The Camera-Shy Deputy and His Dispensation of Unequal Justice

[XLFD]

Let's say that you are a Mason County deputy and that you once served on another department and did what many people would consider totally unethical and corrupt behavior at a traffic stop.  Let's say that you did that while on camera and your police chief saw nothing wrong with it and let you keep your job without any discipline at all.  

If you were a smart police officer, you would likely try to stay on that department as long as possible because you have a considerably long history of behavior that isn't befitting of a good police officer.  But you don't, you make a move over to the county's sheriff department where you have a county sheriff who would do anything to protect his own deputies from accountability, perhaps more than the chief at your old department.  You wouldn't think that when deputies have little or no accountability that they would find the need to live within the rules or respect the rights of others who they should be dutifully protecting and serving.

So, you become a Mason County deputy and continue to engage in actions that would be decried by most sheriff's departments that care about their reputation.  You are driving around on a hot August day in 2025 and take issue with the heavy tint on the windows of that truck you saw driving on the US 10 corridor knowing that it's meant to conceal something.  They seem to be following the rules of the road, so you can't see what that tint might be hiding, but you do see what looks to be a minor crack on their front windshield, so you conduct a traffic stop.

This traffic stop of yours leads to the most ridiculous charge of a felony that most people could ever imagine, but let's put that in the backseat for now (but in plenty of detail for later) and focus more on our body-worn camera (BWC) manipulations that were mimicked by the second officer called onto the scene without any sort of questions by him either as to the propriety of such conduct.

You approach the truck you stopped and caution the driver not to get out of her vehicle as she flings her door open.  She tells you that her window doesn't work, so you approach and get her license, proof of insurance and registration, telling her that you stopped her for her cracked window.  Her passenger questions some of your questions of procedure so you ask for his ID too, but he refuses.

You're a bit butthurt by the refusal so you call that second officer to the scene, figuring that the combination of heavy window tint and one of those 'sovereign citizen' types present could end up being your biggest bust ever.  You prolong the traffic stop asking pointless questions and making pointless threats to the point that the driver asks for your supervisor when your partner arrives.  You both move away from the truck, out of earshot of the occupants when you both decide to plot some course of action on what to do for a traffic stop that's already been extended longer than it should have ever been for a lightly-cracked windshield.

As if it's an established routine, you and the other officer simultaneously turn off the audio on your BWCs and cover up the camera lens at 5:36 into the traffic stop, as seen in the still below:

For almost half a minute, your footage amounts to the grubby palms of you and your buddy, discussing who knows what, but by context of what is said and done before and after, it appears to be using your powers to find out the identity of the passenger whose knowledge of the law interfered with your bluster.  The photo below is a second before you turn your sound back on and put your hand down.

You then go into your cruiser and start using your computer for the next 12 minutes to try and unwrap the riddle of the passenger's identity using the dispatcher and LEIN to discover that information, on the hope that you can get one of America's Most Wanted.  It doesn't seem odd to you that someone who was wanted would respectfully engage in telling you the limitations of your power under the law and the Constitution, but you hold out hope. 

Your buddy does a little more fishing and comes back to tell you something.  Once again you both turn off audio and use your mitts to cover the video, at 10:19.

This continues for about 20 seconds, your pal giving you some additional pointers to figure out who the passenger is-- at least that's what it looks like as the public record of your cameras have been once again tampered with by both deputies

He goes back to the truck, you continue your research and in less than a minute he comes back again and the evidence tampering continuum begins afresh at 11:13 into your traffic stop:

This conversation lasts for a little under two minutes, and you are notably frustrated because you've used all of your resources that are supposed to be used for going against criminals and used them towards finding the identity of a passenger who had more legal savvy than you at your traffic stop.  It's unfortunate for you that you can't arrest someone for knowing more than you.   

You have prolonged a traffic stop that could have been finished within five minutes with the issuance of a fix-it citation for the windshield crack to one that lasted over 25 minutes and came with a complementary felony 'obstruction' charge simply because the driver failed to get out of her truck so that you could talk with her without being corrected because her passenger knew more about the law than you.  

Rodriguez v. US (2015) indicates that "a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures".^[2] Consequently, a traffic stop becomes unlawful if "it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission of issuing a ticket for the violation".^[25]

Multiple citizens had twenty minutes of a beautiful summer day completely wasted by your fishing expedition and baseless retaliatory felony charges against a woman smarter than you, but it did have the public learn that your own lawless behavior hasn't changed, for you are former Ludington Police Department Officer Noah Noble.

The same Noah Noble who witnessed a person break multiple traffic laws (including fleeing and eluding) one year earlier before they stopped on the petunias lining Ludington Avenue and you recognized him as fellow officer Austin Mendez.  Mendez was obviously drunk, but you flipped off the audio on your BWC on your own and then your video after conspiring with your sergeant about what to do in this situation.  Mendez would receive no citation, no sobriety test at all, but he and his car would get a free ride home thanks to your lack of ethics.  Unlike the sergeant, you never showed remorse for your actions in that incident and never received any discipline.  Here, nothing other than a crack in a windshield gets prosecuted as a felony, because you were shown to be a dumbass by a total stranger whose name you couldn't figure out even with all your powers and lack of ethical conduct.

Thank providence that YOU are not Noah Noble.  Due to the lack of morals in this peace officer, he has led his buddy in this incident, a school resource officer, into an ethical morass just like he did with his sergeant in the Mendez incident.  Worse, he has a woman facing a felony charge because Deputy Not too Noble did not have the courage to browbeat her in front of someone who knew more about the law than our nomadic tin god.  This officer is a disgrace to the profession. 

[AnxiousGuy]

Multiple local law enforcement officers have illegal tint on their personal vehicles. Would be interesting to “audit” them and see the actual numbers. “Do as we say, not as we do”.

[XLFD]

I have to believe that window tint and cracked windshield are the main pretextual reasons for traffic stops made in the middle of the day, but one can tell both pretexts are ignored throughout this 26 minute traffic stop, and this will be evident once I can release the full video and show everything that was wrong about this traffic stop.

In this case, the front side windows were both tinted top to bottom, which can be a violation of statute if the driver doesn't have exemption, which primarily consists of 1) out-of-state plates, 2) a doctor's note addressing the driver's light sensitivity, 3) factory-installed tint.  A cop can check the first one easily enough, but can't readily determine whether the other two exemptions exist without making a traffic stop.  Noble didn't say anything more about window tint after the initial reason-for-stopping stage, so this reason was superfluous.

Also in this case, one can see the majority of the windshield from the footage and there is no crack evident, meaning that the crack is likely down at the very bottom of the window and does not pose a safety risk for driving.  Having a cracked windshield is not an automatic violation of the MI MVC, it only does when it becomes a safety concern, such as when the crack obscures vision or appears to be ready to collapse the whole window. 

This was a totally pretextual stop, which is confirmed by how Deputy Noble extended it, and the driver was only saddled with a felony because the passenger laughed at Noble's ignorance of the law and basic civil rights.

One would expect a jackass law dog like Noah Noble to have a cracked windshield and illegal window tint on his personally owned vehicle, it's how they roll.

[Golf~6~Romeo]

Although I enjoy reading your proof of systemic corruption that is malignant within our local judicial system, I want for systemic change and accountability.

We, as a small community could set the example for others to follow. This systemic corruption is not unique to the city of Ludington. As above, so below. It is incumbent on the men and women of this community that possess the discernment to first identify, then formulate a solution to this unhealthy and illegal activity.

Where does the blame reside? What has become of our checks and balances?

Since I've been back home, I've fell victim to and witnessed several occasions of local law enforcement not understanding their actual role/authority. This has been reinforced by the likes of Paul Spangoila, all judges, and Mark Barnett.

Our system of checks and balances is meant to prevent the frivolous/criminal behavior we as Ludington-ites have been forced to endure. When an accused enters a mason county court room, we must assume that the actions by the prosecutor are legitimate and lawful. We must assume that the actions by the arresting officers are legitimate and lawful.

Personally, I've been found wanting.

The judges role the moment an accused Ludington-ite enters a court room is to protect the accused from improper procedures and protect the system.

Judges must recuse themselves often when in their hearts they know......

Prosecutors must quit when the corruption becomes too visible.

Police chiefs quit to avoid accountability.

Mayors and city managers move on when they realize/sense the corruption or run head first into it.

Our current mayor has been at the epicenter of this corruption for far too long.

I have zero confidence in our cities leadership and judicial system. Their underhanded, secretive, and malicious behavior must stop for our city to prosper.

DOL/RLTW

[XLFD]

I appreciate your comprehension of the problems and issues facing Ludington and Mason County and that it's not due to the natural blessings that we are all surrounded by, but the detritus amongst us that rise to the top of the food chain surreptitiously and ruin everything because of their thirst for wealth and power rather than for the health of the commonwealth and the ideals we hold dear in this country

Most of the people we see doing the heavy lifting for corruption are mere pawns working towards the systemic eroding of accountability, transparency, and integrity and the mere casting of votes every even year will not end the taint as the candidates who primarily stand for nothing are the trained seals chosen by the local puppet masters to clap and do flips.