By now it has become clear that modern-day policing is all about escalating interactions with citizens in order to gain control of the populace – even if the citizens are not breaking any laws.
That is what Lufkin police did a man last year who was doing nothing more than waiting for somebody to come help him with his truck which he was unable to put into reverse. The man who is only identified as “Cold Front” had driven to a trailer park to pick up his younger cousin who had locked herself out of her trailer.
At some point, one of her neighbors peered out and saw Cold Front, eyeing him suspiciously. Cold Front waved at her to try to put her at ease but then she called the cops, telling them about a suspicious black man who appeared to be drunk or on drugs and who had a child in the back seat.
Body cam footage shows that when police arrived, Cold Front explained to them he had picked up his cousin but then his truck started malfunctioning, so he was waiting for somebody to come help. He did not appear to be drunk or on drugs.
When police asked for his name, he refused to provide it because he knew he was under no legal obligation to provide it since Texas is not a stop and identify state. That means, people are only required to provide their name once they have been arrested. In stop and identify states, people are required to provide their name if they are being detained. But police need reasonable suspicion in order to lawfully detain somebody.
While police were trying to intimidate him into identify himself in order to check him for warrants, one officer walked up behind him and said he was going to pat him down for weapons but that was only an excuse to arrest him and accuse him of resisting.
According to the YouTube channel ASD-DOCS who spoke with Cold Front, he ended up charged with evading arrest and paid $1,500 that night to be released from jail. The case is still pending. Watch the shortened edited above and the longer video below with analysis.
Watch the video below.