WATCH: Cops Randomly Stop Innocent Man, Assault Him, Search Him, Let Him Go

Dev Sanders is a veteran who lives in Maryland and works for the state. But not even serving his country could have prepared him for the treatment he says he received at the hands of the United States Park Police.

Officers Keyes and Easter (Sanders claims) pulled him over on I-295 near the National Security Agency and told him he was stopped because he was following the car in front of him too closely. We at The Free Thought Project have published many stories indicating it’s one of many excuses police will use to unlawfully stop someone, mostly in an attempt to see what’s inside a car or fish for anything to use to extract revenue from a citizen or deprive them of freedom.

Sanders disputed their claims that he was following too closely, and cooperated with police up until the point that they wanted him to exit his vehicle so they could search it. He told them they had no probable cause to search his car and was not willing to allow them to do so. That didn’t sit well with the Park Police who reported called him a “smartass.”

Sanders told them they had 15 minutes to get a police dog to the scene or else he was a free man, free to go about his life without being harassed. Sensing something was going to happen, he began recording with his cell phone.

From the 15-second video, officers can be seen reaching into his vehicle, unlocking his car door and dragging him out into the road, arguably a dangerous thing to do for all parties involved. He says he was nearly choked out as officers dragged him away.

They pulled me over, said I look like a suspect. how, i don’t know. windows tinted so dark and they were behind me …said, ‘can they search car for weapons or drugs.’ I said, ‘no.’ they just unlocked my shit, choked me out and what not.

Sanders says they immediately knew they had violated his civil rights but tried to get him to make a deal with them to keep them out of trouble. They allegedly told him if he said he’d just gotten into an argument with him they’d let him go.

They knew they were wrong… said they would let me go if I told his supervisor he just got in a argument. But when he got there they didn’t even let me move off the back of the car. they approached him (Supervisor) to tell their side and make themselves look good

His dogs were very agitated at the sight of seeing their owner being kidnapped. Sanders’ girlfriend started recording from her seat as a passenger. Her video shows a compliant Sanders, handcuffed on the side of the road where the patrol car was parked behind him.

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That’s when it happened. As another officer was coming over to speak with Sanders’ girlfriend, his dog “Dinero” jumped out and made an aggressive b-line towards the officer who ran in fear.

The police, as TFTP has documented, are quick to kill dogs who go after them. This time, however, the officer maintained his composure and didn’t shoot the dog.

Sanders was allowed to return to his vehicle, and leave without being arrested, but he feels his 4th Amendment rights were violated. He claims police had no probable cause to search his vehicle. There were no weapons or drugs in the car and he says his vehicle does not smell like marijuana. He wrote in a Facebook post:

united states park police, READY TO SUE THESE COPS TRYING TO DROP MY GIRL OFF AT WORK 295 pulled me over and dragged me out in the middle of the highway by my neck almost got hit by a car because I said they couldn’t search my car got mad and did the most then going to let me go and said ‘my supervisor is going to come down ask why someone’ was detained just say we got in a argument and we will let you go “listen close he even says ‘their recording’ at the end …YOU HEAR MY GIRL IN THE BACK ‘YOU GUYS CANT DO THAT TO HIM’ PLEASE share/like …let the people know it has to stop

We at The Free Thought Project couldn’t agree more. These types of baseless traffic stops (he didn’t get a ticket for the alleged moving violation), and unwarranted searches must come to an end if police will ever return the level of trust they seem to have lost. No one should be forcibly dragged from their vehicle because they match a certain profile or because a cop is having a bad day. When will it all end?

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Sanders told one of his friends he’d wanted to be a police officer at one point in his life but being racially profiled, apparently on more than one occasion, changed all that. He wrote;

See it’s funny because the people defending them have never been profiled or taken advantage of illegally. I use to think the same things. I was going to be a cop at one point but you finally experience what they do and you don’t want any parts of it

Sanders’ interaction with police, we would love to say is atypical. It’s not. It happens to thousands upon thousands of people every day, and yet nothing happens to the perpetrators. Very rarely, if ever, do they get held liable. Most of the time it’s the taxpayer who carries the financial burden of their abuse. Sanders is currently seeking an attorney and plans to file a civil rights violation lawsuit against the officers and the Park Police.

Court Rules Reclined Car Seat Now Suspicious and Can Justify Warrantless Searches

Topeka, KS — In one of the most stereotypical, right-violating, and tyrannical laws we’ve ever seen, the Kansas Supreme Court just ruled that a reclined car seat is suspicious behavior and can be used by police as a justification for warrantless searches. As if the police needed another reason to stop and harass you, they can now do so — based entirely on your seat posture while riding in a vehicle.

Prior to heading to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals first concluded that a reclined seat “does not significantly add to the probable-cause analysis” because reclining in a seat is “a common, innocuous activity.” Howard, 51 Kan. App. 2d at 38. However, if the officer sees a plastic bag in a car with a reclined seat — they now have probable cause. Howard, 51 Kan. App. 2d at 41.

The case of the State of Kansas v. Cameron Howard began when Howard allegedly attempted to avoid a traffic light by driving through a parking lot. Claiming this gave him probable cause to detain and otherwise extort Howard, a police officer pulled him over. That’s when the officer noticed the ‘suspicious’ passenger seat that was in a slightly reclined position.

Ignoring the fact that the passenger seat was occupied by Howard’s pregnant companion, the officer ordered Howard out of the vehicle. He then noticed an empty plastic bag and claimed this gave him probable cause to search the vehicle. During the warrantless search of the vehicle, the officer found a handgun under the floor mat.

According to the Kansas Supreme Court, “the officer’s training and experience that led him to know people regularly package drugs utilizing twisted off corners of clear plastic baggies.”

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Seeing the baggy and noticing the reclined seat — even though it was occupied by a pregnant woman — “Officer Loughman made the reasonable inference that the passenger’s reclined seat was an attempt to conceal something from his view.” Howard was then arrested for felony possession of a firearm — in spite of the fact that he had legally purchased the gun after undergoing an FBI background check.

At trial, Howard’s defense argued that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the officer had no probable cause for the search in the first place.

However, the court concluded, in a most tyrannical and unconstitutional manner, that a reclined seat is plenty enough reason for an officer to be suspicious, thereby magically granting him power to seize, search, or otherwise detain an individual based on that fact alone.

We begin our probable cause analysis by considering the passenger’s reclined seat and the panel’s conclusion that it added nothing to increase the probability that the vehicle contained contraband. We disagree. When assessing whether probable cause existed, this court is to consider all information in the officer’s possession and any “fair inferences therefrom.” (Emphasis added.) Ramirez, 278 Kan. at 406. We conclude that it was fair for the officer in this case to infer from the passenger’s action of reclining her seat that she was trying to hide something from his view. This inference adds to the likelihood that the car contained contraband, helping to establish probable cause.

Justice Eric S. Rosen was the sole voice of reason on the court and issued a heavily charged dissent.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 15 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights establishes “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches . . . .” See State v. Morris, 276 Kan. 11, 17, 72 P.3d 570 (2003). This protection extends to a person’s vehicle and prevents the warrantless search of that vehicle absent probable cause. See United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 825, 102 S. Ct. 2157, 72 L. Ed. 2d 572 (1982); State v. Sanchez-Loredo, 294 Kan. 50, 56, 272 P.3d 34 (2012). Probable cause only exists when the totality of the circumstances establishes a fair probability that the vehicle contains contraband or evidence. Sanchez-Loredo, 294 Kan. at 55.

So long as these principles stand, I cannot agree that the presence of a reclined seat and a torn plastic baggie give an officer permission to invade the privacy and protection afforded by our Constitutions with a warrantless search of a vehicle.

Police, as the Rutherford Institute so eloquently points out, can now add ‘reclining car seat’ to the incredibly long list of other “suspicious” behavior as having acne scars, driving with a stiff upright posture, having car windows that are too heavily tinted, driving too fast, driving too slow, failing to maintain speed, following too closely, improper lane changes, distracted driving, screeching a car’s tires, leaving a parked car door open for too long, avoiding a traffic light by driving through a parking lot, driving near a bar or on a road that has large amounts of drunk driving, driving a certain make of car (Mercedes, Grand Prix and Hummers are among the most ticketed vehicles), having anything dangling from the rearview mirror (air fresheners, handicap parking permits, troll transponders or rosaries), or displaying pro-police bumper stickers.

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“Drivers should beware. At a time when police can do no wrong—at least in the eyes of the courts, police unions and politicians dependent on their votes—‘we the people’ are at a severe disadvantage,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “As Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas warned almost 50 years ago, ‘If the individual is no longer to be sovereign, if the police can pick him up whenever they do not like the cut of his jib, if they can ‘seize’ and ‘search’ him in their discretion, we enter a new regime.’ We have, indeed, entered a new regime and it’s called a police state.”

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.