Friendly police encounter

On Mon, 24 May 2004 22:37:15 -0400, "Eric S. Sande"
wrote:

Was it raining? Where do you live that you have such problems with
bugs?

You've got to see Brood X (as in ten) cicadas, those guys are everywhere
where I live (not so far from Badger).

The swarms of gnats are so dense (and un-seeable depending on the light)
that if you ride through them at 17mph, it's like getting shot with
BBs...ok, soft BBs.

You're not far from me? I'm in Central Va. You? THought it was Texas?

Literally billions of them. They aren't harmful but there sure are a
lot of them.

And they keep on coming.

Yeah boy! The other day, I had all sorts of critters bouncing off of me.
The lightweight balaclava might seem strange in the summer, but when I get
home, I'm not combing a menagerie out of my hair. I soak the balaclava in
cold water just as I put it on and then can dump water on it with the water
bottle. So if anything it's very cooling!

I'm thinking more and more - 'you don't like what I wear? How dare they
judge me by pedestrian standards!'

-B
Mebbe I just need to cover the back of my jacket and helmet with these:
http://www.animationgrove.co.uk/cards/pc1/loveya1.gif That way -I- wouldn't
be annoyed, b/c I wouldn't see them! ;-p

You're not far from me? I'm in Central Va. You? THought it was Texas?

DC. We're in the middle of a cicada invasion.

Have a look at this, you may be safely out of the affected areas.

http://www.msj.edu/cicada/

Very many bugs, very interesting bicycling. They weigh about eight
pounds apiece and are apparently unguided when it comes to any other
moving object.

--

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

Badger_South

wrote in part:

As a LEO yourself, Bob, are officers directed or permitted to stop a biker
just rolling in the parking lot, and then pat him down when he's
co-operating, even if they have no law broken, even in the complaint, if
any, or look of the rider?

---snip---

It's always a judgement call. The standard is in light of the facts/allegations
at hand as viewed through the officer's eyes is it "reasonable to suspect" that
the individual may be armed? IIRC the fact summary in this instance there was
very likely a citizen complainant, the woman that was so upset by the OP's
speaking to her. Reconstructing what she *may* have said to the officer(s)
doesn't take too much imagination. "He appeared out of nowhere and SHOUTED
something at me! He was wearing a mask and I was terrified!" (We may call them
balaclavas in this NG but most people refer to them as masks.) Considering all
that and the fact that the OP's garb sounded capable of hiding a weapon, yes I
almost certainly would have patted him down.

Should I carry ID? - the park is nearly in my back
yard, I ride off my property directly onto it?

---snip---

I never leave home without ID. The one form of ID I always have is a silver ID
bracelet with my name, department name, and badge number engraved on it. I call
it my, "Hey, look. We found body parts" ID.

What if I had not
pulled over, but had gone back into the woods on the lower trail? Would I
have had officers running to try and intercept me?

Flight equals guilt and no matter how much fun it may seem to be to imagine
leading the police on a merry chase and cleverly evading them on your trusty
bike, imagine instead how embarrassing it would be to be caught by a cop on
foot. ;-)

Regards,
Bob Hunt

On Mon, 24 May 2004 14:56:53 -0400 in rec.bicycles.misc, "Roger
Zoul" wrote:

Also, I firmly believe that most police officers
DO NOT want to go looking for trouble because there is very low payoff in
that.

the ones that do are usually newbies on the force, or bigots that
just can't avoid hassling any minority persons that get anywhere
near them. these days, many police forces do a good job of
weeding out the bigots, but not the ambitious kids who want a lot
of busts on their record, not realizing that it's not the number
arrested, but reducing or preventing crimes that counts the most.

On 25 May 2004 03:39:37 GMT in rec.bicycles.misc,
(Hunrobe) wrote:

Flight equals guilt

what bull****! many minority people have experienced enough
gratuitous brutality on the part of police that it's not at all
surprising that they may flee an approaching officer or police
car. even those that have nothing to hide and are here legally
may have experienced police brutality in their home country and
may be rightfully wary of *any* authority.

i get along very well with *most* members of my local force, in
part because it's part of my job: i manage close to 500 rental
units, including 3 mobile home parks. i have no problems with
any of them when out riding, since all but the newest patrolmen
know and recognize me. it does help that there's a 90+ mile
ferry ride to the nearest part of the continental road system.

and especially in relation to kids, flight does *not* equal
guilt. to them, it may be just a game.

Badger_South wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 24 May 2004 09:30:21 -0400, "David L. Johnson"
wrote:

On Mon, 24 May 2004 00:29:28 +0000, El Calaverada wrote:

You must be a pretty mild mannered guy to take that incident so lightly, and
that's cool. But, you said the cops actually patted you down? That's not
cool. That's harsh! I'd be seriously ****ed!

If you had listened to the news lately, you may have heard that there is
some sort of generalized, panic-inducing warning from the friendly folks
at Homeland Security about the possibility of suicide bombers. We are all
supposed to be on the lookout for people wearing baggy coats on a warm
day, or people disguised as pregnant women.

You probably caught their attention with the raincoat, along with the
skimask. Heck, if you had walked into a convenience store dressed like
that the clerk might well have shot first, asked questions later.

Well someone should tell Performance Bike Shop that they have a Terrorist
on their web pages (lol):

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/...538&Store=Bike

-B


HAHA... he does looks like a terrorist!

"Q." LostVideos-AT-hotmail.com wrote in message ...

Let me just give you a piece of advice that I learned the hard way ...
police officers ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. They consider you their enemy. They
have to, in order to be safe. However, they look for any excuse to mess
with you and they are looking to bust you for something. That's their job.
Don't trust them, and don't fall for their sickly sweet smiles.

C.Q.C.


You have to be enemy for filling up their job. Their job is busting
you, giving citation, arresting you. It's their job not necessarily for
protecting society but mostly protecting their job or promoting their
position.

On 25 May 2004 03:39:37 GMT, (Hunrobe) wrote:

Badger_South

I never leave home without ID. The one form of ID I always have is a silver ID
bracelet with my name, department name, and badge number engraved on it. I call
it my, "Hey, look. We found body parts" ID.

What if I had not
pulled over, but had gone back into the woods on the lower trail? Would I
have had officers running to try and intercept me?

Flight equals guilt and no matter how much fun it may seem to be to imagine
leading the police on a merry chase and cleverly evading them on your trusty
bike, imagine instead how embarrassing it would be to be caught by a cop on
foot. ;-)

Yeah - Actually I was not thinking of evading...normally I will go right
from my upper trail past a short section of the park, through the gates and
back into the bottom trail. They may not have time to 'squawk' me. But
yeah, what you said.

Good reply Bob. I think what we may get out of this sitch is:

1. Always be cordial, salute, wave, say thanks, on 'recovery days' intro
yourself to the fellow users - actually stop the bike and learn - I met the
60 y.o. Boston runner with the 3:04 times.

I'm often so into the discipline and pushing and pain that I'm oblivious to
the surroundings on parts of many rides.

2. Carry some kind of ID - helps ID yourself, helps show you are a solid
citizen. Give out friendly biker guy business cards. It can help them know
who to notify in the event of an accident.

I like the idea of a dog tag.


Regards,
Bob Hunt

Thanks a bunch.

-B

"Hunrobe" wrote in message
...
"Q." LostVideos-AT-hotmail.com

wrote in part:

Let me just give you a piece of advice that I learned the hard way ...
police officers ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. They consider you their enemy.
They
have to, in order to be safe. However, they look for any excuse to mess
with you and they are looking to bust you for something. That's their
job.
Don't trust them, and don't fall for their sickly sweet smiles.

Okay, I'll bite...

No, we are not your friends. Friendship entails both a knowledge of the
other
person and a mutual respect/regard for that person so while we can be
friendly,
even cordial, simply meeting you does not make us "friends". But you are
not
our enemy either. You are a stranger and we meet most strangers in less
than
ideal circumstances so of course we are cautious. It's not a police
officer's
job to "look for an excuse to mess with you".

If as you seem to imply, you've
been busted for something my only question is, did you do it?

You claim the average citizen is not your enemy, yet that last statement
speaks volumes. You already have me tried and convicted of a crime.
Interesting.

Let me give you an idea of my experience with the police in this area. My
"neck of the woods" is Pawtucket RI and I was a teenager here in the 80's.
Both the Chief of Police and the Mayor of the city at that time were so
corrupted, and commited such serious crimes that they both ended up in jail.
I took no small satisfaction in that, beleive you me. It took a hell of a
lot of crimes for them to get there though, and the system left a hell of a
lot of victims behind.

That's rhetorical
of course because I sincerely doubt that anyone posting anonymously that
*did*
break the law has the required cojones to admit they deserved the trouble
they
got.

Rhetorical shmorical. I don't hide my identity that hard, only from casual
observers. Anyone with a working knowledge of the internet beyond AOL's
handholding can figure out who I am and where I live pretty damn quick.
Besides, who the hell cares? What's with this obsession the police have
with ID's anyway??? Hopefully, the supreme court will be taking care of
that one soon:

http://papersplease.org/hiibel/

You know, life isn't fair and nobody said it was. People get all sorts of
trouble they don't deserve, and get away with stuff they shouldn't. Once
again though, it seems you've already decided that anyone who has had
trouble with the law deserved what they got. OKay, so it's my turn to bite
.... a couple of times cops have screwed me for no good reason, sometimes I
do bad things and get away scott clean, very very rarely when the planets
are aligned and I've sacrificed the necessary poultry I get exactly what I
deserve but most of the time I don't do anything of consequence and nothing
happens to me either way.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh though. I have experience on both sides of
the law, and I do know there are some real good cops out there.
Unfortunately, those good cops aren't the ones most good people know ...
it's the hypocrites with the televangelist smiles pretending to be your bum
chum who I despise and who'll roll up on you and ruin your day (or life for
that matter). I stand by my original sentiment: If you're a good person
and have committed no crimes, then if you're approached by a police officer
don't be fooled into thinking he is your friend and that you can trust him
to have your best interests at heart. Be damn careful of what you say, and
how you act. In other words: hope for the best and prepare for the worse.

I wish things were different in this country, and I wish I could trust every
police officer I met. For that to happen though, good honest police
officers have to step up and grow the "required cojones" to turn in bad cops
instead of tolerating them and looking away. Quite frankly, I don't think
that will happen anytime soon but until then the rest of us never know what
to expect when we're confronted by Johnnie Law. Hell, I'd be happy if the
police union just admitted the reason they're opposed to drug testing is
that "a whole bunch of us like to smoke the chronic dude" (c:

C.Q.C.

On Mon, 24 May 2004 23:36:15 -0400, "Eric S. Sande"
wrote:

DC. We're in the middle of a cicada invasion.

Have a look at this, you may be safely out of the affected areas.

We've got the Japanese monster movie noises coming from the trees, but
so far not that many bugs flying around. Guess they come out at
different times in different places. Saw a few more on U.S.50 coming
into DC, but still not what everyone is talking about.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...