Two weeks ago, right before I left for Colorado, I was stopped by a Columbia cop for having my right tail light out. One of the very few times I have driven my car in Columbia – I was just coming back from the gas station around the corner.
I checked the light last night, and it is fine. Apparently he needed to fill his quota, and was pulling random people over to try to dig up dirt on them. A flagrant abuse of power and a violation of the US Constitution.
I was similarly pulled over for having my handicapped placard hanging from my rear view mirror. I was one of very few cars obeying the speed limit.
I was going to ask why you didn’t check at the time. Then I realised we are talking about American police.
In America you do not move unless the cop tells you. Even when you are asked to show drivers license and vehicle registration, you tell the cop what you are going to do BEFORE you do it. And heaven help you if you have concealed carry and a gun in the glove box or in your purse. You might get shot just on general principles.
In So. California, you don’t need to be armed to get shot. They have their hands on their weapons when they walk up. If you accidentally revved the engine, or as you mentioned, reach for the glove box without explaining THAT is where your registration is.
One girl was shot for sleeping in her car with a pistol in her lap. They decided she was trying to commit suicide, so they solved that by killing her. It only took 20 shots or so….
Yep, don’t move an be real polite. Think about walking up on a strange car whom you’ve just stopped for whatever reason. It would make you cautious. If you get stopped by one just after a trooper has been killed in a road stop, there is a good chance you can check the cleanliness of the barrel of his service revolver at very close range.
Don’t be a boot-licker. Being a cop isn’t even in the top 15 most dangerous occupations.
If they’re so damned afraid of the job,they should leave it–not take out their fear in gratuitous citizen shootings.
I have been pulled over a number of times and every time I deserved it. Sometimes I got a ticket, sometimes a warning. But if I did, it was usually for less than the violation.
In America? perhaps it depends upon what part and maybe who you are, but just do not have and ATTITUDE ! I know people from perhaps 10 different countries (born there and moved here) and they all say very much the same thing.
When they first got here, they used to simply stand and drink in the freedom.
Is it not the general agreement among us here that, that is what we are fighting to remain the same, because some of it is gradually being eroded.
I DO NOT want to be a part of a one world order— A goal, I think. of the CAGW mongers.
“perhaps it depends upon what part”
Agreed. Law enforcement in my county is radically different than up in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Actually (Steven),
I keep a Torx bit screwdriver and spare bulbs in my trunk for just such an occasion. Spare bulbs cost about $2 at the local autoparts store and the extra screwdriver bits are disposable Chinese crap from the same place. I have a Jeep like yours (I think…), and just keep it in the back under the seat with the jack.
The one time I got pulled for that, I demanded he use the floodlights to illuminate the back of the car and leave his blinkys on. Safety first, you know. Took my well-practiced hands almost 5 minutes of working REEEE-ally slowly. I couldn’t fake going any slower.
I thanked him profusely for the safety alert, saccharine dripping from my tongue. He never saw my concealed radar detector.
It only takes one cop committing perjury in traffic court for someone to not trust the whole profession. I don’t trust any of them.
I keep a tape recorder in the car and record every time a cop pulls me over. I used it once to bust a cop lying in court. I came to two yellow lights in a row close together, and ran them, but as I was going through the second one it turned red as I was under it. Cop pulls me over and I said the lights were yellow. She said “The first one was but the second one definitely wasn’t” and then wrote me a ticket for TWO red lights. I plead not guilty and told the judge I recorded everything, mainly the cop’s words “The first one was but…” The district attorney asked the cop if she ever said that, and she lied. That’s when I produced the tape recorder. The judge didn’t make me play it in court, but accepted my plea of not guilty for one light and guilty for the other, and fined me for one red light, not two. They did nothing to the cop.
Keep a tape recorder in your car.
Be very careful with that advise. There are States where all parties present must give consent to be recorded otherwise you are breaking the law. Florida is one and Missouri was back in the late 70’s early 80’s when I was a cop there. Not that it makes any difference today. It’s far too often I see headlines of police officers seizing video cameras or phones and arresting people for legally recording them in public places. With today’s top notch training I would not be surprised to see officers shooting people with video cameras or phones because they thought it was a weapon. Far too much “shoot first, ask later” cr*p going on today.
It’s a good idea, but be very, very careful and know your State’s laws on consent, and no matter what else you do, do not let the officer know he/she is being recorded… that could be very, very bad.
(It is so sad that I have just written that in the United States of America.)
Yes it is very sad and it makes things so much worse for the good cops.
I served on a county grand jury a while back. At that time we had about 1/3 of the cops testilying to “help” their cases. We also had a retired deputy sheriff who pointed-out the many inconsistencies in disgust when the prosecutors were out of the room.
When we asked about charging the cop who blatantly lied about having a license plate scanner installed in his patrol car, (one jury member was aware that every patrol car was so equipped courtesy of DHS) the prosecutor informed us that hypothetically the prosecutors office might not have the resources to pursue the matter in a timely fashion, and under the state speedy trials laws, such an indictment is voided if no trail is started within 270 days…. And you know the cop won’t waive the time limits….. That experience left me disgusted with the fee farming aka justice system.
Speaking of tax farming, the “road Privateers” in DC are doing quite well. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/withering-inspector-general-report-criticizes-dc-parking-and-traffic-ticketing/2014/09/08/da6ae324-3781-11e4-8601-97ba88884ffd_story.html?wprss=rss_traffic
Cops are now just road-side tax collectors.
That is for sure. Our government has turned into ‘Licensed Pirates and Thieves’
And it is not just the cops who see citizens as cash cows.
The only ray of hope is when the glaring light of publicity was show on these examples modifications were made.
I don’t know about that. The cities and counties are getting desperate for revenue.
Now in the private sector, when revenues are down, expenses are cut and layoffs resorted to.
In the public sector, they just start looking for more reasons to take your money to fund themselves. After all, you can’t cut government payroll or expenses. That’s unheard-of. Thus traffic enforcement is a priority and property crime is not.
At least until things blow-up in their faces: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/22/ferguson-s-shameful-legal-shakedown-three-warrants-a-year-per-household.html
I wonder if Ferguson will get a bail-out due to the disruption of the city’s 2nd biggest revenue generator? (their municipal court fines and fees)
If you drive an Audi, the cop cannot lie as your car’s computer tells you when a bulb has burned out and which one it is.
It would be interesting to see if that cop could be caught out on this caper.
Same with Mini Cooper
Possibly another explanation for these stops: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/american-shakedown-police-won-t-charge-you-but-they-ll-grab-your-money-1.2760736
I’ve beaten two tickets by going back later with a camera and photographing the area. If the ticket is for illegal turn or speeding or something regulated by a control sign. It has happened more than once that there was no sign. (One was buried in a stand of 12 ft vegetation).
In one of these cases, the cop came to the courtroom and went berserk yelling at the judge and was nearly held in contempt. He was a freak when he came to my driver’s window too. He yelled out during my testimony that IF I had pulled out where I claimed, I must have crossed some solid yellow lines, and this was also worthy of citation. The judge briefly looked at me and said: “He’s got a point”. To which I replied: “I did cross those lines, but your honor, he didn’t cite me for that. He cited me for failure to obey traffic control sign”, as I held up the ticket.
The judge clearly respected that I was procedurally correct, and dismissed the case, and the cop went berserk. They’re psycho in So Cal.
One time on my way to visit a friend in Washington DC I was driving the Beltway I 495 at 2:30 am. There were exactly 7 cars on the road including myself. I was carefully driving 56 mph because the police are unforgiving on that road and the speed limit is 55. After about a minute of driving with all seven cars spread over the 5 lanes not moving much in their relationship three of the cars lit up their lights and pulled over the other three cars. If there had been one more police car I would have been ticketed for going 56 mph at 2:30 am with almost no traffic.
Question: One of these things is not like the others.
Sasquatch
Loch Ness Monster
Officer Friendly
Admit it. The question is harder than you expected, isn’t it?
Sasquatch
Gee, I’m thinking… Wasn’t that the name of the guide for Lewis and Clark?
🙂
Governments are instituted among Men to secure the blessings of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Governments get bored with that, and become businesses.
The present government is NOT a business it is a Kleptocracy.
In 1975, Reagan said: “…there are 151 taxes now in the price of a loaf of bread — it accounts for more than half the cost of a loaf of bread…. . Now an egg isn’t far behind and nobody had to make that. There’s a hundred taxes in an egg by the time it gets to market and you know the chicken didn’t put them there!…”
So you can figure that even those who pay no federal tax are still paying ~ 50% tax on their earnings.
Way back in the 1980’s I figured out as best I could the taxes I paid that I could actually Identify. That was 64.5% of a typical middle class income. So I get to ‘keep’ 35.5% of what I earn but out of that I pay another 50% in taxes when I buy anything. So that is another 10% to 17%. At that point I am paying between 75% to 80% in taxes.
Heck Serfs were allowed to keep 60% of what they produced, we aren’t even that lucky!
I had the opportunity to drive through Metro-DC/NOVA Tuesday and Wednesday on my fun-filled trip to PA Tuesday and Wednesday. US 17 was a much more pleasant drive. I go to Maryland\DC area only when forced.
I can’t remember where I saw this humourous play on words describing Mann’s particular sociopathic syndrome but it so good it bears repeating. It is called “Mannchausen by Proxy”.
+1
Last year I got a speeding ticket on a County road I assumed the speed limit was 55 mph. I was on cruse control at 60 and was pulled over. Ticket was for doing 68 mph with posted speed limit of 50 mph. I had missed seeing the sign.
What was I to do? If I admitted I was going 60 mph on cruse I would be admitting to have been speeding. The cop was lying but I had no way to prove it.
Later I learned that the area was known for being ticket happy as a means of increasing revenue. Out of towners, such as me, are skinned as we meekly cough up the dough. The cops were known also to bump up the reported speed.
Dan Kurt
I drive a diesel, not know for it’s speed. I had been ticketed a few days before so I was keeping my speed at 53 in a 55 mph on a speedometer that is off by 15% (53 = actual 45 mph) I got ticked for doing 68 in that 55 mph zone while other cars were whizzing by me… GRRRrrrrr.
I think I was just slow enough that I was easy to catch and of course I am a little old lady and therefore probably not the hazard to live and limb that Big Bubba represents.
Some years back, my son was ticketed by a lying cop. The cop actually told him, “I didn’t catch a couple of your friends earlier today, but I can give YOU a ticket!” My son got a lawyer and went before a judge. The cop lied under oath and the judge said “guilty!” The end…
Here is another newspaper clipping for Steve on the infamous Ludowici, Georgia
Not so long ago armed highwaymen were caught and hanged by the decent citizens. Now they rob for a very corrupt government. Their very existance violates the US Constitution.