Quote:
The video posted by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows the trooper stopping Bland for failure to signal a lane change.
The conversation quickly turns hostile when the officer asks Bland to put out her cigarette and she asks why she can't smoke in her own car. The trooper then orders Bland to get out of the vehicle. She refuses, and he tells her she is under arrest.
A law enforcement expert from Maryland said he was troubled by the video "from start to finish."
Vernon Herron, a senior policy analyst with the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, said if the trooper intended to give her a warning, that's what he should have done, no matter what the woman said to him.
"A person's attitude or their demeanor is not probable cause to make an arrest," said Herron, who has more than 35 years of experience in public safety and law enforcement.
http://news.yahoo.com/da-too-early-know-woman-died-texas-jail-071406087.html#
It seems like the officer who's making arrest abusing the power. The driver smokes in her car is not probable cause to make an arrest, even the trooper doesn't like smoking.
The video posted by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows the trooper stopping Bland for failure to signal a lane change.
The conversation quickly turns hostile when the officer asks Bland to put out her cigarette and she asks why she can't smoke in her own car. The trooper then orders Bland to get out of the vehicle. She refuses, and he tells her she is under arrest.
A law enforcement expert from Maryland said he was troubled by the video "from start to finish."
Vernon Herron, a senior policy analyst with the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, said if the trooper intended to give her a warning, that's what he should have done, no matter what the woman said to him.
"A person's attitude or their demeanor is not probable cause to make an arrest," said Herron, who has more than 35 years of experience in public safety and law enforcement.
http://news.yahoo.com/da-too-early-know-woman-died-texas-jail-071406087.html#
It seems like the officer who's making arrest abusing the power. The driver smokes in her car is not probable cause to make an arrest, even the trooper doesn't like smoking.