Police powers notice to fight for place in county records
Police officers in Chattanooga conduct a transportation stop against a traveler who, under legal presumption only, is involved in transportation. (Photo David Tulis) County attorney Rheubin Taylor and county register Marc Gravitt are resisting entry into the county record books a document called transportation administrative notice. The notice has powerful implications for police and sheriff […]
Notice project exploits fissure between law, TN policy, creates cause of action
People chat in front of Chattanooga city hall, wherein Mayor Andy Berke has been advised of the limits of Tenn. Code Ann. § Title 55 and asked to halt enforcement against noncommercial users of the roadways such as hiphop artist “C-Grimey” Cameron Williams, photo below, giving me an interview at Wildflower Cafe, a man whose […]
Journalist-teacher fights for driver license as system gridlocks on poor
Keelah Jackson is under a civil death sentence. The state tells this city court petitioner she cannot use a car privately, but must buy a license to drive or operate a car in commerce. But she is too poor to pay court fees and fines to end a state block on her getting a driver […]
Judge, clerks refuse ‘client’ restricted license, offer costly path for regular one
Jennifer Collins, a clerk at city court, talks Sept. 27 with Keelah Jackson about the Chattanooga woman’s civil death sentence — a pretended ban on using a car unless she has a driver license, one she cannot afford to renew, with F$800 in fines. (Photo David Tulis) Journalist and justice advocate Keelah Jackson met with […]
Tires, engine, steering wheel do not motor vehicle make
I stand before a family car, a RAV4, and wonder if its engine and its tires and body make it a “motor vehicle” subject to police powers. Or does the use of the car create liability for obedience to police intervention under Title 55? (Photo David Tulis) Are you traveling down the highway in a […]
Title 55 charge puts young woman to tears
A THP officer gets back into his car after making a scene outside the Hixson Panera bread store, charging a young woman with “texting while driving,” enforcing a transportation statute against a young woman who legally admits she is involved in transportation (though as matter of fact, she’s not). (Photo David Tulis) The arrest of […]
Lassitude grips city council as members do busywork, ignore Berke violence
Sharee Robinson-James, left, talks with police official Danna Vaughn about private criminal activity outside a city nightclub while, background, city council member Erskine Oglesby, left, chats with a staffer for Mayor Andy Berke. (Photo David Tulis) A great lassitude seems to afflict the residents of Chattanooga and keeps them from being angry about the abuse […]
‘Double nickel’ traffic-stop reform = change of morals for city
Churches such as North Shore Fellowship downtown teach that the Christian gospel’s goal is the transformation of individuals and cities to be more loving — and more just. (Photo David Tulis) A city that adopts a policy of obeying Tennessee law regarding transportation and police traffic stops will effectively be altering its morals. Chattanooga is […]
Pinkston prosecutorial practice: ‘No constitutional “right to travel,”’ & that’s that
Neal Pinkston, state prosecutor in Hamilton County, Tenn. (Photo WDEF.com) Tennessee court policy denies any right to travel exists, except in one instance. And that is the “individual right to move between states,” to change one’s domicile from Tennessee, say, to Florida. That’s the point made by Neal Pinkston, the elected state’s attorney in Hamilton […]
Cops drag woman out of car under commercial transportation law
Diana Watt, after being handcuffed, is ordered out of a car; the officer is counting down the time for her to act before he drags her out under the commercial transportation statute at Title 55, which requires the state to exhaust its administrative remedies. (Photo Jalonda Oattes on Facebook) Police’s routine claims upon travelers are […]