CrimLaw

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I'm curious as to what would have happened if there had been no video tape. I suspect nothing.

As I've said before, it's the courts and legislatures who bear the responsibility for these stops; the officers/troopers are playing by the rules we lay out for them. These sort of pretext stops happen all the time and the rules which the officers are supposed to play by can get pretty arcane so that I wonder if any officer gets each stop exactly right. Still this was far beyond any mistake. I applaud whoever turned over the tape and the troopers who came forth and testified honestly. I'm not sure the judge did the right thing in encouraging a settlement; I think that a jury observing and hearing about that kind of abuse would probably have come in significantly higher.

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