He and his wife had just visited their grandchild in Texas and were headed back home to North Carolina when a Walton County Sheriff's deputy stopped them.

“It just seemed a little unusual because we're not speeding and we're always careful drivers,” said Charles Tharp.

Tharp and his wife were told their windows were too dark. The deputy checked the tint and found it was not within the legal limit. But, on the contrary, the Tharp's Toyota dealership tested the tint and got a different reading that was legal.

“I thought that was awfully strange since these are factory tinted Toyota windows and it seems so peculiar that someone would stop you for something like that,” said Charles Tharp.

It turns out the window tinting was just the beginning of their troubles.

The deputy told the couple to get out of their car and then he began to question them about smuggling drugs.

“I don't honestly know what the stereotype looks like for a heroin smuggler, but I don't think a couple of senior citizens driving a handicapped license plate car with their little cocker spaniel really looks like we're much of a threat to anybody,” said Charles Tharp.

The interrogation went on for more than 20 minutes in the cold with the couple standing on the side of the road. It was an uncomfortable experience for Charles Tharp, considering he has cancer and often has back pain from standing.

A New York cop aggressively arrested a man who was video recording officers from across the street, telling him he was being jailed for “disorderly conduct” for “failure to disperse,” when the First Amendment allows citizens to stand at a respectable distance to monitor and observe police in public.

The Binghamton police office eventually charged Donald Edwards with “disturbing the peace,” according to the Youtube description, which is one of several contempt of cop charges that cops use when a citizen hasn’t broken an actual law along with the two previously mentioned, indicating the cop was just making it up as he went along.

The video shows Edwards didn’t say a word for 45 seconds until the cop crossed the street and began harassing him, so he was hardly disturbing the peace.

thank you for the kind gesture. I agree help with legal costs would be fantastic. I do not have a lawyer and am kind of lost as how to choose the right one. I have never been charged with a crime so never had to think about a lawyer before this.

I was arrested, fingerprinted and forced to sit on a bench inside for over an hour then let outside to do a field sobriety test conducted by CHP and then brought back inside until I was free to go. I was also told I was being arrested for a “testable amount of Marijuana at a federal checkpoint” there was no Marijuana in our possession. He told me I am being charged and released and that charge would be on my criminal record permanently.

“The 4th Amendment held to forbid Border Patrol officers, in the absence of consent or probable cause, to search private vehicles at traffic checkpoints removed from the border & its functional equivalents, & for this purpose there is no difference between a checkpoint & a roving patrol.” - U.S. V Ortiz

"...We have held that checkpoint searches are constitutional only if justified by consent or probable cause to search....& our holding today is limited to the type of stops described in this opinion. -'[A]ny further detention...must be based on consent or probable cause.' (U.S. vs. Brignoni-Ponce)" None of the defendants in these cases argues that the
stopping officers exceeded these limitations.” - U.S. V Martinez-Fuerte

"The principal protection of Fourth Amendment rights at checkpoints lies in appropriate limitations on the scope of the stop." - U.S. v. Martinez-Fuerte

Agents here can only detain for 'brief questioning" and "any further detention or search must be based on [the greater showing of] consent or probable cause." Once a driver indicates that he will not answer questions or consent to extend the detention or a search, then the only real option available to the agents are to quickly check for evidence of crime, such as contraband in plain view, and let him go if no evidence of crime is found. Source: 428 U.S. 543 (1976)

This happened to my friend today. After the Cop shut off his phone. He took him into custody. Then impounded his car. And instead of taking him to the station the cop instead dropped him off downtown and told him to find a ride home. My friend has not been charged or cited for anything. Cops name is Jarrod Conley.

In 2007 Casey McDonald pleaded guilty to selling 20 oxycodone pills for $80 to a police informant, receiving a sentence of up to two years in prison followed by probation. McDonald failed to meet regularly with his probation officer so he was sent back to jail.

He was later paroled into a halfway house but went missing after a few months, leading US Marshal's to put a man on their most wanted list who was convicted of selling 20 (twenty!) oxy pills to a police informant. Today they got their man, and shot him.

Two law enforcement officers confronted Johnson after he was turned away at the door because he was underage, said Brendan O’Toole, a staff member at the pub. One officer grabbed Johnson’s arm after he pulled out a cell phone and the other tackled him, O’Toole said.

The officers “instigated the whole thing,” O’Toole said.

The takedown opened a gash in Johnson’s head that required 10 stitches to close at the UVa Medical Center, said his lawyer, Daniel Watkins of Richmond-based Williams Mullen. Watkins said an ABC agent and local police confronted Johnson, who is a member of UVa’s Honor Committee.

Maybe the kid was trespassing maybe he wasn’t, that I don’t know, but what I do know is that this kid deserves an award. For someone who is only 17 years old, he remained calm and respectful, though he was getting none of that in return. The kid even offered to help pull the guys truck out of the mud! Talk about taking the high ground. Of course, his calm manner and kind gestures aren’t reciprocated, they are met with more egregious actions.

I assume this was a pretty scary encounter for the 17 year old and his passenger. I’d also be willing to assume that they were probably relieved when the other officers showed up on scene, too. That comfort probably didn’t last too long, as the young adults quickly learned the meaning of the “Thin Blue Line.” One officer (in the black shirt) says, “We have a police officer who saw you commit criminal mischief, OK, you can go to jail right now.”

In the last video, as if these officers haven’t provided enough one liners and jaw dropping remarks, the kid inquires about the off duty cop pulling his gun on him and his friend. His inquiry is met with the cold response of, “you know what, when you get home, call the police.” The kid asks why he has to call the police when they are standing right there. He’s then told that, “Police officers have the right to pull a gun when necessary.” Then he’s forced to get out of his car and the videos end.
Again, good on this kid for not only staying cool, but also for filming the parts of this interaction.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi estimates as many as 1,000 criminal cases will be reviewed following the racist and homophobic text messages allegedly sent by four San Francisco police officers.

Adachi and his colleagues said today that their office has already identified 120 cases involving two of the four officers and said those cases could get thrown out beginning as early as next week.

District Attorney George Gascon said he was “deeply disturbed by these text messages” and said that “in order to ensure our criminal justice system is fair and equitable,” his office will also be assessing every prosecution in the past 10 years in which the officers participated.

Adachi said its important to go through those cases that the officers touched since the racist statements in the text messages reflect attitudes of hatred that “were not born overnight” and may have impacted their conduct as officers.

Although the four officers who are being investigated were not named by the Police Department, their respective lawyers confirmed their identities are officers Michael Robison, Michael Celis, Rain Daugherty, and Noel Schwab.

San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen said today that she is concerned that as many as 10 officers, including a captain, may be associated with the text messages, a sampling of which were released publicly on Friday.

Below you’ll find links to three lapel cams. In these videos, you’ll see that officer Carswell, the K-9 officer, had no knowledge of what traffic violation had been committed. You’ll see him lie and tell Troy that he has legitimate reason for running the dog, the traffic stop detainment, and that he HAS to get out of the car or he will be arrested. I find his lack of knowledge to the initial stop very telling. Not only does officer Carswell bully Troy wrongfully out of the car, but he later lies for the police report and stated he smelled alcohol on Troy and that’s why they were asked to exit the vehicle. There is no mention of alcohol till after Troy and the passenger are out of the vehicle. And it wasn’t a statement of smelling alcohol, it was the investigative tactic of trying to further the investigation with questions like, “how much have you had to drink”? Not implying he smelt it, but implementing his common in general investigative questions trying to gain cause for furthering the investigation.

You’ll also see that, though the passenger refuses consent to a search, they search her anyway. You’ll see one officer try and get information from a phone in the vehicle and you’ll see an officer rifle through the passengers purse and flip through her address/calendar book for a few. They did find a bag of broccoli in the car. Regardless of any outcome, the initial search was illegal because no consent was given and the stop was for a tag light out, which is not reason for a search alone, yet no other reason is given for the search. Both the driver and passenger had their rights violated. The moment Troy was forced from his car for a traffic violation, this contact became a violation of rights. Let alone, Troy being set up by Carswell and causing a false K-9 alert.