Скачать или смотреть Illegal Detainment by Santa Cruz Police Department on August 9, 2025

This is a video about an illegal traffic stop that was conducted by Santa Cruz Police Department ("SCPD") at approximately 2:20 - 2:30AM on Saturday, August 9, 2025. I was traveling to the intersection of Lighthouse and Bay in Santa Cruz, CA, and, en route, was pulled over by a SCPD officer. I pulled over on a street which I believe to be Center St., heading Southbound. The officer informed me that the reason he had pulled me over was because I was missing my front license plate. In reality, this was a bold-faced LIE. But at the time, I didn't know that, because I believed the police officer. It wasn't until I actually parked my car after being illegally detained against my will for the unlawful traffic stop did I actually check the front and found that indeed there was a front plate and a back plate on my vehicle, indicating the assertion that the officer made to me was false, and that the officer had lied in order to initiate the traffic stop. In reality, the officer had assumed that, because it was after 2AM on a Saturday, that I was a drunk driver. Unfortunately, I do not drink alcohol at all, and haven't done so since quitting it in January 2020. The officer then conducted an illegal field sobriety test known as the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, which I passed. Once the officer realized that there were absolutely no indicators of impairment and that in reality I was actually preparing to run a 20 mile run from the Santa Cruz pier, past the Capitola pier, to New Brighton State Beach, he told me I was free to go. The officer never asked me for my registration or proof of insurance. He also never issued me a citation or "fix-it ticket" because he knew that there was nothing wrong with my vehicle.

What I needed to do was establish that the plate had actually been on my vehicle the entire time. So, I recorded a video at 2:50AM, or about 20 minutes after the stop. Then, after recording it, I ran to Gazebo Point, which is at New Brighton State Beach. All of this was recorded on my Strava app. To provide visual evidence that it was actually me running, I made a stop to the Capitola Police Station and I waved to the security camera at exactly 4:00AM. Then I took a picture at Gazebo Point, and I ran back to the parked car at the intersection of Lighthouse and Bay. By the time I reached the car, it was about 6:10AM and now light outside. Because the video I recorded was at night, the only time I could have recorded it was at 2:50 in the morning, because after that, I had an alibi - the Stava map track and the Capitola Police Station security camera footage. I drove home, which is about a half hour drive, and I immediately posted the video to YouTube as an "unlisted" video. This is so that I could get a time stamp of 8/9/25 and I submitted a complaint to the Santa Cruz Police's Internal Affairs department, along with separate complaints to the Department of Justice and the FBI, citing corruption of the Santa Cruz County Police Department, as I have significant doubts about the integrity of the Santa Cruz County Police Department and no faith that they will perform an unbiased and thorough investigation.

At this time I would hope that the SCPD's Internal Affairs division will conduct their investigation in an appropriate manner and will find that the officers, who acted in collusion, should be dismissed from the force. Should the Sheriff wish to make amends with me regarding this incident, that individual will need to actually meet with me in person and look me right in my eyes like a human being.

My name is Joey Young, from Boulder Creek, California, I shop at the Wild Roots Market, and I am a United States Citizen and resident in the County of Santa Cruz, which is in the State of California. I swear that I will not be bullied or intimidated by law enforcement or other corrupt individuals in government under pain of death. I am not afraid of the Santa Cruz Police Department, and I am not afraid of retaliation they may initiate against me for the exercise of my first amendment right of freedom of speech, which is a right I am afforded under the United States Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. I will stand my ground and I will not be bullied.

Joey Young