Cops persecuting innocent boys [was: Cities Turning to Bicycles]

Nate Nagel wrote:


There have been times where I felt like an officer really *was* out to
get me. Like being followed for 50 miles through GA at 3AM (with PA
plates of course.) Or being pulled over for a "brake light out" that
miraculously tested fine when I got to work (that one sucked, officer
wrote me a fix it ticket not only for the brake light - which I "fixed"
by doing nothing - but also a crack in my windshield which had just
appeared the week before. Over $400 and a trip to the police station
later for inspection, and I was "legal" again... I meant to fix the
windshield anyway, but the crack was underneath the wipers when they
were parked, so it wasn't a safety issue, and I really didn't have the
$400 at the time... but I digress...)

Poor boy! Admittedly, you seem to have had some bad luck. The cop that
gave me an off-the-record warning for that motorcycle taillight was
quite friendly.

But perhaps my attitude was better, too. Hard to say.


I imagine it's probably due to
my tendency to buy "interesting" cars which often end up having an aura
of boy-racer about them - even though I don't drive in that manner on
public roads - and also a mild beater appearance, as I really don't care
about much other than the mechanicals, unless we're talking about one of
my "toy" cars.

The tiny village paper here (not the large metro one) prints the village
and township police reports each week. They're interesting. Time after
time, cops stop people for lights not working, or cracked windshields,
or missing plates, etc, and they find open containers, big bags of
marijuana, unlicensed guns, people driving under suspension while drunk,
stolen property and the like.

I talked to one of my friends who's a township cop. I said "I don't
understand. If I _were_ going to be dealing drugs, I'd be sure my
vehicle was completely legal and didn't attract attention."

He said "These people aren't Einsteins, Frank."


The worst incident was the kid in the booming new Trans Am, a real
window-rattler. He got pulled over in the village center for the loud
stereo, and while the cop was at the driver's window, he started to
reach under the seat. The cop grabbed his arm, and the kid floored the
car, dragging the cop. The cop hung on literally for dear life, somehow
got his service revolver out and managed to shoot the guy dead before he
rammed the cop into a wall.

They found pounds of marijuana and a fair amount of cocaine in the car,
a bag with hundreds (or thousands?) in cash, and a gun under the seat.

Of course, the parents sued, saying (among other things) that the
traffic stop was unjustified, that the police planted the drugs, etc.

Meanwhile, I talked to people who actually knew the kid. He'd been
dealing drugs for years. But his parents were sure that he paid for the
fancy car, expensive stereo, leather jacket, etc. by the money he earned
loading trucks part-time.

"These people aren't Einsteins, Frank."

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

In article , Frank Krygowski wrote:

I talked to one of my friends who's a township cop. I said "I don't
understand. If I _were_ going to be dealing drugs, I'd be sure my
vehicle was completely legal and didn't attract attention."

Driving perfectly legally at 2am is a great way to draw attention around
here. Especially when going 5-10mph UNDER the speed limit.

"These people aren't Einsteins, Frank."

Some of them are, admittedly not the ones who are looking at a
miserable future.

But sometimes crime pays.

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________
------------------"Buddy Holly, the Texas Elvis"------------------
in.edu__________

In article ,
"Eric S. Sande" writes:
"These people aren't Einsteins, Frank."

Some of them are, admittedly not the ones who are looking at a
miserable future.

But sometimes crime pays.

It's been my experience that for every payoff there's an equal
but opposite trade-off.

/Nothing/ pays. We all just get by, and endure, and enjoy,
and suffer, the same as everybody else.

Sometimes the opposite of crime pays, too. But in the end,
we all get it in the end -- criminal, do-gooder, or anything
in-between.

We mortals just can't win.


But we can cheat a little.



cheers,
Tom



--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Frank Krygowski wrote:

Nate Nagel wrote:


There have been times where I felt like an officer really *was* out to
get me. Like being followed for 50 miles through GA at 3AM (with PA
plates of course.) Or being pulled over for a "brake light out" that
miraculously tested fine when I got to work (that one sucked, officer
wrote me a fix it ticket not only for the brake light - which I
"fixed" by doing nothing - but also a crack in my windshield which had
just appeared the week before. Over $400 and a trip to the police
station later for inspection, and I was "legal" again... I meant to
fix the windshield anyway, but the crack was underneath the wipers
when they were parked, so it wasn't a safety issue, and I really
didn't have the $400 at the time... but I digress...)


Poor boy! Admittedly, you seem to have had some bad luck. The cop that
gave me an off-the-record warning for that motorcycle taillight was
quite friendly.

But perhaps my attitude was better, too. Hard to say.

I seriously doubt it from the tone of your posts.

nate

--
replace "fly" with "com" to reply.
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

"Frank Krygowski" wrote in message
...
Poor boy! Admittedly, you seem to have had some bad luck. The cop that
gave me an off-the-record warning for that motorcycle taillight was
quite friendly.
The one time that I got a ticket in town, the cop wrote me up
for less than what I was doing. He was more interested in
getting a look at my car before he had to get back to
patrolling. It was only a few months old at the time and
he was interested in how I liked it. His only real comment
was to be careful because I sure wouldn't want to cause
any damage to it.

(Tom Keats) wrote in message ...
It's been my experience that for every payoff there's an equal
but opposite trade-off.
/Nothing/ pays. We all just get by, and endure, and enjoy,
and suffer, the same as everybody else.
Sometimes the opposite of crime pays, too. But in the end,
we all get it in the end -- criminal, do-gooder, or anything
in-between.
We mortals just can't win.
But we can cheat a little.
cheers,
Tom

I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is
immortal, not because he alone among the creatures has an
inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of
kindness and compassion.
William Falconer