Turkeys not Tickets, Probing not Groping

[XLFD]

In a tradition much like the somewhat older "Shop with a Cop" program, police agencies across America have recently embraced another way to give back to the community they serve with "Turkeys not Tickets" (TNT). 

It's a simpler variation of another Christmas-themed giveaway by police where they stop a motorist for a minor infraction (real or imagined), then in the process of writing their ticket, find out what they want to give somebody for Christmas, and have a second officer purchase it and it's in the motorist's hand by the end of the stop (as was done in Lowell in 2016).   

TNT only needs to involve one cop and a generous turkey donor, usually a local grocer looking for a good return of positive advertising for just the cost of a dozen turkeys or so.  This happened in Escanaba with the local police.  

Other police agencies in Michigan engaged in granting turkeys for illegal turning this year, like Westland and various areas like Otsego County by the Michigan State Police, always seem to have one of the local television camera crews with them to capture the moment of surprise, relief, and/or gratitude of selected motorists.

They need moments like this captured on video, because there a lot of videos coming out just about every day capturing them doing things that are rather improper.  Earlier this year, for example, a video was released to a citizen watchdog showing some troopers from New Jersey taking a man out of his vehicle on the pretext that they smelled an odor of marijuana.  They used this as their probable cause so as to detain the driver in handcuffs, put him in the back of their paddy wagon. and search his vehicle without a warrant.   

 

Finding nothing, they go back to the man and start searching his body in a rather intrusive fashion right at the side of the highway.  "He might have stashed it somewhere," one trooper says, "That's what I'm thinking," says the other.  

“… Stashed it somewhere where we can’t just … physically can’t … it’s not in his pockets."

“Am I free to go?” the man asks.

“Not at this point, no”

“Am I under arrest?”

“Yes. you are.”

“For what?”

“You’re under arrest for the odor of marijuana.”

Now New Jersey law, like Michigan law, doesn't allow for arrest just because you or your vehicle reeks of marijuana (attorneys agree, even several NJ ones).  It could justify enough probable cause for a vehicle search or further testing to see whether you're under the influence, but it does not allow for the severely invasive search that follows on the man, as Trooper Joseph Drew proceeds to savagely poke, prod, and molest this innocent man as he finds nothing.

According to the $900,000 lawsuit that Jack Levine filed this June, Trooper Drew "put his hand down [Jack's] pants and went from his tailbone, down the crack of his buttocks to the front near his genitalia, then put his hand in his front and groped his genitalia and moved his private parts around."   The video affirms the trooper saying "If you think this is the worst I'm going to do, you have another thing coming,"

Trooper Drew performing the body cavity search also violates NJ Attorney General guidelines saying that body cavity searches are to be performed by a licensed medical professional with consent.  Levine, who was eventually cited for following too close/tailgating another vehicle after he underwent minutes of sexual assault, had the citation dismissed in court.  

The two troopers involved and the NJSP are likely destined to pay big for torqueing Levine's turkey and fondling too close/tail-grasping.  But they likely won't have to pay nothing out of their own pockets, won't be reprimanded for their unwarranted assault, and may have even given out donated turkeys earlier this month.  Nobody should want to be stopped by police arbitrarily, not even for a turkey or a choice gift, when the police can conspire together to trample your rights without more severe repercussions.  Your rights are much more valuable than either.

In Michigan, even if you voted against making recreational marijuana illegal, you should be thankful this Thanksgiving weekend that these outrages will be a lot less likely to happen here now.

[Willy]

Would those cops have searched a female suspect in the same manner. The ME TOO movement would have eaten them alive. If the police want to show their generosity to law breakers then why not give a turkey to a bank robber or murderer. That would show a lot of Holiday spirit. By the way, I haven't heard anything about the shop with a cop program this year. I wonder if people have stopped donating until the missing money from previous shop with a cop programs has been accounted for.