In a testament to how militarized police have become nationwide, a video from Gainesville, Florida shows a 23-year old veteran being pulled over last month by camouflaged cops driving and armored vehicle after he ‘flipped them the bird’. The cops stated that they pulled him over for making an ‘improper hand signal’ and accused him of engaging in a sexual act with his female passenger.
Gainesville is a college town filled with students attending the University of Florida – the cops were heavily outfitted in gear one would expect to see in Afghanistan so they could keep these ‘dangerous’ students in line while attending a three-day celebration of festivities highlighted by a Florida Gator scrimmage football game.
“I’m really getting pulled over by a tank right now?” Jewell, a Navy veteran, states, to which an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responds “yes sir”.
Jewell refers to a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling which found that a “gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity.”
However, the cop is not interested and instead demands to see the Jewell’s license before making him step out of the vehicle.
The officer then starts to get angry and threatens to arrest Jewell for “resisting” because he is not obeying orders quickly enough.
The cop claims that Jewell performed an “improper hand signal”. Jewell responds by expressing his shock that a “safe community” would need tanks patrolling the streets, stating, “I didn’t know we were in Iraq”.
Another cop then objects to being filmed, claiming that the phone camera could be a firearm, before Jewell is eventually allowed to leave.
“Deputies felt the need to dress up like soldiers because it was Orange and Blue Weekend, a three-day celebration of festivities highlighted by a scrimmage football game between Florida Gator teammates that was free and open to all ages,” reports Carlos Miller.
Concerns about the militarization of U.S. law enforcement have heightened since last year’s unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
In December, we reported on comments made by a Spokane Sheriff’s Deputy defending the use of an MRAP armored vehicle by saying it was needed to deal with the threat posed by “constitutionalists”.
“I mean, we’ve got a lot of constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, lots of ammunition, they have weapons here locally,” the officer said.
During a New Hampshire city council meeting in 2013, former Marine Corps Colonel Peter Martino, who was stationed in Fallujah and trained Iraqi soldiers, asserted that the Department of Homeland Security was working with law enforcement to build a “domestic army,” because the federal government is afraid of its own citizens. Martino was responding to the city’s Police Chief, who justified the necessity for the acquisition of an armored ‘Bearcat’ vehicle by citing the “threat” posed by libertarians, sovereign citizen adherents, and Occupy activists in the region.
As we have exhaustively documented, the use of armored vehicles is just one sign of how law enforcement authorities are gearing up to deal with civil unrest in America.
THE POT ONLY HOLDS SO MUCH STEAM THEN THE LID FLIES OFF!
Good
Isn’t there a law against that? Something about cops needing to be in uniform, in marked vehicle?
Unfu#kin believable
Another case of punk $#%&!@* cops playing soldier
I really don’t see anything wrong with this tbh. Cops need to be armed just as much as civilians do. The armed vehicle is a bit excessive but them being outfitted in camo is really no big deal.
Looks like some sort of vehicle stop conducted in the middle east, these cops like many talk to us citizens in a manner that they are superior to the average person,they forget they are nothing but a public employee and gets a pay check from the taxpayers, and they are to protect and SERVE, not to be a ruling military dictatorship,this is a free country and the citizens deserve the same respect as these police demand for them, all these military outfits need to go,I do see the practicality in some of it ,but is used as an intimidation device, maybe change the color to brighter colors,like safety orange or safety yellow, but then they would lose that bad $#%&!@* military look they are going for,
just cops who didn’t make it into the military so they all wanna play like they something they aint
wrong
Nope