Aug

9

Al-Qaeda Civil Liberties Union

August 9, 2006 |

A State Trooper in Rhode Island sees a van in the early morning make an illegal lane change. While on radar duty he makes the decision to stop the van. He finds 14 people without identification and discovers they are illegals.

A Rhode Island State Police trooper was following procedure when he asked 14 passengers in a van - all illegal immigrants - to produce identification following a traffic stop on Route 95, state police officials say.

Rhode Island’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union feels differently.

On July 11, at about 6:30 a.m., Trooper Thomas Chabot pulled a van over because the driver allegedly failed to use his turn signal while switching lanes on Interstate 95, said State Police spokesman Maj. Steven O’Donnell.
After Chabot spoke with the driver, O’Donnell said the trooper asked all the passengers in the van for identification. When none of them could produce a driver’s license, he questioned the passengers, who told him they were in the country illegally, O’Donnell said.

The trooper then called Immigration and Customs Enforcement and escorted the van to ICE headquarters in Providence. All of the illegal immigrants are awaiting deportation hearings, said O’Donnell.

You say he made the right move. Good instincts and a job well done. Unless you are with the Al-Qaeda Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU, however, has since complained that the trooper didn’t have just cause to ask the passengers in the van for identification and may have been practicing racial profiling when he stopped the van..

“It’s hard to understand why a state trooper who was on radar patrol would go out of his way to stop a van solely for failure to put on a turn signal. If troopers did that everyday on Route 95, they wouldn’t have time to stop anybody for speeding,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. “That at least raises a suspicion that the appearance of the driver or then passengers led to the stop.”

I haven’t heard of any class action lawsuits because people are pulled over for traffic violations such as “no turn signal”. Except if you happen to discover illegals. While law enforcement is doing its job and protecting us from potential terrorists (who come illegally) we have to ask what is motivating the ACLU in the first place.

This was in Rhode Island folks. If this continues, South of the Border will mean the Canadian Border. (Thanks to Stop the ACLU for the hat tip.)


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