Vermont State police seize car and leave driver on side of road in 20° weather-snow covered tag

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/02/1333859/-Vermont-State-police-seize-car-and-leave-driver-on-side-of-road-in-20-weather-snow-covered-tag

Back in March of this year, 21 year old Greg Zullo was driving Route 7 in Wallingford. He was pulled over by State Trooper Lewis Hatch. Officer Hatch pulled Mr. Zullo over because his license plate registration sticker was covered by a bit of snow–there was quite a bit of snow in Vermont at the time. This is not a crime or a violation, especially when none of the numbers or letters on the license plate were covered. Normally, an officer of the law is supposed to tell the driver that the snow is there and the driver says something like "Oh, I didn't know. Thank you," and wipes it off. "Have a good day. Be safe." Something like that.
But that didn't happen:

The complaint alleges Hatch told Zullo he was on patrol for heroin traffickers and repeatedly asked Zullo for permission to search the car. Zullo refused, and when Hatch checked Zullo’s record, he learned the man had been arrested in 2013 for misdemeanor marijuana possession. The charge was later dismissed.
The complaint says Hatch ordered Zullo out of the car and told him he had been pulled over because snow partly obscured the registration sticker on the license plate of his car.

Hatch told Zullo that he should give consent to search the vehicle because Hatch’s police dog “smelled something,” despite the fact the dog was not trained in drug detection and was kept in the trooper’s vehicle with the windows rolled up, the lawsuit alleges.

Again, Zullo refused to waive his rights, and Hatch told Zullo he was seizing his car.

[MADem]

1. Looks like a DWB stop, to me. They even made the guy take off his SHOES!

There's some good coverage from the NBC affiliate here--that cop apparently has done this kind of shit before:

http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/aclu-sues-vt-state-police-over-outrageous-traffic-stop/28194170

[freshwest]

22. Yup, that man was Seriously Black and had to be Stopped and Robbed!

Glad this crime was caught on tape!

[Live and Learn]

2. This is all so wrong. Nobody (at least I hope so)

wants the police to stop and harass people for no reason (let alone steal their cars and leave them freezing on the side of the road).

Why the heck would you stop someone for snow partially covering a license plate? Abuse of power is a serious disease and seems to be an epidemic in the US these days.

We need some serious retraining for officers to make them understand that their job is to PROTECT and SERVE the communities and that the people they stop are members of the community.

Remember when your parents would tell you that the police were there to help you. I doubt anyone tells their kids that anymore.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Thank you. nt

[merrily]

5. Not I. My Auntie Mary always told me and my cousins that she would tell

the police on us if we continued misbehaving. That would scare us into shaping up--until we were about 9, anyway. By then, we realized that she was a pushover who never told on us, even to our parents.

[RandiFan1290]

12. The white racists want this and encourage their pigs to do it

Especially in their perfect snow covered white little town.
If they harass enough of the blacks they will move away.
This happens everywhere. They want to teach a lesson... Let us search without cause or we will ruin your day.

We are really getting tired of this shit.

[bobGandolf]

3. Even Vermont.....

has dickheaded cops.

[merrily]

6. Seems to know no state boundaries. Have to wonder about that.

[cali]

8. absolutely.

I the Vermont Human Rights Commission is on this. They've been really effective over the years at dealing with crap like this.

[bobGandolf]

21. I know....

Vermont is a model state in my opinion.

[Enthusiast]

7. The constitution is just a piece of paper. An inconvenient piece of paper.

[treestar]

19. The cop won't get away with it

The courts function and the person can challenge this.

[Chemisse]

9. This shit is just going to keep on happening

Until there is retraining, camera monitoring, and accountability enacted by someone outside the police force and its buddies in the prosecutor's office.

[sorefeet]

16. FUCK RETRAINING

If the person is too stupid to know this is wrong he is FIRED. These are human beings with real lives that the pigs are playing with.

[TorchTheWitch]

10. madness

Officer's routinely just follow the car, plug in the license plate number and see if the car has current registration and don't even bother pulling them over especially in foul weather. And to just LEAVE him on the street alone even if it's nice weather is inexcusable. Geez, when someone's car just breaks down or has to be towed because of an accident and the person doesn't need to go to the hospital they make sure that someone comes to pick them up, gets a taxi for them or even drives them home in the patrol car.

I've had more car breakdowns than I can count anymore, and no officer anywhere has ever left me on the road and certainly not in bad weather or at night. I also always forget to take the little sticker out of the back of the envelope the registration card comes in and put it on my license plate and either throw it out or toss the envelope into the glove box with the sticker still there. Just a month or so ago I finally put this year's sticker on my license plate, noticed I must have forgotten about doing that for the past two years since neither of them where on there and also noticed that my next registration expires in another couple of months.

This guy having the sticker obscured because of snow when his registration is up to date and having his car impounded PLUS leaving him on the street alone in foul weather is an outrage. Just pulling him over when he just could have called it up on his computer in the patrol car using the license plate number is loony. Hell, even if it is expired but still reasonably close to the date of expiration (like a couple of months) they still don't bother pulling you over since at least in this state they know how incompetent the DMV is in getting the new card and sticker sent back in anything close to a reasonable time frame or to the right home.

Here when it snows some people just scoop out a bitty little circle of snow on the driver's side of their windshield with the whole rest of the car looking like a moving igloo yet they still don't get pulled over. Those folks I wish did get pulled over since I can't stand being stuck on the road behind them when great heaps of snow fly off the roof or trunk of their car and splat on my windshield making me totally blinded... and whenever that happens I still always duck for some reason. I also hate it that snow covers all their lights so you can't tell when they put the brakes on or use the turn signal. Pull over all those turds, and make them clean off every flake of snow with their bare hands.

[Shrike47]

11. The cop was just looking for an excuse to search, any excuse.

Let's hope this costs them some money.

[freshwest]

23. Yeah, he just cost the driver some money, this is something people forget about!

[madokie]

13. Smiling here

I remember when we first went to the sticker system me and a bunch of my buddies would make sure to put the sticker upside down, in protest. Why I have no idea now but we did it and that was our little way of protesting not getting a new plate each year. With a new plate you would have a new number so the cops would have to run the numbers and relearn your particular number. Way back then they didn't have all this technical shit to run the numbers for them like they do now. This is coming from a vision of a small town with maybe a dozen if that many cops total. Where sheriffs were prohibited from traffic duty. Now we have the Cherokee's, the highway patrol, the sheriffs and the local yokels to worry with. We'd never had made if it it was like that back in the height of my hippie days. I'm still a hippie just an old don't do drugs hippie now. I shorted out too many wires in the old noggin way back then to keep on doing it now
Actually I must say that I feel I did NOT lose any of my thinking skills because of the drugs, hallucinogens, etc of yonder years. In fact they opened my eyes considerably.

[B Calm]

14. I see Michigan state cops on I-94 doing searches all the time. 9 times out of 10 the person being

searched is not white. Travelling into Michigan from Indiana, beware!

[B Calm]

15. The charge was later dismissed, but who got the bill for towing?

[Brigid]

20. Zullo did.

[freshwest]

24. That's what I'm thinking; plus what about his wages? You know he was late to work, if he got there.

Because when you need your car, you have to go and get it right away.

If he was 'illegal' for some reason, arrest the man. Although I wouldn't want to go to jail with those guys - who knows what they'd do.

And taking his shoes?

[99Forever]

17. Anyone still wondering why...

... they are called "fucking pigs"?

Gangsters with badges is all they are.

[yardwork]

18. This makes me very, very angry.

[LawDeeDah]

25. Should Bernie Sanders resign?

No