Since verifying the van’s ownership history was taking longer than expected, Sacramento police threw cuffs on the van driver
A somewhat controversial police encounter with a van driver is making the rounds on Reddit showing multiple Sacramento Police officers confronting said driver over the lack of plates on the rear of his van, including verifying who the van’s rightful owner is. Although the unidentified van driver supposedly has correct paperwork, police were bothered with how long it was taking and detained the man to speed things up.
Check out the video for yourself below.
As this is a snippet of a longer video, part of a live stream, we don’t have the entire picture including who this man is, where he’s at, why exactly his parked van is drawing negative attention to him, and if it’s really that big of a deal.
Sacramento police identify themselves and give them a reason why he’s being questioned.
“We’re with the Sacramento police and the reason I’m talking to you is because you have no plates on the rear of the vehicle.”
The man then talks over the police stating.
“I have the plates; you have the vin number, you can run it.”
When threatened he’s about to be detained for “obstructing this investigation” the man fires back with the opposite claiming “he’s not (obstructing the investigation.”)
The final straw was when asked if they could see proof of ownership, which he had on his person, he replies with, “you could see it, with your eyes, you don’t see it with your hands.”
It doesn’t help there are multiple people around the interaction, documenting every second and, when police throw cuffs on the man, they all start questioning the police’s actions loudly asking, “Why are you arresting him for?”
“Dude had warrants out for his arrest… this has been reposted 4 times.”
If given a transcript of the video, it’s clear why Sacramento police put the man in cuffs. They were not arresting him temporarily holding him until they could clear some details up, or, in other words, detaining him.
Having no plates on your vehicle, even though you may have them on you somewhere, is worse than driving around with expired registration and is akin to waving a red flag out of your window for police to see.
It’s not clear what kind of van the man’s driving, but it looks to be an older model high-roof of some sort, perhaps American-made. Car ownership in California is not cheap. Not only do you have to have all your paperwork in line, including current registration and some insurance, the van needs to be smogged every two years for emissions purposes. Being an older model, perhaps this man does not have the funds to repair said van for registration and is, colloquially, “riding dirty.”
It looks like a lot is going on in the video but, if you take a step back, there really isn’t much going on, at all.
