While the But For Video series of posts tends to be used to show that misconduct and abuse of the sort claimed for decades, and denied or ignored, does in fact happen, sometimes the person protected from outrageous claims is the cop.
As Eric Turkewitz writes,
In Matter of Dear, a guy gets a speeding ticket for going 85 in a 55 zone. Said guy happens to be a lawyer. And said lawyer, who is also an orthodox Jew, tries to blast his way out of the ticket with this humdinger of a letter:
“Ladies and Gentlemen:
This ticket shall be dismissed immediately since –
a. there was no speeding and the officer refused to show me evidence that there was: (i.e. – “not guilty”)
b. even if there was speeding (which there wasn’t) – I was in a 65-mph zone NOT a 55 mph zone; and
c. The officer called me a “jew kike” – and this prejudice obviously was the cause for the ticket.
I am a licensed attorney in NY State and will be representing myself in this matter (contact details enclosed).
Eliot Dear
[signed] Eliot Dear Esq.
[business card attached]“Ouch. You know where this is going, right? The cop had a video camera on the car, unbeknownst to Dear. And the cop was wired for audio.
In case you aren’t entirely clear where this is going, Turk explains.
There’s a tendency, particularly on the part of lawyers who are not engaged in the practice of criminal law, to think that they are above the law, capable of throwing their considerable weight around by mere virtue of being a lawyer, and immune from scrutiny. You’re not. You have no right to be a liar. If you do wrong, no one cares that you (along with half of New York City) are a lawyer. And no one will weep about your getting nailed.
Turk has the details on what happened to Dear, who must have thought himself incredibly brilliant to come up with the false “jew kike” defense to something as vitally important as a speeding ticket. While it would be even more wonderful if everyone, like cops, who lie through their teeth were similarly held to account, clearly Dear earned what was coming to him.
This time audio and video exonerated the cop, as it should have. Never forget that it’s a two-way street.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
You know what’s missing from that letter?
“GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.”
Which is why I consider any cop that objects, threatens, and/or arrests a citizen recording their public activities to be a dirty cop by definition. What do they have to hide?
This is why in today’s society you should comport yourself as if you are on camera…because you are.
“I am a licensed attorney in NY State and will be representing myself in this matter” – we all know what that means, and it seems particularly true in this case.
And the cop was being nice! Want to bet the fine for 30 over is much nastier than 29 over? I don’t know what NY is like, but if the California Highway Patrol wrote that ticket, it would mean I was faster, but he was being nice.
I googled, the cop probably was being a little nice, NY speeding fines step as follows: up to 10 miles per hour, 11 to 30 miles per hour, more than 30 miles per hour, so if he had been written up for 86, it would have about doubled his fine over the 84 it was written for.
This is why all (good) cops should be FOR video (at least in public, of course) – it’s only bad for you if you’re doing something wrong.
Isn’t that what always gets trotted out when citizens demand their rights against unreasonable search and seizure? “What do you have to hide?”