DPS Authors Identity & Checkpoint Rule Without Public Input

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM...

AUSTIN - Within a matter of days the Department of Public Safety has begun to initate policy and new rules regarding the use and regulation of both driver's licenses and checkpoints without public input. DPS, a state agency has decided to administer and move forward this agenda independent of public input. You may look to evaluations, decisions and internal battles settled during the Sunset Commission's Evaluation earlier this Summer .

McClendon and several other lawmakers want the sunset commission staff to propose a separate agency combining the DPS driver license renewal services and vehicle safety inspections that now are under the Texas Department of Transportation.
Putting those duties under a separate agency would free DPS and TxDOT "to do what they do best," McClendon said.

She expects a new agency that keeps a state trooper's presence at driver license offices under a civilian administration and business model.


Texas requires legal status for IDs, licenses

© 2008 The Associated Press
Oct. 8, 2008, 5:54PM
AUSTIN — People who aren't U.S. citizens must now prove they are living legally in the country before receiving or renewing a Texas driver's license or identification card.Under the new administrative rule, the Department of Public Safety will require immigration documents that prove a person's lawful status.

Texas Becomes Roadblock Battleground
c/o TheNewspaper.com

Interest groups battle over roadblocks ahead of the 2009 Texas legislative session.

Interest groups are pressuring Texas lawmakers to authorize the use of roadblocks ahead of their return for the 2009 legislative session. The practice of setting up barricades on roads to stop and interrogate motorists suspected of no wrongdoing has been unlawful since a 1994 state appeals court decision ruled that a "politically accountable governing body at the state level" must first approve their use. Now Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has scheduled an October 23 deadline for briefs to decide the Texas Public Safety Commission's request to bypass this requirement and approve roadblocks on its own authority.

VIEW AG Abbot's Letter Here : http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2008/tx-roadblock.pdf

MEET - UP With the 5-11 Campaign for a Solution

You have just read shocking proof that our government wants our consent to make a checkpoint society part of our daily lives.

With incremental progress and voluntary consent from willing and/or unknowing citizens, they will have the level of policing required to dominate daily routines and freedom of movement we now take for granted.

The 5-11 Campaign is part of a "rapid response" coalition to give our answer that drivers license checkpoints could be interpreted as excessive force and a misappropriation of police and law enforcement resources.

THE CALL TO ACTION - Please Don't Wait

• We ask you to examine the attached document with full consideration of your response to initiating Texas into a checkpoint society. We ask you to oppose this system without fear of intimidation, retaliation or recognition for being a group or individual who does so.
• We ask you to document your opposition by issuing a letter representing your organization to the Attorney General's office & The Texas Department of Public Safety of your interpretation of the uses of these checkpoints.
• We ask that you activate and organize your grassroots petitioners after defining your position on this issue to demonstrate their opposition by October 23rd to the Attorney General. 
• Finally, we ask to be able to add your name with ours as comprehensive opposition to the use of checkpoints throughout the State of Texas we define at our meeting October 11, 2008 here in Austin. Even if you are unable to attend, we are still interested in adding your names and organizations to our coalition.  
  

RAPID RESPONSE COALITION MEETING

Sunday October 12th, 2008 3 PM; Brave New Books, 1904 Guadalupe Austin, TX

If you are interested in circulating a documented petition, we suggest that you take independent action with your groups and to please submit signatures to the Attorney General. We feel adding your name to our coalition is a very effective show of opposition on this issue.

For more information about documenting your public input or efforts to general assistance in organizing, please feel free to contact.


Sheila Dean
310-857-8257
beatthechip@gmail.com