Storm chaser arrested in Texas

[Jay McCoy]

No one is safe when your state legislature is in session!

1. Thye wouldnt waste their time on such a small matter

2. Even if they passed a law it wouldnt stand up in court. There is no way to enforce people driving down a public highway near a storm. Millions of people do it all the time. I guess every time it rained people would have to stay home. In Washington and Oregon that would be 90% of the time.

These are public roads payed for by us. We have every right to use them as long as we dont create a traffic hazzard. You definitely cant arrest people for using rest stops or you could arrest almost every trucker out there. Why even have rest stops if it illegal to park there?? That alone kills this deputys charge of blocking highway access.

 

[J Holder]

1. Thye wouldnt waste their time on such a small matter

2. Even if they passed a law it wouldnt stand up in court. There is no way to enforce people driving down a public highway near a storm. Millions of people do it all the time. I guess every time it rained people would have to stay home. In Washington and Oregon that would be 90% of the time.

These are public roads payed for by us. We have every right to use them as long as we dont create a traffic hazzard. You definitely cant arrest people for using rest stops or you could arrest almost every trucker out there. Why even have rest stops if it illegal to park there?? That alone kills this deputys charge of blocking highway access.

Several years ago the Kansas State Legislature spent 5 days debating making the Box Turtle the state reptile! The crux of the debate wasn't a yes or no on the declaration but whether or not it was worth taking up so much time debating!

If it was a law that would generate revenue for the state (in the form of fines, court costs, etc.,) while they could pretend it was passed for "Public Safety" you bet your posterior they'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

No one has said it any better than Rich. He has said it all and that should be enough for any reasonable person to quell all of this big ego nonsense.

 

[Aaron Dooley]

Examples are fine...

As I stated in an earlier post, many places have fully volunteer fire fighters not appointed by Gov. Race tracks are nonetheless dangerous and actually do have speed limits by the way.

The point is that the deputy isn't trained to know what is dangerous, what direction it is going, and where a dangerous area versus a safe area actually is. What if he advised someone to move East let's say, and ends up killing someone??? This is evidenced by the fact the deputy went through the most dangerous part of the storm on the way to the jailhouse.

What the deputy did was make decisions on ignorance and applied the section of law that backs his discretion/decision making. You also need to read how this same deputy treated press from his own area minutes earlier cussing him out and calling him names. Bottom line is that any decent chaser/spotter knows more than LEOs so why should they advise us elements of danger regarding something that they are ignorant of and we are educated/experts at?

No, that's not even close... FF's are there because they are assigned by the government. Race tracks don't have speed limits. So while I get where you are coming from, don't use those examples

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Why do I get the impression some on here would agree to a butt raping if a cop told them that's what he wanted to do?

"Yes sir, but do you have some lube?" "I wouldn't want to get all ego on you and disagree!"

*just ignore me, mostly just no-storm bored humor*

 

[rdale]

As I stated in an earlier post, many places have fully volunteer fire fighters not appointed by Gov.

I'm curious - what fire departments are disconnected from their local government?

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Again, this is not a storm chaser being arrested for storm chasing.

Quite right; everyone knows you need a 27B Stroke 6 to chase. He was probably out there for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere, travel light, get in, get out, wherever there's trouble, a man alone. That sort of thing can only be cured through incarceration.

 

[Jay McCoy]

Today while working a wreck I asked a couple cop friends of mine about this. I explained the entire situation and asked their professional opinion. Afetr they finished laughing they said in no uncertain terms that the deputy has no legal right to force them to move and the charge of blcking a highway access while being parked in a rest stop wouldnt stand up in any court and will most likely be tossed out before it ever gets to a court.

They did say they wouldnt try and force a chaser or spotter from leaving the area of a storm. Especially since the chaser/spotter would know alot more than they would. but if they told somebody to move and the person refused they would get a little miffed but wouldnt drum up charges and arrest the guy. Thats how you get fired or disciplined. Ofcourse they said they would only ask them to leave if there was a legal reason to do so. This deputy had none. At least under Texas law according to my cop buddies.

Like I said previously. Even in a maditory evacuation situation you cant physically force people to leave if they choose to stay. It is their right. Only time you can is if its a security issue and there is an exclsusion zone.

AS for being required to be in touch with the local EOC. I read a few posts in WxChase where some thought that is a great idea. Wrong. Not only is it impractical but most EOC's do not want outside people on their frequency or flooding their phone system. I can speak personally to say our EOC does not want chasers calling us directly. Call the NWS and we will get the info. We have direct radio access and have a DEM person actually at the NWS relaying information. Not to mention it is not a chasers job to report to EOC's or even the NWS if they choose not to. that is for spotters. If a chaser chooses to report thats great but chasers are on the storm for totally different reasons other than reporting. Bryan was going out of his way to call in reports along with providing his customers with what they paid him for. He didnt have to call anybody was was kind enough to also make reports to the NWS. Maybe this cop should have been busy doing his job by making wx reports to protect the people of his county instead of harrassing photogs and chasers.

 

[Tim Shriver]

I'm curious - what fire departments are disconnected from their local government?

Sounds odd doesn't it. Sun Prairie WI is one. The fire dept is its own
501c3 non-profit entity. Or at least is was a few year back, not sure about now as the city was attempting to acquire it.

Tim

 

[rdale]

Sounds odd doesn't it. Sun Prairie WI is one.

Interesting. I can't imagine there would be too many though, certainly when most people think FF's (volunteer or full-time) they associate that as a local government agency.

 

[David Drummond]

There are quite a lot of them actually Rob that officially are non profits. The way I understood it, had something to do with liabilities. The one I was on was like this, and while not operated by the county, got a monthly $$ amount from them, was officially recognized by them, and worked with all surrounding depts.

 

[rdale]

But in the end - police don't treat them as casual citizens walking up to the scene of the fire. I guess my point was - comparing storm chasers to a tornadic cell as the same as firefighters walking behind the fire line is not valid.

 

[David Drummond]

It might help when thinking about what happened, in the context of WHERE it happened. I lived in Odessa (Ector County) for about 10 years, and Crane County is just south of there. I have been on that very same road, and stopped at that same rest area, dozens of times. I can't impress how rural it is there. You could literally sit at that rest stop all day and count cars and you might get to 50. It's out in the middle of the desert. Even if a tornado had been ripping through the area at that time, it most likely hit nothing but cactus and maybe a power line or fence or two. There is very little out there, for a long, long way. It's about as remote as you can still get in this country.

It's under MAF CWA, and I can tell you they NEVER have enough spotters out in the area, just because it's so rural, unless it happens in Ector, Midland or Mitchell County. a WCM there once told me they suspect a lot of events to the west, southwest and south of the Midland area go unreported because the only people that might see it are some rancher. I can't tell you how many times I have chased in their area, and listened to the SKYWARN net repeatedly call for anyone near a certain storm, only to get dead air in return.

The fact that there was someone out there actually reporting, indeed is a mitigating factor in this.

 

[rdale]

You could literally sit at that rest stop all day and count cars and you might get to 50.

Obviously we're not talking about a tollroad rest stop with Starbucks, McDonalds and Baskin-Robbins -- but is this something with any sort of structures involved (i.e. shelter that the cop could have "pushed" them towards) or is it just a few hardened port-a-potties and a gravel lot?

 

[David Drummond]

Unless it's changed recently, there aren't even bathrooms there, just picnic tables with covers. The closest place probably to take shelter out there, would have been in the "city" of Crane itself.