"He Had No Idea What Their Plans Were"

In my previous post (I'd link to it, but you can just scroll down to the NEXT post) I told the story of three libertarian young men making a cross country trip in an R.V. They were stopped in Jones County Mississippi by the local sheriffs department because the deputy couldn't read the tag on the temporary plate. Well, now the sheriff has given his side of the story, or at least the departments side of the story. And it is F'd Up! Here, without edit, are the words/quotes of Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge: Peter Eyre and Jason Talley of New Hampshire and Adam Mueller of Laurel were arrested during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 59. He said deputies gave the suspects numerous opportunities to identify themselves, but they refused to do so. Not exactly a truthful statement by the sheriff. Obviously, if you read the charges against the three men, you won't find anything about driving without a license in there, or refusing to produce a valid license... or vehicle registration or proof of insurance. The driver got out of the vehicle with license and registration in hand, and gave them to the officer. I'll delve deeper into the "numerous opportunities to identify themselves" stuff in a later quote. Uncertain of who or what they were dealing with, Hodge said deputies arrested the suspects and subsequent investigation revealed the individuals had an agenda which included not complying with orders given by authorities. They were discovered to be motorhomediaries.com activists. A citizen is only required to follow lawful requests given by authorities. Any request that goes against a citizens rights can be refused. Oh, and police can't give citizens "ORDERS". Orders are something done in a chain of command, or business setting. Citizens do not work for and are not below police officers in a chain of command. They are not military, no matter how much they want to believe the general public is the enemy. Regarding the individuals "agenda"... was the agenda illegal? They don't call for people to break laws, they simply call for us to exercise our rights, responsibilities, and freedoms. “We have a job to do and we will do it,” explained Hodge. “We are not here to promote or condemn anyone’s agenda." Then why did the sheriff decide it was important enough to state that they discovered these guys "had an agenda"? Obviously the sheriff is trying to condemn the agenda by stating it was something IT IS NOT. Read the "agenda" for yourself. “Our job is to provide protection and service to our citizens. When our deputy was confronted with these men who refused to identify themselves; he had no idea what their plans were.” There are two issues here. 1. The refusing to identify. No U.S. state currently requires a non-driving citizen to produce a government issued ID upon request of the police unless that person is a suspect of committing a crime, or is caught committing a crime. Non-drivers are only required to state their name, city, and state of residence. This was from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Hiibel v 6th Judicial Court of Nevada in 2004. So, we know the driver provided photo identification, since he claims to have done so, and he wasn't charged with any moving violations. The two passengers both have claimed to have responded to the police requests for identification by stating their names and city/state of residence. 2. These men did not "confront" the deputy. The deputy pulled them over and initiated the whole thing when he requested, illegally, for the men who were passengers to supply him with documentation of their identities. This isn't Nazi Germany... there is no room for "Papers please" in the United States of America. BTW... unless the deputy is a psychic or has some ESP thing going on, he isn't going to have any idea of the plans of anyone he has pulled over... and they aren't required to explain their plans to him! “I am proud of our deputies handling of this traffic stop,” said Hodge. “I have demonstrated my willingness to admit when we are wrong. However, in this case, they handled themselves in a proper and professional manner.” Sorry sheriff. Proper and professional? It isn't proper or professional for the police to violate the rights of any US citizen.