CA cops weaponize the DMV against protestors when the DA declines to press charges.

[Demovictory9]

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/golden-gate-bridge-protestors-given-odd-citation-17400617.php

Tim Huey knew he could, and likely would, get arrested. But he said he never could’ve anticipated what ended up happening to him on Sept. 30, 2021, in San Francisco.


On that date, Huey, joined by members of two advocacy groups — Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All, and the Movement for Citizenship for All — led a demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge. Huey and dozens of others blocked traffic with their cars.

. Huey said he and four others were eventually instructed by the CHP to drive to the Golden Gate Bridge View Point, where they were detained and arrested. The DA’s office ultimately declined to file charges.

But that’s not where the story ends. Huey told SFGATE that the CHP also issued a notice to the DMV, which suspended the driver’s licenses of the five people who were arrested. Notably, the notice issued by the CHP cited Vehicle Code 21061, which is supposed to be used in cases of physical or mental impairment – the implication being that CHP had deemed the protesters incapable of driving a car.


Almost a year later, Huey is still wrapping his head around an extracurricular punishment that took months of effort to undo, and has set off alarm bells among local civil rights lawyers.

“This case raises a serious concern about statewide law enforcement invoking inappropriate vehicle code provisions in order to punish people whom they think local law enforcement will not deal with harshly enough,” Rio Scharf, a fellow at the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights of the SF Bay Area, told SFGATE. “They should not be weaponizing inappropriate provisions of the vehicle code to punish political


However, a form filled out by a CHP officer the day of Huey’s arrest, reviewed by SFGATE, includes a box checked for “mental/emotional condition” — and the vehicle code in question clearly identifies “evidence of incapacity” as the threshold necessary for CHP to recommend a license suspension to the DMV.

[Johnny2X2X]

1. We have given law enforcement way too much power

They're in a position now where they can make anyone's life hell based on the limitless avenues for harassment they have at their disposal.

I saw it it the minority communities where I grew up in the 80s, where police basically stopped anyone who they didn't like the look of and figured out what to write up after the fact. And then moving to a college town in the 90s it was even more evident that the police were in a position to write tickets and citations for virtually anything and everything. I was convinced that college town law enforcement was a complete indoctrination effort to get young adults used to giving up their rights. Stop and frisk. no knock police entry, and police searches without cause were just standard on college campuses and in college towns. And the people who knew their rights and tried to exercise them were dealt with by police with citations for every minor thing you could dream of. I knew someone in college who was taken to jail for forgetting to pay a fine for putting his trash out for pickup without a trash container. I saw people arrested for parking violations, for noise complaints, and for failure to produce ID proving they were of drinking age when they were just walking down the street.

The police us this broad discretion to even personal scores, and to harass people or groups they don't like.

[Demovictory9]

3. Yep..saw a story where a woman's house was mistakenly damaged in a raid. There is a fund to reimburs

Cops weren't reimbursing her..reading deeper in the article..she hadn't cooperated with their police operation. Not reimbursing her was punishment

There is a video from guys inside garage camera..cop is purposely damaging stuff during search warrant..doesn't even know the guy

And on and on

[comradebillyboy]

2. I presume the former DA's refusal to prosecute the protestors was one

of the reasons he was recalled. Sorry but I just can't generate any sympathy for the people shutting down the bridge. That sort of obnoxious behavior generates little sympathy for their cause.