A cop in (Ludington) Michigan sees a drunk driver at 2am and pulls him over. Then he realizes it’s his coworker – an off duty police officer at the same department. It’s his buddy, who just basically smiles at him and they both know he’s in trouble. Gee, that really sucks, right? But not to worry…. Everything will be okay because they’re the cops. And they can just turn their bodycams off, collect no evidence, and drive him home. Then the public will never find out, right?
These cops are involved in a high speed pursuit, in the snow, with a reckless drunk driver. Then they find out that he’s actually one of their fellow deputies (Macon County Sheriff’s Office – Illinois). Surely they didn’t turn off their bodycams, actively try not to obtain evidence against him, and give him a paid vacation, did they?
In October of 2024, Monroe County (Florida) Deputy Jonathon Lane pulled over a dad/husband who was hauling a boat too slowly. The driver had previously suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Deputy Lane immediately escalated the situation to a felony arrest of the driver, afterwards lecturing the man’s wife about his integrity and the importance of following the law. But as it turns out, Deputy Jonathon Lane has a “confidential” past that exposes his own law-breaking, as well as his department’s apparent coverup of that law-breaking.
An Oklahoma City police officer pulled over Canadian County (OK) Sheriff Chris West for speeding (outside of Canadian County). Almost immediately, he recognizes Sheriff West, who proceeds to demand special treatment, ultimately lecturing – and perhaps threatening/intimidating – the officer, who only gave him a warning. He just happens to be one of the sheriffs who were just with President Trump in the White House a couple of months ago, and also the same sheriff who has long operated a cash seizure trap on his highways that seizes cash from law-abiding Americans.
Remember the Orlando Police Department Officer who was criminally charged for fleeing a traffic stop in Seminole County, Florida, after being caught speeding 80 mph in a residential area? You may not want to know how that one ended…
Road construction workers are facing felony assault and kidnapping charges after claiming they were the ones assaulted by a mystery driver. Even though the workers told the responding officers they believed the perpetrator was drunk, they let him drive away without a DUI investigation. It’s a secret case sealed by the courts, and authorities won’t say the name of that driver. As it turns out, the mystery driver was an off-duty police officer. Ten days after the incident, the workers were scheduled to have a TV news interview about the assault by the mystery off-duty cop. But instead, police officers arrested them prior to the interview.
A prominent judge in Houston, Texas, was pulled over on suspicion of DUI back in April. She was allowed to leave with only a warning, even though the officers believed she had been drinking and observed her driving on the wrong side of the road and speeding. Also, there was no footage of what transpired during the 45 minute incident, because the officers “obstructed” their body cams. There was however audio, and both the audio and dash cam footage later surfaced once it was realized by the media that the judge had seemingly disappeared – only to reappear under arrest several months later for DUI. But this wasn’t the same DUI, but a separate incident.
About a year ago, a woman called 911 reporting that a man had exposed himself to her in Daniel Boone Park, located in Charleston, West Virginia. She told the responding officer that she recognized the man from TV. As it turns out, it was Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper. Within days of the incident, Mr. Carper’s family told the media that he had a heart attack and the allegations were just an “awful misunderstanding” related to a health emergency.
In the ensuing year, Mr. Carper remained on the county commission, while the public was kept far, far away from the bodycam footage documenting the incident. Now the footage has been released. It shows that the responding officer began the coverup from the very first minute.
The former sheriff of St. Johns County was not issued a ticket or arrested after he was pulled over with 8 grams of marijuana in his vehicle. David Shoar, who served as sheriff from 2004 to 2021, was pulled over at Pope Road and A1A Beach Boulevard about 9 p.m. after failing to stop at a red light before making a turn, an incident report from the St. Augustine Beach Police Department states. Was he given special treatment?
This is the statement released by the St. Augustine Beach Police Department:
On Dec. 15, 2023, at approximately 9 p.m. officers from the St Augustine Beach Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a motor vehicle for a minor traffic infraction near the intersection of Pope Rd and A1A Beach Blvd. The driver of the vehicle was identified as David B. Shoar. Officers detected the odor of burnt marijuana emitting from the vehicle.
Upon approaching the vehicle, officers saw what they believed to be marijuana visible inside the vehicle. A roadside investigation and interview were conducted by officers. No driver impairment was detected during the interview/investigation. After a search of the vehicle, three marijuana cigarettes were seized for destruction. SABPD officers conducted a thorough investigation adhering to agency policy and standard operating procedures. The driver of the vehicle David Shoar was subsequently released.
Watch the bodycam footage and see for yourself this “thorough investigation.”
Hazelwood, Missouri Police Chief Greg Hall, who had been with his department for 43 years, and who was chair of the St. Louis Area Police Chief’s Association in 2019, was pulled over by another police agency on May 28 for a traffic stop. He was “hammered drunk.” Was he carted off to the jail like you or I would have been? No. He was personally driven home by the police chief of that agency instead. But don’t worry, the colleague police chief promised that, “he and I are going to have a long talk on the way home.” By the way, Chief Hall made $118,000.00 last year. A few days after the traffic stop, he retired. As of an investigative report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch yesterday, July 14, they confirmed that Chief Hall had not even been charged as of yet. Remember, the stop was on May 28.
O’Fallon Police Department Officer Nathan Dye initiates a traffic stop on a vehicle he later describes as “dodging sniper fire,” referring to excessive weaving on the road. The driver, almost from the very beginning, identifies himself as a the chief of police in Hazelwood. Obviously aware that the body cam is rolling, Officer Dye apologetically initiates field sobriety tests. Chief Hall fails them. Next is the breathalyzer, which results in the chief blowing more than 2 and a half times the legal limit.
Officer Dye’s supervisor arrives. He’s brought up to speed on what’s happened. His first question is whether the stop had been recorded on body cam. The supervisor then expresses disappointment that Officer Dye was recording. “Yeah this is a tough day and age, man, you know, when you have, uh, they insist on all these electronic things and technology,” the sergeant says.
Then O’Fallon Police Department Chief Neske arrives, after being contacted off-camera by Officer Dye and his supervisor. The camera was turned off just before Chief Neske arrived. But another video showed what happened.
So what happened here, is that some animals are more equal than others. This is government corruption. Never forget that police officers are first and foremost, government employees. Agents of your government. They will protect each other. They will utilize protections they have built into the system. However, they will not extend any of those protections to you, the peasant. The only way to root out this cancerous corruption is through public exposure – through video footage and media exposure. Then to a lesser extent, through lawsuits and rare criminal prosecutions. There’s also politics. But that has consistently failed us, and indeed created this problem in the first place.
We saw this illustrated in this video footage. The younger officer, Officer Dye, who made the traffic stop, obviously wants to do the right thing and is making an effort to do the right thing. But look what he’s dealing with. His supervisor, who has clearly been around the block a few times, knows exactly what he’s doing. Question number one: is there video footage. If you wondering whether justice is served by recording as much video footage as possible of our police officers, there’s your answer. It absolutely is. It keeps them honest, when they wouldn’t otherwise be. That’s your government that wants to sneak around and lie to you. But they can’t when they’re caught on video, as here. Then, as if to one-up the wily-old supervisor, the chief himself shows up to the scene, and just bypasses the middleman. He takes the suspect straight out of detainment, and takes him home. But don’t worry…. He’s going to give him a stern talking-to on the way home.
Is this new? No, it’s been happening since the days of Julius Caesar. Government is going to government. That’s what it does. The trick is establishing accountability through public exposure.
Remember, in every interaction between a citizen and a police officer, don’t forget that it’s really an interaction between a citizen and his government. Never forget that, and you won’t have to learn that lesson the hard way.
