DWI Checkpoint pt2 - officer doesn't respect right to silence

DWI Checkpoint - officer doesn't respect rights

In its totality, this is a minor experience, most of which wasn't recorded by me and happened away from my vehicle. Nationwide and systematic, this is a terrible trend that is happening and is slowly prying our rights and self worth away from all of us Americans as individuals.

I came up on a very large DWI checkpoint and I was tired from a long day. I was carrying a legal side arm and didn't want to put it in my glovebox or have it in plain sight and give any reason to search my vehicle. I put it in a small cooler next to me, out of sight.

I was ordered to exit my vehicle strictly because of exercising a lawful right to not answer questions. The officer is not going to let someone get away with not complying with his simple investigation so they then escalate it to the next step which is physical detainment and more investigation. The officer was fishing and I am a stubborn but proud person. When someone tries to exert control over me, I just don't automatically comply. I am as free of a man as that officer is and I consider myself his equal. I don't just go and piss on another's rose garden. I expect to be respected the same way by anyone else, no matter what the circumstances are.

The conundrum here is that I happened to drink one beer maybe 6 hours earlier at a tavern. The rest of the evening I strictly had coffee and soda. I had a long drive ahead of me, know the risks associated with drinking and then driving and will avoid driving while impaired. I was pretty tired though. If I tell him I had nothing to drink, than I lie to him. If I tell him I had one beer, I just volunteered evidence to him to justify suspicion of DUI. He also queries me on my travel and its really none of his business where I am going to or where I am coming from.

What seems like harmless questions are really intended to gather evidence to use against someone and to make assumptions from which to judge them by. If I say I was at a tavern and had one beer, that right there is evidence enough, weak as it may be, for them to make an arrest on me for suspicion of DUI. Then my car is completely searched, towed and impounded at my expense. My firearm is taken from me and I will probably be charged with illegal possession of a firearm due to a suspicion of intoxication. Of course, once they test my BAC they will more than likely release me without any charges as I am not intoxicated but some damage and punishment would already have been administered to me.

As far as the Field Sobriety Test in Missouri this is consenual on your part. You have a right to refuse this without any threat of punishment. Note the trooper tries to tell me that, yes I do after I told him I don't have to do those. He insisted further after I was taken to the FST location and I refused and restated my right to refuse.

He either flat out lied to me about my rights and the law or he is completely ignorant of this very important fact while he's helping to man a roadside sobriety checkpoint. Either way, I find it disturbing to say the least.

yes, I am chomping on my gum.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

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[lizard944]

@WStar4Life  “The claim and exercise of a constitutional Right cannot be converted into a crime.” --- United States Supreme Court, Miller vs. U.S., 230 F. 486, 489

[MrLibHater]

A crime requires a victim !!!!

[skysky9898]

Nice to see you stood up for yourself. I wonder what would of happen if you were Latino or Afro American. Lol. I'm thinking the worst outcome.

[greggh]

@MKrip808 The audio is hard to hear at the end. At 3:30 does the officer say the following:

"We're at a DWI checkpoint, and when I ask you if you've been drinking, you don't want to answer me, we can arrest you for a crime."

Did the officer just say you can be arrested for the sole reason that you exercised your constitutional 5th amendment right to remain silent?

If that's what he said, then I would disagree with you're description of this as a minor experience. This is horrendous.

[Screwlwork]

@2jzgteSupraJZA80 Wow, you have no idea how far our Constituion has been walked on. Go to law school, you'll break down in tears once you realize what the federal government is capable of. The 14th amendment was the end of your pleas for the 4th, and oh whats that you say 5th? have fun explaining due process

[ohannahdad]

@toolmkr1 Government officials & LEO(s) work for us!! We are the people! Since when does your employee tell you that you can NOT have a record of his/her actions?? This is the tail wagging the dog; is it not?? It defies logic to hire somebody to work for you, and then YOU offer THEM blind obedience to their every commsnd. They should fear us;..we should not fear them!!

[smokemadbuds991]

should have just went with it.... not answering if you had any drinks is asking for trouble dude.... just because you have the right to not answer questions doesnt mean you have to practice that right....

[toolmkr1]

It's sad that the police have more respect and protection from the police man's bill of rights than the average citizen has from the US Bill of Rights.

[MoejoTheGreat]

@toolmkr1 You would think those laws would be automatically invalid, as they are in violation of the 1st amendment. Then you have the whole checkpoint thing which is a violation of the 4th. They are pissing on the constitution every day now. 

[toolmkr1]

@MoejoTheGreat Not any more. States are passing laws making it illegal to photograph or record government officials In my state we still have one party consent but I'm sure that will change..

[MoejoTheGreat]

@2jzgteSupraJZA80 You can record anyone in a public place, without their consent or knowledge. Unless you are in a restroom or your own home you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

[kabol69]

cops here are SUCH dicks. fucking awful cops in jeff city suck