On the evening of Independence Day, 2013, Murfreesboro motorist Chris Kalbaugh entered a DUI checkpoint on Rutherford Boulevard, set up and publicized by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, but not before turning on his camera.

What he captured went viral immediately, gaining millions of views within the first two days of being posted to YouTube, and sparking a national debate on what exactly is a “reasonable search.”

During the stop, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Deputy A.J. Ross approached Kalbaugh’s window, which was cracked a few inches, and asked him to roll it down further.

“This is fine,” Kalbaugh said. “I can hear you.”

Taken aback, Ross replied “This is fine?” with surprise, and proceeded to ask the motorist how old he was.

“Is that a required question?” Kalbaugh asked.

Now visibly upset, Ross tells him it is, tries to open the car door and shouts at the driver to pull over and shut it down.

The incident continued with a search of Kalbaugh’s person and throughout the car, with the key find being the camera, which was still recording.

“Yes, the kid wanted this to happen, and egged it on, but, the cops knew what they were doing was wrong. Why else would he say ‘uh oh’ and turn the camera when he saw it. Police do not have the authority to search your car without consent or reasonable suspicion,” Todd Kennedy commented after viewing the video online.

Officers said that a K9 had a “hit” on the car, signifying to them that something illegal was in the vehicle, but Kalbaugh’s video shows the dog doesn’t bark at the car until he was brought over and signaled by an officer tapping on the window.

“Intentionally giving the dog an alert signal is crooked,” Kennedy continued.

The comments on the video kept arriving in the days following the incident, coming in from all over the nation:

“The guy intentionally didn’t roll down his window all the way to show what the reaction would be. He was respectful saying ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’. . . .  The point is that we aren’t innocent until proven guilty anymore. We’re guilty until proven innocent. Our rights are being taken away for a false sense of safety, and one day it’s going to be too late.”  -Lindsey Clanton McCreery

“While this officer was getting his kicks on harassing this kid, real crimes were being committed. Yank this jackass off the force and make him push a pencil.”  -Becky Tatum

“That cop did the exact same thing to me months ago.”  -Ethan Christison

“Sounds like one more way to become a police state! I think DUI checkpoints should be illegal.”  -Jessica Brandon

“This was a ‘sobriety’ checkpoint. This young man was not pulled over for something he did or did not do. I commend him for knowing his rights and having the courage to stand up for them. I am a law-abiding citizen. I respect, appreciate, and am thankful for law enforcement, but do believe in this ‘check’ they abused his and their rights. Clearly, this young man was not under the influence,” commented Carla Elam Maye.

Others make the observation that checkpoints don’t even seem to yield very good results for catching DUI offenders in the first place.

Officers have long staged these checkpoints, supposedly only to verify the sobriety of drivers. But according to statistics on that specific checkpoint released by law enforcement, out of the 250 vehicles that passed through the checkpoint that July 4 evening, one DUI charge was filed; 32 other citations were issued, for child restraint, light law, driver’s license and various other violations.

“Meanwhile, 45 drunk drivers knew about the checkpoint and took the roads around the checkpoint. They’re a joke,” said Rutherford County Libertarians Communications Director Axl E. David. The group seized upon the opportunity the video provided to enter into a variety of dialogues related to personal freedoms, and generally promote libertarian ideals. “It makes me sick to my stomach,” David said of the incident.

His fellow libertarian, Timothy Meredith, says these checkpoints aren’t about preventing accidents as much as they are about collecting money and government power.

“A very legal and substantially more effective route is ‘saturation patrols,’ basically identifying troublesome areas in town and patrolling them heavier during times prone to drinking (events, holidays, etc). The FBI actually used Tennessee as a case study, the fact is if you really want to save lives and stop drunk driving, DUI checkpoints are a horrible solution,” Meredith, the chairman of the Rutherford County Libertarians, said. “It is truly mind-boggling the people who see these statistics and still defend DUI checkpoints. Our own FBI agency tells us that these DUI checkpoints are worthless for preventing/catching drunk driving and people still defend them? Our money would have been better spent having six officers patrol areas known for having a problem with drunk driving, which the FBI again proved in its studies. ‘Please master, put the chains on!'”

Many other drivers seem to agree.

“Can anyone honestly say that 0.4% is a successful tool at combating drunk drivers?”  -Jesse Overbey

“It appears to have been a revenue checkpoint, not a DUI checkpoint.”  -Paul Hugenberg III

“It’s about authority, control, and money. Even if the activity exacerbates the advertised objective, it reinforces who is in authority and control, and transfers money from you to them.”  -Richard Hartman.

“They might get more DUI if the place of the checkpoint wasn’t posted knowledge. People know to avoid the area.”  -Anastasia Rigsby McLean.

“It’s much easier to write a mass of citations if you just stop everybody and fish for violations. This isn’t about protecting or serving anyone, and it’s been this way for too long.”  -Travis Baker

Still some side with the cops, and tell others to respect authority.

“I am getting so sick of seeing this video posted. That little smartass kid deserves to be locked up just for being such a disrespectful little ass. No respect for authority whatsoever.”  -Forrest Dykes

“They should of taken him out of his car and whipped his ass, probably would of done him some good.”  -John Bayne

It would seem, though, perusing the Internet comments on the subject, that those individuals are in the minority, and many making those points are government agents themselves.

“The driver did absolutely nothing wrong. The police overstepped the boundaries of the law. End of story.”  -Drew Lewis

“Officers just use their authority to boss people around, they have this cocky attitude to people. Our officers are supposed to protect! This here is not protecting . . . Murfreesboro is really bad for this.”  -Christina Milam

Others point out that many officers are decent people, truly trying to serve their community, and Ross’s actions in this video shouldn’t speak for every member of local law enforcement.

“He wasn’t drunk or high. Just because you have a badge doesn’t mean that you can act all high and mighty and get away with it. Yes, some cops in Murfreesboro are very respectful and amazing at what they do, but there are way too many cops these days going too far to bring people into jail just so they can meet their quota at the end of the month. The cop in this case had absolutely no right to do what he did,” said Dean Hornsby. “We as Americans have rights in the Constitution, and I don’t care who you are, but you deserve those rights. You are innocent until proven guilty. The cop had no right to search his car. He didn’t do anything except state his rights. All this kid was trying to do is show everyone how corrupt Rutherford County’s legal system is, and I think that makes him a hero,” said Horsby. “These cops are getting away with way too much.”

Others say if the law wants to charge someone with a DUI, they may not need to look any further than Ross.

“I’ve seen A.J. Ross get drunk and go get on his motorcycle and ride off multiple times,” said someone in the service industry in Murfreesboro.

But nearly a week after the video was made, the sheriff’s office released a statement saying it did not plan to seek any disciplinary action against Ross.

In a report after his investigation of the encounter, Lt. Nathan Pagel of the Office of Professional Responsibility stated, “I can find no evidence of violations of any state or federal law, rights violations or violations of the RCSO Standard Operating Procedure.”

Business as usual, evidently.

“He didn’t violate anybody’s rights,” Sheriff Arnold said. “He did his job.”

Whether this will prove a wise career move on the young sheriff’s part remains to be seen.

“Mr. Arnold just said the officer did nothing wrong. So I guess that’s that. What’s the point of having a constitution?” Jared Dorothy said.

The next election for Rutherford County Sheriff will be held in August 2014 (and by the way, Arnold is facing an unrelated lawsuit filed the day before the DUI checkpoint video, in which a former sheriff’s office employee claims he was fired “in retaliation for confirming to Sheriff Arnold that he was running for the political office of sheriff” in the 2014 election).

“I will definitely be basing my vote in the Rutherford County Sheriff election on what happens with this,” Johnny Questbrooks said of the checkpoint video.

While this one particular video may or may not change any policies or personnel with the local sheriff’s office, it has demonstrated that with the rise of YouTube, smart phones and affordable recorders, it is becoming easier and easier to share encounters with the world, and that one ordinary citizen can have incredible power to sway public opinion.

“Always keep the camera rolling,” Kalbaugh said.

View the videos here:

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Why we may as well just roll down the window, and throw the Bill of Rights out of it
Commentary by Bracken Mayo

Let’s not pretend that Mr. Kalbaugh is Rodney King, or a Jewish family in Nazi Germany, or a Kurd in Hussein’s Iraq, or . . . pick your individual throughout history who has really been brutalized by government agents.

The “violation of his rights” he experienced was minor. There was no physical beating of the driver, not an extreme amount of damage done to his property (other than some scratches in the paint on the hood of the car from where the K9 jumped and clawed), but viewers across the country spoke out, saying Kalbaugh was “bullied,” “intimidated” and had his constitutional rights violated.

And, just as sheriff’s deputies do not let all “minor” violations go, the freedom-loving people of American should not let this “minor” incident go.

A week after the incident, Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold released a statement saying “Deputy A.J. Ross did not violate the civil rights of a driver . . . he did his job,” despite acknowledging that his department was flooded was calls, visits and complaints regarding the incident, the office shut down its Facebook page due to the bombardment of comments there, with Arnold even receiving personal threats against him and his family.

I hope that gave him a little indication that yes, something is wrong with that way of doing the business of serving and protecting.

In all of the hundreds of thousands of comments floating around about the video, there are not many people making the case that drinking and driving should be allowed. Most agree that is dangerous and stupid. But the logic that “my family member was killed by a drunk driver; let’s randomly search people’s cars” is flawed.

And having 6 to 8 officers at a roadblock all night, stopping 250 people to make 1 DUI arrest (and purchasing advertising trying to intimidate people into respecting their “athoritah,” featuring a re-write of a Johnny Cash tune), is not a wise use of resources.

People will always be rude and disrespectful at times. (The officer and the driver were both kind of jerks, really. The driver, to make a entertaining video; Ross . . . well, because he likes to be in control and wield power, probably.)

But going through his stuff had nothing to do with him being drunk or not.

I think the Constitution is a great idea. I would love to live in a world where the Constitution is actually observed. The Bill of Rights is beautiful, one of the most special documents in the history of our nation, one of the most special nations in the history of the world, as legend has it.

But I am telling you now, with certainty and sadness, we do not live in that world.

Instead of protection from excessive punishment, there’s indefinite detention, the Patriot Act, military tribunals, enhanced interrogation. Instead of due process, there’s a bunch of weird, complicated clauses buried in each year’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, granting more and more power to the executive branch.

Did all of those participating in the Occupy movement have the right to peaceably assemble?

There are no states’ rights anymore. The federal government thinks it’s sovereign to the states, and that the endless stream of policies and decrees coming out of Washington must be followed by everyone in the U.S.

What’s up with the NSA having unrestricted access to everyone’s e-mails, texts, call records, search records?!

There is usually freedom of religion, but some in Murfreesboro still try and block that, as we’ve seen.

And there is definitely no right to bear arms. Do you think Ross would have observed Kalbaugh’s Second Amendment rights if he had a trunk full of pistols? I can hear the exchange now:

Ross: “Why are you bearing so many arms?”

Kalbaugh: “For purposes of starting a militia.”

Ross: “Well, in that case, roll right on. Have a nice night.”

Um, no. There is no Second Amendment freedom any more. Someone tell me where you have the right to bear arms these days.

And what if the First Amendment were treated as the second is? You can have freedom of the press
. . . as long as you undergo a background check, register your press, take a government test, pay a government fee and carry a government permit.

So in the context of all that, yeah, what does it matter? Someone’s car got searched, unreasonably, or whatever. An officer yelled at a driver.

“But we live in a different age. There’re terrorists and bogeymen out there! Some are trying to overthrow the government and the American way of life,” say some.

I won’t go so far as to side with them and say it needs to be overthrown, but I will say that the U.S. Federal Government does need to be disassembled until there is not much left other than the Bill of Rights, an adequate national defense system, our beautiful national parks and some reasonable environmental requirements to keep certain people from absolutely destroying the land for the rest of us.

Everyone has their own interpretation of the Constitution, some more strict than others. I’d say, though, Kalbaugh’s video did indeed document an unreasonable search.

One of the best elements of the video is pointing out the twisted logic of the K9 search: law enforcement needs probable cause to execute a search; a trained K9’s signal counts as probable cause; officers can tell the K9 to hit wherever they want; therefore law enforcement can give itself probable cause any time it wants to.

The video also pointed out the continuation of the unfortunate pattern of government officials just making it up as they go, and forgetting they work for the people, not the other way around.

Those who say the driver should’ve just complied are missing the point. What if he did possess a small amount of a certain herb that many Murfreesborans happen to enjoy?

There are just way too many cops out there telling people to do too many things.

And as the whole country is watching and debating our local sheriff’s department, know this: our county commissioners have recently voted to raise property taxes primarily to hire 11 more Rutherford County Sheriff’s officers and give government employees raises. I wish it were a joke. Complaining and debating online may feel good and like you’re getting involved, but any change will not happen until people can unite and vote out the power-hungry, money-grabbing, self-serving jokers at all levels of government, and vote in someone, anyone, who cares about freedom more than controlling other people.

I do not want my property taxes going up so our corrupt sheriff’s department can have more henchmen.

I can’t necessarily say to Chris Kalbaugh that your video inspired me. I’ve felt inspired for a long while. But dude, it made a lot of other people pay attention and speak out, and that is encouraging.

And in the tradeoff between security and liberty, I’m going with liberty.

Really, Kalbaugh may have more in common with a superhero than a victim. It seems he’s standing up, as did Superman, for “Truth, justice and the American way.” He rattled the cage a little, he pursued controversy just a bit, but who can blame an aspiring filmmaker for that?

So thanks to him, thanks to Bradley Manning and thanks to Edward Snowden for doing their part to swing the pendulum away from the military-industrial complex/police state that our beloved land of freedom is becoming, and taking a stand for liberty.

Thanks also to everyone who puts themself in all sorts of unpleasant situations with the intention of serving and protecting. You are heroes too.

Fight for freedom, and live every moment like you are on camera.

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The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office posted a video taken from a Tennessee Highway Patrol dashcam showing Ross and Kalbaugh engaging in a discussion on the Constitution.

According to Ross: “The Constitution says when you come through here, if I ask you questions, and you refuse to do what I’m asking you to do, guess what, you’re going to obey what I’m asking you to do. Listen to what I’m saying!”

Um, no it doesn’t say that.

To review, let’s go over just the first 10 Amendments of the United States Constitution, otherwise known as the Bill of Rights:

1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed

3. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

7. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.