Tom You're Up - Police gone wild, confiscating and fining their asses off

[Pertinacious Tom]

https://jalopnik.com/this-tiny-alabama-town-of-1-200-has-been-overrun-by-pol-1848389331

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Residents are hoping something can be done about the situation soon. The sheriff for Brookside’s Jefferson Count, Mark Pettway, thinks everything that’s going on will eventually attract the attention of the federal government:


I think it’s one of those situations … that could possibly bring in the feds with some oversight,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they opened up an investigation. You can’t do what’s going on over there.



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Here’s hoping Pettway is right and the federal government starts paying attention to Brookside, Alabama.

Kinda cute that the sheriff thought the feds would do something other than exacerbate drug war looting. The President helped write these laws, earning praise from Jeff Sessions in the process, and people wonder why AG Garland hasn't reversed what AG Sessions did on drug war looting? Because it's embarrassing to reverse your boss' political legacy, that's why.

Anyway, it's not the feds who will notice something like this and help. It's nutjobs, again.

Institute for Justice Files Class Action Challenging Brookside, Alabama’s Abusive Policing
 

Six hundred forty percent. That’s how much Brookside, Alabama’s police increased its revenue from fines, fees and forfeitures from 2018 to 2020. This windfall did not happen by accident but is the result of a systematic effort by Brookside’s police department to prioritize ticket collection over the administration of justice. This kind of improper financial incentive not only betrays the duty to protect and serve; it violates the U.S. Constitution. A class action lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice (IJ), a nutjob law firm, and four victims of Brookside’s policing abuses seeks to secure justice for victims of the town’s policing scheme and set a precedent that justice systems perverted by a profit incentive are unconstitutional.

The new federal lawsuit has two primary claims: First, Brookside’s policy, practice and custom of relentlessly towing vehicles for bogus reasons to generate cash for the town violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Second, Brookside’s use of trumped-up criminal citations to maximize fines and fees for its financial benefit similarly violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Both claims maintain that Brookside uses its law-enforcement and municipal-court systems to generate revenue for those in charge.

“Policing for profit preys on the vulnerable, and it subverts public trust,” said IJ Nutjob Jaba Tsitsuashvili. “Courts recognize that generating 10% of revenue from fines and fees raises a presumption of unconstitutionality. Brookside generates nearly five times that.”

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Brookside has not been shy about the intent of its practices. Police chief Mike Jones, who recently resigned, declared the town’s 640% revenue spike “a failure” because the town could be raking in even more cash with “more officers and more productivity.” But even after his resignation the abusive policy and practice continues.

The proceeds of this “productivity” went almost entirely to Brookside’s police department. Of the $610,307 raised through fines and forfeitures in 2020, for example, $544,077 went directly to the police, in the form of training, conferences, vehicles and salaries. These purchases included expensive unmarked black SUVs and military-style equipment. The department even leased a mine-resistant, militarized vehicle, which officers parked outside the town hall and drove around the town as part of their rampant intimidation tactics.

“To make sure the Brookside horror stories don’t repeat there or anywhere else, the courts need to declare that abusive policing is not only wrong, but unconstitutional,” said IJ Nutjob Suranjan Sen. “Holding Brookside accountable will serve as a warning to local governments nationwide who look to taxation by citation as a way to boost revenue.”

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I wish them luck. I also wish my fellow Americans would stop electing drug war looters into high offices.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

Kinda cute that the sheriff thought the feds would do something other than exacerbate drug war looting. The President helped write these laws, earning praise from Jeff Sessions in the process, and people wonder why AG Garland hasn't reversed what AG Sessions did on drug war looting? Because it's embarrassing to reverse your boss' political legacy, that's why.

Anyway, it's not the feds who will notice something like this and help. It's nutjobs, again.

Institute for Justice Files Class Action Challenging Brookside, Alabama’s Abusive Policing
 

I wish them luck. I also wish my fellow Americans would stop electing drug war looters into high offices.

This is a good thread for this:

https://www.amazon.com/We-Own-This-City-Corruption-ebook/dp/B08BKSW6R8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2H0FY9KQZ3QEH&keywords=we+own+this+city&qid=1649609075&sprefix=we+ow%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-1

I am in the middle of this book and the cops have totally gotten past the silly forfeiture laws and just outright steal what they want.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

I am in the middle of this book and the cops have totally gotten past the silly forfeiture laws and just outright steal what they want.

That's actually an easier situation to deal with in a way. Once exposed, they won't find any defenders at all. Drug war looting, OTOH, enjoys bipartisan political support. Much harder to eradicate.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

The Plaintiffs
 

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Four victims of the constitutional abuses perpetuated by the Brookside Police Department are spearheading IJ’s class action.

Brittany Coleman
On April 4, 2020, recent University of Alabama graduate Brittany Coleman was on her way to celebrate her birthday with breakfast. She and her boyfriend were driving in separate cars, with Brittany following a few car lengths behind. A Brookside officer pulled her over for allegedly tailgating her boyfriend’s car, then forced her to stand handcuffed in the hot Alabama sun for more than 30 minutes as he searched it. He issued her a citation for tailgating and for marijuana possession. The court dropped the possession charge because the police did not actually find marijuana. The officer told her that, if not for the pandemic, he would have arrested her. Instead, he ordered her car towed, even though she was fully able to legally drive it away from the scene. Even though she did nothing wrong, Brookside forced Brittany to pay nearly $1,000 in towing fees, fines and court costs.

Brandon Jones
On December 31, 2021, Brandon Jones was pulled over while driving to his cousin’s home in Brookside to pick up COVID-19 medicine. His wife was in the car, and their three children—ages 11, 6 and 1—were in the back. Eventually, after demanding Brandon’s license and registration, the officer said he pulled Brandon over because the car’s registered owner had a warrant from another jurisdiction. Ultimately, he informed Brandon that he would tow his car because Brandon did not show the “official” insurance card, which was in Brandon’s other car at home. But Brandon had shown the officer other paperwork proving that the car was insured, including proof of payment and the insurance policy number. But the police towed the family’s vehicle anyway, stranding Brandon and his frightened children on a dark, unlit, country road on New Year’s Eve. Nearby relatives had to come pick up Brandon and his family from the roadside.

Chekeithia Grant and Alexis Thomas
On February 15, 2020, Alexis Thomas was driving her mother Chekeithia Grant’s car when Brookside police pulled her over. She immediately called her mom to let her know what was happening. Chekeithia quickly made her way to the scene. The officer said that one of the vehicle’s two tag lights was out, claimed he smelled marijuana, handcuffed Alexis and forced her into a police car. He began searching the car.

Upon Chekeithia’s arrival, an officer demanded identification. She said that it was in the purse in the car Alexis was driving. Without asking for consent, the officer rifled through the purse and wallet (slamming Chekeithia’s phone on the car and breaking it in the process). During this unlawful search, he found a small prescription bottle that he claimed contained marijuana. The officer then arrested Chekeithia and towed both cars. Chekeithia paid hundreds of dollars to retrieve the cars. Two years and several stressful court trips later, Brookside dismissed all charges against both women.

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So two of three are explictly drug war looting, the other is just drug war-enabled looting.

 

[Mrleft8]

The town that I live in.... (Actually, I don't live in the town, just the postal designation of the town) had their police dept. closed by the state a few years ago for exactly this sort of shit. Targeting certain people/neighborhoods. There was a particular cop who was nicknamed "ROBOCOP" because he would take any opportunity to beat the shit out of a black person walking on the street after midnight...... And he didn't use his fists.

Well..... The dept. got reinstated this year.... It's smaller, and has less authority than it used to have.... They have no pull over, or stop and frisk authority.... They need to call the Sheriff, or FSP for that..... BUT..... BUT....... Guess who the new chief is?...... Yup..... ROBOCOP.

If you don't have an armed, crack addicted black man raping your innocent church going holier than thou teen aged white daughter at noon on a Sunday in the chicken coop, don't bother calling.

 

[Olsonist]

Reminds me of Russell Perdock, the Lake County Sheriff who rammed his powerboat over a sailboat killing a woman onboard and then had her husband charged with murder. He became mayor of Clearlake.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Oh dear. It looks like Garland may have been fooled by Koch-$pon$ored nutjobs.

US Justice Department Supports Institute for Justice Lawsuit Challenging Brookside, Alabama’s Abusive Fines and Fees

Warning about potential law enforcement bias, the U.S. Justice Department filed a statement of interest on Tuesday supporting a class action lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice (IJ), a national public interest law firm, challenging the constitutionality of Brookside, Alabama’s profit-driven policing practices. The victims of Brookside’s exploitative practices sued the town and a private towing partner in April over abusive fines and fees that flow right back to the police, prosecutor and judge imposing them.  


“Courts, prosecutors and police should be driven by justice—not revenue,” wrote the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in its statement to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, calling on the court to reject Brookside’s motion to dismiss IJ’s lawsuit against the town’s municipal judge, prosecutor and police department. The statement explains that the lawsuit “depicts . . . a system” in which “funding for prosecutors or police officers depend(s) substantially on unnecessarily aggressive law enforcement aimed at generating income through fines and fees,” in ways that “punish the poor for their poverty and put law enforcement at odds with the communities they are meant to serve.”  


Four plaintiffs from Alabama and Georgia, who paid hundreds of dollars and suffered humiliation at the hands of Brookside’s profit-fueled car towing and ticketing systems, sued to vindicate the rights of thousands of others subjected to Brookside’s abuses. Those abuses resulted in a 600% increase in the town’s fines and forfeitures revenue from 2018 to 2020, almost all of which went right back to the police department, which also keeps 100% of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it imposes on the release of towed vehicles.


“The Justice Department’s statement recognizes that Brookside’s abusive system of policing for profit violates the Constitution, and that the town should be held accountable,” said IJ Nutjob Jaba Tsitsuashvili. “No one should live in fear of being ticketed, fined, or having their car towed for the sake of raising police revenue.”

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I agree with Jaba the Nut. Surprised to see the Biden DOJ agreeing with nutjobs but it's good to see.

 

[ShortForBob]

Has anyone here read Mick Farren's "Song of Phaid the Gambler"
There's a town there in the middle of the dessert where if you get kicked off the train and can't come up with the price of a room by nightfall you get driven into the climate changed dessert of everlasting sandstorms an howling 100MPH winds.

Other revenue raising is the whole town turns into a bar and bordello when the Veeb herders arrive. get stripped of there money and..get driven out of town into.. well..I think you get the idea.

 

[Blue Crab]

Man buns ... something needs to be done. And not just for dessert!

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

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Not sure why this story merits a new thread when we already have a perfectly good drug war looting thread. By the way, it could also go in the Qualified Impunity thread.



You have to bring a really far-fetched argument to lose qualified immunity, so that's an achievement too.

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The Brookside looters managed to lose another qualified impunity claim.

Woman Can Sue Alabama Cops for Towing Car as Part of Town's Profiteering Scheme

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In response to Coleman's suit, the three cops—Marcus Sellers, Mareshah Moses, and Anthony Ragsdale—requested a summary judgment from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Southern Division dismissing the claims against them. The officers were attempting to invoke qualified immunity, the court-created doctrine that often shields cops from civil liability for violating people's rights unless it can be shown that they knew what they were doing was wrong.

On Friday, District Judge R. David Proctor rejected the officers' request. According to Proctor's ruling, body camera footage from the cops shows Sellers telling Coleman that he didn't believe she was under the influence and, therefore, unable to operate her car safely. But Sellers then huddled with the other cops and told them that he knew that Police Chief Mike Jones (who has since resigned) wanted them to tow the cars in these situations. They then charged Coleman with possession—charges that were later dropped—and towed her car. The cops tried to justify towing Coleman's car because possession of marijuana is an "incident to arrest," but they only cited her and did not take her into custody, thus undermining their own argument in favor of seizing the vehicle.

In other, words, the cops at the scene knew that they didn't have grounds for what they were doing. And so, for now, Coleman can continue to attempt to hold them accountable for targeting her.

"The district court's denial of qualified immunity is an important step in the efforts of ordinary people to hold Brookside and its officers accountable for violating their constitutional rights," said Kochy Nutjob Tori Clark in a statement.

But the amount of deference the courts give police officers means that this part of the fight is not over. Institute for Justice Attorney Jaba Tsitsuashvili tells Reason that the cops will have two additional appeals to convince courts they should have qualified immunity. They can also raise it at the trial as an argument, and even if they lose at the trial, they can appeal yet again on the grounds that they should have qualified immunity.
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As noted in the Qualified Immunity thread, SCOTUS just decided that it's OK if a government engineer acts like a cop on a personal vendetta, so a preliminary win on qualified immunity is just that: preliminary.

 

[Raz'r]

But according to @Dog 2.0 and friends, the more cops we have and the more people we lock up, the safer we should feel.

 

[Mrleft8]

A few years ago the town I live outside of had it's department shut down. Corruption, illegal arrests, harrassment, etc. Then just last year I saw some new cars... A whole new group of 3. A chief, and 2 officers, backed up by a staff of 1 who does the phones, and sweeps up. New restrictions too. No traffic stops, no moving violations, no personal arrests. Pretty much all they can do is traffic control, and back up the FSP or County Sherriff deputies. I'm sure if someone was being raped in the McDonald's parking lot they could help out, but basically they've been neutered due to their past indiscretions.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

But according to @Dog 2.0 and friends, the more cops we have and the more people we lock up, the safer we should feel.

He's hardly the only fan of mandatory minimum sentences. We have one in the White House.

But you've completely missed the point of the thread. There's no profit in locking people up. The profit comes from taking their stuff. And before you blame Dog, we have a drug war looter in the White House.

 

[Raz'r]

He's hardly the only fan of mandatory minimum sentences. We have one in the White House.

But you've completely missed the point of the thread. There's no profit in locking people up. The profit comes from taking their stuff. And before you blame Dog, we have a drug war looter in the White House.

Lots of profit in private prisons. Assumption is it dwarves confiscation, not that I have any data.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Lots of profit in private prisons. Assumption is it dwarves confiscation, not that I have any data.

Sorry, my mistake. You get the point of the thread perfectly. Bad dog!

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

The Brookside looters managed to lose another qualified impunity claim.

Woman Can Sue Alabama Cops for Towing Car as Part of Town's Profiteering Scheme



As noted in the Qualified Immunity thread, SCOTUS just decided that it's OK if a government engineer acts like a cop on a personal vendetta, so a preliminary win on qualified immunity is just that: preliminary.

The legal system grinds along slowly. There's always a motion to dismiss and it's almost never granted.

There was a motion to dismiss and it was denied.

A federal district court dealt a major blow to notorious Brookside, Alabama, rejecting the town’s effort to dismiss a federal class action lawsuit seeking accountability for its abusive ticketing and towing practices. Yesterday afternoon, Judge Anna M. Manasco of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama denied Brookside’s request to dismiss the lawsuit and rejected a private towing company’s request to be dismissed from the case. The lawsuit—brought by four named plaintiffs represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ)—demands accountability on behalf of all drivers affected by the town’s unconstitutional system of abusive fines, fees, and property seizures.


“Brookside has rightly become the national posterchild of policing for profit,” said IJ Nutjob Jaba Tsitsuashvili. “The court’s unequivocal denial of the town’s effort to evade accountability for its abusive ticketing and towing practices is a welcome sign. It should serve as a warning to local governments across the country that they can’t prey on the vulnerable to generate revenue. Enough is enough. People are fighting back, asserting their rights, and demanding accountability.”

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In her decision, Judge Manasco noted: “Plaintiffs are seeking to dismantle the financial incentive system for law enforcement that the Town allegedly erected beginning in March 2018—a system that allegedly caused the Town to be investigated by the Alabama Attorney General’s office.” And the allegations of systemic, profit-fueled enforcement “are sufficient to plead a due process claim based on the institutional interest of the police department in generating impound fees and making arrests.” With the police keeping nearly all of the town’s skyrocketing revenues from fines, forfeitures, and oversight-free impound fees, the court observed that the lawsuit paints a picture “that the police department operated on ‘a direct eat-what-you-kill . . . system.’”
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Hmmm....

the allegations of systemic, profit-fueled enforcement “are sufficient to plead a due process claim based on the institutional interest of the police department in generating impound fees and making arrests.”

The ability to seize loot without alleging a crime would not be so dangerous in the hands of police without that "institutional interest" playing a role. I just don't believe cops want to steal a bunch of loot and hand it over to politicians.

But if they get to keep it? My trust in the cops plummets, I'm afraid. That's why I agree with Kochy nutjobs and disagree with people like President Biden on this issue.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Oh dear. It looks like Garland may have been fooled by Koch-$pon$ored nutjobs.

US Justice Department Supports Institute for Justice Lawsuit Challenging Brookside, Alabama’s Abusive Fines and Fees




I agree with Jaba the Nut. Surprised to see the Biden DOJ agreeing with nutjobs but it's good to see.

The Biden DOJ Statement of Interest

A lot of it is about the institutional corruption of the judiciary, but they do get around to how financial incentives affect prosecutors and cops. I'm glad to see at least some rogue element in the administration saying stuff like this.

 

[Remodel]

I'm guessing that Tommy Dogballs got a parking ticket.

I love how you guys are all about back the blue and blue lives matter until you get inconvenienced.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Did you pay ANY attention to any of this?

The only "law" that gets broken is having something the cops want.

I suspect that the real problem is that I park funny, which is only a red herring to distract from the REAL, real problem: I sometimes say bad things about TeamD gun bans and confiscation programs.

 

[Blue Crab]

Like having uniformed police attempting to stop a wilding mob. Respect is situational which really means it's bullshit.

 

[Olsonist]

Hi Tom!