Louisiana Traffic Stop abilities

[NAK]

My comment was directed at the government in LA, not the decent folks that live there. Hey, I moved away for the job, not because I didn't like living there. I still have many friends and work acquaintances there and I have been back to N.O., since the storm, on a pleasure trip.

The original poster asked about Laws concerning traffic stops. There are significant differences between the letter of the law and how it is enforced in some parts of the US. In response to the poster, I offered my insight on a non-resident traveling in LA.

here is how I handle travel in LA

Certain Parishes in La, in my experience, have limited respect for their own state laws and seem to sometimes "overlook" federal laws and a little thing called the Constitution of the United States. Being aware of your surroundings is critical to survival in our world...in some places, this includes being aware of how LEOs and the government operate.

This is what I do NOW and what I advise my Friends and those that work for our company to do, when they travel in LA. I never suggest that they do not travel there or that it is a bad place to visit. I have found that living in LA and traveling there as a non-resident to be two very different things.

Since moving to TX, I have personally be subjected to LA LEO hospitality just for having a front license plate on my car. This included almost 3 hours on the side of I-49, getting the contents of a rental car spread out in the mud and a dog digging through my suitcase (with muddy paws).

 

[Ithaca37]

My family has EARNED the RIGHT to be called American and I WILL DEFEND my family and it's rights to the death.

Wow, calm down...deep breaths, nobody has to die here. Good thing you don't live in CA, CT, MA, NY, NJ, etc. It is not inappropriate to criticize a place for screwed up policies and down right illegal behavior by its employees. Nobody said anything about you or your family.

 

[Ske1etor]

Nobody said anything about you or your family.

What about the Police Officers that work in Louisiana and happen to be registered to this forum?

 

[jfountain2]

First, my apologies to Jimmy Dean for high jacking his thread. I will attempt to remedy the situation with this post.

Second, Ske1etor, Thank you! It is nice to know someone with common sense, and decent values, stayed and is trying to make south LA a better place. My very best wishes to you and yours.

Clipper, when I read a comment that says my home should not be a part of the country I love, it makes me mad. I and my family are honest law abiding citizens of the USA and have and will continue to defend it. You are entitled to your opinion concerning my remarks and I probably should have taken a minute or two and calmed myself down a little. I do still feel that an insult such as the one posted is in fact an insult to all people from Louisiana and since 150 of those people (the count at our last family reunion) are my family I do take an insult like that very personally. I was raised to defend God, family, country, and state, in that order and I always will.

XDKingslayer, have a safe trip.

NAK, I agree completely with the fact that Louisiana law enforcement and government are seriously corrupt and have been for as long as I can remember. If your comment was directed solely at them then I offer you my most sincere apologies.


Now back to the original subject and our host Jimmy Dean……..

 

[Guillermo]

Like Jimmy Dean, I spent a large number of years in Louisiana. My father was the chief of police in the city I grew up in. Lived in NO, and BR. Went to LSU.

The government is horribly corrupt. New Orleans is a sewer.

The are trying. They elected Bobby Jindal governor largely to try to clean it up. New Orleans, however, is doomed.

Most of the troopers are okay. It is when you get into the small towns that you can get hosed. Usually they just want traffic citation money. Out of town plates are a target.

Unlike NAK, I carry a .357 or a 45, especially if I have to go to N.O. Of my current guns, I would carry my XD45 with an extra mag.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Most of the troopers are okay. It is when you get into the small towns that you can get hosed. Usually they just want traffic citation money. Out of town plates are a target.

And you could say the same about small towns in other states too.

Massachusetts at one time had the most speed traps in the country per capita, not sure if that's still the case.

Small Texas towns are notorious for this. That's an indication of a broken tax system not necessarily corruption or evidence of a state that's falling apart.

 

[JWarren]

Maybe.... just maybe... judgments on entire states are not appropriate.

Ask how quick a thread will get locked if it starts bashing CA in general around here. How is LA any different?

FYI... the worst I saw during Katrina was the OUT-of-town LEO's who came in to save those poor ignorant fools from themselves. For the large part, the local LEO's that I saw were just trying to get through it like everyone else. Chances are that they had a few trees inside their homes as well-- but was out there doing a job for the community rather than taking care of their own problems.


LA isn't perfect. But judging the entire state by New Orleans is insane. That's like judging the entire state of Florida by Miami. From my 5 years in FL, I never met a person in FL who really wanted that, either.


-- John

 

[Guillermo]

No question that La is subdivided between N.O. Metro and the rest of the state.

Certainly the point about little towns and out-of-state license plates was not created in La. It was however perfected there.

Sadly, Katrina exported a lot of N.O.'s problems.

I own property in N.O. and if I can ever unload it (or never unload it) I may never return to La. If I have to I will be well armed.

(Luckily I can buy boudin, andouille and tasso in Texas)

 

[Aguila Blanca]

With reasonable suspicion that you are armed and may pose a threat of some kind, an officer may terry-pat you. In the past, a cursory "terry-pat" of a vehicle has also been allowed if there is RS to believe weapons are in the vehicle and may pose a threat.

This is not correct.

An LEO may not initiate a "Terry stop" (or the subsequent "Terry frisk") just because of a reasonable suspicion that a person may be armed, or even that a person may be armed and "May" be a threat to "someone."

The criteria for a Terry stop is that the officer must have a reasonable suspicion based on clearly artculable facts (i.e. no "hunches") that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed. Once the LEO has satisfied that threshhold and initiated the Terry stop, he may then conduct a "Terry frisk," which must be limited to determing that the detainee is not armed and does not pose a direct, immediate threat to the officer. For vehicles, the Terry frisk extends to those areas of the vehicle within the direct reach of the driver and in plain sight. No "search" beyond that can be justified as a "Terry frisk."

Just being armed, even if the officer knows you are armed, does not give rise to anything that could be reasonable suspicion that a crime has been comitted or is about to be committed -- unless the stoppee is a known, convicted felon who is barred from possessing firearms. In other words, if the only reason for a stop is a traffic violation, then the officer cannot claim the right to do a "Terry frisk" on the vehicle in the name of "officer safety." The entire situation has to meet the criteria for a Terry stop before he can do that.

 

[jaholder1971]

What happend after Katrina was not caused by the state government, true they made many mistakes, but they had no idea what to do... nobody did. A large part of the mistakes were caused by the federal government and state government not working together.

I'm calling BS on that one!!!

Seems Florida knows how to handle hurricanes fairly well. So did Mississippi, Alabama and Texas when dealing with Katrina.

SO why didn't Louisiana cope? Why didn't the levees work? One reason: The state is corrupt and dysfunctional.

Every state has (or is supoosed to have ) a disaster plan. Louisiana's was apparently to turn belly up and whine for the Feds to bail them out.

Louisiana's politicians has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks that were supposed to go to levee boards. Somewhere the money disappeared.

When your own Congressman is using National Guard assets to remove bribe money from his home hidden in freezers while people rot and die in stagnant waters tells a story of that state no Pulitzer prize author could. So does the fact that 2/3 of N.O. has decided that they have it better off where they're at now than when they were living there.

 

[flatdog]

About one week after Katrina hit N.O. hurricane RITA devastated much of west and central Louisiana. Whole Parishes were wiped off the map. The major difference was that there was no political hay to be made from it.

People dug in and went to work helping their neighbors and themselves so the finger of blame couldn't be pointed on national TV.

Two major hurricanes in the span of one week. Two completely different responses.

One State.

 

[Art Eatman]

I give up. This has gotten so far beyond traffic stops that it's totally lost in pointless arguments.

Closed.