Since my last blog was not a hit with the mods, I'll chronicle a certain half hour of my life tonight that should be at least mildly interesting to try to make up for it!
So I was driving from upstate new york down to where I live, Long Island. Its about a four hour drive, and I decided to do it at night when there is no traffic. Traffic near new york city can be hazardous to one's physical and emotional well being. (Not a joke.)
So I'm sipping an energy drink the whole way to keep myself perked up and attentive.
I get pulled over, but I'm in the left lane so I have to cross two lanes of traffic that is going 70mph+(110kph+ to you metric users) to get over, and his lights are brighter than the sun so I risk life and limb to do so.
Then he walks up, informs of my transgressions and begins the interrogation.
"Where are you coming from?" "Visiting my girlfriend, near binghamton." "Where are you going?" "Home." "To commack?"(He read it off my license.) "Thats the one." "Have you been to canada at all this weekend?"
Ah. so he thinks im smuggling drugs. woonderrfulll.
"Nope." "Alright, can you please step out of the vehicle, come back here with me."
He then proceeds to ask me if I'll claim responbility for anything in the car, because he is going to have his dog search it.
Him and his dog TEAR UP my car. Another officer waits and watches with me
officer 2: "So why are you so afraid?" "Well a dude and his dog are tearing up my car, but I'm not afraid its the enormous amount of monster I've been drinking."
We chat, he asks me where I went to school, I'm scared about the open bottle of wine in my backseat that he's inevitably found already, which is highly illegal.
Then it hits me that I have my friends hookah pipe in my trunk me: "Oh my god." "What?" "My friend, well, its not for smoking pot but.." "A hookah?" "Oh so you understand."
Cop from my car "What the fuck do you smoke out of this huge pipe?"
My cop laughs and explains for me. Thank christ. I'm like ready to pee myself now. The k9 officer explains to me his problem with finding people bringing drugs from canada and all his bullshit. He tells me not to worry about the light or the alcohol, and thanks me for being so patient and understanding, and they both drive away.
Last week I was driving a rental upstate, and was lost. Had my hi-beams on. Got pulled over for it, the officer said my registration was suspended (Not mine. rental car.) Threatens to arrest me and writes me a ticket for "Failure to dim headlights" and "operating an unregistered vehicle."
two months ago i got a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt
I am a MAGNET for cops.
That is only 1/4 of the times i've been pulled over.
On what authority did they search your car? They can't do it unless you give permission or if they have some kind of probable cause based on what they see through the windows, I believe.
So you have a pipe and an open bottle of booze in your car and you give them permission to search? Wat lol.
BTW interesting how you point out the difficulty pulling over with all the lights flashing... I hadn't thought about that but it makes sense. Fortunately I don't have any experience with this.
Last night I was driving back from Connecticut (chose to leave about 10:45pm for a similar reason) and saw a couple of people get pulled over around me.
edit: was kinda weird how a cop pulled a guy over from the leftmost lane just before toll booths for the Throgs neck... the guy had to go right across like 12 lanes to get over in no time at all lol
Exactly how do cops pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt? Do they just pull you over, walk right up to your window, and say, "Hey, I saw you not wearing your seatbelt. Here's a ticket"? I feel like the view from outside a car isn't very great, so it's tough to see whether or not a person is wearing their seatbelt.
Also, the cop can't just search your car without probable cause.
And that headlight and registration thing is kinda weird. Registration isn't your fault 'cause it's a rental, and dim vs bright headlights are hard to tell. Some cars have really freaking bright headlights.
i forgot about the pipe. Took a real gamble with the wine haha
And yeah man, when he said he was letting me go i was like "I really appreciate it but you either have to pull out first or dim your lights if thats cool, I couldnt see a THING getting over."
apparently i felt pretty ballsy at the time to start giving him orders.
On August 03 2010 13:37 DTK-m2 wrote: Exactly how do cops pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt? Do they just pull you over, walk right up to your window, and say, "Hey, I saw you not wearing your seatbelt. Here's a ticket"? I feel like the view from outside a car isn't very great, so it's tough to see whether or not a person is wearing their seatbelt.
Also, the cop can't just search your car without probable cause.
And that headlight and registration thing is kinda weird. Registration isn't your fault 'cause it's a rental, and dim vs bright headlights are hard to tell. Some cars have really freaking bright headlights.
I feel the EXACT same way about the seatbelt thing, but I didnt even see that officer behind me, he followed me into a parking lot with his lights flashing because he rode my ass so hard i couldnt see the lights on top of his truck lol. I put the belt on while he couldnt have possibly seen so when he's right he's right, idk how eagle eyes over in Ithaca did it, but he did.
On August 03 2010 13:37 DTK-m2 wrote: Exactly how do cops pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt? Do they just pull you over, walk right up to your window, and say, "Hey, I saw you not wearing your seatbelt. Here's a ticket"? I feel like the view from outside a car isn't very great, so it's tough to see whether or not a person is wearing their seatbelt.
Also, the cop can't just search your car without probable cause.
And that headlight and registration thing is kinda weird. Registration isn't your fault 'cause it's a rental, and dim vs bright headlights are hard to tell. Some cars have really freaking bright headlights.
I'll tell you how...uh because it's obvious you aren't wearing one? It's very easy to tell from behind the vehicle whether or not your seatbelt is on.
As for searching a car, it can be done if they see something in plain view that gives them probably cause...like say an open bottle of wine? :/
On August 03 2010 13:37 DTK-m2 wrote: Exactly how do cops pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt? Do they just pull you over, walk right up to your window, and say, "Hey, I saw you not wearing your seatbelt. Here's a ticket"? I feel like the view from outside a car isn't very great, so it's tough to see whether or not a person is wearing their seatbelt.
Also, the cop can't just search your car without probable cause.
And that headlight and registration thing is kinda weird. Registration isn't your fault 'cause it's a rental, and dim vs bright headlights are hard to tell. Some cars have really freaking bright headlights.
I'll tell you how...uh because it's obvious you aren't wearing one? It's very easy to tell from behind the vehicle whether or not your seatbelt is on.
As for searching a car, it can be done if they see something in plain view that gives them probably cause...like say an open bottle of wine? :/
Would you look at the area immediately to the left of the driver's seat's headrest, cause that's the only place I can think of. If so, some cars have seatbelts where the place where it's attached to the side of the car is set very low... Idk, I'll be sure to take a close look next time I drive.
You do know that he didn't have probable cause, right? Or even the bullshit excuse "reasonable suspicion". The minute he said "Will you accept responsibility for anything found in the car?" was your cue to tell him you don't consent to any searches.
On August 03 2010 13:37 DTK-m2 wrote: Exactly how do cops pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt? Do they just pull you over, walk right up to your window, and say, "Hey, I saw you not wearing your seatbelt. Here's a ticket"? I feel like the view from outside a car isn't very great, so it's tough to see whether or not a person is wearing their seatbelt.
Also, the cop can't just search your car without probable cause.
And that headlight and registration thing is kinda weird. Registration isn't your fault 'cause it's a rental, and dim vs bright headlights are hard to tell. Some cars have really freaking bright headlights.
I'll tell you how...uh because it's obvious you aren't wearing one? It's very easy to tell from behind the vehicle whether or not your seatbelt is on.
As for searching a car, it can be done if they see something in plain view that gives them probably cause...like say an open bottle of wine? :/
yeah its definitely NOT very obvious, because seeing a setbelt when you ARENT directly behind them is almost impossible. It was daytime and I didnt know he was there at all, so that is VERY plausible. But just for the sake of playing devils advocate, have you ever tried seeing into someones car at night time? Cause its definitely not possible in contrast with headlights. The bottle of wine was under a towel, because im not THAT stupid, though obviously close.
and no, i never wear my seatbelt.
On August 03 2010 13:51 gdroxor wrote: You do know that he didn't have probable cause, right? Or even the bullshit excuse "reasonable suspicion". The minute he said "Will you accept responsibility for anything found in the car?" was your cue to tell him you don't consent to any searches.
and again, I was more interested in getting out of the ticket. I have no job and no money.
Yeah nothing is actually ruined. I have a TON of shit in my car and no stone was left unturned, so to speak. The dog had two legs in my car and the cop had to get fully in because my trunk doesnt open from the outside haha
On August 03 2010 13:32 micronesia wrote: On what authority did they search your car? They can't do it unless you give permission or if they have some kind of probable cause based on what they see through the windows, I believe.
This is correct. You may politely decline to exit the vehicle and/or decline their request to search it. If they do in fact search it, they are breaking the law.
this is a rough guide of how you basically can screw yourself over by consenting to whatever they want. you can actually deny their search
EPT
