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The book, Terror on Highway 59 was about a reporter by the name of Steve Sellers. Steve was in his second week of his new job, for the Austin American Statesmen, when his city editor handed him a letter containing weird behavior on Highway 59. The letter was from a man named J. E. Foley. Foley complained about the San Jacinto County Sheriffs department.
Foley was on his way home from Kentucky after visiting some friends in Houston, and had bought a new car. The officers pulled over the car he was driving without any probable cause. Then they searched the car and found less than two ounces of marijuana. Foley's son admitted the weed was his and the officers proceeded in arresting the passenger as well. Foley's son and his girlfriend were then taken to jail. J.
E. had to pay large amounts of money to bail both persons out of jail. There was $ 210. 00 of additional charges to plead guilty, free of going to court, and a towing fee of $ 45. 00 plus a state tax of $ 2. 25. Mr. Foley paid with a credit card and later cancelled that payment. Foley noticed several other cars were stopped as well and he wanted the whole Dukes of Hazard- Boss- Hog operation checked out.
Steve Sellers was interested in the story so he began making trips to San Jacinto County. During Steves visits to San Jacinto County, he would gain more information and get a better understanding of how the San Jacinto Sheriffs Department worked. He found that people were being pulled over without any probable cause. If there was a motive to pull someone over, it was usually just an imaginary cause made up to allow the officers to search the car. The officers would do strip searches on the side of the road and use water torture in order to gain information out of people. When making an arrest the officer would not read them their rights and they would transfer them to jail at high speeds.
When those people arrived at jail, they were forced to pay high amounts of bail and fines in order to get out of what they were already in. Later the reporter found that the cops were not even reporting the arrests. They were making numerous arrests and profiting off innocent people. After Seller published his articles on how the San Jacinto County Sheriffs Department were treating people, the FBI, along with many other law enforcement officers, started checking files on arrests. All of these charges and allegations were brought about in court as a result of sheriff Humpy Parker's actions. Many other deputies were sentenced to time in jail while also paying those excessive fines that they accumulated.
The book seems to have been written for an adult audience because no matter how outrageous the story sounds, it is true. It appears that an adult would want to read a book like this because it shows how a person can be wrongly accused and punished. A person should know when they are being taken advantage of, especially if people that are supposed to serve and protect do it. Terror on Highway 59 has many strong points. The book was full of information that helps express things, making it easier for readers to get a better understanding of what is going on in the story. The way Seller uses language allows you to picture the surroundings and also get a good visualization of the characters in the book.
The writer was very specific on times, dates, and names of places and people. This always makes it easier for the reader to stay tuned once the reader knows that the incidents were true and that the information and testimony's that were given were from real people. While the experiences within this book were very engaging, its content also contained some weak points. It was very helpful when the author gave a great deal of information, but along with that information comes the continual addition of names. This book, which was full of names, made it harder for the reader to remember which character did what. In order to get a better understanding of what was going on, the reader literally had to keep a list of names unless they wanted to become confused.
The end of the book also seemed a bit confusing because all of the corrupt people who were getting punished, where given sentences and it was very difficult to match each punishment with each person's name. Overall, this book was very enjoyable as well as educational. Terror on Highway 59 shows how some people's rights and civil liberties were violated. Innocent people were getting pulled over without probable cause. The fourth amendment, which talks about probable cause, is supposed to protect people against unreasonable searches and seizures. The fourth amendment guarantees that the people should be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires that a search warrant be granted by the court only once probable cause has been proven and authorized.
The good faith exception has been applied even to searches without warrants in instances which the police can show that their action was backed by probable cause and that their intention was is the best interest of the court. In this story, the police had no legitimate reasons for stopping the car. The eighth amendment prohibits large and excessive bails and fines and cruel and unusual punishments. The officers in the book arrested people for no reasons which resulted in them being charged with large dollar amounts for bail with additional fines that were never reported or taken to the courts. These people's rights to a speedy trial were also violated.
All of these arrests were not legal, so most of these cases were not taken to court. If someone was in jail and they didn't talk or confess, the officers would use water torture on them. The officers forced the people to violate their right of the fifth amendment. The Miranda Rights were not even told to the person until they were controlled and behind bars. Their Miranda Rights were only read by another fellow inmate and never by an officer with a badge. Although these protections were intended to shield individuals from abuses by the government, the government also has a obligation to safeguard the citizens of the United States from criminal activity.
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