What do you do when a police officer walks up to your car window and unlawfully demands your ID? You do what this guy did.
Houston, Texas - In a video uploaded to Youtube, a man refuses to be intimidated by a Houston County Sheriff's Deputy.
When you are pulled over by a cop while driving in Texas you do have to provide a drivers license or you will be "lawfully" arrested. However, the driver was simply waiting at a red light to turn left and the officer and him engaged in a consensual conversation.
This was clearly not a traffic stop. However, the officer still demanded his ID without any legal basis to do so.
It's amazing to see how many cops are plain ignorant when it comes to the law.
Sec. 38.02. FAILURE TO IDENTIFY. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally refuses to give his name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has lawfully arrested the person and requested the information.
It did not appear that the driver had been arrested, either lawfully or unlawfully. The request for his drivers license appeared to be out of frustration rather than pursuant to a lawful arrest as required by the statute.
Even if the driver had been lawfully arrested, Sect. 38.02 only requires the arrestee to furnish the officer with "his name, residence address, or date of birth." It says nothing about his drivers license. That information can be transmitted orally yet the deputy never asked for it.
Often times a cop is the last one to be well informed on the law.
That is exactly why you must be versed in knowing your rights. Had the driver given his ID, this could have led to a myriad of inconveniences, fines, and possibly an arrest; even if he was entirely innocent.
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Jay Syrmopoulos is an investigative journalist, freethinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jay's work has previously been published on BenSwann.com and WeAreChange.org. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu.
