This video will cheer you up!
A guy gets pulled over for no real reason; the “hero” claims “someone called about a vehicle driving around” and that this is “suspicious.” The driver asks what crime or offense he is suspected of committing. Points out that “suspicious” isn’t a crime and absent some suggestion that a person appears to have committed or is about to commit a crime, “heroes” have no lawful authority to “detain” them and force the victim to identify himself.
The driver trips the “hero” up several times, even getting him to concede he can’t think up a crime he thinks the driver has committed or is about to commit – hence no probable cause for detaining the driver.
Luckily for the driver, this “hero” is not the usual steroid-jacked Officer 82nd Airborne type. He eventually leaves the guy alone and free to go about his business. But while it’s great to see a citizen get the best of a “hero” abusing his authority, the fact remains we have a fundamental problem with “heroes” who abuse their authority.
It’s outrageous that some random/asserted phone call or anonymous tip or a “heroe’s” mere feelings that a person is “suspicious” can result in a citizen being forcibly detained for even 10 seconds. If no crime has been committed and there is no specific reason to suggest one is about to be committed then a person should always be free to go – and “heroes” powerless to impede them in any way.
. . .
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Ha.. I can identify with this.
I was in Suffolk County a few weeks ago after spending time on my cousin’s boat. It was about 4:30 and I found myself on some Main Street facing a brilliant setting sun that highlighted a streak in my windshield and was trying to wipe it away at a red light. I had my windows and sunroof open listening to a 1981 compilation album. Phil Collins In the Air Tonight came on and started very low.. and hits the loud part that jolted me and I turned it down, looking in my rearview I see a cop. My cousin had just warned me how the cops out there are ball busters. I already knew he was going to look to stop me.
I obeyed the speed limit to a t, signaled etc… about a quarter mile he pulls me over. Asking if it was my car – yes it is – but it is registered to my father – oh, he says because the vehicle’s owner comes up as having a suspended license. You were listening to the stereo kind of loud or was that someone in front of you? – I am not sure it could have been, I wasn’t paying attention as I was trying to clear the windshield…
Anyway he comes back and gives me a warning not to listen to Phil Collins so loudly because it was disturbing all the people on the street – there was no one on the street. I was more concerned about the “suspended license” as my father is 85 and doesn’t need to see the inside of a police car. What was that about I asked. Something about a failure to pay – I can’t see the rest of it – does your father have a DWI? – And that was it…
So now I have to make sure whatever is wrong with my father’s license is cleared up. I had to spend $7 to pull his driving record that shows his license is in good standing. In the MS13 Capitol of NY, this hero had to invent a stop centered around Phil Collins. He made up a story about a suspended license – lying so freely that it was like a second language. I was more concerned for my father than anything.
The joke of this whole thing is I am not a kid and in a newer model, well kept car. While MS13 is raping little girls by the dozens and leaving bodies all over Long Island – it was a middle aged guy listening to Phil Collins that gets stopped and who he has to invent a probable cause aside from Phil Collins to stop.
The average Suffolk County cop makes over $150,000 a year, some make over $250,000 and an average homeowner is forced to come up with $20,000 a year in property taxes as a result – this is how their time is spent.
I escaped a traffic tithe only to get socked with a $100 fine for placing my garbage can out a day early – NY is just a lost cause – can’t wait to get out.
Listening to that video – if you spoke to a NYC cop like that driver did you’d have a police related “Accident” with a taser and a bullet. The news reports would say “police recovered an illegal handgun, cocaine, and a scale” – that’s how NY cops would handle that.
Hi Thought,
Fellow middle-aged white guy here; no “record,” the kind of person who – like you – used to not have to worry much about cops but now does. This is a very telling barometer of the state of things. 20 years ago, it would raise eyebrows – and objections – to criticize cops among people in our demographic. Today, almost every person I personally know concedes that cops are out of control, generally thugs and to be avoided if at all possible.
I sense that we are very close to a Boston Commons Incident; the one that started everything more than 200 years ago.
Cops today are worse than Redcoats.
“In the MS13 Capitol of NY, this hero had to invent a stop centered around Phil Collins.”
Well, y’know…he can’t be expected to go after MS13 gangsters since he’s only being paid $150k a year. He might get hurt messing with those gangbangers. He’s keeping officer safety in mind and picking the low hanging fruit.