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Proving once again the necessity of his federal lawsuit and his new website, the owner ofDontWakeMeUp.Org was ironically woken up on the very day that he publicly launched his new site and PR campaign. At the internal suspiconless border checkpoint on I-35N in Laredo, Texas, border officers once again woke up an off-duty sleeping truck driver and tried to demand that he step out of the vehicle. Once again, the motorist recorded the interaction.
A few lessons here: Always have your camera ready to record all interactions with law enforcement. You do not have to comply with illegal orders. You do not have to get out of a vehicle when there is no reasonable suspicion or probable cause. If you’re not driving, you don’t have to show ID. As illustrated by Terry Bressi at the great website CheckpointUSA.Org, you are not obligated to answer any questions at internal suspiconless warantless checkpoints.
The incident began when the co-driver pulled into the checkpoint.
Officer 1: “How you doin?”
Driver: “Good.”
Officer 1: “Is there anyone else with you?”
Driver: “Yeah, my co-driver.”
Officer 1: “Can he step out?
Driver: “Huh?
Officer 1: “Can he step out real quick?”
Driver: “He’s sleeping.”
Officer 1: “Can you wake him up for me?”
Driver: “Um, I should not wake him up, we are going to California and he needs to rest eight hours.”
Officer 1: “If you want I’m just trying to make it easier for you. If not I’ll just send you over there. Whenever he wakes up, do you want to do that?”
Driver: “What are you talking about?”
At that point the off-duty resting driver gets out of bed with the camera.
The off-duty driver then gets up with camera in hand, saying “Is there a problem sir? What’s your name? Let me talk to a supervisor.”
The officer looks very disappointed to see the camera and immediately gets down from the truck and walks away, turning his back on the camera.
“Get your supervisor,” the off-duty passenger repeats.
The officer gets on his radio to call backup.
The crazy thing is that border agents have no authority to interfere in interstate conmerce and delay a load travelling between states. Nor do they have a right to demand someone step out of the vehicle, show their ID, or interrupt their 10 hour sleeping period with no probable cause.
A second officer with a drug sniffing dog comes snooping around the truck but the first officer says “he has a camera” and the drug dog cop backs off immediately also. Apparently these power-starved jackboot lunatics have an aversion to cameras for some strange reason.
A few moments later a supervisor named Richard Zelmer hops on the running board and asks “How ya doin?”
The off-duty passenger asks Zelmer the first officer’s name, but Zelmer refuses to give it numerous times. The off-duty passenger then reiterates that they aren’t allowed to wake him up. Despite the fact this interuption was done under the guise of determining “citizenship,” no officer at any point ever asked either driver about ctizenship status, and neither driver said anything about citizenship. Zelmer, however, concluded “you’re free to go” when the off-duty passenger kept saying not to wake him up.
When the passenger tells him “do not wake me up again, you understand me?” at minute 3:11, Zelmer tries to open the driver’s door but it is locked, so he turns away and continues trying to shield his face from the camera.
“You’re free to go whenever youre ready,” Zelmer continues, then waves his hand directing his officers away, telling them “everybody just step back and get out of the camera.”
The same people had an eerily similar, nearly identical experience with exactly the same outcome in New Mexico in late 2012: Motorist puts police in their place at suspicionless internal checkpoint December 2, 2012
[Must see video- Featured on PrisonPlanet.com].
The following is the statement of purpose at DontWakeMeUp.Org:
The purpose of this website is to raise public awareness regarding this important issue. Not just to the truckers and the trucking industry but to everyday Amercians. For all our freedoms matter. This case applies to all Amerians as it relates to the right of people to refuse illegal demands for ID and illegal searches. If you know any truck drivers, please tell them about this website so that they will be able to see the resolution to this case as well as to defend their own rights when driving.
The purpose of the lawsuit is to gain restitution for damages and also to prevent this illegal practice from being enacted again, in Texas and across the United States.
I work very hard for a living, and should be free to exercise my business without unlawful interferance. I’m not some elitist banker who sits in an office and robs people blind through theft and usury. I am fortunate enough to be one of the diminishing number of Americans who still have a job unlike the86 million plus unemployed or the 50 million hungry people who must resort to food stamps – government handouts- to eat every month. I am blessed to work in a career where I can make decent money.
I am never going to submit to petty power-starved jackboot thugs who misuse and abuse their authority under color of law. My ancestors helped build this country- I was not raised to worship the state. I do not grovel to tin-pot tyrants or corrupt police officers. We need to hold police and their agencies accountable to the Constitution which they supposedly swore to uphold.
The border officers both in Texas and New Mexico in the above videos both contended that we can “pull over to sleep” if we’re tired, after they interupt my federally mandated ten hour sleeper break. “Pulling over to sleep” is not the point. Number one, they have no legal right to wake us up. Cops have no right to interfere in interstate commerce and make us stop working simply because we pull through a suspicionles border checkpoint roadblock. They have no probable cause to wake the person in the sleeper. Number two, the reason commercial drivers work in teams is to get the freight from point A to point B in a limited period of time across the country. For if a team stopped every time either of them was sleeping, there would be no reason to drive teams- that would defeat the purpose. Solo drivers stop and park to sleep after their shift. Team drivers do not. Any idiot can figure this out.
So how are we going to make rogue cops stop this illegal practice? Only by holding them accountable will we stop this practice. That is why I sued those two absolute degenerate power-starved lunatic cops in Texas. As I’ve said before, I will win this case.
RELATED:
DontWakeMeUp.Org Launched As Civil Rights Lawsuit Proceeds Against Texas Troopers
Trooper facing civil suit denies threatening motorist with arrest, despite being recorded
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