The trooper is on to something…it is amazing how persuasive a sermon can be when it’s backed up by a gun…
According to the complaint filed in a U.S. District Court, Indiana State Trooper Brian Hamilton stopped Ellen Bogan to give her a ticket,proceeded to grill her on whether she had yet accepted Jesus Christ as her savior, and then gave her a pamphlet to help her see the light.
Quite reasonably, Ms Bogan felt coerced and was ready to swear that she had the Bible tattooed on her back if hse had to get away from the Preacher Policeman After the prolonged stop, Trooper Hamilton said “God bless you,” which was nice, and then went on to find other motorists to proselytize at gunpoint.
This is what the First Amendment to the Constitution is concerned about when it prohibits the state from interfering with citizens’ free exercise of religion. It’s wonderful that Trooper Hamilton is a good Baptist and all, but he is in the wrong line of work, and needs to have a forced occupation change immediately. A badge doesn’t give him the right to use his authority as a police officer to bully motorists into endorsing his favorite brand of Christianity. In fact, the badge, the gun and the nature of his employer take that right away from him while he’s working.
__________________________
Pointer: Fred.
Ethics Alarms 
At this phase, all we have is a complaint. Should we not wait and see? (this is different than the criminal complaint against Texas Gov. Rick Perry, which was absurd on its face and self-refuting.)
Well, if she made this up, it’s a good story. She’s demanding a jury trial, presumably in case the cop lies on teh stand. No chance of that, though, if Jesus is is co-pilot. I think 1) this one is a pretty good bet, and 2) it won’t get to trial.
Trial for what? I’m not saying his behavior was acceptable, I just have no idea what charges would be laid. Abuse of force? Malicious road stopping? The guy should be reprimanded, but that doesn’t involve the courts.
It’s a civil rights violation, and if it can be shown, as she may suggest, that he trumped up the charge to allow him to preach to her, unlawful detainment. There are damages, theoretically, if she was really in fear and had to deny her faith or lack of same a perceived threat.
At this phase, all we have is a complaint. Should we not wait and see?
***************
We should, because I don’t believe her.
It sounds like a lie, not to mention she is suing for damages.
Why? I’ve been proselytized by shop clerks, Chamber of Commerce execs, and I wrote about a pilot who did it. I can easily see a cop thinking that he could combine enforcing the law with putting the pagans on the path to righteousness. It’s an idiotic suit if falss: if I were a juror and the cope denied it, I’d conclude that she HAD to be lying, because one so devout as to act that way would, never, never take an oath and deny his faith.
Remember – lying to a police officer is a criminal offence.
And we’ve been told in a number of articles that you should never commit “contempt of cop” by offending them, lest you be charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing police or a similar catch-all. Once charged, you’d be well-advised to take a plea bargain, as to demonstrate innocence would incur a far greater penalty than to perjure yourself and admit guilt.
Apparently it does. It shouldn’t, and probably doesn’t de jure, but de facto it does.
Clearly he THINKS it does, but he needs to be quickly disabused of that notion.
This is one of those situations where I realize that I might get in real trouble if such an event occurred with me incolved. I’m pretty sure that I would inform the officer that none of this is any of his business, that I don’t give two hoots about Jesus Christ, and he had better take his feet off my Constitution. Bang.
I’m a Christian. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. And if I were in Ellen Bogan’s place, I would report my brother-in-Christ’s overzealous ass to his higher-ups. I don’t think I would sue, unless I found out he’d done this kind of thing before and his boss(es) knew about it. Anyway, my point is that you’d be giving his inappropriate approach too much legitimacy if you told him you ‘don’t give two hoots about Jesus Christ,’ and at the same time you’d just be making it easy for him to write you off as an angry lost soul rather than examining his own behavior. He’s trodding over your Constitution and mine exactly the same, and that’s the issue here.
Which is exactly why I said I was glad this doesn’t happen to me, at least not yet. I don’t handle officious power abusers well at all. I tend to get in their faces.
As a Christ following police officer this is not hard to figure out. Her 4th amendment rights clearly trump whatever 1st amendment claim he might have. Detaining someone on a traffic stop is a seizure to be taken seriously and a line of questioning about faith and providing unwanted church literature doesn’t belong there. It is a different issue, but reminiscent of of this not so harmless fun that Jack has written about before…
http://modernknight.org/?p=2165
His 1st Amendment right to practice is nullified by the same 1st Amendment that prevents his government position from imposing…
(that is to say, he can practice any other time it wouldn’t impose)
I find it hard to believe the Indiana State Police would tolerate this. It would be interesting to know if there is video of the stop and then how they handled the complaint Bogan made when it happened.
These days, every new day, it seems, brings yet another tale of people behaving in ways that push the boundaries of the believable to include more and more of what I had always before thought unbelievable, inconceivable, too preposterous to ever be credible, etc. I read this, and after the obligatory salute to truth ever being stranger than fiction, I mused…”You know, people have just about removed all reason to doubt Jesus Lives And Is Merciful.” Imagine a trooper all fired-up to promote breast cancer awareness – pink nightstick and handcuffs, and oh, what the heck, a pink gun too. If what he did to the motorist is provably true, trooper Hamilton deserves a pink slip. What’s next? A Muslim trooper who summarily beheads infidel motorists?
I wrote about an airline pilot that proselytized his captive passengers, mid-flight. Except for the First Amendment angle, I think that was worse.
Yes, a proselytizing Muslim airline pilot would be especially scary.