Texas Cop Fired After Tasing 76-Yr-Old For Driving With 'Expired Tags' That Were Perfectly Legal

Dealer vehicles do not require fresh tags, cop was ignorant of the law.
Chris | InformationLiberation
Jan. 06, 2015

It took almost a month, but the young punk cop who tasered a 76-year-old man for questioning his questionable traffic stop has finally been fired, the Victoria Advocate reports.

The cop, 23-year-old Nathanial Robinson suspected 76-year-old Pete Vasquez of driving a vehicle with expired tags. In fact, Vasquez was driving a dealer vehicle, all of which are exempt from having fresh tags, which Vasquez pointed out at the time he was stopped. Rather than check the law, Robinson responded by violently attacking and tasing his elder, throwing him to the ground and tasing him twice before placing him under arrest.

While the police chief criticized Robinson's actions at the time and said they would investigate, no details nor follow up was released until just yesterday. Here's an excerpt from their press release, which you can read in full here:

Chief Craig has announced the findings of the internal affairs investigation regarding Officer Nathaniel Robinson. Chief Craig has determined based on the evidence, that Officer Robinson violated three areas of policy and sustained allegations regarding violations of the following departmental policies.

1) Policy 0.216 - Conduct and Performance, Section 2.15
2) Policy 03.03 - Use of Force Section 1
3) Policy 0.0305- Arrest without a Warrant Section 3

Based on the findings of the administrative investigation, Nathaniel Robinson’s employment with the Victoria Police Department has been terminated.

Kudos to the police chief for doing what's right, including for faulting the officer for his false arrest.

Frankly, I find it abhorrent the mere idea a 23-year-old young punk could think a badge and a gun gives him the right to boss around a 76-year-old man because he has "expired tags."

It reminds me of a story about the late Steve Jobs. Jobs would buy a new car every six months to take advantage of a California law which makes you exempt from having to have a license plate for six months. Ever since I heard that story, I've thought about how any young punk rookie cop could pull over the great Steve Jobs and potentially put him through hell for not having a license plate, despite being entirely in the wrong.

The late H. L. Mencken believed government as an institution was a conspiracy devised by inferior human beings to rule over their betters. As he wrote back in the year 1919,

"All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both."

As one who chronicles stories of government abuse, which is mostly carried out by low-grade morons such as officer Robinson, this strikes me as accurate.

Of course, in the case above, there's a good chance Robinson will be rehired, with back pay, once his moron protection agency, a.k.a. the police union, files an appeal to get him his job back.

Correction: The car was a dealer vehicle, it was not new, the tag exemption applies to both.
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Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.