Troopers detained a Black man. He exposed their unconstitutional conduct.
By Tobi Raji
Joshua Bosire was driving home along Interstate 70 in Kansas on a cold February night in 2019 when he was pulled over by Highway Patrol for speeding. The 35-year-old aviation engineer was returning from Denver after celebrating his daughter’s birthday.
Kansas trooper Brandon McMillan pulled Bosire over for driving seven miles per hour over the speed limit, according to court documents. The trooper did not issue a speeding ticket, but he suspected Bosire, who is Black, was trafficking drugs from Colorado, where marijuana is legal, to Kansas, where it is not.
What happened next is an example of a policing practice known as the Kansas “two step,” a tactic that a judge ruled unconstitutional this week because routine traffic stops were being used to detain motorists whom troopers suspected of transporting drugs.
The Kansas trooper returned to his vehicle, called for backup and struck up a new conversation with Bosire in an attempt to prolong the traffic stop, according to court documents. When McMillan eventually asked whether he could search Bosire’s vehicle, Bosire declined. The trooper then called in a K-9 unit.
Highway patrol didn’t find any evidence of drugs, and Bosire was released after being detained for nearly an hour.
But Bosire, who said in court documents that McMillan racially profiled him that night, now lives in fear of law enforcement. He said the encounter destroyed his trust in the police.
“I sleep with a gun next to my bed. I drive with cameras recording,” he said. “I don’t travel at night, because I am scared of what law enforcement people can do to me.”
Bosire is one of five motorists — detained by state troopers between 2017 and 2019 — to argue that the Kansas Highway Patrol violated their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
On Friday, a federal judge agreed.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil ruled Friday that the practice of detaining motorists with out-of-state license plates on I-70, particularly those from Colorado and Missouri, to search for drugs is unconstitutional and a violation of a 10th Circuit ruling that prohibits state troopers from detaining motorists based on their out-of-state residency, travel origin or destination.
In her 79-page opinion, Vratil wrote that the police unit waged a “war on motorists” in the “name of drug interdiction.”
“As wars go, this one is relatively easy; it’s simple and cheap, and for motorists, it’s not a fair fight,” said Vratil, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush. “The war is basically a question of numbers: Stop enough cars and you’re bound to discover drugs. And what’s the harm if a few constitutional rights are trampled along the way?”
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/22/kansas-highway-patrol-drivers-lawsuit/
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