Be careful if you are a Canadian in the US!

Cummins12V98 wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Let's remember this is ONE side of the story.

Exactly, and we likely will never find out what really happened as the police agency wants to get this PR issue gone, so they apologize in the hope that it goes away because no matter how right or wrong the cop was, it doesn't come across well in the press that loves nothing better than to run stories about evil police agencies.

The cop likely overstepped his bounds, possibly by a wide margin but I can guarantee, she isn't as innocent as the story makes it out to be. It's not logical to simply harass people for no good reason and an arrest over something silly is a lot of hassle for the cop.

I was Jury Foreman once and thankfully I had ONE person like you that sided with me on FACTS and not emotion.

I don't believe the police thought this was "something silly". She had a driver with a license from another country and was acting according to what she believed/was told was the right procedure. I suspect it's very likely she was taught that if you stop someone and they don't have a U.S. license, arrest them, they may be here illegally. If that's the case, I actually applaud her for not using ethnicity/license origin as a factor in her decision to arrest.

Of course, if that's the reason the woman was arrested, then it makes sense that the department would not speak out...

valhalla360 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Let's remember this is ONE side of the story.

Exactly, and we likely will never find out what really happened as the police agency wants to get this PR issue gone, so they apologize in the hope that it goes away because no matter how right or wrong the cop was, it doesn't come across well in the press that loves nothing better than to run stories about evil police agencies.

The cop likely overstepped his bounds, possibly by a wide margin but I can guarantee, she isn't as innocent as the story makes it out to be. It's not logical to simply harass people for no good reason and an arrest over something silly is a lot of hassle for the cop.

I was Jury Foreman once and thankfully I had ONE person like you that sided with me on FACTS and not emotion.

SoundGuy wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Let's remember this is ONE side of the story.

Just watched the story again on Global Toronto 6pm news and the story hasn't changed. All charges were dropped, the young lady now has a hard copy letter shown on camera that absolves her of any wrong doing, and her costs have been reimbursed. That however does not erase the unnecessary trauma she was put through and when asked by the reporter if there's anything else she wants the answer was simply an apology from the arresting officer. Lotsa luck with that. :(

No one has any idea of how the young lady acted when pulled over.

delwhjr wrote:
Georgia has a reputation for speed traps. The Canada thing was just an excuse to make it more ominous to the driver. These jurisdictions live on traffic fines and they make it very hard on anyone who tries to fight. They usually offer a quick settlement in a traffic court if you don't fight and pay right then.
Texas had a few of those for years and it took a state law to bring it to an end.
With the all the time news cycle this type of thing probably will finally fade out.
It has nothing to do with homeland security or immigration. It is just plain greed and intimidation.

I agree with this - I had always heard that the Speed Trap areas look for out-of-state plates, so out-of-country would be better yet, eh? I'm so sorry this happened to this sweet girl - but Snapchatting her predicament was a brilliant move!

No, this girl now lives in Ontario, she has graduated. That’s the problem.

The officer stated she told them she had been studying in TN but had graduated but was still living there. The driver now claims she told the officer she no longer lived in TN.

Other sites have also suggested that the car she was driving was registered and plated in her name, in TN. If that is the case, that is a whole other issue that could certainly have made a huge impact on the situation.

The other confusing part is people are missing a fine point. The charge was that she was driving with an “invalid” license. That in the circumstances, non-student living in TN and driving on an Ontario D/L.

JaxDad wrote:
Not that I’m defending this particular LEO, but the gal involved was interviewed on TV this morning.

For the first time I’ve seen or heard she divulged a new little tidbit, she admitted she told the officer that she had been living in the US, Tennessee in particular, for years while she was attending university there. She had stopped in TN to visit friends, then on to FL to visit an aunt and was returning to TN when she was stopped.

The fact that she admitted to keeping her Ontario license while living in TN was the key issue IMHO.

As a VISITOR, even for months my Ontario D/L is just fine, but as a RESIDENT I’d have to get a D/L from my new place of residence. It was on this basis that the officer said her D/L was not valid.

She also said the officer told her that there was concern about her returning to Canada without dealing with the matter. Most States have a pact that fines can be dealt with in your home State. Canada is obviously not part of that pact.

This girl lives in Ontario and is attending school in Tennessee. Almost all jurisdictions have provisions for students that allow them to retain their domicile state/ provincial drivers licences. Regardless, she had a valid DL, at most (if Georgia had no provision for students, which I doubt) she could have been cited for failing to change her DL to Tennessee one - like failing to notify of a change in address, it's different than not having one at all). But the point is, the response to whatever paperwork glitch there may have been, physically being placed under arrest is WAY beyond appropriate.

Not that I’m defending this particular LEO, but the gal involved was interviewed on TV this morning.

For the first time I’ve seen or heard she divulged a new little tidbit, she admitted she told the officer that she had been living in the US, Tennessee in particular, for years while she was attending university there. She had stopped in TN to visit friends, then on to FL to visit an aunt and was returning to TN when she was stopped.

The fact that she admitted to keeping her Ontario license while living in TN was the key issue IMHO.

As a VISITOR, even for months my Ontario D/L is just fine, but as a RESIDENT I’d have to get a D/L from my new place of residence. It was on this basis that the officer said her D/L was not valid.

She also said the officer told her that there was concern about her returning to Canada without dealing with the matter. Most States have a pact that fines can be dealt with in your home State. Canada is obviously not part of that pact.

Johnny G1 wrote:
Has not change since the 60s when I was trucking through Georgia, a lot of the small towns made a living on bs ticket's like that, for example a car would pull out in front of you, so following to close, automatic $15.00 to the local hardware store who was also the town Judge, cops were in cahoots with them, Just pay and carry on because you couldn't afford to have the truck shut down and they knew it.

My dad was a Marine, stationed in Georgia, in the early sixties. He loved to tell a redneck cop story, about small town Georgia. It's well past midnight, and he is sitting up front, in a large military truck, waiting at a stop light in a little town. There isn't a living thing moving, as the light remains red, for five minutes, or so. The driver tells my dad to get out, and push the cross walk button. As my dad reaches for the button, he hears a shotgun being racked, behind a bush, and a voice with a slow southern draw says, "Boy. You best get yer A#@ back in that truck and WAIT your turn to proceed". He and the driver spent the next fifteen minutes, sitting at attention, staring straight ahead, until Bubba flipped the light to green.

Watch the whole video and read the updates to the story. You know the officer really crewed up when the Canadian consulate has to step in to straighten out something the U.S. did! that right there tells you that you don't need the other side of the story!

I feel for this gal and she should not have been cited for an invalid license. But she was stopped for speeding on I-75. Perhaps if she had been following the speed limit, she would never had been stopped and this would not have happened.

We drive interstates a lot. I don't speed. . . period. If you are on a "lesser" road, you might get caught unawares, but on an interstate, you set your cruise and go. Speeders should expect to get caught.

JMHO

Dale