.jpg)
Yesterday, Texas' highest criminal court took more of your civil rights away. Roadblocks to check for drivers license and insurance have always been legal so long as the sole purpose of the stop was to check for drivers license and insurance. That's why you never see them. If the purpose was truly to check for DWI or crime in general, they were illegal. That's what made the checkpoints no fun, and that's why the cops didn't do them. They could never establish, with a straight face, that they weren't setting the checkpoint up to look for other crime.
But yesterday the Court ruled that those checkpoints are legal even if the cops stopping the cars was a unit of six to seven officers including a drug dog! And so what if one of the deputies testified that they were "there for any violations they came across"! The trial judge, when asked to declare the checkpoint illegal, obviously didn't believe him and must have believed the other deputy that testified they were there solely to check for DL and insurance. At least that's what your highest court said.
So how did this guy get in trouble? He didn't have a license, had an outstanding warrant, and cocaine in the car. Ah ha!!! You say! Big deal. He deserved to get caught!
But you're missing the big picture. It is you they will be stopping next. And an attitude of "I don't care because I have nothing to hide" is exactly why we are in the sorry state we're in.
