Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Dayton, OH — If ever you think that all traffic laws are for your safety, one thing can change that view—window tint. In the land of the free, if police feel that your window tint is too dark, they will claim the right to extort money from you. If you resist this extortion, police will claim the right to kidnap or kill you. Unfortunately, in the land of the free, these instances happen so frequently that they are often caught on video too. As the following incident illustrates, fearful cops whose only tool is the escalation of violence, will not hesitate to resort to deadly force over a stop for window tint — up to and including against people in wheelchairs.
Clifford Owensby of Dayton, Ohio, recently learned the violent and oppressive lengths the American police state will go to enforce window tint extortion laws. Owensby, who had committed no crime, was targeted by police, assaulted, and then sent on his way because of the arbitrary darkness of his window tint.
Owensby’s nightmare started last Friday when he and his grandson were out running errands. As Owensby was driving down the street, harming no one, police targeted him for extortion because his window tint was at 20 percent. The interaction was captured on both body camera footage and cellphone footage.
As the video shows, an officer approaches the vehicle and tells the innocent father that his window tint is too dark before later demanding that he exit the vehicle.
Owensby then explained to the officer that he couldn’t get out of the vehicle as he didn’t have his wheelchair and had gotten help getting in the car.
“I’m paraplegic,” Owensby says multiple times. “I got help getting in.”
“Well, I’ll help you get out,” the officer replies.
“Well, I don’t think that’s going to happen, sir,” Owensby says.
The officer then tells Owensby that they are going to run a drug dog around his car — despite having no reason at all to do so — and uses this threat as the last straw.
Owensby then calls a family member and asks them to come down to film the interaction.
“Bring cameras,” he said to his phone before asking for a supervisor.
“Here’s the thing, I’m going to pull you out and then I’ll call a white shirt. Because you’re getting out of the car,” the officer said. “That’s not an option. You’re getting out this car, so you can cooperate and get out of the car or I will drag you out of the car. Do you see your two options here?”
Moments later, as the video shows, Owensby is dragged from the car and thrown to the ground like a rag doll — over window tint.
As no drugs or contraband were found, cops had to seemingly make up charges on which to justify the treatment of Owensby. He was cited for his child being in the wrong car seat and improper window tint.
After the video began to garner views on Instagram, where it was originally posted, police were forced to issue a statement, claiming the incident is under investigation.
“The investigation will include the review of any policies and training when encountering these situations. Detectives from the Professional Standards Bureau have already interviewed the driver in the video.
We ask the public to please be patient while all of the facts are gathered so we may have a clear understanding of what occurred and why in order to make informed decisions and continue to improve services,” Dayton Police said.
“I just feel like they (were) wrong for doing what they (were) doing and I couldn’t believe what was happening to me,” Owensby said Monday.
Owensby told reporters on Monday that he hopes his window tint situation prevents this kind of police abuse from happening to others.
“I’m hoping for some kind of disciplinary action and furthermore, I wish that this doesn’t happen to no one else. This is unacceptable. We’re supposed to have officers out here to serve and protect and when we lose faith in them doing that, who do we turn to?”
Sadly, however, if history is any indicator, Owensby’s abuse will not lead to any meaningful change. Below are the two videos.
BODY CAMERA
Would you believe “law enforcement” had a “safety inspection” operator shut down on two occasions because he passed inspection for vehicles that were “window tinted” too dark…which caused folks around here to drive about 50 miles to get “safety inspected” (which, thanks to the “Texas two step” is now required to get “vehicle registration” in the same time period)… but at least this crap didn’t happen in “civil asset forfeiture central”, Tenaha, Texas….. He’d possibly have had his son likely kidnapped if that was the case….
It’s WAY past time to be KILLING these f!@kers folks ………..