Rural Georgia police state?

[Hasselhoss]

I am the youth leader at a small church in the city of Monticello, Ga. Our church is located on the square along with the chamber of commerce and county courthouse. On Friday Feb 21 we held a "movie night" at the youth center. We had 50+ middle and high school students in attendance. In addition, we had 8 adult volunteers chaperoning the event.

On the same night police officers from several cities and counties came together 2 doors down from the church to meet then disperse to all egress points of the city where they set up road blocks.

After the movie the teens headed home and were met with roadblocks at every exit point. One of my adult leaders took a van load of teens home then tried to make her way home to her house just off the square. Her story follows as submitted to the local paper. She is going to the city Council meeting next week to voice her opinion as well.

Dear Editor:

There was a multi-county police drag net held in Monticello on Friday, Feb. 21. I was pulled over and treated abusively and was humiliated. I feel that I need to write this letter so that the people of our town can be made aware of what is occurring. Hopefully telling my story will keep someone else from going through what I went through. I have no problem with police or strong law enforcement, but police do not have the right to treat someone the way I was treated.

Last Friday night I was on my way home from dropping off children after a church youth meeting when I was stopped at a large police road block at Funderburg and 380. An officer approached my van and demanded to see my license and registration and then said “It smells like pot in here; if I get the canine am I going to get a hit?” I told him no as there has never been illegal drugs in my vehicle and requested that they bring said canine. He replied “there is no canine available but I’m going to get a second officer’s opinion. The second officer (a female) came over and said “I can smell weed; out of the van and put your hands on the police car”. This gave the first officer the excuse to ransack my van and purse despite the fact that there was no pot. Meanwhile, I asked the female officer for a blood drug test that would prove that I hadn’t taken any drugs. She denied my request and chose to search me under bright lights in front of at least a dozen male officers and in full view of the public. She patted me down both on the outside and inside of my blouse, and unhooked my bra. She stalked off in disappointment after finding nothing. Her whole attitude was very harsh and rude. I was terribly embarrassed and humiliated to be treated this way for no good reason. At this point the first officer demanded “What did you do with the pot? Did you throw it out the window when you slowed down back there?” I replied “Son, I don’t do drugs” upon which he stated “I am not your son. You WILL refer to me as sir. We found ‘greenery’ under your seat!” at which point he too stalked off leaving me with a City of Monticello police officer who had silently witnessed this whole degrading incident. No cuffs were brought out however, and no arrest made because it was patently obvious that the ‘greenery’ was merely my pet bunny’s alfalfa pellets whose cage was in the back of the van. I was so humiliated and upset I couldn’t sleep and I am still upset two days later. What makes it worse is that a Monticello officer that has known me for years did and said nothing despite the fact that the allegations of pot use are laughable seeing as how I have lost 70 pounds in half a year which would be nearly impossible to do with additional cravings for food brought on by pot ‘munchies’. Only after the other two officers walked away, did he apologize for the way they treated me, but why would he let them do that to me in the first place? Was he intimidated by them too?

What happened to me should never happen to anybody. Good law enforcement does not require humiliating and abusing innocent people. The two Officers certainly did not have probable cause to search my van - so they just made it up and did it anyway in complete disregard of my civil rights and common decency. This was just all so wrong. How many other people did they abuse that night? Should I now be in fear of every police car I see? We’re supposed to live in a free country but it wasn’t very free Friday night at Funderberg and 380. If we don’t stand up for our rights we will lose them. Being a cop does not give someone the right to act like a thug.

Sincerely,

Renee Johnston

 

[ATLEMT]

I've found the smaller the town the more likely you are to have a dick cop.

 

[gran torino]

that is just silly talk...... Rommy will be here soon to make sure the good guys got home safe.

 

[Zombie Ninja]

I lived in Eatonton for a few years. Small, yes but never anything like that happening.

So, back to the story, are we all guilty until proven innocent now? Sure seems to be the darn case. And asking to prove your innocence by submitting to a blood test voluntarily doesn't deem a person truthful either? Are these violations even taught in police school? Or are civil rights just an inconvenience too? Do they (cops) even talk about these things after they happen? Seems crazy to me because I don't think they'd be so cooperative if the same thing happened to their wife or daughter. And all hell would probably come loose if it happened to them either.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

What's sad is that in the small town I live in I know of several places I can go park my truck and watch drug deals go down all day long. The cops are well aware of it too. Problem is if they arrest a jobless dope dealer he's going to get a public defender and be a drain on the system. However if you can find a little weed on the blue collar guy it's a $1500 fine, DUI $chool, 12 month$ probation, $ub$tance abuse workbook, and licence rein$tatement fee.

 

[Bgolden84]

How much more of this **** are we going to take. We need to stand up and unite and put an end to this crap

 

[jwtug]

That story pisses me off. I am so sick of the way cops are turning. Just seems like there are more bad cops than good cops.

 

[Hasselhoss]

What's sad is that in the small town I live in I know of several places I can go park my truck and watch drug deals go down all day long. The cops are well aware of it too. Problem is if they arrest a jobless dope dealer he's going to get a public defender and be a drain on the system. However if you can find a little weed on the blue collar guy it's a $1500 fine, DUI $chool, 12 month$ probation, $ub$tance abuse workbook, and licence rein$tatement fee.

Same here. The drug dealing happens in plain sight in locations known to all yet the police feign ignorance and allow these special task forces to come in and harass innocent people. I've only been here for 1.5 years and I can tell you where the drugs are and who has em.

 

[CBH13]

I hear stories and have been part of some of them all the time. I live in the barrow county area and am very familiar with these roadblocks and police who apparently know everything and no one can be innocent and god forbid you expect respect out of them the same way you give it to them. My most recent stories involved 7 officers and a drug dog being called on my brother when he refused a search, the dog hit and then they said they found a pot leaf. . .til they found out it was a plastic leaf but a bunch of flowers. But hey we all know 17 year old are to be feared by grown men with weapons.

 

[DogLegArms]

I hope she got badge numbers and files a complaint with internal affairs, the CLEO, and DA. The parents of the kids on the van should do so too. But that's all after the fact and won't help with the emotional hurt of feeling violated but she sounds like she wants the word to get out. She should demand a sit down with the officer in charge of that operation along with the CLEO along with the pastor. Most people don't have the funds to hire an attorney to file suit but that seems to be the only way to initiate change in policies and practices.

I'm anxiously awaiting for the day TSA wants to do an 'enhanced pat down' of my 1 year old son or my wife. I will be on the news acting all crazy sounding like our beloved Rev Jesse Jackson!