Gang checkpoints popping up in Texas

A San Juan police officer takes photographs of a suspected gang member, as the department implements gang checkpoints for their city.  (Courtesy of Gabe Hernandez, The McAllen Monitor)
A San Juan police officer takes photographs of a suspected gang member, as the department implements gang checkpoints for their city. (Courtesy of Gabe Hernandez, The McAllen Monitor)
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Updated: 12/31/2012 5:29 pm
SAN JUAN, TX -- We all want crime off our streets, but what do you think is the best way to tackle it? Is it more arrests or more prevention programs? How about gang checkpoints?

It may sound unconventional, but that is what officers in San Juan, just east of McAllen, are doing to target gang activity in their area. Officers stop cars at checkpoints and check drivers for violations including insurance, seatbelts and driver's licenses. They say gang members are willing to admit their gang affiliation and allow officers to photograph their gang tattoos for a statewide gang database.

The South Texas Civil Rights Projects has their concerns though. They say the checkpoints could be intrusive, because of unreasonable searches and seizures.

DISCUSS: Should gang checkpoints be installed along Texas Roadways? Why or why not?
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The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of News 4 WOAI (WOAI.com)

Girau - 1/2/2013 5:23 PM
0 Votes
A lot of people make that comments that checkpoints violates the rights of the American citizens, but what about those people who commits crime that are smart about the system and knows how not to get caught by law enforcement. This is a consent battle that law enforcement face every day. Their is a thing called probable suspicion which means that the officer has sufficient knowledge to believe that criminal activity is at hand, but probable suspicion can be a bad deal for the officer if their judgement was wrong which can lead to lawsuits against the agency that had detained the individual/group for probable suspicion. My opinion, gang checkpoints can help out in tackling crime in a community but there will be abuse of it. For as their are some officers who want to uphold the law and be fair with the practice when dealing with each American citizen that lives in this country, and there are officers who are nothing more then scum.

eh3209 - 1/2/2013 9:41 AM
0 Votes
waste of money - stop them maybe arrest them have them in jail a few hr and then let them go. Good plan.

charlie50 - 1/2/2013 9:06 AM
1 Vote
I cant believe some of yall are OK with this .You know this just gives them the ability to violate yalls rights too . better hope you dont fit the gang profile.

fjm1061 - 1/2/2013 7:53 AM
1 Vote
Checkpoints in the USA. The Stasi's coming next.

Todd Smith - 1/1/2013 7:24 PM
0 Votes
As far as the checkpoints, I think all stops should be recorded. That way there is no he said, she said kind of thing. I would think they would have a pretty fair idea who are in gangs already without the checkpoints. Most all of these people have a criminal record. The only thing that bothers me with this kind of thing is the cops and seizing money and so forth. Take a look at Tennessee interstate traffic stops, policing for profit. It's kind of scary. Texas received a D rating from the Washington-based Institute for Justice, on state “civil forfeiture laws". Most states received poor ratings, only Maine received an A. It's something everyone should be aware of. From the punishment end, they need to make prisons more like they are in Mexico and the 3rd world. See how many of these thugs would want a long sentence in a dirty hole of a place with bread and water as their meal. They get treated too well. The death penalty shouldn't take 10 or 15 years like in some states. 2 million inmates at 40k an inmate and more all the time coming into the system. Does a child molester or vicious killer deserve free health care, even hospice and nursing home care? Honest people have to pay for those things. We have to pay to keep the slime alive for life? Doesn't make any sense at all.

FDNY1983 - 1/1/2013 5:02 PM
4 Votes
What's the point when you turn a major American city into a Sanctuary? We may as well hold the Welcome banner up at this point.

wisemanjro - 1/1/2013 3:40 PM
3 Votes
Gang roadblocks, DWI checkpoints, cameras on the roads (under the disguise of traffic management), it's just the beginning of the end. If the courts would sentence violaters to more than just probation, people would think twice about committing offenses. But the courts contradict themselves by handcuffing the police with B.S. technicallities, while at the same time, letting multiple abusers free with slaps on the wrist. The whole system is backwards. They only time you have any civil rights is after you become a criminal. The rest of law-abiding citizens just get beat down more and more. It's a bunch of c-r-a-p!!!

roadhog - 1/1/2013 12:36 PM
3 Votes
When you are in charge, it is handy to know who everyone is, where they are, what they are doing, what they think, what they read and a whole host of other information. It is efficient and even comforting to the people who run everything. The Germans were very good at that. They had checkpoints. They got so efficient that the Gestapo could arrest you and jail you for any reason and if you argued they could just shoot you. What could be wrong with that? They were enemies of the state. When you give government authority to take people's rights to go about and do as they please, you give up your own to do the same. Don't get the idea that it can't happen here just because this is the US. Twenty years ago, people would have scoffed at the idea that the government could listen to phone calls without a warrant or that the police would be setting up roadblocks to check people out as they pass by. "You give them the right to do this to me- you give them the right to do the same damn thing to you"- Bufford Pusser.

taurus - 1/1/2013 12:19 PM
5 Votes
The courts need to stop being so lenient when a criminal cries foul. They are called criminals for a reason. I don't believe a law abiding citizen would mind showing their ID at a checkpoint. Only those that believe their rights are being violated will complain about being stopped which are usually the ones that resent authority anyway. Just like at the border patrol checkpoints. Everyone is asked to declare the citizenship whether they are black, brown, white, etc. I am 100% for the checkpoints and too bad for the criminal element that wish to operate with impunity.

roadhog - 1/1/2013 12:04 PM
5 Votes
They "whys" are just distractions. Go to the point. Wars and crime waves come and go, but when you surrender authority to the government, they keep it and use it and find new and inventive ways to further that authority until it becomes a cancer. Look what creative abominations the Fed has come up using those few words in the commerce clause. Here is the point with no smoke- the Feds listen to phone calls without warrants, they are trying to disarm the population, we have police check points on our streets... what next?
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