Frank Ney sent this to the smith2004-discuss mailing list: Here’s a little heads-up on a new police tactic happening in my home town (Jefferson County WV).

Frank Ney sent this to the smith2004-discuss mailing list:

bq. Here’s a little heads-up on a new police tactic happening in my home town
(Jefferson County WV). Had an interesting conversation with a victim thereof
this weekend when I went down for a visit.

Young man from Maryland was taking his grandfather to Charles Town Races
http://www.ctownraces.com to play the video slots this past Friday night. While
on the road, grandad lights a cigar using the in-car lighter. Unfortunately,
they were under observation by a local cop, who decided that the little red glow
(basically the only thing he could see) was moving in a manner similar to
someone lighting a bong. Lights, stop, and accusation of pot use while driving.

Get this: No pot in plain view, no paraphernalia in plain view. Just the
cigar. No drug dog available for several hours. You would think that given all
the case law that says you can’t detain someone for that long for a drug dog
would end the matter, right? Wrong.

Without any moving violations or drug charges, the vehicle was impounded pending
the availability of the aforementioned canine. The occupants were left on the
side of the road. So, instead of spending money at the video terminals and
having a good time, they had to find a motel room ($65) for the night, call a
cab the next day ($12) to go to the impound lot ($100) on Saturday morning to
get their car back. No drugs were found, obviously.

So now we have two people who will go back to Maryland and tell all their
friends and neighbors not to go to Charles Town Races, because the cops are
total assholes. This is the kind of word-of-mouth a racetrack needs like a hole
in the head.

This sounds a bit on the illegal side, but who’s going to spend several thousand
dollars over this? When I heard this tale, I suggested that they go talk to the
ACLU.