Officer Gets Mad After Issuing Questionable Commands

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers the lawful orders by police officers the vagueness doctrine and probable cause and is brought to us by rolando bass's channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we dive into the interaction i would like to invite you all to check out the ata patreon page where you can find uncensored ad-free and exclusive content that you can't get anywhere else on the morning of december 10th 2019 in frederick maryland deputy sophia labe of the frederick county sheriff's department and his partner pulled over youtuber rolando bass for allegedly failing to stop at a red traffic signal before making a right turn after being pulled over mr bass partially rolled down his car window and prepared to hand over his license and registration the officers approached the rear of mr bass's vehicle and ordered him to roll down his window no i'd rather not put my window down your windows down now i refuse to put my window down [Music] why are you grabbing my doors like that what are you doing open the door no roll down that window so he can talk to you my window is down so he can talk to me it's not my fault he's scared to approach you got good you got your hands on guns you expect me to just no that's crazy no man y'all sitting here looking like y'all ready to shoot me you mad cause i won't roll the window down some more come up here you just walked up here why is he scared to walk up here man now you ain't got no problem walking up here what are you doing man what are you doing bro you got bro i was about to roll my window down and i sit there you put your window down with your gum on your head i asked you before i even went for my gun oh well what is the problem with is it a lawful order yes it is no it's not yes it is deputy labe insists that his demands that mr bass roll down his car window constituted a lawful order as we have discussed many times on ata there is no specific legal requirement that citizens roll down the windows of their vehicles more than necessary to facilitate communication however section 21-103 of the transportation article of the maryland code states that an individual may not willfully disobey any lawful order or direction of any police officer the statute does not define what constitutes a lawful order or direction and courts have been silent on the issue so it is unclear whether deputy labbe's order to roll down the window was actually lawful the law is clear that police officers have the authority to order drivers and passengers out of a vehicle during a traffic stop in the 1977 case of pennsylvania vs mims the u.s supreme court determined that police officers may lawfully order drivers to step out of the vehicle during a legal traffic stop although i have routinely noted that there is no legal precedent or law that compels citizens to roll their window down there is still a serious possibility that a court might determine that deputy lobby's order to roll down the window was lawful in most situations there is not a strong argument that rolling down a car window all the way serves officer safety however in this situation the officers claimed they could not see inside the vehicle due to the window tint which could be perceived as a threat to officer safety by a court because the intrusion of rolling down a window further is even more minimal than getting out of the vehicle it is possible a court could decide that the order to roll down the window was lawful when weighed against the officer's safety concerns no cases have challenged the legitimacy of such an order and although there are no laws against such an act that does not mean that a court would rule in favor of the citizen the odds of a case making it to the supreme court based on whether the order to roll down a window is lawful or very low and a decision like this would likely be left to lower courts to determine each court may reach vastly different conclusions based on a variety of factors such as the historical rulings of the court the local cultural differences and the circumstances of the situation being challenged although it is highly unlikely that a court would uphold an arrest of a citizen for simply failing to roll their window down these situations call into question the validity of the lawfulness of such an order what off water is it i'm giving you an order to roll your windows down and how was that like we cannot see in here oh well i didn't know that you're trying to you're making a stop that would have been trying to protect myself i'm trying to protect myself how are you doing that by now your windows down ain't crazy here you go you want to answer that question or you want to cut yourself off and me off one minute registration all right there you go it's been ready for you the whole time games for no reason you're not playing anything yeah you are no no it's a simple command roll your windows down just so i could make sure that i don't have any threats coming up to the vehicle all right well come on how are you protecting yourself by not doing a simple order bruh i i feel like i should have pulled off oh that's a bad idea hey hey i don't give a if that keep me alive bro you putting your hands on that door i had two men with guns at the back of my car telling me to roll my window down yeah that makes perfect sense for me to just do it because i should have pulled inside of the car that's not my that's not my problem it's not illegal for me to have my window up you're a cop you should know that when i give you the commands i need you to follow them i'm trying to vehicle you asking me to step out of the club not yet i'm telling you to turn the vehicle off put that out for him [Music] is your door need to do that for me right now are you pulling me out the car yes sir all right cool you should have said that in the first place keep that rolling but it's not gonna be in your hand in the process of commanding mr bass to step out of the vehicle deputy lobby orders mr bass to put out his cigarette and to not keep his gopro camera in his hand as with the order to roll down the window it is unclear whether these orders are lawful the uncertainty regarding what constitutes an unlawful order is not unique to maryland in fact even though most states have a statute that requires citizens to obey the lawful orders of police officers state laws federal regulations and court decisions generally fail to provide definitions of what constitutes a lawful order during a traffic stop the need to clarify the meaning of a lawful order received national attention in 2015 when a 28 year old african-american woman named sandra bland was arrested after refusing to put out her cigarette at a texas state trooper's request which the trooper insisted was a lawful order ms bland died by apparent suicide in a jail cell three days later section 542.501 of the texas transportation code states that an individual may not willfully fail or refuse to comply with the lawful order or direction of a police officer as with the maryland statute the texas law does not define what constitutes a lawful order because of the lack of certainty about the meaning of a lawful order some criminal defendants have argued that similar statutes are unconstitutionally vague as explained by the u.s supreme court in the 2015 case of johnson vs united states the vagueness doctrine is based in the right to due process the government violates due process when it takes away someone's life liberty or property under a criminal law so vague that it fails to give ordinary people fair notice of the conduct it punishes or so standardless that it invites arbitrary enforcement it would seem given the confusion over what constitutes a lawful order that these statutes would be unconstitutional under the vagueness doctrine however courts that have reviewed this issue have generally disagreed for example in the 2006 case of state versus illigren the oregon supreme court rejected an argument that section 162.247 of the oregon revised statutes which criminalizes refusing to obey a lawful order by a peace officer was unconstitutionally vague the defendant argued that the statute failed to give fair warning because determining the lawfulness of the peace officer's order requires sophisticated legal analysis and depends on the factual circumstances and conduct giving rise to the order the court disagreed concluding that the ordinary citizen must be presumed to know and understand the general parameters of the term lawful order the lack of clarity regarding lawful order statutes often requires citizens to guess which police orders they must comply with and which orders they do not have to follow this encourages blind obedience to police commands and creates a highly volatile environment where a small disagreement or misunderstanding can quickly escalate into a deadly situation like sandra bland's until the government takes action to clarify the extent of police officers authority to lawfully command citizens unnecessary escalations and police encounters will continue to occur it's not going to be in mind all right i'm watching the door now please i'm giving you commands i need you to listen to them are you clear yo what's the commands man i got [ __ ] to do what's up cool interlock your fingers behind your head after extracting mr bass from his vehicle the deputies conduct a terry frisk and order mr bass to stand near their patrol car while they conduct a search of his vehicle while waiting for the officers to finish their search mr bass engages in dialogue with a backup deputy who arrived late to the scene nah well when they went away you weren't there with the way they approached my car so that's that's what set the tone this is my first interaction with that that's cool that's cool but it's your first interaction after a reaction with your man so it is what it is it is what it is i understand you're being real respectful my man you're being real respectful and stuff like that yeah but i haven't done nothing illegal since this whole stop so i don't care if he feels a certain way and he's stepping it up i haven't done nothing either i don't answer questions that's my right there i didn't roll my window down it's my right and that's all i know marijuana is not marijuana is not illegal it's decriminalized in maryland i know you got virginia i'm going to explain to you what's going on okay so maryland marijuana is decriminalized anything under 10 grams is considered a civil citation anything over 10 is criminal i'm very aware you have you have odor and marijuana in your vehicle so he's going to find out and that's why i asked is there anything else in the car that we need to know about but you didn't you told me you didn't want to answer questions the officers claimed to smell an odor of marijuana in mr bass's car and used the odor to justify a search of his vehicle although maryland decriminalized the personal possession of fewer than 10 grams of marijuana in 2014 it is still a civil offense to possess an amount under that threshold it also remains a crime to possess an amount over this threshold possess any amount with the intent to distribute it or drive while under the influence of marijuana this partial decriminalization of marijuana has led to a series of decisions by the accord of appeals of maryland which is the highest court in the state that flesh out when police officers can use the odor of marijuana as a justification for a search seizure or arrest post-decriminalization for example in the 2017 case of robinson versus state the court determined that a law enforcement officer has probable cause to search a vehicle based on an odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle reasoning that marijuana in any amount was still an illegal substance and therefore the odor of marijuana gives rise to probable cause to believe that the vehicle contains contraband or evidence of a crime however in the 2020 case of lewis versus state the same court concluded that the mere odor of marijuana emanating from a person rather than a vehicle without more does not provide the police with probable cause to support an arrest and a full-scale search of the rsd while this evidence would give the police probable cause to search a vehicle the court reasoned that because individuals have a heightened expectation of privacy in their person as compared to their automobile the arrest and search in the lewis case were not justified as marijuana is legalized and decriminalized across the country state courts will have to work out how this change and status will impact the rights of citizens in the meantime it will remain unclear to both officers and citizens what level of authority officers have to police marijuana possession and at what point they have overstepped their bounds so based on the voter he's going to search the car he's going to pat you down let me ask you let me ask you a question if i were to answer your question it makes it a lot easier no you would have still searched my car that's right okay so you said so if i did i didn't answer the questions so you're searching the card yeah you guys gonna do this anyway i'm gonna make you do your job it's just that simple i'm not answering any questions and that's right i appreciate you being very professional while you're dealing with me but other than that the way he acted i'm set off so he stepped it up i'm gonna step it up after searching the vehicle the officers do not find any illegal substances or weapons and deputy lobby returns to his patrol car to begin writing mr bass's citation after a brief debate about whether mr bass can film deputy lobby while he writes the citation the deputy exits his patrol car to hand over the ticket what you got for me and what's your name lebeck that's cute what you got there you go that's your copy do you want to take it or not do you want to take this can you go this thing so i can read it because you ain't explaining to me which is the professional way to do it that's protocol oh failure to stop it oh let's do this all right good luck you have a good day thank you very much after searching the vehicle and finding no marijuana officer labbe issued mr bass a traffic citation for failure to stop at a red traffic signal and failure to stop at a red traffic signal before a right turn the citation was filed in the frederick county district court the next day mr bash challenged the citation but was ultimately found guilty on february 18 2020 and was assessed a 115 dollar and 50 cent fine overall deputy lab and the other frederick county deputies get a b plus because although they remained within their authority throughout the encounter deputy lobby maintained a hostile and condescending attitude and failed to employ any measure of de-escalation even when mr bass offered him the opportunity to do so when the deputies explained to mr bass that they could not see inside his vehicle because of his tint mr bass shifted his attitude and understood why the deputies were concerned but instead of capitalizing on the opportunity to de-escalate deputy lobby continued to be rude and confrontational the deputy's attitude only made this interaction more difficult by influencing mr bass to be less cooperative and as we have seen on many episodes of ata this type of behavior has the potential to escalate any interaction into an unnecessary physical altercation the deputies carried out a legitimate search and never placed mr bass into handcuffs and nothing they did was outside the bounds of their authority as mentioned before it is debatable whether deputy labe's order to roll down the window was lawful and given that there are no laws or court cases to draw any conclusions from it is difficult to fault the deputies for issuing such an order in situations where the citizen refuses to roll down their window officers are well within their authority to extract the citizen from the vehicle and deputy lobby could have employed the mims ruling more effectively instead of using mr bass's refusal to comply as a catalyst to escalation ultimately mr bass was allowed to go free with a relatively minor citation but there is no doubt that deputy lobby would benefit from additional de-escalation and sensitivity training mr bass gets an a-minus because although he could have exercised his right to remain silent more effectively he remained calm and collected throughout the encounter maintained a respectable balance between exercising his rights and complying with the deputy's orders and refused to allow the deputy to intimidate or insult him mr bass carried himself well and did not allow the deputy's attitude to escalate the encounter based purely on this interaction alone it appears that mr bass has a thorough understanding of both his civil rights and the laws of his state and he demonstrated that knowledge by knowing which orders to comply with and which orders to challenge as mentioned before mr bass offered the deputies an opportunity to de-escalate the interaction and his lack of compliance stemmed largely from deputy lobby's attitude much like the deputies i cannot fault mr bass for refusing to roll down his window because there's no legal standard which compels him to do so and without a court ruling on this interaction in particular the legality of deputy lobby's orders will remain inconclusive i commend mr bass for not allowing his emotions to dictate the outcome of this encounter and for having the awareness to begin recording immediately let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out the ata patreon page for more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 970,470

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: eAIH2QwOzrw

Length: 17min 5sec (1025 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2021