Arkansas State Police: On August 5, 2026, around 7 p.m. on Interstate 555 near...

Editor's note: ...Trumann, Arkansas, an Arkansas State Police trooper made the indefensible decision to execute a high-speed PIT/Tactical Vehicle Intervention on a fleeing Hyundai Sonata traveling approximately 130 mph, deliberately ramming the suspect vehicle in a manner that sent it careening into a black SUV occupied by a 68-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man, innocent motorists simply driving the highway. The resulting violent collision flipped their vehicle multiple times, trapping the elderly couple inside with serious injuries that required extrication and transport to a Memphis trauma center, all because a trooper chose to initiate a controlled crash at speeds most agencies treat as inherently lethal and far beyond any defensible threshold for public safety. This was not policing; it was a reckless, foreseeable endangerment of bystanders that turned a traffic stop into catastrophic harm for two senior citizens who had nothing to do with the pursuit. The Arkansas State Police's continued embrace of such high-speed ramming tactics, despite repeated civilian injuries and deaths, will no longer be tolerated. Accountability for the trooper, rigorous policy overhaul, full civil liability for the agency, and a massive lawsuit by this elderly couple against the state are the minimum response required when officers prioritize ending pursuits over protecting the very public they are sworn to serve.

The Arkansas State Police's reliance on high-speed PIT maneuvers increasingly resembles the heavy-handed tactics of the old trust-busters: an institution willing to swing a blunt instrument of force in the name of order, even when the collateral damage falls on ordinary citizens who had nothing to do with the original offense. This incident on I-555, of Arkansas State Police Trooper Logan Hall's decision to ram a fleeing vehicle traveling roughly 130mph sent that car into an elderly couple's SUV, flipping it and leaving two senior drivers with serious injuries, is like a strike breaker smashing heads with a blackjack. Rather than treating extreme-speed vehicle intervention as a last-resort measure with clear public-safety limits, the Arkansas agency continues to treat the ending of these types of pursuits as the overriding priority. The result is a pattern that looks less like professional policing and more like institutional force applied without sufficient regard for bystanders, eroding public trust in the very agency charged with protecting the roads.

Arkansas State Police PITs vehicle at 130 MPH; seriously injuring elderly couple

Terrible decision on the officer's part

This cop should got to jail for reckless driving, and the couple in the SUV should sue the shit out of the officer and the department. pic.twitter.com/ZabAiHW4f8

— Devin Nunes' Cattle Dog 🇺🇦 🇪🇺🇺🇸🇨🇦 🇦🇺 (@Kaos_Vs_Control) August 15, 2026

Should these PIT maneuvers be considered attempted state murder? Potentially extrajudicial killings if the fleeing occupant is killed during one of these PIT maneuvers?

Most Americans unfortunately picture state troopers as neutral highway guardians in campaign hats (intended to project authority and very military in style) whose main job is issuing speeding tickets and assisting stranded drivers. The actual history is more complicated and less benign. Pennsylvania created the first modern state police force in 1905 after the violent anthracite coal strike, when state leaders decided local sheriffs and private industrial police could not be trusted to control labor unrest. The new force was deliberately modeled on military and colonial constabulary structures, staffed heavily with veterans, and organized with ranks, troops, and drill (see The Governor's Hounds: The Texas State Police, 1870–1873). Similar agencies followed in other states, often facing sharp opposition from workers who saw them as strikebreakers and from local officials protective of their own authority.

The rise of automobiles in the 1920s and 1930s shifted many of these forces toward highway patrol, which is the image that has stuck in the public mind. Yet the underlying military culture never disappeared. Decades later the war on drugs, federal surplus military equipment programs, and post 9/11 security funding accelerated the adoption of tactical gear, specialized units, and aggressive intervention tactics such as high speed PIT maneuvers. What began as a tool for imposing statewide order during industrial conflict evolved into agencies that in some states now treat the rapid and forceful ending of pursuits as a core priority, even when that approach creates serious risks for bystanders. The friendly highway helper image is largely a mid twentieth century overlay on institutions that were paramilitary in design from the beginning and have grown more so over time:

How America's Wars in Asia Militarized the Police at Home

Watch this clip. It is like watching a clip of the US military in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003: