A questionable traffic stop by an Arizona highway patrol officer reveals how the powers bestowed upon police are ripe for abuse. Video shows how the officer escalated the encounter after he was challenged by a motorist to justify his actions. In this episode of the Police Accountability Report, we break down how the misuse of police power during a single car stop reflects a broader anti-democratic imperative that drives American policing.
Transcript
Taya Graham: Hello. My name is Taya Graham, and welcome to the Police Accountability Report. As I always make clear, this show has a single purpose: Holding the politically powerful institution of policing accountable. And to do so, we don’t just focus on the bad behavior of individual cops. Instead, we examine the system that makes bad policing possible. And today, we’re going to achieve that goal by reporting on this disturbing video of a brutal arrest by Arizona Highway cops. It’s an encounter sent to us by a viewer, who was dragged out of his car by police for a crime that has yet to be determined. But, it’s also an example of how far cops will go to enforce their arbitrary sense of power, and how quickly they will sacrifice both the safety and well-being of the public to maintain it.
But, before we get started, I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct, please email it to us privately at par@therealnews.com. And please like, share, and comment on our videos. You know I read your comments and appreciate them. And of course, you can always reach out to me directly @tayasbaltimore on Facebook or Twitter. And if you can, take a look at the Patreon donate link pinned below in the comments, because we do have some extras for the PAR family. All right, now we’ve gotten all that out of the way.
Now, as we’ve reported on before, policing in America is quite often focused on objectives that appear to have little to do with public safety. It’s an idea that seems to be ingrained in the culture of policing, which emphasizes enforcing power over the people, rather than maintaining public safety. And no police encounter could be more illustrative of this point than the video I’m going to show you now.
It’s a video, sent to us by viewer Perry Taylor, who was pulled over by the Arizona Department of Safety Highway Patrol Division in the summer of 2021. The officer said he had been driving erratically and following too closely to another vehicle before changing lanes. However, the interaction between the cop and our viewer quickly escalates, as the officer makes a seemingly odd request that would put both of them in danger. Let’s watch.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Patrol Officer: Hello, I’m [inaudible] patrol. The reason I’m stopping you today is for your driving behavior.
Perry Taylor: My driving behavior?
Patrol Officer: Yeah.
Perry Taylor: I just let off the brake. Can you explain?
Ashley: Yeah, can you explain?
Patrol Officer: You’re weaving in – What’s that?
Ashley: Can you explain?
Perry Taylor: [crosstalk] I’m weaving in and out? How am I not allowed to weave in and out? Like, I’m just changing lanes.
Ashley: Yeah, he was just changing lanes.
Patrol Officer: Yeah, just changing lanes?
Perry Taylor: Yeah.
Ashley: Yeah.
Patrol Officer: You’re not racing a –
Ashley: No.
Patrol Officer: – White Camaro at all?
Ashley: No.
Perry Taylor: Why, can I not get around somebody to make it safe for myself?
Patrol Officer: You do what?
Perry Taylor: Can I not get around somebody to make a safe for myself? Can I not make distance between me and the guy beside me or next to me, because, I think maybe they’re driving a little aggressive? I’m just asking.
Patrol Officer: Oh, okay. So is that how you want to play it today?
Perry Taylor: I’m just asking, I’m just asking.
Patrol Officer: No, is that how you want to play it today? [crosstalk] Because you’re talking a whole lot of attitude, so here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to go ahead and exit the vehicle.
Perry Taylor: No, I’m not.
Ashley: Oh my God.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Notice that the driver, Mr. Taylor, is not accused of a crime. In fact, the officer seems to have trouble articulating exactly what Mr. Taylor did that warranted the stop. But, what’s even more telling is how the officer escalates the encounter after he is challenged to articulate the infraction that prompted him to pull Mr. Taylor over in the first place. In fact, the minute Mr. Taylor pushes back and refuses to concede that he’s broken some yet to be defined law, the officer starts to increase both the intensity of his orders and the force he’s willing to use to ensure compliance. But that’s not where this bizarre encounter ends, not hardly.
That’s because as you can see here, the cop in question is joined by another officer. And it’s at that point that they threaten Mr. Taylor with a taser and try to pull him out of his car. I’m not kidding. First, they deploy an often dangerous, and sometimes lethal, weapon due to a vague accusation that Mr. Taylor is driving erratically. And then, stymied by his inability to correctly present evidence that Taylor deserves anything more than a ticket, the cops resort to force. Let’s watch as they threaten Taylor with a taser, and then attempt to drag him from his car.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Perry Taylor: [inaudible] Give me your ticket.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car.
Perry Taylor: Give me your ticket because your ego was bruised. Just give me your ticket. You are escalating this situation.
Patrol Officer: Get out of –
Perry Taylor: I’m asking you to give me a ticket.
Patrol Officer: You’re not –
Perry Taylor: I’m asking you.
Patrol Officer: You’re not getting a –
Perry Taylor: You’re trying to go for your arrest quota, and I’m not going to allow it to happen, man.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car.
Perry Taylor: No, don’t.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car, right now.
Perry Taylor: Don’t, don’t. Don’t, man.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car –
Perry Taylor: For what?
Patrol Officer: …right now.
Perry Taylor: For what?
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car.
Perry Taylor: For what?
Perry Taylor: I don’t feel safe, you see this, I don’t feel safe.
Patrol Officer: Taser on him.
Perry Taylor: I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel safe.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car, Sir.
Perry Taylor: Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car.
Perry Taylor: Don’t touch me.
Patrol Officer: Get out.
Perry Taylor: I’m getting out.
Patrol Officer: Get out.
Perry Taylor: Don’t touch me. [crosstalk] Don’t touch me.
Patrol Officer: Put the phone down.
Perry Taylor: Don’t touch me. You’re threatening my life right now. [crosstalk] So get out of my face. Get out.
Patrol Officer: Put the phone down.
Perry Taylor: No, I’m not putting my phone down, no.
Patrol Officer: You can leave it recording right there.
Perry Taylor: I don’t care.
Patrol Officer: I’m trying to be as –
Perry Taylor: No, you’re not.
Patrol Officer: Listen –
Perry Taylor: I asked you to give me the ticket.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car.
Perry Taylor: Okay [crosstalk] Let me get out of the car.
Patrol Officer: Get out of the car now.
Perry Taylor: Let me get out.
Patrol Officer: Get out.
Perry Taylor: Let me get out.
Patrol Officer: Get out of –
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Taya Graham: Let’s remember that Taylor was pulled over on a highway with a very narrow emergency lane. And this is only made worse by the fact that one of the most dangerous and risky police activities is pulling over cars on the shoulder of high-speed highways. But that didn’t stop these two law enforcement officers from engaging in the risky strategy of dragging a man, accused, at worst, of changing lanes too closely, from his car and onto the highway. And so, before we talk to the man who endured this terrifying encounter with police, I’m joined by reporting partner, Stephen Janis, who has been looking into the case. Stephen, thank you so much for joining me.
Stephen Janis: Taya, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: So first, who are these officers, and what agency do they work for?
Stephen Janis: Well, they’re the Arizona equivalent of State Troopers, they’re the Arizona Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol. They patrol state highways and state facilities. So they’re basically responsible for state traffic.
Taya Graham: So you’ve reached out to them. What have they said about this incident?
Stephen Janis: Well, to be fair, I just sent them the videos. I sent the video to their Public Information Officer. I asked him specific questions, really a clarification on what exactly were they accusing Mr. Taylor of, and exactly what laws he had violated. And if, indeed, officers are allowed to extract people from cars, and if that’s safe. So I’ve asked all these questions, hopefully I’ll be able to answer them in the chat, but if not, I will post my findings as soon as we get them.
Taya Graham: Stephen, we’ve talked continually about the idea of hegemonic policing, where cops focus on projecting power rather than public safety. Does that idea apply to this stop?
Stephen Janis: Well, what’s really important about this is that the idea infiltrates the thinking of the police officer. What’s interesting when you watch the video, is that the officer cannot stand the fact that his orders are not followed. In other words, he’s sort of embraced the concept that what he says is actually law, and that’s something that I think we have to understand. He has no sense that perhaps the constitution, or other laws, might intercede on his orders to somebody, or that his orders cannot be followed. To police, this is almost like antithetical. And the only way that becomes part of your persona, part of your employee psyche, is if you believe that you are enforcing a law that you can conceive of. In other words, if you can conceptualize it, then it is a law. And if you don’t follow it, it’s a threat to public safety. He’s conflated the law and his own power. And it is scary
Taya Graham: And now, to give us more insight into what happened during this traffic stop and how it affected him, I’m joined by the man in the video, Mr. Perry Taylor. Perry, thank you so much for joining us.
Perry Taylor: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.
Taya Graham: So tell us why you were pulled over in the first place?
Perry Taylor: So my passenger, well, my fiance, we were just running some errands. We were on the highway, we were headed northbound and just kind of, felt like there was kind of an aggressive driver, I think he was in my right hand side. So I kind of got around them to kind of be safe and create some distance. Maybe about a mile or two ahead of that, when I did that, we noticed we were at a cruising speed of 65 miles an hour on the highway here, and noticed an aggressive police officer. DPS police officer pulled just, we clearly we’ve been out of traffic, got right on my rear bumper, tailgated us, for lack of a better phrase. And for about maybe 10, 15 seconds, no lights, anything. Then he put them on. I knew he was looking at my plate to see if they were anything there.
Of course, it’s clean. I even have veteran plates. Not that I think that should get me off of anything, but I just figured, hey, come on, we’re not dealing with your average Joe here. I have a nice car, it’s modified, it has a little bit louder exhaust on it. So, it does catch their attention, which, it’s not going to bother me. I’m not going to live my life in fear of a police officer because he’s going to pull me over for the way my car looks or sounds. Anyway, so he pulls us over. We pull over, as soon as we felt it was safe enough on the busy highway, it was pretty busy at that time of the day. And he approaches, I think in the video you see on my camera was to the passenger side. And I think you heard him give his explanation of something about a Camaro, or a Mustang, or something behind us.
And I said, no, I didn’t remember what kind of car it was. And he just said, so you weren’t weaving in and out? I said, no, I’m just moving away. I can change lanes. And I noticed I’ve watched the video a few times. As soon as I said, ‘I’m just asking,’ that’s what tipped him off and triggered him and said, also, this is how this is going to go. So I felt instead of making sure everything was okay, there was no, he didn’t even say you were speeding. All he said was I heard exhaust. I said, okay. And your point is, thinking to myself. So like I said, as soon as I said, I’m just asking if that’s okay, in my opinion, that’s a rhetorical question to him. So he got the attitude that they all get, that they’re the ones out there ruling the streets, and came around to my side and said, you need to get out of your car, which was the busy side, the driver’s side.
It was the busy side of the highway, it was pretty busy. So I felt like he had a lot of guts to even go on that side anyway. And I said, no, I think what you hear from me saying, is just give me the ticket. I don’t care. We’ll fight it out in court. I’m not getting out of my car because I don’t feel safe. I know what happens. I don’t feel safe. And so he felt like he was just going to, at the end of it, was just going to give me the ticket that said, disobeying a police officer. Which, I looked up the ARS code, and it did not at all follow what he was trying to do, which was trying to direct traffic, or anything like that. And so we felt like our lives were in danger.
They separated both of us. That’s their protocol, their tactic to try to get one to rat on the other. And she was scared, my fiance was scared, so she didn’t want to get shot, tased. I begged her not to get out of the car, wait for the supervisor. Supervisor eventually showed up. They had me in cuffs so tight. I got pictures. I don’t think I sent you those, but there’s just red marks around my wrist, kept my hands behind my back. Now, before that, of course, they threatened me with their taser. So they threatened arrest, which they’re not supposed to do. They’re not supposed to use their tasers, guns, unless their lives are in danger. And they threatened me, to put me under arrest, because I didn’t want to get out of a car where I felt I was unsafe. So instead of making sure we were safe, like it says on the side of their car, protect and serve, they decided to escalate.
And that’s where I had the issue. So instead of making sure we were okay, and he didn’t even give me a ticket for what he says he thought he saw. The only thing was disobeying a police officer. So he didn’t take me to jail, which he knew he couldn’t have anything to do with that, and let me go. Now, I have not seen any of their body cam footage, hopefully that does exist. I know we’re in the discovery phase right now. I have been told from my attorney that the prosecutor he’s working with is actually somebody. He was a prosecutor as well, our defense attorney. They’re coming up with some kind of diversion program, or I don’t agree with, I’m not paying my lawyer plus another fee to go to the courts and the cops just to have something maybe not go on my record where it’s… When someone feels like they’re getting wronged. It’s probably because they’re being wronged.
Taya Graham: What happened when the police first approached you? And can you describe what we see in the video?
Perry Taylor: I don’t remember if I rolled my window all the way down, or if it was just part of the way down. Knowing me, it was probably just part of the way down, just enough to hear, and he could hear me, or us. But I think he said something about, like I said before, it just was one of, I heard exhaust, were you racing some kind of a Mustang or a Camaro in the back? And I said, no. And he made a reference of weaving in and out of traffic. And it was just, to me, it just seemed kind of, he was trying to build, in his mind, his case. Like, let me get you to talk about something. Let me get you to… that’s why I’m pretty sure his body cam was on so they can get that on recording.
[VIDEO CLIP BEGINS]
Patrol Officer: Hello, I’m [inaudible] patrol. The reason I’m stopping you today is for your driving behavior.
Perry Taylor: My driving behavior?
Patrol Officer: Yeah.
Perry Taylor: I just let off the brake. Can you explain?
Ashley: Yeah, can you explain?
Patrol Officer: You’re weaving in – What’s that?
Ashley: Can you explain?
Perry Taylor: [crosstalk] I’m weaving in and out? How am I not allowed to weave in and out? Like, I’m just changing lanes.
Ashley: Yeah, he was just changing lanes.
Patrol Officer: Yeah, just changing lanes?
Perry Taylor: Yeah.
Ashley: Yeah.
Patrol Officer: You’re not racing a –
Ashley: No.
Patrol Officer: – White Camaro at all?
Ashley: No.
Perry Taylor: Can I not get around somebody to make it safe for myself?
Patrol Officer: You do what?
Perry Taylor: Can I not get around somebody to make it safe for myself? Can I not make distance between me and the guy beside me, or next to me, cause I think maybe they’re driving a little aggressive? I’m just asking.
Patrol Officer: Oh, okay. So is that how you want to play it today?
Perry Taylor: I’m just asking, I’m just asking.
Patrol Officer: No, is that how you want to play it today? [crosstalk] Because you’re talking a whole lot of attitude, so here’s what we’re going to do, you’re going to go ahead and exit the vehicle.
Perry Taylor: No, I’m not.
[VIDEO CLIP ENDS]
Perry Taylor: And I felt like he wasn’t getting the answer he wanted. And as soon as I say, well I was just changing lanes is that not, and you hear my fiance, Ashley say the same thing. That’s what we were doing. Is that not allowed? I’m just asking. That is where you see him, the switch flip.
Taya Graham: Do you feel that the officer accurately depicted your driving? I mean, didn’t he accuse you of drag racing a Camaro?
Perry Taylor: No, I don’t. Like I said, when he said, immediately said when he heard exhaust. So any time in the slightest, if any vehicle with a modified type exhaust is going to hit accelerate a little bit, you’re going to hear a little bit of that. And again, my car… and the other part of it is I just feel opposite on. This isn’t the first time I’ve been pulled over, but I feel profiled for just being grouped into the whole… The type of stuff I have is normally, like the younger generation would have, the car guys. And I have a lot of friends in the community and stuff, but I just felt like this was so wrong. And he was going after something.
I used to work with police officers, I used to do their retirement accounts, and the stories I would hear in their retirement meetings as they reflected back on their career would make you cringe about the stories they told. And they laughed about it. And there were people’s lives and public records at stake. And they thought it was a joke. And I eventually left that firm, in a completely different career field now. But, I’m an ex firefighter, I’m ex military, I’m Air Force, and I get it, the whole brotherhood. And I just feel like in the public like this, it’s kind of, they make it them against us. And it’s not supposed to be that way.
Taya Graham: You mentioned de-escalation in the video, essentially asking him to calm down. Why do you think things got heated so quickly?
Perry Taylor: Like I said, it’s just part of their culture. And it’s just, as soon as they feel like they’re questioned and they don’t have an answer to come back with… They pulled you over, they have to come back with something. Even if it’s just them saying to you at the end of it, I’m just giving you a warning. They want to let you know that they’re in charge, and you’re free to go because of them. But in this case, he knew he wasn’t dealing with your average person who he typically pulls over. And he didn’t like the way that I – and that’s fine. You don’t have to like it, but you’re supposed to de-escalate and be a lot more… Our tax dollars that are being pulled from our paychecks are paying for you. It’s just appalling to, when you think about it, and when you break it down like that, it’s like, I’m paying you so you can harass me.
I wasn’t as if I just was leaving the scene of robbing a bank, or setting a house on fire, or beating somebody up, or assaulting somebody, that’s different. I totally support police in that type of scenario. If I could help, I would, in those types of situations. But for them to be patrolling, and just preying on people on the streets to get their arrest quota, to generate revenue, I can go on, but it really just burns. It makes my blood boil. And this particular time I was not going to let go.
Taya Graham: So one aspect of this case that really struck me is how it provides a perfect illustration of the divide between what law enforcement in this country purports to be, and what it actually is. So what do I mean? Well, I’m sure most police partisans would the bizarre behavior of this cop as just another example of an officer trying to maintain public safety. That his seemingly disproportionate overreach was simply an example of cops trying to keep the streets, and us, safe. But does that really hold up under scrutiny? Does aggressively policing highways with illusory accusations of erratic driving actually keep us safer? And does the underlying imperative, highway safety, really justify the behavior of the officers we saw in the video? Well, let’s try to answer that question in two ways.
First, let’s look at the data. Over the past 20 years, the number of highway fatalities have been remarkably and tragically consistent, averaging around 30,000 to 40,000 per year. Meanwhile, the number of police initiated contacts while driving rose during that same period, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 27 million in 2015 to 28 million in 2018. So, one would think if writing more tickets and more police encounters led to increase safety, then we would see a downward trend in the number of fatalities. Of course, as the oft-repeated saying reminds us, correlation is not always causation. So maybe we need to look at another example and dive a little deeper into the true imperative of traffic enforcement.
In this case, a specific example comes from an op-ed in USA Today, written by a scientist, whose job was to test blood samples for DUI cases. In the editorial, he describes not how police arrested and fairly prosecuted those guilty of driving drunk. Instead, he tells a tale of how the law enforcement establishment ordered him to lie about the blood alcohol test under oath, and when he refused, fired.
His name is Greg Olsen, and he worked for the same state where our guest was arrested, Arizona. In the editorial, he recounts how Arizona tested blood alcohol samples and batches. A process which he believes should have been disclosed to defendants, so they could better evaluate the results in court. That’s because due to his scientific opinion, it could lead to false positives. And in 2016, he did just that, testified truthfully in a case when he told the court that testing in batches can lead to errors. So, what happened? Was he lauded for his ethical admission and his adherence to scientific truthfulness? Not hardly. His superiors in the Arizona law enforcement-industrial complex, ordered him to change his testimony and lie. That’s right, the agency tasked with enforcing the laws and discerning the truth told him to simply cast aside the facts and perjure himself, or otherwise lose his job. That hardly seems like the behavior of an institution founded on the premise of both truth and fairness would espouse.
I mean, imagine if you and I conspired to tell a similar lie. Imagine if we sought to intentionally give false testimony which led to the unjust conviction of an innocent person. In fact, it’s actually a crime called suborning false testimony or perjury, but it gets worse. After Olsen was fired for telling the truth., he sued the state for violating his first amendment rights. And even though the court agreed that they had indeed been violated, the same set of judges ruled he could not receive damages or back pay. Why? Because the law enforcement officers who ordered him to lie had qualified immunity. That’s right. The same people who conspired to have innocent people convicted of a crime can’t be held accountable, because of a legal precedent that shields government officials from the same laws that govern us. In fact, the court ruled that due to qualified immunity, law enforcement officers have free rein to violate the first amendment rights of their employees, regardless of circumstance. How’s that for Post’s constitutional case law.
The point is that when we watch videos of officers dragging people out of cars, or law enforcement officials ordering people to lie, we have to realize that the chain of causality that created a world where these acts are even possible started with a core concept that has not been fully acknowledged. The power to order someone out of a car who has not committed a crime, or convict someone of a serious offense was innocent, all starts with the underlying premise that law enforcement is more about enforcing arbitrary power than improving public safety.
What do I mean by arbitrary? When you think about it, the law, in conception, is supposed to be administered in a way that is both fair and consistent. That is the underlying principle that is supposed to differentiate constitutional policing from a more despotic and capricious system. But when you can bend or corrupt the process, and convict people who are innocent or arbitrarily order them around, then the law becomes a different tool. Suddenly it is truly tyrannical. It is arbitrary, indifferent to facts, and far better at terrorizing the public and diminishing the rights of those it’s supposed to protect. And that is why we see so many examples of arbitrary enforcement on our show. It is the fatal flaw, so to speak, in the system itself. I think it is the end result of a process that has become so insular, it only serves itself. A system of shadow governance that, due to lack of real oversight, grabbed power and absorbed constitutional rights into a web of self-serving laws that have created a state within a state.
And that state is not deep or hidden. It inflicts its arbitrary power in broad daylight. It’s overreach and abuse is captured in videos and cell phone cameras by auditors and cop watchers and citizens across the country. It is, put simply, the most brazen and obvious expression of the true anti-democratic impulses of the uber elite. The powers that be empowering cops to ensure that we won’t, or can’t, fight back. Well, at least here on this show, we certainly won’t stop reporting on and revealing what they do. And more importantly, why they do it.
I want to thank Mr. Perry Taylor for speaking with us today and sharing his experience. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. And of course I want to thank intrepid reporter Stephen Janis for his writing, research, and editing on this piece. Thank you, Stephen.
Stephen Janis: Taya, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: And of course I want to thank friend of the show Noli Dee for her support, thanks Nollie Dee. And a special thank you to our Patreons, we really appreciate you. And I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us and we might be able to investigate for you. Please reach out to us. You can email us privately at par@therealnews.com and share your evidence of police misconduct. You can also message us @policeaccountabilityreport on Facebook or Instagram, or @eyesonpolice on Twitter. And of course you can always message me directly @tayasbaltimore on Twitter or Facebook. And please like, and comment, you know I read your comments and appreciate them, and I try to answer your questions whenever I can. And we do have a Patreon link pinned in the comments below, so if you do feel inspired to donate, and you can, please do. We don’t run ads or take corporate dollars, so anything you can spare is greatly appreciated. My name is Taya Graham, and I am your host to the Police Accountability Report. Please, be safe out there.
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