Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: JB88 on September 23, 2007, 02:50:25 AM
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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?
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Wait til he is off duty and punch him in a place other then teh invicible cheekbone. Some cops are cool(the ones on my route and who live in my route, and Hamburgs Polizei) for the most part most (all the rest)are arses. I always thought if you werent resisting and were totally cooperative you could end the situation without bruises heck I was wrong. I was out an hour later mainly because I did nothing and the evidence overwhelmingly said so.
Curly Bill Brocious had the right idea in Tombstone.
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Blow it off.
The cop didn't "do" anything worth rasing a stink about.
He was just being an idiot.
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that he was lute.
and a huge part of me agrees.
except for the part where he tried to make me abandon my vehicle for bogus reasons.
i am really really really not okay with that kind of mentality....
know what i mean?
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p.s. - i was perfectly sober. not a drop of intoxicant in me.
lucid as i get.
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The guy probably makes $15 an hour and feels he's the king of that stretch of road.
He's an idiot. He knows it and so do you. Just ignore the guy :)
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oh dont drive a POS car like anything that burns rice or was built by teh UAW. Drive an Audi,BMW,Mercedes,or VW
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Originally posted by LePaul
The guy probably makes $15 an hour and feels he's the king of that stretch of road.
He's an idiot. He knows it and so do you. Just ignore the guy :)
until he throws me in jail for something stupid right?
:confused:
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Originally posted by JB88
until he throws me in jail for something stupid right?
:confused:
he patrols the area where i live.
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egg his house?
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lolz.
need i repeat the previous request?
...dweeb.
:rolleyes:
:D
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perhaps this is why my ex has an [homersimpsonfairyvoice]restraining [/homersimpsonfairyvoice] order against me. Cause I have such a devious mind? You should try it quite refreshing
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skuzzy, can i have a restraining order against pooh?
:confused:
(crosses fingers...hope hope hope...wish wish wish)
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Originally posted by Pooh21
oh dont drive a POS car like anything that burns rice or was built by teh UAW. Drive an Audi,BMW,Mercedes,or VW
Skuzzy see above this is all brought on by teh UAW, The letter R, and Chinese lead based paint
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Originally posted by JB88
skuzzy, can i have a restraining order against pooh?
:confused:
(crosses fingers...hope hope hope...wish wish wish)
This needs to go in the "Wishlist Forum" if you want Skuzzy to grant it :lol :D
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Could you push it? Yeah, you could. But, why would you want to wind up on the P.O.P. list?
You made him backpedal when you started disecting his traffic stop. Cops don't like this, so he fabricated the "faulty" taillights to put you back on defense. To follow-up on this would only make him remember you fondly.
You say the guy patrols your area. Do you really want him as your "special friend" everytime he sees you on the road? I think if you let it go the next time he sees you he will think "hmm, camera guy... he's no problem" and go about his business. That's a much more preferable reaction than "hmm, smartass camera guy... let's see what he's up to".
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ya. i can see what you mean there. but i can also see where i would'nt want him to think that it would'nt get real painful to start pushing the locals around that way.
that said...i am going to let this one ride. i have already told the right people about it and the word will probably shoot around pretty quick to be on the lookout for that kind of behavior.
i'll probably leave it at that.
but next time. next time he will wish he never did that. to to the top of the top. hard.
ahhhhh. i feel better now.
thanks.
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It's what I do.
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"I had the camera within 3 feet of his ugly mug, and snapping the shot would be SO SATISFYING, but then my conscience kicked in. Hmmmm...I pondered, this might cause some problems getting into the secret camera society, I mean what if the picture got out?
Luckily, the rogue cop was mesmerized by my tail lights right at that exact moment and didn't see the camera. I quickly returned the camera to my butt crack, but was ready to whip it out and snap a pic in a heartbeat if need be."
Yep, all kidding aside, I think you did the right thing.
RTR
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LOL RTR!
88,
At this point I'd stay away from him, yet document EVERYTHING! Also tell people around you what's going on in case you need a witness. If you go out again keep a pocket digital camera ready and set to movie mode. Turn it on if you are ever pulled over.
"we'd prefer if you werent out at night if you didnt have to be."
is serious nut talk!
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Originally posted by eskimo2
LOL RTR!
88,
At this point I'd stay away from him, yet document EVERYTHING! Also tell people around you what's going on in case you need a witness. If you go out again keep a pocket digital camera ready and set to movie mode. Turn it on if you are ever pulled over.
"we'd prefer if you werent out at night if you didnt have to be."
is serious nut talk!
it really is nuts isn't it.
i should have done it right then, but i didnt...i won't make that mistake again though. i'm pretty much over the walton county boys.
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i called the county dispatch and made inquiries into the time and officers name. i also asked if they had a recording of me asking specifically to have another officer respond to the incident due to my disputation of the charges. (which they did not do...they sent the same officer...which left me in a position to have to deal with the compaintant officer again.
appearantly they do have a recording of it, so i have that.
i explained that i was simply asking for the record so that if it happened again i would have a reference point.
what i was really doing was saying...look, i am not going to make a stink, but i can. it's a small town...my guess is that someone will mention something to him one way or another and he'll get the benefit of having it off record this time.
maybe not the right thing to do...pushed too far even. but i am just not okay with this on any level whatsoever. not at all.
that guy shouldnt be an officer of the law.
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A letter outlining the situation to his department will likely be enough. My Dad used to get letters sent to his deparment occasionally and each time no matter how stupid the letter was, he got counseled and the letter ended up in his record with documentation on any action taken.
He never got busted because the letters were generally stupid, but even though he always tried to be a "good" cop he did learn a few things from some of the letters.
For example, on one stop the driver was arguing over the ticket and my Dad could see that the guy's kids in the back were getting a bit anxious. So when my Dad finished all the paperwork and was walking back to his cruiser, he waved and smiled at the kids to try to leave them with a last impression of a smiling cop, not an argument. Well, the guy wrote a letter of complaint saying my Dad had flipped off his kids. It was stupid, but my Dad got counseled on the "incident" anyhow.
My point is that a letter stating the facts and then a calm opinion that the cop's duty is to protect and serve, not enforce some imaginary curfew, would probably serve your purpose just fine. If you get harassed later on, you'll also have the letter handy to send to the mayor or your congresscritter.
As long as you keep it polite and not too accusatory, the officer won't get too crapped on but he *should* get a course correction from his supervisor.