Sir, I'm the case for the sign and communicated it off this upper care. >> Okay, fantastic. Good for you. I need your driver's license. >> For what? >> Okay. >> This is >> Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Unlock the car and get out now. >> Calm down. >> Get out of the car now. >> Calm down. I am. >> Come here. >> Getting out. >> You You want to Hey, you want to try to grab me? >> Getting out. Truck. My truck. >> Your truck is in the park. >> Imagine you're towing a boat home. You're going slow because you're towing a boat. Your hazards are on. Your wife is in the passenger seat. 90 seconds after a deputy walks up to your window, you are cuffed against the side of your own truck with a taser pointed at your back, and that truck is rolling down the highway with your family still inside it. Nobody was drinking. Nobody was speeding. Nothing illegal was in that truck. I'm Brad Graves. I read body cam for a living, and I want to be straight with you about this one because it is not the video you think it is. The stop was legal. The order was legal. Almost everything this deputy said about the law was was technically technically correct. And that is exactly what makes it worth your time because twice in this tape this deputy says something out loud that he does not appear to realize is the whole case. Once about a driver's license, and once right at the end about a ticket. You'll hear both. Watch what happens to the temperature of the stop in between them. >> I'm driving a truck on the side of the main state highway at 12:00 before. >> Hello. Hi, I'm Deputy Lane with the Sheriff's Office. >> Yeah, how can I help? >> Uh so, we got called to Sunshine Key about you. And then on the way up there, I saw you going 15 mph and a >> My hazards are on, correct? >> Okay, that's not legal. You can't do that. >> Can't do what? >> You can't drive that slow under the speed limit. >> It's a safety hazard. >> It's a safety hazard for you to be on the road driving that slow under the speed limit, correct? Do you have your driver's license on you? >> on me. So, I need to explain it to you. I need to get it off of this paperwork here. >> Okay, fantastic. Good for you. I need your driver's license. >> For what? >> Okay. Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Unlock the car and >> Let's start with what was actually true here. Because I'm not going to sell you a story. Florida statute 316.183 says you cannot drive so slowly that you impede the normal movement of traffic. 10 miles an hour on a highway posted at 55 qualifies. So, the deputy had a lawful reason to pull that truck over. That part is real. Florida statute 322.15 says you have to have your license on you. And you have to hand it over when an officer asks. So, when the driver says for what, the answer is because the statute says so. That part is real, too. Now, hold on to both of those. Because here is the part nobody tells you. Read the last line of each of those statutes. Both of them. Driving too slow is a non-criminal traffic infraction. Not showing your license is a non-criminal traffic infraction. Non-criminal. Both of them. That word is doing an enormous amount of work. And in about 4 minutes you're going to see exactly how much. >> So, I need to explain it to you. I need to get it off of this paperwork here. >> Okay, fantastic. Good for you. I need your driver's license. >> For what? >> Okay. Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Unlock the car and get out. Now. Get out of the car now. >> Calm down. I am getting out. >> You You want to Hey, you want to try to get grab me? >> I'm getting out. Stop. My truck. >> Get your truck in the park. >> Yes, I am getting >> the park now. >> Count it. From I need your driver's license to get out of the car now is 9 seconds. 9 seconds over a non-moving violation. >> Put it in the park now. >> Put it in the park now. >> It is in park. I am getting >> three code four one resisting. >> I am not >> in park. Get out of the [ __ ] car. Turn around. Put your hands behind your back now. Put your hands behind your Put your hands behind >> They are locked. >> Stop pulling away from me. Stop pulling away from me. You're going to get tased. Stop pulling away from me. You're going to get tased. >> I am not >> Stop. Stop. >> I am not >> Stop pulling away from me. You're going to get tased. It's in your back right now. Okay, stay right there. Okay, well he needs to listen to what I tell him to do. >> Listen. Did you see me? I was getting you it. Now it's asking you politely. It says the new not pop on shoulders. >> Okay. >> Can you Adjust my left sleeve? >> Yep. Left front three code five one attempt. >> Can you adjust the other one, please? Adjust the other way. I'm risking that spinning it. >> Do you have anything on you? Quick word because it matters right here. Everything that goes wrong in the next 15 minutes comes down to one moment, a man being asked for a license and answering with a question instead of a card. That is the whole hinge. I put the exact words to say at a traffic stop and the statutes behind every one of them in my know-your-rights playbook. 67 pages, link in the description. Read it before you are the one deciding what to say through a half-open window. I want you to watch that again and I want you to stop watching the two men. Watch the truck. When the deputy pulls that man out through the driver's door, the transmission is not in park. You can see it start to move. There is a boat on the back of it, a woman in the passenger seat, and it is rolling toward a highway. Nobody in that frame is in control of a 5,000 lb vehicle for about 4 seconds. Here's why that matters legally and not just morally. Every use of force gets measured against the danger it created versus the danger it prevented. The danger being prevented here was a man driving too slowly. The danger created was an unsecured truck and trailer rolling onto US1. Remember that trade because it's the one thing in this video nobody put in a report. >> I am getting code four, one resisting. I am not resisting. >> Put it in park. Get out of the [ __ ] car. Turn around. Put your hands behind your back now. Put your hands behind your Put your hands back. Stop pulling away from me. Stop pulling away from me. You're going to get tased. Stop pulling away from me. You're going to get tased. Stop. Stop. Stop pulling away from me. You're going to get tased. It's in your back right now. Okay, stay right there. Okay, well he needs to listen to what I tell him to do. >> I was getting you it. Now it's asking you to call me. It says the new not pop on shoulder. >> Is he going to stick me, poke me, hurt me? >> Uh one pocket knife. >> Pocket >> Yes. Uh, I'm good for now. If you If you can talk to her inside of the car? I'm not sure. >> Why is she being rude, too? >> Because I'm a law enforcement officer and so is she. And I'm going to have you handcuffed right now. >> Okay, but no need to be rude, is there? >> Don't you try to grab that DC with him as well. So, in the state of Florida, when you're told to identify yourself on a traffic stop by law enforcement >> did. >> saying no when I say give me your driver's license is not complying. >> no. Can you have this on recording, please? >> Yes, it is on recording. Just like when I told you to step out of the car and you said no. I tried to open your door, you grabbed my hand and pushed me away. That's battery on law enforcement, that's a felony. >> exactly what I was doing. >> You grabbed my hand, that's a felony. >> Oh my god, I was trying to put >> Hello, is there anyone else in >> Okay. Now, the law, and I want you to actually learn this because it will matter to you far more than it ever mattered to him. The deputy lists four things on that roadside. Refusing to identify, refusing to exit, grabbing his hand, pushing him away. Let's take them one at a time, honestly. Refusing to identify, in Florida, a driver has to produce a license under 322.15. He's right, but go and read the penalty because the deputy never says it out loud. It's a non-moving violation. It is a ticket, roughly the same category as a burned-out tag light. It is not a crime, and it is not an arrestable offense standing by itself. Refusing to exit. 1977 Pennsylvania against Mimms. During a lawful stop, an officer can order the driver out and needs no extra suspicion to do it. That order was lawful. You comply physically and you object verbally. On the roadside you always lose the argument. In a courtroom with a transcript you win it. And then the last two. grabbing his hand, pushing him away, those two are what turn a ticket into a felony and those two are the ones his own camera has an opinion about. >> In addition to being his spouse, we're volunteering here at the park and it just became stressful because he was >> What's your name? >> I'm Katie Bates. >> Katie. So the problem though is that when I tell somebody give me their ID and they say no, that's refusal to identify. >> Did he say no? >> He said no. >> I thought he was trying >> No, he was not. And then when I tell him to open the door and he says no, that's again refusing an order from Hold on, I'm talking. That's refusal to identify to identify himself and refusal to exit the vehicle which is an order from law enforcement officer. Furthermore, when I reach inside the car to unlock the door and he grabs my hand, that's felony battery on law enforcement. Fourth, when I do finally get the car door open and he pushes me away, that's battery on law enforcement. He cannot touch me. Here's the sentence I want you to keep. You are allowed to be scared. You are allowed to be slow. You are allowed to not understand the question. None of those are crimes and none of them are resisting. The man in that truck has a traumatic brain injury. He lost a piece of his brain. His wife says it out loud on that roadside in plain language while the handcuffs are already on. And listen to what comes back. That sucks. I'm very sorry for you and your family. He cannot touch me. I want to be fair. That deputy is not required to be a doctor. He is not required to diagnose anybody on the side of the road. Nobody is asking him to. But he is required to write a report. A report has a section for everything he knew at the time. He now knows this man has a brain injury. He knows it before the report exists. He says so on camera. So hold that thought too cuz we're about to find out what he did with it. Okay? It I don't I don't The brain injury, that sucks. I'm very sorry for you and your family. He cannot touch me. He cannot refuse orders that I give to him. This is a legal lawful traffic stop. He's impeding the flow of traffic going 10 mph on US 1. You cannot do that. He is correct. It is a safety hazard to do that. That's why I pulled him over. He can't do that. Okay? >> I apologize. Like I said, his response and his ability to know what to say in stressful moments is impaired because of the brain injury. He literally has missing pieces of his brain. And so, when giving orders or whatever, his responses are often off. Like even when I'm asking him to do something or reminding him of versus T even or things like that, even if he's planning to do it, his words don't come out the correct way all the time. So, I'm sure, you know, being in your career path, you've dealt with >> Okay. How old are the kids in the car? >> Uh seven and four. >> Okay. Can you go back in the car and make sure they're okay? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> What are you doing back here? >> I was going to see if his wallet is in here. >> Yeah, if it >> me to grab his >> Yes, please, if you could. Thank you. >> His wallet is not in there, unfortunately, and I don't see it in both our campers here. If I need to go to the camper to get it. >> So, you don't know who he is yet? >> No. >> Do you have a social? >> Yeah. >> You know his social? >> Yeah. >> All right. What is it? >> 88 >> All right, I'm going to open the door for a second to talk to you, but I don't want you to try to get out or do anything, okay? Is that your wife? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> That's him. Look, I'm babe, I I not trying to be combative. I have a slow thinking >> She explained She explained that to me, okay? >> All of a sudden, I realized I'm not in park and I'm I wasn't trying to resist you. I was trying to let you, but yet and then we get out. When I finally got out, I promise you I was not trying to resist. Like >> I understand why you got back in the truck. That was probably for the best since you have kids in the car, okay? >> very sorry. I know I I've worked in the farm my whole life and I know exactly what you all go through at that moment. I know exactly. >> Okay. >> When you see me trying to jump back in, I mean that's I want to thank you. I want to thank you the highest for not pulling that trigger when I jumped back in. I know when the adrenaline starts pumping Oh my gosh, yes. My adrenaline was pumping, too. >> So So the main problem that I have though is you grab my hand and you push my arms away. You cannot do that to police. >> mean to push you away. I was trying to to show you that here you have my hand, but let me reach with the other hand and but I I can't think of how to say it. My adrenaline was pumping and I'm just like here's one, but let me >> Okay. >> I I really I swear to you I I've worked I want to join you all so bad. I swear to you on God's hand. I put God all over my life ever since my accident. I swear to you I was not trying to resist. I put my life in God's hand on that swear. I sure you if there's any way I can prove that to you guarantee you I would. >> Okay. All right, and I'll I'm going to close the door real quick. Give me just 1 second. I'll come and talk to you again. >> You just heard a man be told that if he's impaired enough to flinch, he's too impaired to hold a license. There was no right answer available to him on that roadside and that is the part people never see coming. It is almost never about whether you are innocent. It is about whether you know what to say in the 90 seconds while somebody decides how big to make this. That is the entire reason I wrote the Know Your Rights Playbook. Link is in the description. Read it tonight while it is still a video you are watching. >> Yeah, I have >> Officer, this says this doesn't look 17 ft to me. This doesn't look 17 ft. >> No, that's 24 at least. >> Yeah, and then it comes back FL from that to something else. So, I had to run the VIN or the head. >> I'm sorry, what was your name again? >> Katie. >> Katie. So, unfortunately, I do have to take him to jail because he grabbed me. Okay. I could look past the initial refusal to give me his ID at first and it I didn't I didn't give him 20 chances to do it, but if I tell someone to give me their ID and they say no or what for, I understand what you're saying. He was reaching for the glove box. Um, I don't know that that's what he's looking for. If he's telling me no or what do you need my ID for? To me, that's that's a no. That's how I'm not giving it to you. Okay? The the the problem though is it when I tried to get him out of the car, he grabbed my hand, he pushed my hands away from him, and then I'm trying to put him in handcuffs and he's pulling and turning away from me. Because of that, I have to take him to jail. >> Is there any way >> I have to take him to jail. >> Is there any way you could have some mercy and you could view it like someone with autism? You know that an autistic person would do something similar when someone's grabbing them, it's like an instinctive response to protect >> their mental >> If his mental capacity is so diminished that he doesn't know not to put his hands on a police officer, he should not have a driver's license. Okay? So, either he is more mentally incapacitated than the state of whatever state his driver's license is out of knows uh, or he's more intelligent than you're leading me to believe. Because I either way, he's driving a car, so he's got to have at least like an 80 IQ to be able to drive a car. Okay, here it is. This is the part I want you to hear twice. His wife is standing on that shoulder trying to explain her husband to a man who has already decided and she reaches for the only comparison she has. She says, "View it like someone with autism. Somebody grabs them and the response is instinct. It isn't defiance, it's a reflex." And this is what the deputy says back. "If his mental capacity is so diminished that he doesn't know not to put his hands on a police officer, he should not have a driver's license." Read that again slowly because it is doing something very specific. He has just been told the man has a brain injury. He does not dispute it. He doesn't say she's lying. He accepts the premise completely and then he uses it. "If you're impaired enough to flinch, you're impaired enough that you shouldn't be driving. Either you're competent, in which case you're guilty, or you're not competent, in which case you shouldn't have been on that road at all. There's no third door in that sentence." He built a room with no exits and put a man with a traumatic brain injury inside it. And listen to the reason he gives for the arrest in his own words. "He grabbed my hand. He pushed my hands away. Because of that, I have to take him to jail." Has to. >> So, he's got that. >> I'm not sure what the >> He should probably know not to not to grab a police officer. >> I'm not sure what the testing was that they did. They They went through a neuropsychologist, neuropsychiatrist, full um driving test, like more than just the driving test that a teenager goes through to get their permit. And he was approved through that, but of course in a class like that, it's not going to be a situation where an officer's trying to grab him out of the car. So, it's a a different thing to be in the moment. And like I said, the you know, view it like a person with autism. Like their initial response is to be like, "Someone's grabbing me. Oh my god." Like, "Oh." So, if there's any chance you could please have him >> I just talked to my sergeant. My sergeant said to take him to jail because he touched me. >> And listen, at the same time, I understand your perspective, but you also have to understand his perspective. >> I want to be careful here because this is where a channel like mine gets lazy, and I won't do that to you. That deputy is not required to be a doctor. He is not required to diagnose anybody on a roadside, and nobody is asking him to. He is allowed to be wrong about a medical condition he has known about for 4 minutes. But look at what he actually did with it. The information arrived in time. He knew about the brain injury before the report existed. He says so on camera. Everything after that moment was a choice made with that knowledge in hand. And go back to the two things that started all of this. Driving too slowly, not producing a license fast enough. Both of them non-criminal. Both of them tickets. The felony did not come from the driving. It came from 4 seconds of physical contact during a removal that the deputy himself initiated from a truck that was still in gear. "I have to take him to jail," he says. He did not have to. Nothing in either statute required it. The word has to is doing an enormous amount of work in that sentence, and it is carrying nothing underneath it. >> But also with this incident, if he goes to jail, you also have the ability to go to court and argue that side of it. I understand that. I understand that, ma'am. But we still have to do our job. Incident occurred. Also, I have another issue with the boat. The registration for the vessel isn't coming back with the same thing as the info. I'm wondering if I can see the paperwork for Yeah, so the registration >> Did you run her? >> Yeah, I added it to the call. >> Okay. >> You're going to run it? >> In this, it didn't come back to the same type of vessel as the hint. >> Katherine, here's your ID. Look at that. I I underst- I I understand. I have to take him to jail, okay, Katherine. That's that ship has sailed. I have to take him. I I understand, you know, this this is hard. I don't I don't want to take someone to jail with a mental disability, but at the same time, if he's driving a car and I pull him over for a traffic violation, going 10 mph in a 55-mph zone is a traffic violation. He can't do that. That's why That's why I pulled him over. When I tell the driver of a vehicle on a traffic stop to give me his driver's license, he has to give it to me. If I tell him to step out of the If I tell someone to step out of the vehicle under Pennsylvania versus Mims, they have to step out of the vehicle. If they refuse, that is obstruction. >> I understand. I understand all of that, and I understand from your perspective, you have to protect yourself to get home to your own family, and all of that. Trust me, I wish he didn't have a brain injury. I wish he didn't have those moments where he doesn't >> I'm very sorry that your family has to deal with that, Katherine. >> Cuz this is something that's like you're basically putting me in jail, >> I'm not putting you in jail. You're still here. You can take the car and the boat, go back to your campsite. You can get him out tomorrow. We'll have first You You can Look, there There's ways in the court, if he's actually got a brain injury, you could >> the boat to scoot it forward. He tried cranking it with everything he could to get it forward, and he felt nervous to get on the road with it. And then he went in and talked to the management, and they were just trying to explain to him that it was a liability. He said that he would be happy to pay as a guest in order to be able to use the boat ramp, and they were trying to, you know, tell him that there were boat ramps a mile in one direction and a couple miles back the other direction. And so then they had called for an escort to bring him back here, and he was just stressed and flustered and just kind of decided to get on the road >> Okay. >> and try to go slow coming back here to >> Cuz when I was heading up there, I saw you guys, I don't know if you probably saw me pass you uh when you were heading south. And then when I pulled in there, he the manager there said that he was not very nice to them, that he flipped them off, and that he was very rude. >> Yeah. >> Um >> He's He just got extremely stressed and worried about driving the boat, and he was frustrated that he couldn't just use the ramp to scoot the boat forward. And I tried apologizing to the management there and explaining, you know, that he has a brain injury, so normal things that would stress anyone >> Yeah. >> amplify with him are more stressful for him, and >> Now, that sentence I promised you at the start, the stop is basically over. The man is in the back of a patrol car. His wife is standing on the shoulder explaining the brain injury, the boat ramp, the bad afternoon, all of it, and the deputy says this to her, "I wouldn't have even given him a ticket. I was just going to tell him he was driving slow, and he can't drive that slow on US 1, and all I needed was his driver's license." Sit with that for a second. By his own account, on his own camera, the entire stop was worth zero. Not a ticket, not a warning citation, a conversation. And it ended with a man who has a traumatic brain injury spending the night in a county jail on two felony charges. Nothing changed in between except how fast it went. There was no discovery of contraband, no warrant came back, no weapon appeared. The facts of that stop at minute 16 were identical to the facts at minute one. The only variable in that entire encounter was the temperature of the man holding the badge. >> All right. So, I didn't want to try to stop him in the middle of the road when there was cars coming. So, I waited till you guys were right here to pull him over. If I I I wouldn't have even given him a ticket. I was just going to tell him that he was driving slow and he can't drive that slow on US1. And all I needed was his driver's license. >> So, you can like modify the reports where he's falling out of the vehicle and grabbed you to brace himself, not >> I'm not going to I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to perjure myself for someone I don't know. I'm going to watch my body camera and the in-car camera and I'm going to go word for word and action for action when I write the report. I will document in there how did you tell me he had a brain injury. Uh what was that caused by? >> Um all right. Motor vehicle motorcycle accident >> Okay. >> had him to dinner one night. A vehicle in another direction took a left-hand turn in front of He actually wasn't supposed to even live and then they weren't sure if he was going to be paralyzed or what sort of function he was going to have. He's made amazing progress. Um but they're still >> So, let's turn this into something you can actually use cuz that's the only reason I make these. Three things. Write them down. One. Hand over the license every time. I don't care how wrong you think the stop is, in Florida it's 322.15 and almost every state has its own version. Producing it costs you nothing and forfeits nothing and refusing it is the cheapest possible way to hand someone a reason. Argue the stop later on paper where you win. Two, when you're told to step out, step out. Mims is not getting overturned on the shoulder of a highway. But before your hands leave that wheel, say the words, "I am not resisting. I do not consent to any searches." Say it once clearly and let the camera do the rest. Three, put the vehicle in park and say out loud that you are doing it. "I am putting it in park." If somebody opens your door mid-sentence, that recording is now the only proof that the truck rolling down the highway was not your doing. And if the person in your passenger seat has a condition, a brain injury, autism, deafness, diabetes, anything at all that changes how they respond to an order, say it early, say it plainly, and say it to the camera. Not because it obligates the officer to anything, because it dates what he knew at the start of the stop. I told you the stop was legal, the order was legal, and almost everything that deputy said about the law was correct. All of it still is. He never needed a fake law. He had two real ones, both non-criminal infractions, and he ran them all the way up into a felony arrest, then told the man's wife it was never worth a ticket. That's the loop closed. Not a fake law, a real one used as a lever. I put every one of these scripts, the statutes behind them, and the exact words to say into my I know your rights playbook. The link is in the description. And if you have somebody in your life who is slow to answer, a parent, a kid, a brother, who takes a second to process a question under stress, send them this one. They are the person this happens to. Educational only, not legal advice. Laws vary by state. Look at where that stop ended. A man with a traumatic brain injury cuffed against his own truck with a taser at his back, then a night in a county jail on two felony charges over driving too slowly with his hazards on. Nothing he did cause that. He handed over a question instead of a card, and he was slow, and slow is not a crime. That is the part that should bother you, cuz it means the whole thing turned on something you can actually control. Not your record, not your innocence. Knowing what to say in the 90 seconds when somebody is standing at your window deciding how big to make this. So, I wrote it down, the know your rights playbook, 67 pages. The exact words, the statutes underneath them, what you must hand over, what you never have to, and what to do when a door opens before you are ready. Written for people who don't have a lawyer on speed dial. The link is in the description. Put it in the glove box, next to the registration. Because the time to learn this is not while somebody is pulling you out of your own truck.