The video above was sent to CopBlock.org by the driver, Rojo, who had an interesting interaction with a few New York City Police officers. Rojo was waiting at a traffic light in the center lane. When the light turned green Rojo started to drive forward. That’s when the NYPD cruiser that was in the left turn only lane next to him at the light nearly struck his car because the cop failed to turn. Rojo avoided the collision by switching to the right lane and proceeded to travel down the road. To his surprise the NYPD cruiser pulled up next to him and asked him to pull over.
Rojo safely pulled to the side of the road and waited for the officer to come to his window. In the video, when the NYPD gang member arrives at his window Rojo immediately asks why he was pulled over. The officer states to Rojo that he ‘nearly ran into him’ and that he would need to see his license, insurance and registration – aka, papers, please. Rojo refuses and asks the officer to get a supervisor to come on the scene. While that officer makes contact with a supervisor, the other officer seems to ask Rojo to keep his rear window down. This is the first sign that the officers are irritated with Rojo and that they’re going to do their best to protect the sh*t out of him.
When the supervisor arrives he listens to Rojo for about 30 seconds, then demands his papers as well. Reluctantly Rojo gives up the government papers and the officer starts to ask questions about the devices hanging in the front window of Rojo’s vehicle. Instead of saying, “I refuse to answer questions,” Rojo answers them. IMO, this is a bad, bad move because the officers were clearly looking for additional things to pin on him. What you might think is a simple, or inquisitive, question from the police is really a line of questioning in disguise. Finally, after determining there wasn’t any cop-like tech gear in Rojo’s vehicle, the officers tell him that he’ll have to remove the items before he’s able to drive away.
The real icing on the cake comes when the first officer returns with a citation for ‘failure to have insurance.’ Let me say that again: “FAILURE TO HAVE INSURANCE.” Yep. After claiming to stop Rojo for failing to yield to another motorist and then harassing him for the items in his window, he’s ticketed for neither.
What freaking planet are we on? If you take the NYPD cruiser out of this story, you simply have a motorist who either made a wrong turn or didn’t realize the left lane was a turn-only lane. Even though that mistake did create a small disturbance, it didn’t cause any harm or damage to anyone’s property. Both parties most likely would have realized the mistake and carried on with the rest of their day. Yet, since this was a police cruiser, Rojo was detained, harassed, and extorted for what seems to be, by all accounts, the officer’s mistake.
That’s messed up and is another reason why I routinely say, “This is what a police state looks like.”
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Turn-Only Lane Doesn’t Apply to the NYPD (VIDEO) is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights