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This is a tremendously amusing story out of Gainesville, Florida. A SWAT Team tank pulled over a Navy veteran after the vet flipped it the bird while it was rolling down the street. The cops didn’t take the gesture very nicely and started accusing him of a “sexual act” with his girlfriend.
Personally, I love how the person who e-mailed it to me described the incident, which he heard second hand in his sociology class. It’s much more amusing than the official news report:
Basically, this kid (who also happens to be in my sociology class, and was blabbering about the incident today,) is driving around Gainesville and sees SWAT members riding around in a heavily armored vehicle that could be used as a fucking tank. Since he is a young student that also happens to be running for Gainesville City Commission, he decided that it would be a good idea to reach his arm out the window and flick the SWAT team off. Shockingly, the SWAT team pulls him over in said death vehicle. On top of that, they accuse him of getting ROAD HEAD from his girlfriend while this entire thing is going down. No pun intended.
Fucking SWAT tanks, amirite? What the Gainesville police need SWAT tanks for is a topic for another discussion (University of Florida Bros rioting because there’s a shortage of jorts, visors, and orange Southern Tide polos?), but I digress. Here’s the official report from the local news:
Jewell, a 23-year-old Santa Fe College student originally from Jacksonville, said he gave deputies the finger, because he didn’t like them driving the armored vehicle down his neighborhood streets.
He said he’s a Navy veteran and was offended to see them acting like the military, even wearing similar uniforms. He said he felt he did nothing wrong, and he thinks his video proves it.
In the video, the deputy tells Jewell that extending a hand out the driver’s side window for the obscene gesture is considered an “improper hand signal.”
One of the deputies also told Jewell that they thought he and his girlfriend, who was in the front passenger seat, were involved in a sex act while driving. Jewell denied it.
Lucas Jewell is a man of principle. Via 4 JAX:
According to the ACSO offense report filed by Deputy Charles Drake, Jewell began yelling at a crowd of onlookers to take pictures before raising the phone he was using to record the encounter and chanting, “police state,” repeatedly.
“I see this tank, and I see these militarized police wearing Kevlar, and I decide that I want to express my dissatisfaction with the police state and with the fact that a militarized vehicle is patrolling in my neighborhood streets,” Jewell told News4Jax. “I think it is really ridiculous that I was pulled over by a tank.”
At one point, a deputy asked Jewell to stop pointing his camera at him, which Jewell also said is a violation of his rights.
“I don’t mind you recording that, but you’re not gonna point it at me, because there are firearms that are made of devices like that,” the deputy says on the video. “If you wanna film all of us, I don’t mind that, but set the camera up where it can film all of us.”
Lucky for him, all Jewell got off with was a warning.
Here’s his original video. What a freedom warrior.