[Chat] Ticketed for talking!

Stephen J Gewirtz gewirtz at bellatlantic.net
Wed Oct 12 01:33:53 EDT 2005


Right after I stepped out of Emil's car, I heard the male cop say: "I'm
going to ticket him."  It certainly sounded as though that cop had a
chip on his shoulder.

And when I walked around to the alley where the cops had Emil stopped,
the male cop (who was out of his car and at the window of Emil's car)
said something about not walking up on a traffic stop.  When I stood
about 10 feet from that cop, he told me to move away.  I said I wanted
to witness things, and he threatened to arrest me for "disobeying a
lawful order."  I moved a bit farther away, and asked how far away I had
to move.  Then the female cop told me to be quiet (I sense from that
that she knew that something was not right about what was going on).  I
stayed there until the cops left and I could talk to Emil.

So after what happened with Dana a while back, we have another example
of really bad police work.  And I am sure the police wonder why so many
City juries do not believe anything police say.

In the 60s in California, quite a few Black Panthers were acquitted by
juries.  I remember reading the comment that almost everyone on any jury
had had a bad experience with an unjustified police traffic stop and
traffic ticket.  In New York City when Giulianni was mayor, police
harassed residents of minority neighborhoods (including ticketing kids
on bicycles that lacked bells or horns) until there were a number of
cases of police brutality and murder (Abner Louima, Amadou Diallou,
etc.).  Mayor O'Malley is trying to imitate New York City policing, and
so far he has been lucky to avoid the killings that happened in NYC.
The stuff that cops do in minority neighborhoods has now come to Charles
Village, and more citizens of Baltimore will learn not to believe the
police who testify before juries.

Steve.

Emil Volcheck wrote:

>Hello, neighbors,
>
>After the CVCBDMA Board meeting, I drove back and gave Steve Gewirtz a
>lift.  Steve and I both live on the 3000 block of Guilford, and I
>stopped across from his house, right before the intersection of
>Guilford and 30th.  We chatted for a little while about politics, then
>Dave Barnett drove by in the opposite direction, on his way home I
>assume.  I hadn't seen him for a while, so we both rolled down our
>windows to talk.  Then I saw a police car pull up behind me, with
>bubble lights.  Dave moved on, and I pulled my car closer to the side
>to get out of the way.  The police gave me a $50 ticket for impeding
>the flow of traffic.  I was really surprised because I was in the car
>the whole time, with the hazard lights on, and I moved almost as soon
>as I saw someone behind me was trying to get by.  Certainly when Dave
>moved, I believe the police could have gotten past me.
>
>The police starting ticketing me right after I turned the corner and I
>let Steve off.  Steve asked the officer what the problem was, and they
>told him to back off, gave him a 5-second warning.  That seemed a
>little harsh.
>
>I think I remember hearing recently that Dana Moore was given a ticket
>when she was stopped out in front of her house loading or unloading
>from her car, and that the judge threw it out.
>
>I'm planning to tell the judge I'm innocent, and Steve says he'll come
>with me.
>
>Does anybody have any thoughts about this situation?  It seems kind
>of extreme.  I feel like I should have been entitled to some signal
>like a honk or yelling "move along" before they decided I was
>blocking traffic.
>
>--Emil
>
>
>
>  
>







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