Houston and the Police State - Checkpoints On the Way (Atlanta: appointed, health insurance)

[Mr. Football]

Houston Police To Begin Training Officers To Staff Checkpoints

This report was filed by an anonymous HPD officer. HPD will begin training to conduct large area lockdowns. This is the first civilian police agency in the country to begin this sort of training. America is/was/supposed to be a free country and checkpoints on our city streets are UnAmerican. If you need anymore reason to worry, simply go to YouTube and watch the videos (you never saw on TV) of what happened in Pittsburgh during the G20 Summit. This story needs to go viral, ASAP.

[ssgmun5000]

Umm..isnt Alex Jones that consipiracy theorist? I wouldnt take that article to serious especially with the anonymous officer as the source of this.

[seadoons]

This is total BS. Post it again when one of the real media sites publishes the article...

[lifertexan]

Alex Jones,LMAO!I would stock up thermal underwear if he told me it gets hot in Texas in the summer.

[paradoxcop]

Originally Posted by ssgmun5000

Umm..isnt Alex Jones that consipiracy theorist?

True that, though I prefer to think of him as a stand-up comedian who hasn't yet managed to get his act booked on Letterman.

He's provided me with countless hours of laughs over the years. Some highlights...

• Vaccinations are a government plot to control our minds
• On 9/11, the CIA purposely flew the planes into the twin towers via remote control
• RFID chips are embedded into our currency to track our every move
• Our Presidents are drawn from a secret society

His general game plan is to take whatever issue is hot at the moment, embrace the lunatic fringe opinions of said issue, and attempt to whip people into a frenzy. As you might imagine, he's currently having a field day with health insurance reform. On slow days, he can always fall back on his tried and true methodologies. For example, he's taken video footage of SWAT and dubbed completely bogus stories over it. That's always good for arousing the wrath of the YouTube kiddies, etc. Interestingly, a lot of this stuff simply vanishes into thin air a few days after it's put up. You've got to keep on your toes if you truly want to catch the best of Alex.

A decent synopsis of his m.o. is available on NNDB's database:
Alex Jones

There are so few sure bets in life. Here's one: take whatever Alex has to say, turn that around by 180 degrees, and you should be approaching the truth of the matter.

[jimmyev]

Originally Posted by Mr. Football

Houston Police To Begin Training Officers To Staff Checkpoints...watch the videos (you never saw on TV) of what happened in Pittsburgh during the G20 Summit. This story needs to go viral, ASAP.

The G20 in Pittsburgh. For months rumors flew of protesters descending upon the city. Hippies were saving their sh*t in bags to throw at police. The mayor tried to ban masks, but city council refused because then the city couldn't have it's annual furry convention. Police discovered a 'pipe bomb' that turned out to be a PVC pipe belonging to the pipe manufacturer in whose lay-down yard it was found. Then they found the same suspicious 'pipe bomb' again, and the whole story repeated itself.

The entire city was shut down for three days. Workers got a three-day vacation. And...nothing happened. All you saw during the incessant local news coverage of the 'confrontations' was a bunch of news cameras, police in riot gear standing idly by, and a few people chanting. At least after the 2009 Super Bowl they burned couches. That was kind of interesting.

One person was seen mysteriously being abducted by federal agents. But nobody knew who he was and nothing was heard again. That was strange.

Now the day after the summit, there was a ridiculous incident at Pitt. Maybe the cops were disappointed that they didn't see any action during the summit. But there still weren't any burning couches. Because city council had finally passed a long-overdue law against keeping couches on your front porch.

[Mustang1]

Supposedly the new mayor isn't too fond of this idea.

[jmeadors]

Actually, road blocks / sobriety check points and the like are not uncommon in various jurisdictions around the country. I used to live in Atlanta and every weekend the state & local police would have random check points set up to check for people driving under the influence or with expired license, no insurance, etc. I had never experienced that before but I can tell you that it changes your driving habits when you know there's a chance you might be randomly stopped. Makes the roads a lot safer.

[KerrTown]

Houston NPR noted that the inbound Southwest Freeway (heading Downtown) had a checkpoint causing a traffic jam during afternoon rush hour exactly a month ago. The traffic reporter mentioned that the police were on the freeway "giving tickets and checking for expired stickers and insurance".

[jmeadors]

HPD would NEVER do a checkpoint on a state or federal highway. They are city cops and, though they can write tickets anywhere in their jurisdiction, they wouldn't have the authority or the chutzpah to shut down a freeway to check for insurance (on their own)... and they'd never do it during rush hour anyway.

I've seen them many times--and been ticketed before myself--parked under the underpasses around town where you u-turn under the freeway giving out tickets for seatbelts & inspection stickers... kind of like shooting fish in a barrel if you ask me but the reality is that if you are driving without a seatbelt (which i always do) and/or driving around with an expired tag (which i rarely do), you're breakin' the law.