so i am driving home the other night and it is storming and there are some really beautiful clouds on the horizon...so i pull over on the side of the highway and take a 15 second exposure and capture a nice little shot of a radio tower and some culumous clouds and some stars and some trees.
so, i get back in my car, turn off my hazzards (it is 11:00 at night btw), and i check the traffic before i merge back onto the highway.
as i am pulling back on, i see a police car passing on the opposite side of the median and i notice that he turns around at his next opportunity.
he is obviously going to check me out so i take the next left and then signal to turn into a church parking lot so that i can explain to the police for the umpteenth time that i am shooting pictures of things that interest me and while i am slowing down i even manage to pull the picture that i have just taken onto the screen so that i can show him what i am doing so that i can more easilly explain why.
he approaches the car with his gun unlocked and his hand ready to draw and then makes a point of scanning the entire interior of the car with his flashlight before he finally comes around to talk to me. the whole time i had my hand out the window holding my DL and registration btw.
so i ask him if he pulled me over for pulling off of the side of the road and he says yes and i ask him if that was illegal and he says no, but that it was suspiscious...probably because it was in the middle of nowhere and there are lots of crimes that go on on the roadside...but more probably because he had nothing else to occupy his time...this is not exactly crime central here.
anywho.
he then states that the reason that he really pulled me over was because my taillights were too dim and asks me to park my vehicle in the parking lot because it is unsafe to drive.
of course, i was befuddled, but i played it cool and told him that i was very close to home and gave him my address and asked if it would be okay if i went straight home and looked at the tail lights in the morning when i would be able to get them fixed. (or call the precinct....which i didnt add of course)
he said yes, but that if he saw my car out on the road again that he had my license number and that he would come after me.
a bit much, a bit extreme, but i want to go home and shower and i know that if i elevate the situation it will just get worse, so i say okay and i drive off towards home.
i get home, ask mrs. to come out and look at the tail lights. she says that they look perfectly bright and normal...and then i compare them to her taillights and they are about the same.
so i call the station and i ask them to send an officer over...i specifically asked them not to send the same officer, to check my lights and verify that they were fine so that i could go out and do some more work. (i have been shooting night shots lately..though unsuccesfully)
so guess what.
he shows up.
so i show him my lights and he claims that they werent that bright before. (bull puckey) and that he was only acting in my best interests and trying to keep me safe from the drunk drivers and the bad people who operate at night.
and then he says something that tripped my wire.
"we'd prefer if you werent out at night if you didnt have to be."
to which i replied.
"im sorry, but that is none of your damn business and as long as i am not breaking any laws, i will be happy to enjoy my rights to go out as i please...need to or not."
and he says "well, i am just thinking about your safety...this is the time of night when crimes happen."
so i asked.
"would it be a crime for me to drive with my tail lights in their current state?"
no.
me - "so it wont be a problem if i drive now?"
officer - "no, but you better have the right insurance and registration."
me - okay thanks. goodnight.
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let it go or start making a stink from hell?
