Driving through Tenaha, TX doesn't pay for some (Cops will steal your %%*# if you're black)

[datznasty]

Not shocked here. I can't say I remember driver through this particular town, but I won't be shocked when/if they unconver other cities doing this,especially whatever city is just south of Wichita Falls and ALL of them between Wichita Falls and Gainesville on 287S (? I think, or is it 82?)

Cliff notes

- Cops will pull you over then threaten to charge you with some serious crime like money laundering, or to take your kids, if you don't surrender yourvaluables
.
- There is actually a law on the books that allows them to do so, to seize possessions of motorists and "criminals."

- Overwhelmingly, the victims are black.

- It's Texas, who is surprised?

TENAHA, Texas- You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you're African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it-at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.

More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime.

Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled highway connecting Houston with popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking and call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.

 

[datznasty]

Here's the longer article from the LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-profiling11-2009mar11,0,507135.story

Driving through Tenaha, Texas, doesn't pay for some

The Tenaha, Texas welcome sign on March 3. The tiny east Texas town is making money by pulling over black motorists and seizing their cash and property without charging them with any crime.
A lawsuit alleges that the town's police pull over motorists -- especially African Americans -- and extort money and valuables by threatening criminal charges or worse.
By Howard Witt
March 11, 2009
Reporting from Tenaha, Texas -- You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: Sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.



* Crime or no crime, motorists pay
Crime or no crime, motorists pay

More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, Ohio, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with or convicted of any crime.

Officials in Tenaha, along a heavily traveled state highway connecting Houston with several popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking, and they call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.

"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of about 1,100 residents, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point."

But civil rights lawyers call Tenaha's practice something else: highway robbery. The attorneys have filed a federal class-action lawsuit seeking unspecified damages and a halt to what they contend is an unconstitutional perversion of the law's intent, used primarily against African Americans who have done nothing wrong.

Tenaha officials "have developed an illegal 'stop and seize' practice of targeting, stopping, detaining, searching, and often seizing property from apparently nonwhite citizens and those traveling with nonwhite citizens," asserts the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

The property seizures are not happening just in Tenaha. In southern parts of Texas near the Mexican border, for example, Latinos allege that they are being singled out.

According to a prominent Texas state legislator, police agencies across the state are wielding the asset-forfeiture law more aggressively to supplement their shrinking operating budgets.

"If used properly, it's a good law-enforcement tool to see that crime doesn't pay," said Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. "But in this instance, where people are being pulled over and their property is taken with no charges filed and no convictions, I think that's theft."



Money, minorities

David Guillory, an attorney in nearby Nacogdoches who filed the federal lawsuit, said he combed through Shelby County court records from 2006 to 2008 and discovered nearly 200 cases in which Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists. In about 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.

But in 147 others, Guillory said the court records showed, the police seized cash, jewelry, cellphones and sometimes even automobiles from motorists but never found any contraband or charged them with any crime. Of those, Guillory said he managed to contact 40 of the motorists directly -- and discovered that all but one of them were black.

"The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African Americans," Guillory said. "Every one of these people is pulled over and told they did something, like, 'You drove too close to the white line.' That's not in the penal code, but it sounds plausible. None of these people have been charged with a crime; none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable."

In some cases, police used the fact that motorists were carrying large amounts of cash as evidence that they must have been involved in laundering drug money, even though Guillory said each of the drivers he contacted could account for where the money had come from and why they were carrying it -- such as for a gambling trip to Shreveport, La., or to purchase a used car from a private seller.

Once the motorists were detained, the police and the Shelby County district attorney quickly drew up legal papers presenting them with an option: Waive their rights to their cash and property or face felony charges for crimes such as money laundering -- and the prospect of having to hire a lawyer and return to Shelby County multiple times to contest the charges in court.



Apparently routine

The process apparently is so routine in Tenaha that Guillory discovered pre-signed and pre-notarized police affidavits with blank spaces left for an officer to fill in a description of the property being seized.

Jennifer Boatright, her husband and two young children -- a mixed-race family -- were traveling from Houston to visit relatives in East Texas in April 2007 when Tenaha police pulled them over, alleging that they were driving in a left-turn lane.

After searching the car, the officers discovered what Boatright said was a gift for her sister: a small, unused glass pipe made for smoking marijuana. Although they found no drugs or other contraband, the police seized $6,037 that Boatright said the family was carrying to purchase a used car -- and then threatened to turn their children, ages 10 and 1, over to Child Protective Services if the couple didn't agree to sign over their right to their cash.

"It was give them the money or they were taking our kids," Boatright said. "They suggested that we never bring it up again. We figured we better give them our cash and get the hell out of there."

Several months later, after Boatright and her husband contacted an attorney, Tenaha officials returned their money but offered no explanation or apology. The couple remain plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit.

Except for Tenaha's mayor, none of the defendants in the federal lawsuit, including Shelby County Dist. Atty. Lynda Russell and two Tenaha police officers, responded to requests for comment about their search-and-seizure practices. Lawyers for the defendants also declined to comment, as did several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

But Whitmire says he doesn't need to await the suit's outcome to try to fix what he regards as a statewide problem. On Monday, he introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would require police to go before a judge before attempting to seize property under the asset-forfeiture law -- and ultimately Whitmire hopes to tighten the law further so that law-enforcement officials will be allowed to seize property only after a suspect is charged and convicted in a court.

"The law has gotten away from what was intended, which was to take the profits of a bad guy's crime spree and use it for additional crime fighting," Whitmire said. "Now it's largely being used to pay police salaries -- and it's being abused because you don't even have to be a bad guy to lose your property."

 

[saint lt]

Originally Posted by DatZNasty




- It's Texas, who is surprised?

 

[usa pride4life]

!%*$ the police.
!%*$ the racists.
!%*$ Texas.

 

[414hammerboi]

:smh

 

[koolkatz]

I SWEAR I HATE TEXAS FOR SOME REASON LIKE REALLY BAD
$+!* TEXAS!!!

 

[datznasty]

Fam, outside of the college and Military cities, Texas is likely the most backwards thinking state in the nation, with Georgia not far behind. Everything fromHate groups actually getting tax-exempt not for profit status, to the many examples of racial justice, to their citizens and their reaction to anybody whodoesn't look and talk like them, state is a cesspool, bottom in the nation in damn near everything; the fattest, the dumbest, you could go on for days

 

[coolnificent]

I'm glad they're not on my route home.

 

[ritch1088]

Yeah I hate east Texas.

 

[bowzer blitz]

I'm sorry...but those people weren't smart. No way cop or not you jacking me for %$#% I never did...Not happening.

 

[datznasty]

They're cops, what are you going to do? They have the ultimate impunity and are threatening to put you in jail or worse. At worse, you'll fight it byhaving to continuously return to Texas with your expensive lawyers after having been put in jail for failure to give the cop whatever valuables you have onyou.

 

[pacific]

Wow, there's gotta be something the Federal Gov't can do about this law.

 

[danikerhino]

That %%#@ is wrong, they can lock me up, I'd tell my fam in Cali to complain to the governor and make it a federal case.

 

[moonmaster3]

Originally Posted by DatZNasty

Fam, outside of the college and Military cities, Texas is likely the most backwards thinking state in the nation, with Georgia not far behind. Everything from Hate groups actually getting tax-exempt not for profit status, to the many examples of racial justice, to their citizens and their reaction to anybody who doesn't look and talk like them, state is a cesspool, bottom in the nation in damn near everything; the fattest, the dumbest, you could go on for days

Dude you can say that about ANY state. EVERY state has backward ##% rednecks, yes even Cali and I'm sure there are some rednecks in upper New York.Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio is where the majority of the population of Texas is...so I don't understand your argument. Dumbest? Homie what collegedo YOU go to? What state are YOU from? Racism? Wait, Cali or NY doesn't have racism? Every country in the world has racism.

 

[joegalvan]

Originally Posted by DatZNasty

Fam, outside of the college and Military cities, Texas is likely the most backwards thinking state in the nation, with Georgia not far behind. Everything from Hate groups actually getting tax-exempt not for profit status, to the many examples of racial justice, to their citizens and their reaction to anybody who doesn't look and talk like them, state is a cesspool, bottom in the nation in damn near everything; the fattest, the dumbest, you could go on for days

the f' you talkin about?

 

[datznasty]

The whole dumbest thing was based on average test score, and IQ, which both obviously have their flaws when measuring intelligence but that's all we have.

http://hotlineoncall.nati...08/the_dumbest_the_1.php



I don't like to stereotype though. I'm not saying if I meet you and you are from TX that I'd assume you automatically to be fat, dumb, racist, etc.I give up. I don't feel like searching for those maps I had seen on the subject, plus like any subject, there's so much information and misinformationon the internet I could just pick whatever "fact" I want to "prove" and find tons of articles cosigning. So believe what you will.

A map on hate groups from about a year ago

http://www.washingtonpost.../07/GR2008030702914.html

 

[moonmaster3]

I don't like to stereotype though. I'm not saying if I meet you and you are from TX that I'd assume you automatically to be fat, dumb, racist, etc. I give up. I don't feel like searching for those maps I had seen on the subject, plus like any subject, there's so much information and misinformation on the internet I could just pick whatever "fact" I want to "prove" and find tons of articles cosigning. So believe what you will.


Stereotype is all you did. You implied that you were somehow better than people from Texas. I've seen you in other threads and you're about as smart asa bag of hammers, so you have no room to talk. I really hope you aren't from Oklahoma either, cause that just opens up another can of worms.

 

[datznasty]

I'm from Oklahoma, yes. Admittedly, in all of these negative things we are right there alongside Texas at the bottom of the barrel. I don't thinkthere's any superlative we can brag about, except maybe having the most Native Americans. It doesn't have to define me though. I don't get allsensitive when people talk about Oklahoma.

 

[high class scum bag]

This is crazy. I live in TX but i've been roadtripping on the west coast the past month. My boy was just telling me i'm lame because I drive slow (10miles above the speed limit max) on the highways. He wanted me to drive 100 from LA to the bay.

I told him living in TX has taught me to set the cruise control when i'm outside of the major cities. Cops in small TX towns don't play and they'llmake up laws.

After seeing this article in the LA times yesterday he understood why I don't speed.

 

[forgot about jae]

Originally Posted by DatZNasty

I'm from Oklahoma, yes. Admittedly, in all of these negative things we are right there alongside Texas at the bottom of the barrel. I don't think there's any superlative we can brag about, except maybe having the most Native Americans. It doesn't have to define me though. I don't get all sensitive when people talk about Oklahoma.

*!%# outta here.

 

[clutch 713]

Don't Mess With Texas.

 

[grailman911]

im from texas. and although im from Missouri City(suburb's right outside of southwest houston. (mostly minorities) I dont encounter racism often. but idont know of a town called Vidor, Texas. I drive through it to and from my way to school here in Baton Rouge, La. Word is that if your black you will bejacked, killed on site if you make any stops in this town. So i make sure im all gased up before i drive through there.

 

[datznasty]

Originally Posted by High Class Scum Bag

This is crazy. I live in TX but i've been roadtripping on the west coast the past month. My boy was just telling me i'm lame because I drive slow (10 miles above the speed limit max) on the highways. He wanted me to drive 100 from LA to the bay.

I told him living in TX has taught me to set the cruise control when i'm outside of the major cities. Cops in small TX towns don't play and they'll make up laws.

After seeing this article in the LA times yesterday he understood why I don't speed.

You're braver than me. I set my cruise control like 3 miles below in Texas. I still can't for the life of me avoid getting pulled over inthat area right South of Wichita Falls though. It's not far from where that fork is that one goes to Dallas, the other goes to Gainesville if you'regoing South. Luckily, none of those cops ever tried to steal any of my @%## though. I had a cop follow me out of Subway inside Love's or Blimpie's orwhatever that gas station is one time.

Now from here to Chikasha, I hit 100 regularly. Nobody cares on that route. And it's funny because there's like 4 Highway Patrol centers you drivedirectly in front of. If they wanted to, they could just sit right there on the little entrance to the road and just catch people as they pull out of theparking lot.

 

[ryda421]

WELCOME TO THE USA

 

[toy collector123]

I drive 30 above the limit on that highway all the time.

But driving on highways in Texas FTW!! soo clean!! soo free! soo Smooth!!!