Cop rant

[roye@hrewheels.com]

(How they saw I had no bumper on in back while they were 100 yds in front of me is still up to interpretation, I call BS myself...)

 

Had a CHP Officer light me up as he was coming toward me on a 2 lane road. After an hour of running plates and checking the vin's on our bikes, (3 pre 80's Husqvarnas, one of which was a freshly restored cr250 that he REMOVED all of the paint around the vin on) he gave us a ticket for having a turn signal out on our trailer (which was his stated reason for pulling us over). He also gave us a ticket for the restored Husky not being registered. So again, how can you pull some one over for a light that you can not see from your perspective, and how can you write a ticket for a bike in the bed of the truck?

[Tony D]

"You guys get pulled over a lot"

 

Interesting observation...but like I stated, I quit a job because it EXPOSED me to police too much. I got pulled over in the carpool lane of the 10 freeway on memorial day weekend because "i was following that transit bus too closely"...

 

Transit bus was going 40 on the interstate (Illegal, below the minimum speed) and his 'coast light' was not functional, so when he abruptly slowed down to 15mph, I closzed the gap (somewhat unexpectedly, admittedly) to pass him in the next car pool lane opening... I was petrified to pull out on a straight section of the roadway as the flow of the intermittent traffic was well over 80mph and I didn't want to get reaR-ENDED.

 

Cop was a noob. Wanted to know why I was in the carpool lane alone as well (CNG Vehicle with appropriate stickers)... When you get exposed continually to the lowest moron on the totempole your chances of getting pulled over during 'enhanced enforcement periods' is greatly increased.

 

That encounter cemented in my mind the decision to leave that company. I had been pulled over more in 6 months working there than the entire period between 1993 and 2003 after leaving the job in Brea where I got tagged the 7 times in 6 weeks.

 

It's exposure to people that have something to prove that increases your chances of getting pulled over. Most of the time, there are far more important things to do... but midnight to 2AM on holiday weekends? Oh, they're playing odds, I just wish when a stupid noob makes a clear mistake they had enough sense to just let it ride.

 

Got pulled over leaving a club meeting by an obvious 'training day' scenario, rookie and training officer. Sez 'you can't have green headlights, sir...nobody will see you'...

1) Thought in my head immediately: "Your partner sure did a Woodsy Owl twisting his head around when he went through the intersection looking at me!"

2) Second thought in my head: "This is contraindicatory to the studies showing that humans have more yellow-green rods and cones in the eyes to better distinguish those colors, my headlights are likely to be the BEST seen oncoming lights from somebody LEAST likely to see any other color!"

 

But I keep it shut.

 

Go through the motions, with the training officer realizing they were just parking lights, and LEGAL. But Rookie HAS to write me up for something, even after I demonstrate the running lights (same as in a Mercedes E300 at the time...) and his partner says "Oh COOL!"

 

So he writes me for 'illegal headlamps' --- I sign off my own fixit ticket, then go to the court and plead not guilty for the judge. It ends up getting thrown out as it's black letter law in the CVC on colors the lights can be when 'off' and my lights were 'off' as demonstrated to them, and to the court. I hate noobs with something to prove...

 

Does it show?

[thrustnut]

Wow Tony...just how many times have you been pulled over?