This saturday my truck failed the mandatory once a year state inspection. I had to replace my brake pads and my rotors on the front two wheels. In one month I have spent 750 bucks on just the front two tires. This is not the issue, but the background to today...

I took the day off so I could get my car worked on. My boss let me take a sick day, which is cool. I went to the place and got there at 730am. I decided to walk the 3.5 miles to the YMCA that I am a member of while I waited for my car to get reinspected after it got fixed on sunday. I am a little over halfway there. Mind you, I am walking on the sidewalk. I have an explosions in the sky tee on and a pair of shorts and basketball shoes with a gym bag over my shoulder. All of a sudden a cop pulls up besides me and starts asking me all these questions. "Where are you going?" "Why are you walking?" "DO YOU HAVE ANY WEAPONS ON YOU?" Then he proceeds to search my bag. I should have said no he couldn't just so he had to go and get permission and all that jazz. I was pretty pissed. Eventually I made it to the gym, played some basketball worked out and walked the 3.5 miles back to the car place with no recurrent police aggrevation.

The question is: what's the real crime? That the cops stopped me for no reason while I was walking or the fact that my state requires a annual inspection?

annual inspection is ridiculous. i think our emissions tests come due when our registration runs out every 4 years or so.

I have to register every year too. 39.50 is the cost these days.

the real crime is being stopped for no reason. that's crazy.

what's the big deal with state inspection? i've seen cars held together with bungee cords. i'd rather they be deemed not roadworthy than have them fall apart while i drive behind them.

I agree that there should be some legal ramifications for people that don't keep their car up. But the process of inspection is supposedly only to cost 15 bucks...if everything is in order...which mine wasn't. I was fully prepared to fix it and did the next day on a sunday. But I am required to take it back to the same place that did the original inspection. I had to take a day off of work for a 15 dollar inspection. Ultimately, I was only being silly about the inspection. I obviously think the police issue is much more significant. However, the inspection issue just added to my frustration today.

There is no way in hell I would let him search my bag in that situation. I can't believe you didn't have the urge to piss him off by refusing after that.

Honestly, I didn't evne think of it until afterwards. I used to always say if I got pulled over and the cop wanted to search the car and I had time I would tell him no so he had to go through all the steps to be able to do it. I just wasn't thinking about it. I was deep in thought while I was walking and the shock of it happening out of nowhere sort of threw me for a loop. My anger was delayed until I had a moment to think about what happened.

the weird thing about the 4th amendment is that the courts have ruled that if you are carrying a bag down the street while walking a cop cant search it w/o your consent or a warrant supported by probable cause. but if you have a bag in your car and they stop you they dont have to have a warrant.

so if I had told him no in the situation he would have had to get a warrant? Isn't the whole "probable cause" business pretty loose in its interpretation?

You need to find a cousin who is a mechanic that will inspect and approve your car for free.

he had no legal right to search yr bag. that's just fucked up. i have refused vehicle search requests by highjway patrol officers in multiple states. they have no right to do shit like that.

fucking cops, man.
in nyc the new thing is they're trying to screw with cyclists [really with critical mas] by imposing ridiculous rules about parade permits, pretty much circumventing the entire legislative process and writing their own laws.
the latest is that groups of 20 or more need a parade permit, regardless of whether or not they're all even technically riding together, groups of 35 people on a sidewalk [peds, too!] need a parade permit, and TWO people who ride bikes together and break one traffic or bike equipment regulation can be arrested for parading without a permit.
FUCK THE POLICE.

i freaking hate THEM.

do you know how many times i've been followed just because of the stickers on my car? pulled over for not using a turn signal (when i did!) ugh.

not too much sucks more than needlessly being hassled by the man.

I'm a cop.

you THE MAN.

you guys (don't mean to single you out, boo) crack me up.
he's a cop. he can do whatever he wants. legal or not. especially in a case like this. it's hardly murder.

although wearing that t shirt does deserve a beating.

Also a jewish tranny poledancer

I'm cool with the cops though. Good people.

not a big fan of cops at all. bad experiences.

90% of cops are good people who do good work and are underapperciated. 10% are a$$holes on powertrips. I've dealt with both.

Clearly the blame lies with wearing the EXPLOSIONS In The Sky t-shirt.


What were you thinking man?

I had run in with them when I was a kid and still get a chip on my shoulder when I hear about this stuff.

Your life is probably better than the cop's, so don't worry about it.

What you need to do in situations like this is get the officer's name and car #, and the precinct if possible. They have no right to do this shit, and they know it. Stay cool, but make sure they understand tha you will report them to their supervisor if they give you any shit.

you can bitch about the ccops all you want. some are bad. some are good.
when someone's breaking into your house you're not calling domino's.

Ayah. I agree. I also agree with Tanner. I think I got one of them powertrippin' asshole cops. Normally I do my duty and put my hands at 10 and 2 when pulled over and say yes sir/no sir as it applies. But there was certainly no call for the searching of my bag and asking if I had weapons.

The only justification I can think of is that there may have either been a phone call because I looked "suspicious", alhtough I don't see how that's possible, or there may have been some shady activity in the nearby neighborhoods and he was actually being concerned and not just an ass. Either way, it sort of pissed me off...mostly because I know ME. haha

Golden Meadows, anyone?