dp/0553576399
Yes, Texas is a horrible awful place full of bad people. It's nothing at all like awesome angelic California where I am currently forced to live.
Please, everyone continue to live here while I get back to Texas ASAP.
Also, please continue to fear small town Texas, where there are no kind, generous, and wonderful people--you'll meet much better types on 880 during rush hour. I promise.
STAY IN CALIFORNIA & NEW YORK. Texas is the scariest place on earth for liberals and you'll die (or be really really offended!!) immediately upon stepping outside the Austin city limits. Nothing good ever comes from there and as long as you keep saying it on blogs it will be true.
How would one go about getting a team to investigate such a corrupt small town and jail in Texas? One such as Eastland County, or as some would call it the state of Eastland. anyway they are getting away with all types of injustices, rights,appeals, health issues, etc. They have enough State Troopers that they can literally stop ever 3 vehicles that pass thru on interstate 20, and racial profiling is definitely an issue, Please enlighten me on what I should do because someone has to say something about what is going on in this corrupt little town.
Dekumpozed Holla!