Small Alabama Town's Overzealous Traffic Cops Also Monitored Internet Traffic To Threaten Critics Of The Corrupt PD
from the shitheel-is-as-shitheel-does dept
Welcome back to Brookside, Alabama, home of the surprisingly expensive traffic ticket. Home to one (1) Dollar General, nine (9) police officers, two (2) drug dogs (one named "K9 Cash" just in case you had any doubts about the PD's intentions), and one (1) Lt. Governor-ordered state audit. Brookside (pop. 1,253) made national headlines for soaking every passing driver officers could find with excessive fines, fees, vehicle seizures, and inconvenient court dates.
AL.com's investigation showed that under Police Chief Mike Jones (who was hired in 2018), the small town has seen an increase in traffic fines, topping $600,000 in 2020. The department's overachievers patrolled over 114,000 miles in a single year and issued more than 3,000 citations to passing drivers. Chief Mike Jones still had room to complain, despite his department's funding escalating from $79,000 to $524,000 since he took office. The $600,000 fine figure may have seemed abhorrent to anyone outside the suddenly flush Brookside, but Chief Jones said there was room to improve.
The new chief's directives had an immediate effect on officers, who took to the (very few) streets in unmarked cars while wearing unmarked uniforms. The resulting influx of traffic citation defendants pulled officers from the remarkably un-dangerous streets of rural Brookside to perform traffic control for the dozens of out-of-towners driving into Brookside to attend once-a-month court sessions.
The officers also decided the gloves were off and treated alleged moving violators accordingly. According to multiple accounts from Brookside victims, cops made up laws, fabricated charges, and used racist language to address drivers.
As a result of this unexpected national coverage of Chief Mike Jones's Boss Hoggish practices and policies, Chief Jones resigned his position, leaving it to the Brookside metroplex to decide what to do with all the extra cops it had decided to employ while Chief Jones was making it profitable to be a government employee.
Former Chief Jones may be able to duck under the national press radar, but local scrutiny continues, thanks to AL.com. The testimonials continue to pour in, showing Jones and his employees did pretty much everything but shoot someone on Fifth Avenue before being forced to act like real police in the face of the criticism of millions.
Drivers who have had the displeasure of interacting with the Brookside PD aren't happy. And their complaints have made their way to social media services. Apparently, a couple hundred feet of interstate traffic isn't the only thing the Brookside PD has been policing. Officers have been monitoring the internet airwaves to silence complaints and ensure the continued flow of excessive fines and fees.
Michelle Jones made an official complaint to the Alabama Attorney’s General’s office three years ago, arguing that Brookside police stopped her out of jurisdiction, issued a bogus citation and threatened her with more charges after she criticized them on Facebook.
[...]
In 2020, she had explained her case this way to the AG’s office: “The person threatened me with an arrest if I did not take down my Facebook pictures and posts of their police officers, stop sending emails to the local politicians, as well as others, and show them (Brookside police) that I understand law enforcement practices.”
Jones is not alone, as AL.com inadvertently rhymes. Others have come forward to complain about Brookside cops issuing less-than-implicit threats about online criticism. Another driver pulled over by a Brookside officer claimed the cop confiscated her phone, "explaining" that the PD often had drivers try to "stop and record us."
Jones' case is, however, one of the most alarming. After posting to Facebook, she was called by someone who only identified him as "Detective Johnson" of the Brookside Police Department. He demanded she come in and talk to officers at the PD. When she refused, things escalated:
“Detective Johnson had called and asked that I come to the Brookside Police Department to talk to them. After I told him that I would not, he reported that they have two warrants for my arrest. He stated that I issued threats, incited a riot, and slandered the Brookside Police Department in my Facebook posts. He reported that his Police Chief was mad.”
Others who have been pulled over by Brookside officers claim they've been pulled over again -- not for alleged moving violations -- but to be told there would be "consequences" if more negative content was posted to social media.
It's not surprising that a law enforcement agency that has largely blown off the Fourth and Fifth Amendments would treat the First Amendment so cavalierly. About the only thing the Brookside PD hasn't done is demand US military members be quartered by drivers cited for (possibly imaginary) traffic violations.
While it's somewhat satisfying to see Chief Jones flee his position of power after being pinpointed as the person responsible for flagrant abuses of power, it would be far more satisfying to see him run out of town by aggrieved Brookside residents. But, for whatever reason, locals and local officials have nearly nothing to say about three years of exponentially escalating roadside extortion that took place under their noses for three years.
And it was under their noses. The town is incredibly small and residents had to know the budget situation had changed drastically once Chief Jones was hired. Everyone here is culpable. But town officials are the most culpable. They had the power to stop this but they chose to profit from it instead. And for that, they should all be as out of a job as Chief Jones is. The real shame is Mike Jones will probably be able to leverage this bullshit "success" into a better paying job somewhere else in the nation since nothing he did has been found to be illegal. That may change in the future as lawsuits against him and his department move forward, but for far too many cash-strapped communities, a roadside bandit like Chief Jones might just be the hero they need… or at least endorse until it becomes politically inconvenient.
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Filed Under: 1st amendment, alabama, brookside, free speech, intimidation, social media, threats, traffic stops
Reader Comments
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But... 'just a few bad apples'...
But, for whatever reason, locals and local officials have nearly nothing to say about three years of exponentially escalating roadside extortion that took place under their noses for three years.
I can think of two offhand, either they were afraid what would happen if they 'offended' the thugs in blue who apparently had no problem robbing people blind and issuing threats to silence anyone who objected or they saw the money flowing in and figured if a little legalized robbery of anyone driving through/by was the price that they were willing to have others pay.
Whatever the case the entire department is pretty clearly rotten to the core and needs to be fired and blacklisted as a whole because otherwise the lot of them are likely to follow their former chief's lead in keeping their heads down while the heat is on before going right back to the highly profitable profession of legal criminals.
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Re: 'just a few bad apples'...
Power Corrupts (but only in small Southern towns)
Corruption is unheard of in big Northern cities or the Federal Government.
That's why huge behemoth government is always better for Americans -- economies of scale & a near perfect selection system of government officials guantees corruption-free central government.
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Scary - the rank and file falls in line
One of the scariest aspects of this is the fact that apparently the rank and file officers just fell in line, and seemingly had no problem acting in their capacity as a gang on the government payroll. It's not "just a few bad apples." It's the whole system.
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Re: Re: 'just a few bad apples'...
You must be new here, because it's pretty clear TechDirt is not a blanket supporter of Big Government any more than it's a cheerleader for anarchy.
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'Team players get timely backup. Non-team players...'
If past stories are any indication any cops who weren't all-in on running the department like their own little criminal enterprise were likely forced out via a hostile work environment/co-workers/superiors for not being 'team players', quickly leaving only the blatantly corrupt and the silent enablers.
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Re: Re: 'just a few bad apples'...
... did you have a point or were you just hankering to beat up on a strawman?
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Re: Re: 'just a few bad apples'...
So, do you often respond to points nobody made or is this a new thing for you?
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Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
"It's not "just a few bad apples." It's the whole system."
This is where we have to remind people that the whole saying is "a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel" not "meh, there's only a few bad apples, the rest of it's OK".
The point of the saying is to stress that if you put up with the bad actors eventually they'll cause the whole system to be corrupted. For which, the entire US police infrastructure appears to be a comprehensive case study.
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Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
yeah, there is a "Gang" mentality of American cops, generally.
They think of themselves as a special elite group in society, with heavy emphasis upon internal group-loyality and vigorous knee-jerk defense aginst any outside or internal "disruptions" to their cozy brotherhood.
Police labor unions are a big factor in this tribal gang culture.
Constant, phony media glorification of cops generally also feeds the beast.
Truly honest cops are at great disadvantage, and tend to leave the system (voluntarily or otherwise).
Pay and Benefits are very good at big city LEO departments and state/federal levels -- so there's a strong incentive for cops to keep their mouth shut and look the other way at daily corruption.
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Power doesn’t corrupt—it reveals.
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"Slander is spoken, In print it's libel."
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Grand Theft AmeriKa
Serious question;
Who has robbed you more, government or private parties?
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Re: bad apples'...
... you must be new to the use of sarcasm here
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If you’re going to use sarcasm in a text-only format, you’ll need to mark it as such. You seem bright enough to understand that~.
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Trick question: Rich folks exist in both groups.
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Re: Re: 'just a few bad apples'...
I presume missing a sarc tag. If not:
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/us-attorney-michigan-is-the-nations-most-corrupt-state/Conte nt?oid=21817066
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I imagine, if one of the local residents were to speak up, they would find themselves threatened by this police force. It's a cockroach farm and, from the looks of things, the cockroaches are happy to abuse their power.
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This is why revenue generation should be stripped from all police forces across the country.
Everyone knows tickets aren't issued for safety, and everyone also knows officers have a set quota in order to maintain county budgets.
Officers who pull someone over should instead cite the driver to return to drivers education, where the school can charge an administration fee no different than what it charges now.
This will never happen, though. Millions are made through bogus citations every year, and without it, counties will insist it doesn't have money to repair roads or emergency services, while polishing the vehicles purchased just last year, with another order already on the books before most even hit 100K miles.
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Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
Don't think that corruptible candidates aren't picked during interviews. It makes it easier to have as many bad apples in the barrel so no one is worried about watching their backs.
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Re: Re: 'just a few bad apples'...
I can tell you're being sarcastic, but I'm having trouble figuring out what you're being sarcastic about. Is TechDirt LINO (libertarian in name only) in your POV? Or are you just trying to deflect the attention being paid to small town corruption in the south by vaguely pointing in the general direction big city corruption in the north?
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I'm not seeing the profit being made here
This police department brought in 600 thousand dollars.
The same department cost 524 thousand dollars to operate.
The gross profit here is 76 thousand dollars.
That doesn't seem like a huge amount of money considering the reputational damage and number of really angry people that result from this push.
Am I missing something here? Is an extra 76 thousand dollars really that much of an important part of the entire budget of a small town?
It's not nothing, of course, but I don't see it as such a large amount that it couldn't be made up from other sources that are less likely to get (inter)national negative headlines.
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"nothing he did has been found to be illegal."
then why are we posting this here?
Why is this posted everywhere?
If nothing is a crime Before its gone to court? Isnt that illogical, as you cant be arrested UNLESS you did something against the law.
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Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
it depends what the difference is.
If before they started doing this shit, they only brought in $20,000 in fines, the department thus went from costing half a million, to making a profit of 76 grand.
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The amount of profit depends on how much money the department receives from the city/the state/the federal government. If public funds already cover the costs of running the department, the fines would represent pure profit.
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Re: Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
Now this is starting to sound like the broken window theory... except the vicious cycle of corruption->cynicism->toleration->more corruption is much better documented.
Established societies need a Herbert-esque Bureau of Sabotage to bring down entrenched, corrupt interest groups. But then, of course, the Bureau itself becomes the entrenched power.
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Re: Re: bad apples'...
It was obviously sarcastic, while exactly conveying the meaning for which it was criticized.
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Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
i don't think they had to fall in line, they were most of them hired explicitly for purpose.
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Lanyard Schoolyard
Yes, my wheels keep on turning
Through some towns that I've been in
But I'm wary of the southland
Goin' through 'Bamy once again
Where drivin's a sin, yes
Well I heard about the seizures
And the fines for drivin' through town
Well I hope Mike Jones will remember
A travellin' man don't need him around anyhow
Brookside Alabama
Look out for the boys in blue
Brookside Alabama
They'll be comin' after you
It seems they upset the Lieutenant Governor
He didn't like what they did do
Hey there copper, why'd you bother me?
You got no conscience to bother you?
Tell the truth
Brookside Alabama
Look out for the boys in blue
Brookside Alabama
They'll be comin' after you
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looks at all of the rights violations they were willing to do openly
Its cute you think they only took in $600,000.
Because they TOTES filled our every form correctly & to the letter of the law as they were inventing fake tickets & stealing property from passing drivers.
Humans... aren't very bright.
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Re:
What would you say to the millions arrested for "resisting arrest"?
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Re: Re:
Then everything above is Hearsay?
The complaints have no meaning?
Even from the Citizens living there?
Claims to the AG, cant all be wrong.
And he Runs, but Not to the county or state to hand himself in to be Adjudicated by an outside court.
The worst things Iv ever seen is when the Mayor of our town, embezzled over $700k, Left office, and has never been taken to court by the state.
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Re: Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
Except it didn't cost that much before this douchenozzle took over: "Chief Mike Jones still had room to complain, despite his department's funding escalating from $79,000 to $524,000 since he took office."
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Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
"That doesn't seem like a huge amount of money considering the reputational damage and number of really angry people that result from this push."
However, I'm willing to be that there's a lot of people in jail right now in the US who did things for way less than $76k because they didn't think they'd get caught.
I generally think that if someone's caught doing something really dumb, you just have to consider that they didn't think they'd be caught.
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Re:
""nothing he did has been found to be illegal."
then why are we posting this here?"
Something doesn't have to be illegal to be a problem. In fact that's how most laws are made - people do things that are clearly wrong then something is done to try and stop it happening again.
Your opinion on how right or effective that is might differ, but "legal" and "moral" or "acceptable" have never been synonyms.
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Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
You missed a whole lot here. First the town is less than 1300 people. There is no need for more than 2 cops for their six miles of road, 2 miles of interstate jurisdiction, 1 Dollar General store that is the entirety of commerce. The chief increased the size of the force to 9 or so (he actually refused to say how many cops the force had for so called security reasons). He was the only full time cop when he got hired- and he had a really shady past and lots of debt including a ton owed to the IRS. They were bringing in like 582k, where about 85k, or 14 percent came from traffic fines and forfeitures, to bringing in 1.2 million and 49 percent came from fines and forfeitures, in about 2 years. They paid for their expanded police force and still made insane profit
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Re: Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
By "they" were bringing in 582k, I meant revenue generated from the entire town, not the cops.
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Re: Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
Apparently the second in command was once in the Explorers program and knew the chief from that, and got lots of perks for that relationship. Grabbed a woman's behind while drunk at a bar then showed his badge like it gave him permission. Got busted for drugs and other stuff, didn't comply with his court ordered drug and alcohol test and treatment, yet some how got off with $100 fine and no jail time. This guy also resigned shortly after Jones.
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Re:
Nothing has found to be illegal here YET. This story just broke, from AL.com investigation, the AG is just starting to look into.
I suspect evidence of embezzlement will be found, Jones had a failed private security business and owed a bunch to the IRS. And while the current mayor wasn't the one who hired him- that guy died a couple years ago- this mayor did an interview with AL.com were he nodded along enthusiastically and gave supportive statements of the insane shit Jones was saying about a 600% increase in fines and forfeitures as a failure, that they needed to do more. I wouldn't doubt that mayor is getting some perks on the sly. And possibly the the local court and attorney, maybe the jail. The tow company is definitely making a fortune, 1.7 tows per household in a years time- I think this business should be liquidated and I normally don't agree with going after private companies.
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Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
Makes you long for the days of yore, doesn't it? To think there was a time when the uppity journo or loudmouthed pillar of the community hearing "Mr. Salazar is very upset" would be hearing it from a thug in a dark alley, not from the cops pulling him/her over for a "routine" inspection.
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Re: Grand Theft AmeriKa
"Who has robbed you more, government or private parties?"
I'm sure you saw that as a rhetorical question but...If you live in the US, private parties.
There's a reason why the average american life is a lot shittier than it was for their parents and grandparents, why unions are a thing of ages past, why there is no universal healthcare or demands on paid vacations, sick leave, parental leave, or a living wage whereas not too long ago a single breadwinner could support a family. Like the rest of the OECD still takes for granted.
And it sure isn't either the government or external forces making sure one in ten citizens - of the wealthiest nation in the history of the world - is in the food stamp program and 40% of all households would go bust over an unplanned $400 expense.
Part of Bezos incredible wealth is because he's paying less in taxes than the average lower middle class household - and because all his workers are literal wage slaves whose working conditions are so atrocious toilet breaks and promptly notifying EMS about a body on the floor isn't in their privilege package.
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Re: Scary - the rank and file falls in line
Not exactly. The (now former) chief appears to have hired the whole crew, presumably based on his success in fleecing travelers. So it was not so much a matter of falling in line as doing the job for which they were hired.
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Re: I'm not seeing the profit being made here
What you're seeing, I suspect, is US police departments simply being extremely complacent about the whole affair. They're used to claiming stuff like "We've always done it" or "We're entitled to it" and "Anyway, it wasn't that much money." It wouldn't surprise me if their rationale for posturing over such a small sum of money was precisely because the amount is small enough to claim that any citizen scrutiny is unwarranted.
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