Via Grits for Breakfast I found this story from the McAllen (Tx) Monitor:
The leader of a South Texas drug task force on Wednesday accused state Sen Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen of using legislation to retaliate against the task force for having pulled over Hinojosa during a traffic stop.But Hinojosa said he would have filed the legislation even if an officer with the South Texas Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force had not pulled him over on U.S. Highway 281 one afternoon in October for driving a car with dark tint on the windows.
It is the task force that retaliated against him for filing the legislation by offering video of the traffic stop this week to South Texas television stations, Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa has filed two bills that would change the way drug task forces must operate. Among their provisions is one that requires task forces to work under the direction of the Department of Public Safety.
The South Texas Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force is a rarity among drug task forces in Texas in that it reports only to the chief of police of Kingsville and officials at the city of Kingsville, but not to DPS.
[...]
On the afternoon of Oct. 7, 2005, Hinojosa was traveling south on U.S. Highway 281, when one of Garza’s officers caught up to him south of Falfurrias because he thought the tint on Hinojosa’s black Lincoln Navigator was too dark to be legal, Garza said.The officer thought Hinojosa swerved toward the shoulder when he waved to the officer, Garza said.
The dark tint, in combination with the swerving, gave the officer sufficient cause to stop Hinojosa, Garza said.
"The flags go up, big time, and we ask ourselves, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’" Garza said.
Hinojosa eventually received a warning for not staying in his lane and for having tint that was too dark, Garza said. The officer never asked to search the car and never searched the car, Garza said.
Garza said he released the video of the traffic stop to interested television stations only after they asked him for it, their interest having been piqued only by a story in the San Antonio Express-News that referenced the stop.
But Hinojosa said Garza sent a message to television stations offering the footage. Within a period of about an hour on Tuesday after receiving the message, nearly every television station in the Valley and Corpus Christi called Hinojosa’s office seeking comment, according to his office.
(Emphasis mine)
The area of South Texas near the Rio Grande is called The Valley. It includes the poorest counties in the US, the closest thing to third world conditions to be found in this country. It's not just the living conditions that are substandard, local law enforcement has its problems, too. In the last decade or so all four of the southernmost Texas counties have had their top executive and law enforcement officials face serious criminal charges, including:
- Hidalgo County Judge J. Edgar Ruiz and four county commissioners were hit with a 134 count federal indictment for taking kickbacks
- Starr County Sheriff Gene Falcon pleaded guilty to bribery charges.
- Zapata County Judge Jose Luis Guevara and Sheriff Romeo T. Ramirez were convicted of drug trafficking.
- Hidalgo County Sheriff Brig Marmolejo was convicted of accepting bribes from a jailed drug dealer. This one is special to me, because I knew Brig back then...
The intimidation the drug task force is allegedly engaged in would be shocking except to those of us who used to live there. The place is crawling with drug traffickers and drug warriors, and it's not easy to tell which of them is worse.