Last month, a 26-year old double Harvard graduate was reportedly pulled over by police for playing the N.W.A. song “Fuck Tha Police” while visiting his parents on Thanksgiving break. Cesar Baldelomar, who is currently enrolled as a law-student at Florida International University, told the Miami New Times that the song began playing from his car while he was stopped at a red light nearby police officer.
“Really?” Hialeh Police Officer Harold Garzon said to Baldelomar according to the site. “You’re really playing that song? Pull over.”
Baldemor was quickly cited by Garzon for playing loud music within 25 feet of another person, but he fired back himself with a relevant and recently updated Supreme Court decision.
“In 2012 the state supreme court struck down any law banning loud music,” he recounted to the Times, the same thing he told the police officer at the time. “I knew that because it was a case I had actually studied in law school.”
Garzon, who in a 17-year police career had had 16 internal affairs cases brought against him, apparently proceeded to call over two more cops and then issued three other citations in response to Baldelomar’s legal reference. First, Baldelomar was falsely told that the insurance information he presented from his phone wasn’t acceptable—”It’s got to be paper,” Garzon told him, disregarding another recent law change, this time at the state-level, by issuing a citation. Shortly after, Garzon issued a ticket for an out-of-state license plate and for not wearing a seat-belt, two more charges Baldelomar disputes and neither of which were related to the originally bogus noise complaint.
Baldelomar declined to sign any of the tickets and told the Times he’ll bring his grievances to court.
“I’m educated,” he said. “I know my rights. And I speak English, so I can fight this. But what about when this happens to someone who’s not so lucky? Policing has to change in this country.”
Baldelomar’s court battle may run into a roadblock given a new Supreme Court ruling with relevance to the case released yesterday (December 15). In a 8-1 decision, the Court ruled that “police officers don’t necessarily violate a person’s constitutional rights when they stop a car based on a mistaken understanding of the law,” according to NPR. That new ruling stemmed from an illegal traffic stop in North Carolina in 2009 that led to the seizure of a small bag of cocaine and the Court’s decision “ruled that since the officer’s mistake was reasonable, it did not violate the constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.”
once again I say………. Only in DUMB AMERICA
Cop sounds like an idiot.
gotta love it when dumbasses try to play lawyer with the cops and only end up making it worse for themselves. could have just turned your stereo down to a reasonable level and avoided all of this. people out with their young kids ain’t trying to hear that kinda foul language.
It seems every citation the cop gave him is invalid. So what the fuck are you talking about?
There would be no damn citations or traffic stop to begin with if he just turned down his fucking radio is what hes sayin!
True, fuck our rights.
I wish you were there in the studio with NWA to tell them that we would not like to hear swear words when we are out with our children.
im sure as fathers all of NWA woudlnt want their own infant children hearing most of the music they made
I knew a kid who used to drive around every night with his speakers blasting at obscene levels pissing everyone off. Someone eventually complained and he got pulled over and searched and they found cocaine and sent him to jail. Moral of the story is don’ be a heat score.
Great to see the snitch getting rewarded in this culture
lol everything’s always “for the children.” What about adults? You know, the ones who’ve graduated from being kids?
you mean you lames who are still children in adult bodies?
for the children=for our coveted demographic. the sexually frustrated teenage white boy & wanting to be popular at any costs teenage white girl are the primary targets for media tactics because of their “useful” (blind) consumption. they won’t question the integrity or quality because they don’t know any better. unfortunately the clown’s reply is correct, the programming is so strong that many don’t wake up in time and go thru mid-life crises, they don’t fit into the coveted demographic and realize are too young to fit into the OTHER demographic, the 55 & up “we’ll hold that money for you (but hope you die soon) crew.
police are always right. being a smart ass to an officer is only gonna get you one thing, an ass whooping.
Just so everyone knows the kid was not black, he looks Mexican.
ridiculous supreme court decision…so ignorance of the law is only an excuse for officers then?
Wow, HipHopDX just slid a Supreme Court ruling into a news article and it’s even being mentioned in the comments. Well played…much better than the awful celebrity coverage that passes for news on this site these days.
DX, more relevant NEWS like this … REALITY is what feeds hiphop. No need for the bogus nwa reference
damn…
Talk about ‘drawing attention to yourself’ & ‘provoking law enforcement’, I LOVE N.W.A & ‘F*CK THA POLICE’ as much as anyone, but BLASTIN’ that alongside cops is ONLY goin’ to seem like TAUNT! Ever hear of ‘flying UNDER the Radar’? ………………..
I’m not understanding how “should have turned down his music” is the rational answer. I’ve pulled over countless times for literally no reason.. Why should we as a people forfeit our rights to make police happy when they aren’t doing their job correctly? Protectors of the law should in fact know the law, correct? Or should their ignorance be rewarded? If I didn’t know things at my job I would be written up or spoken to about it, not promoted and looked over as if it never happened. Why do you sheep think it’s okay for the citizens of the US to be harassed because a police officer doesn’t like what you’re doing when it’s within OUR RIGHTS?!
I’ve been* pulled over…
I am so interested to know the out come of this case #knowyourights
These funky ass pigs are out of line. These fools have lost their damn mind cause these grand juries are letting them get away with killing people with no repercussions. They’re out here like a PR firm releasing statements and shit on football players’ T-shirts and shit instead of worrying about why they’re killing black men and children.
funny sh*t.
lmao that’s probably the only rap song he knows
“police officers don’t necessarily violate a person’s constitutional rights when they stop a car based on a mistaken understanding of the law”
This decision means that any cop that “mistakenly” stops you is automatically deemed incompetent and cannot testify against you in court. Ignorance of the Law is no excuse. Hopefully you don’t get a lawyer to represent you in a situation like this. This one is so easy.
good for him i guess. in Georgia they can charge you with all kind of charges. way up in the 1000’s. i know because my friend just got caught a few weeks ago and got charged with loud music. profanity. all kind of stuff which ended up in a 3400 fine.
trust me. the last think u want to do is play shit near cops. they can throw the book on you just cause they can… and if its some cussing ass shit. they stack on the charges.