Watch Florida Cops Arrest a Legally Blind Man After Confusing His Walking Stick for a Gun
The two sheriff's deputies have been disciplined, and the sheriff called the arrest "unacceptable."
Two Florida sheriff's deputies have been disciplined after a video of them arresting a legally blind man for refusing to show his ID went viral this week.
The Washington Post reports Columbia County Sheriff Mark Hunter apologized to James Hodges, 61, calling his arrest for resisting an officer without violence "unacceptable." Hunter also said both officers involved in Hodges' arrest have been disciplined. One was demoted, both were suspended without pay for several days, and both will be required to go through remedial civil rights training.
Hodges posted body camera footage of his arrest to YouTube last week. The footage shows Columbia County Sheriff's Deputy Jayme Gohde approaching Hodges and asking about the folded walking stick tucked into his back pocket.
"It's a navigational aid," Hodges says. "What's the problem? Are you a tyrant?"
"Yeah, I am, actually," Gohde responds. "What's your name and date of birth?"
The two then start talking over each other, Hodges arguing that he's not required to show his ID and Gohde saying that she suspects he's carrying a gun. Hodges whips out his walking stick and shows it to Gohde, who responds, "You don't have to be a dick to me."
"Well you're being a dick to me," Hodges shoots back. Hodges asks if he's being detained. Gohde says he is and again demands his name and date of birth.
"I don't need [to give] ID unless there's a reasonable, articulated suspicion that I have committed a crime or am about to commit a crime," Hodges says. He then asks to see Gohde's supervisor. That happened to be Sgt. Randy Harrison, who was also on the scene. Harrison, too, insists that Gohde has the power to demand Hodges' ID.
But Hodges knows his rights. In Florida, people are only required by law to show police officers their ID when they are stopped on suspicion of a crime. It's unclear why the officers continue to detain Hodges after it's obvious he's carrying a walking stick, not a gun, in his back pocket. Nevertheless, the two officers then handcuff Hodges and pull his ID from his pocket to run a check on him.
"Alright, Mr. Hodges, was that so hard?" Gohde asks.
"It's gonna be," Hodges responds. "I want your name and your badge number."
"You know what, put him in jail for resisting," Harrison says. The entire time Hodges has been standing stock still.
Resisting arrest is one of the ticky-tacky charges, along with obstruction of justice, that officers often slap on people who make them mad. Because of this, they're pejoratively known as "contempt of cop" charges.
Hodges spent 26 hours in jail before being released.
Being belligerent to a police officer is inadvisable if you'd rather avoid getting ticketed or arrested, but there is absolutely nothing illegal about it, as long as you don't interfere with the officer. The First Amendment protects the right to mouth off, curse at, and gesture rudely to the police. Nevertheless, cases of people being arrested for offending police officers continue to pop up around the country.
Luckily, because of the increasing use of police body cameras, the public can now see when citizen complaints are legitimate or bogus and when charges are levied against someone merely because of an officer's hurt feelings.
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Cue up zz top arrested for driving while blind
That actually happened to Ronnie Milsap in Nashville.
Cops are useless and crooked:way past time get rid of them
And still no articles about J6 detainees being held for nearly two years without bail. But plenty of time for this.
Wait, cops never harass/detain/arrest white people. Video must be CGI and everyone paid actors.
No-one has ever suggested any such thing, racist. We all know that cops do this sort of criminal nonsense all the time, and especially to black people.
How is his comment racist?
Oh look, a sealion!
Dave^2 – check your satire meter and get back to me. 🙂
Racist comments aren’t satire, they’re just racist America-hating bullshit. Fucking Putinscum like you should at least learn to shut up on Armistice day, when we commemorate the people who died for the freedoms you’re pissing on.
Who’s sock puppet are you? You’re pretty much just trolling, and not even subtle.
Fuck off, Putinbot.
It’s not a sock. It’s a foreign bot. “Armistice Day” gave it away.
It sounds kind of like Shreek, but might be that bitch, Dee.
Booker T Washington once said,
“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs”.
Wait, are you saying that because a cop harassed/detained/arrested a white guy, they don’t do it to black guys? Or don’t do it as often? Or don’t as statistics indicate (vs. your anecdotal observation) do it more often to people of color?
I’m confused why you made the sarcastic racial observation.
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Honest cop admits to being a tyrant! We need MORE honest cops, butt fewer tyrants and butt-wipes!
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Wow! Evidently, somebody at Reason reads the Commentariat! I posted this story in the Comments on the story about the woman with dementia held in the shoplifting incident!
And if one person at Reason listens, perhaps there is hope for it getting back to the magazine it once was! It can happen! 🙂
Nope.
What struck me about this story is that these cops actually confused a folding walking cane for a damn gun! Since when beyond childhood is that a thing?
Well, past the fleeting glimpse of metal-in-back-pocket, I don’t think that the officer(s) continued to really-actually think that it might be a gun. Their far bigger (and far more arrogant) mistake was to confuse THEIR Precious Baby Feelings being HURT, with there being a hazard to public order and safety, and obedience to laws! So they MADE UP (on the spot) an imaginary law called “disrespecting MEEEE”!
From the video, the walking stick was huge and barely fit into the pocket. I don’t see how anyone can confuse that for being a gun.
And 30 seconds into the video, he showed her what is was and that should have eliminated any of her concerns that he was carrying a weapon.
She should have said, at that point, “OK, sorry about the convenience, Have a nice day”
I doubt they *actually* confused the walking stick for a gun. They just *said* that it might be a gun as a thin justification for the harassment.
No, I think they actually were that stupid. They saw the handle and thought it must be a gun, and then were unable to back down and admit an error, however slight and understandable. How dare someone show them up like that by engaging in nefarious conduct by doing nothing wrong when pseudo-police imagined that they did?
Well, you are the sultan of stupidity.
Moral of the story. Always carry a walking stick in Florida, and have a lawyer on retainer and you might get lucky and run into two idiots like this and pick up a fast 5 to $10,000.
Apparently he spent 26 hrs in jail…. for obstructing…. an investigation into a misdemeanor at best.
Heck, if was found guilty, he would not have spent that amount of time in jail (unless he really pissed off the judge).
The supervisor was demoted and the lady copy was suspended without pay for two days.
Now we just have to figure out how much the insurance company for the city/county whatever will have to pay and how much they will up the costs for insurance – which the tax payers will cover.
I think $26K plus legal expenses would be fair.
Actually, the ONLY THING that governments understand is NOT civil rights or LAW, it is $$$$. So as a juror in FL I would award 1million per hour that this man was detained, jointly and severally (meaning against the officers themselves and the city).
So 28 million is my starting point.
When you arrest a legally blind man for carrying a cane, and when the officers were TOLD THE LAW and ASKED for their justification and refused rational answer, this is just a violation of civil rights under color of law. See the RODNEY KING ACT.
You’re missing a zero or two. Get this in front of a jury and those deputies will be sodomized with a Lousiville Slugger wrapped in barbed wire and soaked in satan peppers.
I’m surprised they didn’t go out, buy him a dog, wait a few weeks for them to get attached, then come back and shoot the dog.
Be patient.
You may not realize it, but this represents progress! A few years ago, a deaf wood carver artist was shot and killed by a police officer in Seattle for failing to drop his carving knife after a shouted order he couldn’t hear while he had his back turned to the officer. When I use that incident as an example in discussions on this and other forums, the most common response I get from back-the-blue types is, “Anyone can make a mistake. Police frequently have to make split-second decisions!” Since neither of those pitiful excuses applies to this scenario, it tends to sound pretty pathetic, but either way I expect and accept no mistakes from people who get a special status to use deadly force – and you shouldn’t either.
Yes, the idea the police should be immune from prosecution for mistakes because they have a difficult job is complete bullshit. They should act accordingly and err on the side of caution when thinking of flouting the law, not expect a get out of jail free card.
I really don’t understand why the pseudo-police here have not been charged with the crimes they very obviously committed. They are caught on camera committing criminal offences, ffs.
For what it’s worth, if pseudo-police try this sort of thing on you, tell them you don’t believe they are real police due to the way they are acting, and order them to stand down while you dial 911 to report people impersonating police. If they are actually real police, and have not gone rogue, they will wait while you establish their bona fides. If they don’t, then they deserve the jail time they may actually earn that way.
Since neither of those pitiful excuses applies to this scenario, it tends to sound pretty pathetic, but either way I expect and accept no mistakes from people who get a special status to use deadly force – and you shouldn’t either.
That said, demoted and suspended without pay, formal apologies issued. Maybe they’re shitty employees who harassed the customer enough to get fired and didn’t, maybe they were middling-OK employees who did make a mistake; either way, their mistake wasn’t just accepted.
They weren’t demoted or suspended without pay. They got a paid holiday and a completely meaningless slap on the wrist. The ‘punishment’ was a two year hold on something that was never going to happen anyway.
If we believe the Sheriff that they were disciplined. It’s progress of a sort that he admitted their conduct wasn’t acceptable. Except it was also criminal. The two cops should be facing criminal charges for official oppression, kidnapping under colour of law, and anything else that could arguably stick.
Discipline insufficient. They should be in jail, no bail, awaiting trial for multiple felonies including kidnapping and official oppression.
Violation of RODNEY KING ACT, violation of civil rights under color of authority, kidnapping, unlawful arrest (even after the victim explained the law to them). These two should have been FIRED immediately and PROSECUTED to the fullest extent of the law.
The real issue is that the FBI is tasked with this job EXPLICITLY under federal law. They NEVER do their job when it comes to police. The FBI needs to be broken down into three branches that are NEVER allowed to cross over into each other’s areas. One needs to be to investigate and prosecute police actions as necessary.
There also needs to be an INTERSTATE list of persons who are forbidden from any position in law enforcement EVER. These two need to be on that list.
The real issue is that the FBI is tasked with this job EXPLICITLY under federal law. They NEVER do their job when it comes to police. The FBI needs to be broken down into three branches that are NEVER allowed to cross over into each other’s areas. One needs to be to investigate and prosecute police actions as necessary.
There also needs to be an INTERSTATE list of persons who are forbidden from any position in law enforcement EVER. These two need to be on that list.
The real change will come when the county’s insurance company that covers them for liability ups their premium a couple 100%.
So apology accepted, now pay the man.
That just gets passed on to the citizenry. This is why cops should have to carry E&O insurance,
https://www.dailymoth.com/blog/10-years-ago-deaf-native-american-woodcarver-shot-and-killed-by-seattle-police-officer
“Some jobs can’t have bad apples. Like pilots. You know, American Airlines can’t be like, ‘Most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.’”
— Chris Rock
probably not going to make the cut for Body Cam
As long as bad cops are tolerated, there are no good cops.
All cops enforce immoral laws so none of them are good.
There just aren’t any good cops, Vernon. The bad ones have chased them out decades ago, and taken over the system to ensure no-one who might challenge them ever gets in.
Very much like the entire democrat party. Except democrats are orders of magnitude worse.
Good thing he didn’t have a seeing-eye dog, or they’d have probably shot it.
As is tradition.
There is no legal basis at all for “qualified immunity”, and in fact it’s clearly forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause. The reason that it exists at all is that we, the people, failed to tar and feather the first shyster in a black dress who pulled it out of his ass.
-jcr
Qualified immunity’s not here man.
Well said
The problem is that without any protections, leftist activists would use lawfare to destroy any law enforcement. I’m sure Soros would spend a billion dollars to fund such efforts.
In the end, almost all misery in this country can be traced back to the democrats.
First,
Watch Florida Cops Arrest a Legally Blind Man After Confusing His Walking Stick for a Gun
I don’t see a problem here.
That said,
Agreed that it’s not good that they arrested and jailed him but, at the same time, he spent more time in jail than people trying to burn down the federal courthouse and occupy CHOP/CHAZ in Seattle and less time than the Jan. 6th protestors.
So, especially combined with the fact that the officers were demoted and suspended without pay, and, again, nobody punched anybody or threatened to kill anyone or, it sounds, got any more uncivil than “Don’t be a dick.”, this feels very much between deflection or return to ACAB libertarianism. Which, yay, I can’t wait until we get
theanother “cops shot him in the back” story in response to body cam footage showing him shot running towards, clearly armed, and the *entirety* of your credibility can be flushed down the toilet.The cops fucked up and all your obscurantist jibber-jabber doesn’t change that!
And the fact that the man spent more time in jail than CHAZ/CHOP thugs makes the injustice of the system even worse! It shows that the system has turned from a protector of Individual Rights into a destroyer of Individual Rights.
Don’t forget about the courts as destroyers too. Both Jonathan Swift and Charles Dickens lamented the courthouses and judges as cynical, incompetent, and destructive. Dickens even recommended a sign over the courthouse door which proclaimed “Suffer every wrong that can be done to you before coming here!”
And it’s worse now here in the USA than it ever was. The judiciary is a magnet for cold-blooded haters “in black dresses.” At least here in NC the voters threw out a few bad judges on our appellate courts. Lucy Inman and Sammie Ervin IV are gone.
Soooo…I take it Sam Irvin IV couldn’t carry his Grandpa’s jock, huh? That’s a damn shame.
Like Elihu Smails?
Someone will chime in and point out that a lot of Seattle/Portland/6 Jan 2021 rioters did indeed spend more than 26 hours in jail.
what has that to do with a legally blind man being kidnapped and falsely imprisoned in violation of law?
Oh, Boo Hoo.
Same old tired lies. Your Trumplican lies don’t work here.
The point is this guy spent 26 hrs in jail for a crime that would not have resulted in jail time…. AND HE DID NOTHING WRONG – he was literally, lawfully, walking down the street!
On the other hand:
Joseph Ybarra – charged with arson (throwing a Molotov Cocktail) in Portland – spend 1.5 years in jail awaiting trial and was sentence to time served.
Also note, it was on federal property, being prosecuted by the justice department – under the Trump administration.
As for Jan 6th, most were out within 24 hours and got no jail time. The ones charged with assaulting a federal officer – a crime that comes with up to 10 years in prison – were in a bit longer.
out within 24 hours sounds like a day in jail to me.
And holding for 24 hours without charge has been the standard for all of the above for the better part of a century, if not longer.
Taken together, his motivated retardation is obvious. Imagine if he were saying: Sure the law of the land in China is that they can arrest and hold anyone for 24 hrs. but, mistaking a cane for a gun and holding some nobody for 24 hrs., and getting disciplined for it is an authoritarian crime against humanity. But arresting Tienanmen Square Protestors and releasing them in 24 hrs. is just how the system works.
Either he doesn’t actually give a shit about selective political persecution or he does as long as he’s opposed to the people being selectively persecuted.
So you consider armed kidnapping to be no big deal?
So you consider it to be OK as long as it’s perpetrated against people you don’t like for longer?
I’m calling bullshit on “they thought it was a gun”. If they really did, they would have shot him when he reached back for it.
They would have at least reacted when he drew it out.
Heck, I reacted, and I knew it was a cane. The guy may have been legally in the right, but a cop tells you that he thinks you have a gun and you whip it out? I don’t want to kill you, but Darwin does.
It porves she was lying and never worried about a gun in the first place. But to your point, it’s true you have to be very careful around murderous gangs.
Especially since a very large one controls the executive branch currently.
You would think their physical fitness requirements would include an eye test….sadly it can instead include an IQ test that disqualifies those with too high of an IQ.
If they really did, they would have shot him when he reached back for it.
They said it was a gun, not that it was assembled, loaded, and ready to fire. I thought you were on the side of people being informed enough to tell the difference?
It almost seems like you wanted the cops to shoot this guy so that you could go on cheering everyone who goes around punching Nazis in the face.
Sounds to me that this gentleman will soon have a significant amount of the counties money.
I feel so much safer now. Keep up the good work Ocifer.
How much will this suit get settled for?
Your tax $ at work.
In NC the victim of that tyranny would have played hell getting the body cam footage from the cops. The cops crawl up trees backwards to evade such transparency. So when they violate rights they deep six the evidence, except in the case of Asheville black man, Johnnie Germaine Rush, whom cops stopped for jaywalking and beat and choked him. The cam footage was leaked to media and several cops were fired, and the chief quit in disgrace. IIRC, the leaker was also fired for not being a “team player.”
Same for TN. A kid is riding his bike on an urban bike trail in Knoxville while two police SUVs with dark windows follow him. He tires of the harassment and begins filming them with his cellphone. They stop him, handcuff him, and seize his cellphone. While a small crowd gathers to watch the commotion and the cops shoo them away (or be arrested), they take almost an hour trying to figure out how to erase the movie from his cellphone. Which they finally accomplish. And then they let him go and tell him he is suspected of cooking meth and under surveillance. I know him. He has never used or cooked meth. Plus, he now has a full-time job driving a truck.
Articles such as this make me wonder how much training Law Enforcement Officers at all levels are receiving and if they are tested to ensure they retain and comprehend it.
All you need is a GED and an IQ in the range of room temperature to become a cop.
Is that why so many democrats are cops now?
The real question is,: since these cops have taken the courses how they can possibly not understand that they violated the civil rights (inalienable rights) of a citizen.
I am sorry but the ONLY reasonable response by any manager or supervisor or CHIEF would be summary dismissal.
ALL LAWS are LEGISLATED. RIGHTS are given and can NEVER be violated by an actor under law. Yet there is NO CRIMINAL PENALTY for such a violation. IF one can prove that they should be allowed to sue then a suit and monetary compensation can happen. This is absurd on its face and we need laws that make violation of civil rights CRIMINAL OFFENSES that MUST by law be prosecuted.
Supervisor needs more than demoted. He needs to be fired and personally sued (but of course we can’t allow that with qualified immunity for criminals employed by govt). His decision for “resisting arrest” was being asked for his name and badge number.
Had he given his name and badge number that would’ve been reason for education. Deciding that someone wanting to press for that is reason to arrest them says he’s someone who should not ever be a cop.
It says they should be in jail for armed kidnapping!
And conspiracy.
NEITHER of these two should be allowed to be LEO again in their life. The violation I just watched should REVOKE their retirement and pensions and should place then under immediate PROSECUTION for violating civil rights under color of authority (see RODNEY KING ACT).
SO THIS is De Sanctimonious Grabber Of Pussy’s Flardy, where freedom lives? Is this freedom compared to communist Cuba?
Yes. It is freedom compared to Cuba grandpa. Now take your meds and eat your tapioca pudding.
This is the stupidity of America today. We have absolute proven video evidence that these cops commited the act of armed kidnapping becuase someone did not show sufficient obesiance to them, and falsely charge him with a crime. They get a few days unpaid leave. They should be in jail for kidnapping and never allowed in law enforcement again.
THANK YOU.
This is a prime example of why police officers no longer get any respect, most of them do not deserve any respect. There are no longer just a few bad apples in the basket but sadly the bad apples and bad training have contaminated the whole basket.
If we saw video of officers like this being fired or arrested we might have reason to believe the few bad apples stories but instead we see officers defend this type of abuse of power and cover for each other.
AS long as this happens and those officers remain officers the entire department and all its officers are just CRIMINALS with BADGES. One good officer MUST make the arrest and begin the prosecution. Then HE can be called a good officer. The CHIEF is complicit along with the MAYOR and all others in that juris. All are criminal.
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