Police Abuse

Daryl James and Rob Johnson | 8.6.2024 8:00 AM

To the untrained eye, there was nothing unusual on October 5, 2022, near mile marker 77 on Interstate 85. But when two deputies from Greenville County, South Carolina, saw a blue Tesla come into view, they sprang into action.

The vehicle was not speeding or driving recklessly. It had no broken lights or expired tags, nor had the car been reported stolen. What it did have was out-of-state plates on a rental car.

This is enough to trigger a traffic stop during Operation Rolling Thunder, the annual five-day law enforcement blitz that turns a 20-mile stretch of freeway between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, into a gauntlet for travelers.

No Drugs, No Problem

Finding a pretext for pulling a driver over is easy. "If us officers stay behind you long enough, we can find a reason to pull you over," a Washington state officer explains in a viral video that got her suspended. The excuse to stop the Tesla in South Carolina was "driving in the left lane while not actively passing."

The next goal, after stopping the Tesla driver, was to articulate probable cause to search it. This requires more than a traffic........

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