More Texas police news

Photo Courtesy of Crane News in Crane, Texas

What do they put in the water in Texas that makes their cops act the way they do? I mean, come ON! They make the Maryland State Police look like a collection of Emily Posts. They seem to view themselves as the law, and God help anyone with the temerity to defy them.

Just ask Brian Barnes, a professional storm chaser. He dared to "talk back" to the law and wound up in jail for it.

"I told him that I was helping out the National Weather Service in San Angelo, and they were relaying my reports to Midland. He told me he didn't care, and that I needed to go."

Barnes thought it was his obligation to stay put and follow the storms, a decision that landed him in jail.

"He jumped out and put me in handcuffs. I turned around and I remember him slamming me up against his vehicle, and then it all got kind of scary."

Among the witnesses was Dennis Greer, who had a similar run-in, with the same deputy, just minutes earlier while he was shooting pictures of the same storm for the local newspaper.

"His first words to me were, 'are you a blankety-blank idiot?' He told me if I didn't leave, I was going to jail, flat out," Greer said.

Nice.

Better still is the phony, trumped-up charge hung on Mr. Barnes.

Barnes was arrested at a road side park on Highway 385 and charged with obstruction of a highway or other passage way.

According to witnesses, there is plenty of room on on the road in front of the park for a vehicle to get by. That's why they are questioning the validity of the charge.

Dennis Greer says, "The guy wasn't blocking anything. He was able to drive a full size truck by with no problem."

Doesn't matter. You didn't follow direct instructions from the law.

The cop was abusive, used foul language, and used unnecessary force on a man who neither posed a threat nor resisted arrest. Apparently, that's par for the course in Texas. The FLDS were REALLY smart not to resist the Stoßtruppen who invaded their ranch.