{"id":47977,"date":"2022-11-08T10:25:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T15:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=47977"},"modified":"2022-11-09T13:14:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T18:14:28","slug":"sometimes-the-police-are-just-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=47977","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes The Police Are Just Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not every American is polite. Not every American willingly hands over identification when unjustly stopped by the police. However, police have a responsibility to do their jobs professionally rather than using a person’s bad manners as an excuse to arrest them. On Monday, Hot Air<\/a> posted an article telling the story of an arrest that I believe should never have been made.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

According to the arrest report, the deputy stopped 61-year-old James Hodges, because she thought he may have had a gun in his back pocket.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hodges objected to being stopped, and shortly after deputies confirmed he was carrying a walking stick. Hodges refused to provide his ID to the deputies, while objecting to being detained.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe repeatedly refused to allow identification of the object in his his pocket as well as refusing to identify himself,\u201d the arrest report says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do police have the right to stop you and question you because they are suspicious of what you have in your pocket?<\/p>\n

The story continues:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened but it really doesn\u2019t convey the sense of the encounter. Things started off civil with a \u201cHi there\u201d from the female officer and a \u201cHey\u201d in response from Hodges. \u201cWhat\u2019s this in your back pocket?\u201d the officer asked. At that point, Hodges got a bit hostile. \u201cIt\u2019s a navigational aid. What\u2019s the problem are you a tyrant?\u201d he replied.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The officer also seems to have abandoned her professionalism by responding in kind \u201cYeah, I am actually,\u201d she said. It\u2019s downhill from there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hodges does some sidewalk lawyering, refusing to give his name and asks what probably cause the officer had to stop him. She explained that it appeared he might have a gun which was not being carried properly. At this point, Hodges pulled out his folded walking stick and showed it to the officer. It turns out he is legally blind though officers didn\u2019t know that at the start of the encounter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having established that there was no gun or other weapon involved (and therefore no probably cause to suspect a crime), that ought to be the end of it. Hodges seems content to walk on but the officers aren\u2019t willing to let it go. Instead they handcuff Hodges and pull out his ID. He asks for their names and badge numbers but he\u2019s not resisting in any way. Other than turning his head he\u2019s not moving at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When police realized he\u2019s legally blind they asked why he wasn\u2019t using the stick to walk. Hodges replied that he doesn\u2019t have to use it all the time but did need it earlier when he walked to jury duty because it was dark out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After running his license a voice on the radio says the word \u201cgreen.\u201d The female officer then said to Hodges, who was still in handcuffs \u201cAll right Mr. Hodges was that that hard?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be. I want your name and your badge numbers,\u201d Hodges replied. Now he\u2019s not letting it go but he\u2019s still perfectly calm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second officer snaps, \u201cYou know what, put him in jail for resisting.\u201d And that\u2019s what they did.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The local sheriff’s office says they are investigating the incident. I hope they are. I also hope that Mr. Hodges sues Columbia County Florida for arresting him. Generally I support the police, but I think they were wrong here. Please follow the link to the article to see the video of the arrest.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not every American is polite. Not every American willingly hands over identification when unjustly stopped by the police. However, police have a responsibility to do their jobs professionally rather than using a person’s bad manners as an excuse to arrest … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15964,1583,8988],"class_list":["post-47977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-columbia-county-florida","tag-hot-air","tag-resisting-arrest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47977"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47980,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977\/revisions\/47980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}