Yesterday, I had an encounter with an armed government worker on a motorcycle, running a speed trap. And running laser, which is kryptonite to even the best radar detector because you get no warning. If the detector detects laser, you are already detected.
Which is just what happened to me. Bingo! You “win.”
I was on my way to the coffee shop where I go to work almost every day – in part to get my divorced/recluse-inclined self out of the house – and in part because I’m better able to work in that environment, where cats aren’t crawling all over me, importuning me scratch their backs or give them something to eat… times five of them. I love them, but working with five cats sequentially head-butting you, flopping themselves on the keyboard, yowling at you and thunder-pawing up and down the stairs is not unlike trying to work with five toddlers tugging at you and besides, I have to drive the press cars in order to write about them!
Well, ok – stage set.
The road that takes you to the coffee shop is one of those broad four lanes (two each way) you find in urban/suburban areas – Franklin Road, in Roanoke, if anyone’s interested in the precise locale – that should be posted (if it’s posted at all; see my rant about the arbitrariness of speed limits) around 45 because that’s what pretty much everyone is doing anyway but instead is posted 35, which no one does unless they’re on a bicycle or there’s an AGW in the vicinity.
If one sees the AGW.
I didn’t – and neither did my trust V1. Not in time.
Me, because it’s hard to see an AGW skullduggering on a motorcycle. The V1 because laser isn’t diffuse – as radar is – and if an AGW “paints” your vehicle, you’re already toast by the time the detector chirps.
So, here he comes – blue wig wags flashing. Scheisse. Time for a piece of payin’ paper. Two, probably – because as per my policy ad contrary to The Law, I am not buckled up for saaaaaaaaafety . . . my saaaaaaaaafety being my business, I think.
I signal and pull over.
It is sound to do this promptly and deftly – assuming you’ve accepted you’re caught and are now going to have to deal with the situation. If so, deal with it intelligently. You are at a disadvantage – whereas the AGW has every advantage. Now is not the time to be pissy or confrontational. Would you be pissy or confrontational with a mugger holding you at gunpoint?
You’re being held at gunpoint – and about to be mugged – so consider.
Signaling and promptly pulling over will hopefully ease tensions a little bit; doing it deftly shows you’re not an incompetent wheelman. While you may be guilty of some infraction, AGWs are as aware as the rest of us that infractions and good driving are not mutually exclusive – though few will ever say so to a “civilian.”
Park off the goddamn road. As far away from traffic as you can. Then turn off the engine. Wait. Roll the window down. I know you don’t have to, but you want to – if you want to improve your chances of avoiding the payin’ paper.
The AGW walks over, gives me the usual deal about my driving faster than the PSL – 51 in a 35, tells me.
He also observes my unbuckled for saaaaaaaaaaafety state.
I don’t admit to anything, but I do give him my concealed carry permit (CHP) first and tell him – nicely – that I am not armed, but here’s my CHP; thought you’d want to know. Again, this is not something one is legally obliged to do – in my state – but by doing it, one defuses tension without slavish servility and without admitting to anything as far as the reason you got stopped.
This AGW turns out to be a reasonable guy as AGWs go.
He did not Hut! Hut! Hut! The CHP thing probably helped, especially my presenting it first – and nicely. You never know – and I got lucky. Some AGWs respect the CHP as an indicator of likely solid citizen-ness or at least, not a felon-ness. Because felons can’t get CHPs. Even if you don’t carry, I consider this a very good reason to get a CHP as it gives you a talking point that does not involve talking about your traffic infraction. And if you can get to talking on a human level, the interaction may go better for you.
It did for, this time.
He ran my info, came back – and only wrote me a piece of payin’ paper for the seatbelt “violation,” which is still obnoxious but piddling in terms of the cost ($25) vs. the cost of 51 in a 35 as well as the fact that no DMV “points” are attached and so no excuse for dunning by the insurance mafia.
I was stunned speechless, almost. I felt as though it was 1987 again and the world was okay. A reasonable cop who didn’t give me the Neidermeyer Treatment. This guy – I’d publish his name but have no desire to get him in trouble for being decent – wasn’t even wearing the now-usual opaque Intimidator sunglasses – and had hair, too.
I sat in my car for a moment afterward, feeling a lot like Mr. Tagomi from Philip Dick’s brilliant (and my favorite) novel, The Man in the High Castle – now a not-bad TV series. Tagomi sometimes hallucinates the other world – the one in which the Nazis and the Japanese didn’t win the war. He sits on a bench, glimpsing our San Francisco – not Japanese-occupied San Francisco.
Sitting in my car, I felt the same way.
1987, again. If only for a moment.
. . .
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Thought of this post when I read it.
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2018/11/01
I thought radar detectors were illegal in Virginia. Did you have one at the time of the stop?
Neither RADAR nor LASER is “diffuse.”
LASER is coherent, so it does not refract like RADAR does.
The best way to avoid traffic tickets is to obey the traffic regulations.
The best way to deal with demanding pets is to eliminate them.
Vonu,
Keep the pets (They’re the only creatures who are loyal and worthwhile); get rid of all the other distractions!
Amen, Nunz!
I trust my cats… I don’t think they’d eat me even if they suddenly grew to lion-sized. They’d just push me off the sofa… 🙂
Or some day there’d be several big piles of lion shit in the back yard….
Eric, I think having cats and dogs is one of the few true joys in this life, with virtually no downside!
One of my cats loves my 104 lb. dog. I refer to her as his cat!
My old pitbull mix who died in her 17th year, nearly 5 years ago now, was a once in a lifetime dog. I love all of my animals, but that dog was just absolutely amazing; so intelligent, and so atuned to me, and full of emotion, she’ll always be my favorite. I swear, that dog could out-smart me!
Only downside is they don’t live as long as we do.
Well, that – and throwing up on the bedroom carpet.
I used to get speeding tickets. But, I have had NONE since I got my Concealed Handgun License…only warnings…every time. I have had two Cops tell me that it was common for CHL holders to get warning tickets for speeding..Nation Wide. The first cop to tell me this was taking finger prints at my CHL class. The second was a Washington DC cop, and also my wife’s uncle.
Yes it is easy to hate cops because too many of them act like bullies because they can and want to. Not all of course. And they sense hostility easily and most are afraid of being killed by some random nut job motorist. No one volunteers for that. So many assume you are dangerous and treat you like a convict.
However, as others here note, many act reasonably, especially if you are polite and non threatening. My experience in the middle of nowhere Texas, speeding early morning on a back highway, is similar. First this rural county deputy asked if I had an emergency. Said no, just trying to get back to X (400 miles) by sundown. After checking my paperwork and plates, he came back and politely gave a warning. Then to our surprise, gave us tips on places on I-10 ahead where we should be careful for the DPS troopers. Amazing, a nice guy, even helpful! I guess we didn’t look like smugglers or outlaws. That also pays off.
“most are afraid of being killed by some random nut job motorist. No one volunteers for that. So many assume you are dangerous and treat you like a convict. ”
Actually, the idea used to be, that when you signed up to become a pig, you were accepting a paycheck to take a greater risk than a civilian, in order to protect others; and that in order to uphold the rights of those with whom it was assumed that you were supposed to be protecting, it may be necessary to take a greater personal risk, or give up some of your own rights- just like a soldier does when he foolishly signs up- doing so, knowing that he is accepting the risk of being injured or killed, and that he must do as he is told in every respect.
Somewhere along the line, that mentality went out the window; and now the pig’s primary concern is protecting their own self-interests/rights/safety, above all else- even if it means killing those who they ostensibly were supposed to be “protecting”.
The fact that he pulled you over to begin with shows that he was not reasonable. He’s a state sponsored criminal.
That’s true. Odd, too, that a SSC would be riding a motorcycle which violates all the tenants of safety espoused by the State.
Hi Peter,
All true; one standard for us – another for them!
Yeah — he was riding a motorcycle, which is alot unsafer than driving a car with no seatbelt on! UNBELIEVABLE. Nevermind that not wearing a seatbelt is not endangering anyone else so why is it a law? UNBELIEVABLE CRAZY TYRANNICAL TIMES we live in!
And here in America, the land of the free, you need PERMISSION to carry a gun. O M G. This is AMERICA dammit, not a dictator-run hellhole!!! HYDRA has taken over America folks.
Violating the tenants gets the landlord arrested. I draw the line at sniffing their dirty underwear.
Last fall, I was headed north on I91 in Vermont. It was a beautiful day: sunny, mild, no traffic, the countryside was glorious with fall color. So I’m cruising along, not paying the speedo any mind, the V8 is rumbling gently, all’s good with the world.
And I see flashing lights behind me. So much for the perfect day…
I pull over, stop the engine, open the window, and put my hands on the top of the steering wheel. The conversation goes thus:
Trooper: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Me: No
T: Do you know how fast you were going?
M: Not really, it’s a glorious day, the countryside is beautiful, I’m happy to be out of the city, I wasn’t obsessively checking my speed.
T: I clocked you at 85
M: Well, this is a 4.6L V8 so that’s quite possible. Especially in light traffic on a good road.
T: I see… Licence and registration please.
M: > hands over the paperwork returns to his cruiser < Time passes… Trooper returns
T: Seeing as how you've been polite about this, I'm going to give you a warning… And a recommendation to use cruise control in future.
M: Thank you very much!
Since then, I've been able to pry a "Mother May I" out of my local CoP (Massachusetts is funny about unalienable rights) and I've taken to being much more observant of my rate of travel. I aim to be 3rd fastest at the most, letting #1 and #2 take the heat.
People drive fast in MA and the cops, thankfully, tend to go after the big fish, over 85. I was stopped three times over 4 years in MA and got a warning every time. the last time there were six of us packed into my Dodge Colt with an open bottle of whisky under the drivers seat which we had been passing around and had to smell… early 1990s. College days, dumb kids, what can I say?
Sounds like someone’s guilty of being a Mick! 😀 (Luckily, if that were a crime, the cops would have to arrest themselves)
Last summer I was on my way to a friend’s wedding reception, and decided to ride my bicycle, it being wonderful weather and me wanting to get a great workout. In my state freeways are by default open to bicycles except in congested big city stretches, which are well designated in state law, and posted. I’d passed through the najor city on surface streets, crossed a big piece of water on a bridge, using the designated bike lane. Ten miles further on, I’m sawing along at about 20 on the flat, nice 12 foot wide shoulder, light Sunday mid morning traffic, very rural area. I saw him going the other way and my hackles raised, sure enough after a while he’s behind me, dem blue blinkin lights a goin’. his big V8 rumbling quietly as he paced me. I ignored him, feigning I was unaware of his presence and intent. After half a mile, he turns on the Woop Woop, so I stop pedalling and coast lazily to a stop I KNEW what he was on about and KNEW he was dead wrong. I had double checked the designated bike areas the afternoon before, just to be sure something had not changed since last time I’d been there, a few years back. As I coasted to a stop, I unclipped my feet, and planted them on the tarmac, me still astraddle the bike. I was armed, had my Mother May I Card, so no issue there. He sauntered up and began hollering at me WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??!!?? “I’m riding my bike. YOU CAN’T BE HERE, DIDNT YOU SEE THE SIGNS? What signs, where are they? AT THE ONRAMPS. what do they say NO PEDESTRIANS OR HITCHHIKING State law defines this thing between my legs as a “vehicle”, therefore it is NOT a “pedestrian”. DO YOU WANT ME TO ARREST YOU? You have no grounds to arrest me, I am legally here and have broken no laws. WHERE DID YOU GET ON THIS ROAD Back at that bridge when I got off the bikeway on this end of the bridge. YOU MEAN YOU RODE ALL THAT WAY ON THE FREEWAY? Yes I did and it is fully legal. YOU need to learn where the no bike areas are, and this is NOT one of them. WHERE ARE YOU GOING to a friend’s house. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM THIS MORNING Back there a ways. GIVE ME YOUR DRIVING LICENSE I am on a bicycle, and thus am not operating a MOTOR VEHICLE and thus am not required to provide a driving license. I will be happy to identify myself as requried by stqte law, however. (He wrote down my name and address, all I am required to provide him) As he turned to go back to his car, I suggested when he contacted the state patrol dispatcher he learn about where bikes can be on this highway. He was gone a LONG time. He found my record, OK, and found no cause to take action. YOU MUST TAKE THE NEXT OFFRAMP UP AHEAD Mr. K____, bicycles are permitted on this state highway all the way to the bridge over the canal (another forty miles), I’ve ridden this stretch many times and it is fully legal. YOU need to learn the laws about where bicycles can ride in this state. He again threatened arrest if he saw me on that stretch of freeway again…… huffed back to his car. He never asked about my carry gun, probably thinking that if a guy was wimpy enough to be riding a road bike he’d not be macho enough to carry. That false value set is precisely why I DO carry when riding. I’d been attacked a few times, narrowly escaping harm a couple times, and decided OK, I’ma gonna git me my Mother May I Card just in case…… out in the middle of nowhere some clown gets huffy and tries to do me in out of whatever sickness rolls about in his dark heart, he won’t believe what I have in my jersey pocket to help louts like him to make an informed decision to find something less risky to do for entertainment.
Once back home I looked up the relevant sections of state law, wrote them down, and tried to get his supe on the phone…. to file a formal grievance against this slimeball.
Funny thing, on my way back home late that night I was on another stretch of a different freeway, also open to bikes, it was about ten PM and full dark, I was working up a mile and a half long hill, and got pulled over again.. this time my own county’s sheriff. He was genuinely concerned for my safety, was polite, I informed him I ride that stretch on a regular basis and it is not only legal but perfectly safe. He was surprised, I invited him to go call dispatch and verify bikes are OK here. He did, came back and profusely apologized. He never even asked for my identity. I suggested he get with his lieutenant and suggest they go over that set of laws at a gneral briefing, and he said he would. I thanked him for his concern, and asked if I could not continue on my way home as I was tired and hungry. He handled it well, The first stater was a butthead. I still remember his name, and one of these days I’ll be back on his beat and hope he’ll pull me over and arrest me….. false arrest would be a fun thing to throw back in his face. Wish the Staters would educate their underlings. Eedjits get all huffy and snotty, thinking they’re SPESHULL.
Hi Tionico!
One of the reforms I’ve been tub-thumping for is that when a law enforcer enforces nonexistent law it should be grounds for immediate dismissal and disqualification to ever “serve” as a law enforcer again. We don’t tolerate medical malpractice; when a lawyer displays incompetence or unethical conduct, he faces disbarment. Why aren’t these “officers of the court” held to the same standard? They should be held to a higher one, given they carry guns and have been endowed with the authority to point them at us.
Of course, such a common sense reform will never be implemented. Why? Because the whole point is to immunize law enforcement from accountability.
Eric I can explain WHY this will not happen any time soon in one small two cylinder word: UNIONS. As long as THEY are the put bulls set in place to “protect” their meal tickets (the officers who pay them to do what they do) this will never change. Can’t remember which traitorous president signed into law the ability for public sector employees (as in, OUR SERVANTS) to collectiveise themselves and construct a fortress of immunity from accountability “against” we who feed them, but that man needs to be taken out behind the woodshed and receive a good dose of Papa’s gunbelt.
The REAL political challenge, the nadir of restoring justice throughout the land, would be to forever bar the ability of our servants from “organising” themselves. That in itself by definitioni constructs an “us vs them” world. End THAT form of tyranny, most of the others will become bearable and/or crawl back under their respective rocks.
Unfortunately, SCOTUS has essentially ruled that police need not actually know the law, so long as they “reasonably” believe they know the law.
Head. Wall.
Hi Freak,
“Reasonable” is a hugely problematic term for the obvious reason that opinions vary as to what exactly is – and is not – reasonable. The word is more dangerous than most, too, because it has “reason” in it and that makes it sound objective, even though it’s by definition the opposite of that since it is not subject to reason.
It is of a piece with “necessary and proper” and “common good.” Very dangerous words. I believe deliberately so. Chosen to give lawyers and politicians the wiggle room they needed – and have used – to eviscerate our liberties.
In a legal context, “reasonable” should be thrown in the woods because law must be precise and objective else it is inherently tyrannical.
So (as an example) there is either legitimate pretext for a search or there is not. Some clear piece of evidence that a crime has been committed is the only thing which qualifies. Anything less is extremely unreasonable.
And getting back to the issue of law enforcers not being required to know the law… it staggers me. This from the same government that will have a hairdresser arrested if she isn’t duly licensed.
and RIGHT HERE is the root of today’s chaos, deliberately and willfully brought about. It is also the root of the conflict that led to our kicking King George Three the Kid King off this continent some two plus centuries back. Anyone else remember the “general warrants” the soldiers were given? THey allowd the “swarms of officers” go roam about freely in public, entering and seizing and arresting who and what they would. Oh, you have TWO barrrels of flour (never mind you have eight kids and it is April and harvest will not come until September) so you MUST be “stocking up” for a revolution or somehting, that makes this stuff “military stores” and that means we will have to take it. Yes, BOTH barrels….. (which is precisely what the colonist strongly desires to give to the thieving officers.. both barrels of two ought buck)
And THAT is why oir wise founders wrote that set of basic laws for us… that things would not be left to the interpretation of a small number of appointed unaccountable hooh has with swelled heads wearing black nighties……. we ARE a nation of LAWS.
Can you site a SCOTUS case, or…
Vonu, see:
Heien v. North Carolina
and
U.S. v. Shelton Barnes et. al
for openers….
U.S. v. Shelton Barnes et. al doesn’t appear to have come before the SCOTUS, but it is hard to tell from your incomplete citation. Google can’t find anything on the deep web.
Amazing, isn’t it? Those who are being paid to “enforce the law” need not know the law- but when it comes to us mere private citizens, “ignorance of the law is no excuse”!
Can’t wait to see the fate of the fiends and tyrants who while professing to be wise guardians of justice, have enacted this most unjust and evil system.
“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” -Jesus Christ.
Amazing, Tionico! (You live in MT?)
They can’t edumacate their low-IQ pigs about the very laws they are supposed to enforcing…but they can indoctrinate school children to just do what ever Officer Not-So-Friendly tells them to do, and to waive their own rights……
It seems that porkers everywhere these days are extremely ignorant about how the laws pertain to cyclists; that, and the fact that we are easy and seemingly harmless “weirdos”, makes us as natural a target to them as the 70 lb. four-eyed nerd was when they were in jr. high school.
Nope, Nunzio, Washington. The troopers here have, over the past decade or so, developed a new cadre of stinkers. Used to be WSP were real guys, would listen to your sad tale/sorry excuse, know they’re being had on, most times gove you a warning or a big break on the level of fine. chat as a human being, and let you on your way. None of the BY DEFINTIOIN YOU ARE WRONG, CITIZEN, SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME OR I WILL ARREST YOU”. This was not the first, nor the nastiest, WSP who ias illegally accosted me as I’ve harmlessly cycled along the wide smooth debris-covered shoulder and threatened arrest for what was perfectly legal. One of these times, if this continues, I’ll just tell him to go ahead, make your day and lock me up. Call his nasty bluff. I KNOW they cannot arrest for such tnings, even if I were in a restricted area (I know to the foot where most of them start and end).
This wason a run out of Olympia(Exit 109 on I-5 is the magic line between Yes and No) north to Dupont/center Drive (Yes continues up to the Gravelly Lake ramp, another five miles or so) where I then travel around Fort Lewis and into Steilacoom, along the water (gorgeous low traffic two lane) to where the Narrows Bridge cuts across. Dedicated bike path crosses that bridge (the view from the deck is spectacular, though traffic noise is obnoxious) and, as soon as you are off the bridge bike path onto a surface street that crosses WA 16, Yes begins again and there are no more No areas anywhere north or west of there.
The Hiway 16 freeway shoulder is FAR safer than the surface roads, two lane county roads in bad repair most with little to no shoulder and edges badly broken up. Most I will NOT ride at night. And this dirty copper expected me to dodge careless drivers on those roads and forsake the 12 foot smooth even shoulder……..
I figure most of the New Nasties who are “members” of WSP are recent imports from California. Except that I did NOT want to miss my friend’s wedding that afternoon, I’d have pushed him and LET him arrest me. It would have been fun to watch his shift in Attitude when he discovered I was packing. I suspect that would REALLY have bent his feeble brain. “WHAT KIND OF GUY ARE YOU THAT YOU RIDE YOUR BIKE ON THE FREEWAY AND HAVE TO CARRY A GUN AS YOU DO THAT????!!!!???”
Oh, nobody special, just one more stupid CITIZEN who feeds you.
I’ve been accosted by coppers in large cities who seem to have a particular bent against cyclists, but the way most clowns ride in those cities I understand why. Maybe this copper was from a city like that… maybe Bay Area California is my bet. But this was a quiet rural area, tiny settlements separated by a few miles of poorly maintained county road…. and the Narrows Highway that connects Bremerton to the rest of the world. No opportunity for cyclists to be the obnoxious centres of the universe they can be in places like Portland and Seattle. I’ve cycled all over “the peninsula” many times, and enjoy it. Took the east side of the sound route up to Seattle one time…. through Tacoma, Federal Way, Tukwila, etc, one time. It was miserable. Then I decided to take the west sound route then a ferry across to Seattle. Same distance, an hour less time, and a delighteful ride instead of stressful and ugly. And a cheap ferry ride into the bargain.
Maybe next time I am accosted by such a dirtbag with an attitude problem compounding his ignorance I won’t be on my way to a critical appointment.
I have cycled some in Montana, keep threatening to ride out that way from here some time, but until they get the Snoqualmie Pass rebuild done (it is close) there is no through route on 90 that is acceptable. My skinny tyres don’t do well on the rough gravel road some stupid state dweeb has deemed acceptable as a detour. I might get crazy and go across on Highway 2… AFTER taking the ferry from Kingston across to Everett to pick up the western end of it. Some serious climbing, though…..
A police officer can arrest you for anything, anytime.
As to whether they can incarcerate you likewise is up to their department’s guidelines.
Washington State Patrol CANNOT arrest for any reason they dream up. There MUST be probable cause or reasonable suspicion. He THINKS I was breaking the law, but I KNOW I was not. Would made his day to realise he’d arrested me for something as legal as walking up my own street to collect the post. Once arrested, I WILL be hauled in. They WILL process and book me. What they’ll do with the bike I’m not sure… but I rather doubt it will survive their brutality unscathed. And it is a rather expensive one.
I KNOW the Department’s guidelines. The worst he could have legally done was to cite me into the local municipal court on an infraction. He MIGHT think up some bogus schtick about disobeying orders… but he’ll eventually learn that law says I cannot disobey LAWFUL orders, and his to get off the freeway was NOT a lawful order.
I’ll add I was courteous and calm as I interacted with him, but firm. And it was THAT got his knickers all knotted up. The mundanes DASN’T stand their ground when the Only Ones wish to order us about.
On the bright side, Tionico: All you got was harassed; your friend got a foreboding ominous future!
Yeah, I got harrassed and delayed….. my friend is incredibly blessed with the GOOD WOMAN he now has for his Bride.. and SHE is blessed to have him. I was happy to be with them, and to brew and serve the coffee for the reception. Great folks there, and we had a great time. Then I got a fine ride home, fifty miles at night on mostly rural roads along Pugetn’s Sound on a warm and balmy August night. Slept like a log, too…..
Ooooo! That sounds like a sweet ride, indeed, Tionico!
Me? I’d rather go home with the bike than the bride!
Get tandem and go home with both. Simple. I was riding my tandem because I had to bring along some gladrags to wear for the “do”, and also all the kit to brew and serve coffee at the reception. AND some tucker, some of which I ate long the way there, and the rest was REALLY badly needed when I was still about fifteen miles out from home. So I took a midnight break in a park on the main drag in a small village I passed through. No loo there, but it was quiet and I found a tree that was begging for a bit of liquid….. then hopped back on and finished the trip home. Without looking it up I think my day’s ride was just over a century. that tandem I have IS a real sweet one. Fast, confortable, handles incredibly well even loaded and at speed downhill. I’ve totted up a LOT of miles on that wonder…… I think somewhere well north of 20,000 total. So far.
Tionico, you solo rode a TANDEM 100 miles?!
Did you stop off and kick the crap out of Mike Tyson, too?
Yup. that tandem is my TRUCK.. when I have to haul a bit of kit that bike carries it well. Yes its heavier, but not that much so. I’ve done multiday multi-hundred mile rides pretty fully loaded. Still managed to pull a hundred miles plus or minus each of those days.
That keeps me too busy to bother with Mike Tyson, too. I’m sure if I found him out on the road, especially if I had my lightweight single under me, I’d do a horizon job on the guy in short order. It would be fun to have him place a million box somewhere, and we both start a hundred miles away and first one back there gets it…. I know who would win that one.
I’m so envious! 35 miles on a light rioad bike is about it for me- but it’s rather hilly here.
I’ve never mastered the hills! No matter what, I seem to get to a certain point of fitness, and can never surpass it.
My legs used to be really strong….but somewhere along the line, they got wimpy.
Nunzio, my advice (it has worked for many that I know, including most definitely myself) spend aobut fifty bux on a Polar brand heart rate monitor…. get one of the lower end one, you don’t need it to cook your breakfast and fetch in the daily fishwrap…. calculate where your theoretical max is (220 minus your age for a male) then your “zones”. zone 3 being where you can work all day long and not get wasted. Now, get out and ride without watching the thing, get to a comfortable pace and cadence, settle in for twenty, thirty minutes, you’re still trotting along at some rate, working but comfortably so. THAT is your current optimum HR. Now, get used to keeping your heart within five ticks of that number as you ride. Keep a cadence of at least 90 preferably 95. You would be able to carry on a conversation with a companion as you keep that pace. No huffing, puffing, etc. Next time you find a hill, gear down, let the hill take your speed down, try and keep your cadence up, but DO NOT let your HR rise above where you were comfortable back on the boring flats. ON the descent, keep gearing up, don’t slack off on effort, keep your HR where it was fine on the flats. As you ride, find varied terrain and keep doing that. give that a month and you’ll be killing the hills every tine you find one. After that month, begin pushing up against what used to be the “top” of your zone three…. learn to keep your effort just a few heart rate ticks below where leg burn starts to tickle you. Note what that number is. Keep doing that, in another couple months you will have pushed your anaerobic threshold up at least ten beats per minute and you will no longer fear hills. By the end of next summer you should be able to actually sprint up those hills that now kill you. I’ve actually had that tandem out on a club ride, carrying maybe ten pounds extra on the bike, keeping with the faster set (not the hardcore racers, the next slower group) we come to a hill, a STEEP one where UI’d always gotten hammered going up it, droped by half the group… hadn’t done that one for a while, decided to minimise the carnage and preemptively sprint up the thing… amazinly I found myself at the top no one ahead of me… eased off a bit down the other side, then ground along the rolling easy stretch…. someone was “attacking” from the pack, I put the hammer down just slightly, pushing right up against that anaerobic threshhold, just at the hint of leg burn…. and held it there. He attacked, fell back, attacked again, I kept it up for five miles, he on a lightweight single, no one else in sight back there, I finally dropped him and carried on the hot pace back to the start/end park. He finally came in, none of the others near behind him, saw me and came over for a chat. I was then at least twice his age, and he was blown away to find an “old guy” grey hair and all, who dusted him soundly on a tandem that weighed at least twice his bike, He asked HOW do I do it? So I told him what I just told you… he said Ohhhh.. I get it…. Yup. You CAN push yourself without killing yourself, and actually get stronger over time. Hills are a bit tricky it took me many years to figure them out. But it can be done, the price is not that high. And it feels SO GOOD to soundly dust a strong rider half your age
Ah, Tionico, thanks for the advice! Yours is the best explanation I’ve ever heard of using an HR monitor and zones and all- so much so, that I would actually like to try it.
Trouble is…the terrain here dictates how hard one must work- flats are few and far between- and when ya find one, it’s maybe 1/4 mile, tops…. So there’s really no way I could work such a plan 🙁
It’s pretty much: I’m either struggling up a hill…or roaring down one at 35 MPH.
I do love it when I encounter a rare flat, and can hum along at 20-25MPH.
I thought I’d get used to the hills. I made progress at first- and it was getting a little easier…but then I plateaued, and actually went the other way. Maybe I’m just getting old! (I’m Eye-talian for goodness’ sakes- I should be good at this!)
1987? It’s even 1997, or Sept. 10th, 2001. I don’t recall people generally considering cops to be hero’s until after 9/11. That’s when cops went from bad to batshit crazy bad.
Depends on where one lived, Ancap. Even to this day, varying degrees of tyranny exist depending on where one is- although the tyranny is at insane levels everywhere in the US now.
But in the past? In NY, the tyranny was really ramped up in the mid 80’s. Ditto CA. So much so, the post 9-11 stuff in NY was really no big deal.
By contrast, when I moved here to KY just after 9-11, it felt like NY did in the 70’s! Now of course, we’re starting to catch up… 🙁
But whatever BS is implemented, it always starts on the coasts- NY, CA, MA, and the more liberal states- IL, OR, NC, etc. and then slowly sptreads haphazardly- usually depending upon where and how much money is allocated by the feds, to other places. Tiny, out-of-the-way poorer places tend to get it last. One of the reasons I moved to such a place- and will again use that criteria when going expat.
Morning, Nunz!
My experience was identical. Moved out of Northern VA – which might as well be NYC or LA because of its proximity to DC – and to the far reaches of rural SW Va, almost in sight of the NC border.
Night and day difference.
Where I used to live, I could not replace my mailbox without permission. Here, I can do almost anything I like on my land – because there is no zoning, no HOA. I could walk outside right now and fire my guns all I wanted to – no Hut! Hut! Hutting!
No emissions tests. Property taxes exist, of course – but they are less than half what I was paying before on a small house on a 1/4 acre lot.
Of course, nothing lasts forever – especially nothing good. And the Clover Effect is already becoming noticeable. Farms/acreage are sold and subdivided. McMansions pop up. Who lives in them? The same people who lived in them in Northern VA. The type who cannot abide unzoned areas; that someone has a trailer on their land. Who go to county board meetings to demand property taxes be raised so that “schools” may be improved to their standards, with LBGTQSUV studies and such.
The only upside is that one can exact revenge – and fund one’s own fleeing – by selling one’s land/place to one of them for stupid money.
Eric, I’m just thankful that NYers/DCers/Shitcagoans with 6-figure pensions have no interest in this area where I live! And that there are no jobs here which will sustain a mcmansion! (Although the pols and the sheeple are trying their damnedest to foist that on us, and ruin this nice agricultural area, ’cause ya know, their kids are too special to raise cows or tobacky….they need ta work in fancy offices and live like city people… Of course, moving to a city where they do such is not an option, ’cause it’s too expensive…so instead, they just want to bring the city here, and somehow think they can do so without the expense, taxes, restrictions and loss of quality of life…
I was down in the SW corner of VA, in the early 90’s, on my first trip scoping out possible places to relocate to from NY- It was awesome down there! Dirt roads and hillbilly shacks! VA. wasn’t on my list though, as even then, it was too entrenched in tyranny, and had very unfriendly traffic enforcement…but darn, it sure was nice!.
Ironically, a little later, my sister’s ex-husband, a pig, settled in Harrisonburg. He’s dead now, but two of his kids (not mty sister’s) are now pigs (They multiply!) and another (my sister’s) is a freaking moron/nutjob, who has held several armed positions briefly, in sheriff’s offices/courts there. Scary.
Ah, the difference between “Vir-Gin-Yah!” and “Ver-Ginny!”. The trouble with “getting the Duck outta Fodge” is that we haven’t come up with a lawful way to keep the libtards in the cesspools they’ve created! Hence the commonly seen bumper sticker in any Western state BUT “California” to not “Californicate” it!
Nice country out there…haven’t been back there since early ’03, saw of the Blue Ridge Parkway while attending a then Bro-in-Law’s wedding in Mt. Airy, NC (where “Mayberry” is based on). Miss especially the home-grown bluegrass music!
Here in Idaho, I don’t recall the cops killing with impunity outside of the Boise area back in the 90’s. It now happens occasionally in rural areas. Jack Yantis was–murdered by an ex-Boise area cop–in a rural area. As Californication creeps here, it gets worse.
I can only make observation from the late 80’s onward since I was born in 79.
Eric,
“Maybe” it’s beneficial to immediately hand over one’s concealed carry permit if….and only if…you have a firearm in your possession at that time. If you don’t, there is little to be gained. Many cops don’t like the idea of any non-cops having the right to carry. A small but significant number of them will view it as one more justification to feel “in fear for their lives,” and we know how that works out.
Re: your “Mr Tagomi moment”…………………”He sits on a bench, glimpsing our San Francisco – not Japanese-occupied San Francisco,” I’m guessing you have not been to the Bay Area for a long, long time. 😉
Hi Mike, I think that this would depend upon the jurisdiction you are in when you get pulled over. A Chicago or a New York coproach would likely react just like you have said, but coproaches in smaller cities that are surrounded by rural areas are more used to seeing armed citizens, and are therefore less likely to overreact.
“coproaches in smaller cities that are surrounded by rural areas are more used to seeing armed citizens, and are therefore less likely to overreact.”
Once upon a time that might have been true, but remember that now, big city cops and highwaymen who have been caught raping and going beyond acceptable cop behavior are often banished to rural areas as punishment. These vermin have no respect for the customs of the people they find themselves policing.
What I see is the young guys from the cities just out of POST getting hired in Podunk for dirt-wages for a few years to get some LEO experience on their resume. Young local guys for the most part just don’t seem to want to lord it over their neighbors for just a little better than fast food wages.
Of course the city kids bring their mirrored sunglass attitudes with them.
I have a C&C permit, issued back in the early ’90s by the then Chief of Police in Isleton, CA, whom was that rarity in California law enforcement that affirmatively supported the Second Amendment. Since CA doesn’t require you to state that you simply have it, but if you are ‘packing’, you MUST inform the officer immediately, I don’t and would not tell a cop that I have one when I’m not armed. Nor, if carrying weapons out of plain sight, will I voluntarily divulge that I have them, as doing so will inevitably trigger what Eric terms the “Hut-Hut-Hut” routine.
This did get me into a bit of an argument with a lady deputy sheriff in a very isolated part of Nevada (which is most of the Silver State outside of Reno, Carson City, and Vegas). She pulls me over claiming that I was ‘speeding’ (at worst, doing 72 where posted 65, hardly “Parnelli Jones” there!). By coincidence, I’d pulled into the sheriff’s department parking lot, which in that tiny burg (pop about 1,100) was, like most of the town right along Hwy 50. When she demands my license, reg, and POI, she then asks if I have any weapons…not on me (I’m wearing gym shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops, so where I’ve got a piece on me is dubious). I tell her that I decline to answer the question, as I don’t want her to know about the hardware in the camper (all unloaded, and per CA laws, however unconstitutional I believe them to be, trigger-locked and in a locked gun case, as I’ve come directly from home in the Sacramento area), one of which is a friend’s Lee-Enfield SMLE (was going to practice the “Mad Minute” out in the Utah desert on my trip), the other being my Great-Uncle’s M1A2 “Paratrooper” carbine, which I had, after years of having it as a hand-me-down heirloom weapon, given it to my #2 daughter whom lives near Redding with her husband and kids, only to see “Cali(porn)ia” require it to be registered (she wouldn’t and didn’t) and them threatening a mandatory turn-in (confiscation) since that particular weapon, due to having two “military” features (folding stock and bayonet lug) is now considered an “assault rifle” (the only assaulting Great Uncle Fred’s carbine ever did was on five Japanese soldiers, whom, jumping with the 11th Airborne into Luzon, he dispatched to Buddha in 1945, and since them, various paper targets, empty beer cans, stray cats (scared hell outta Brian Setzer, I’ll bet!), and other assorted varmints). My “little goil” got the carbine b/c she’s a better shot than her brothers, having, like them, gotten a .22 rifle for her 12th birthday. The last thing that I wanted was for some over-anxious cop to seize that family heirloom and I’d spend all kinds of dough I don’t have to get it back! So I stone-walled this vaguely-female deputy, and she gets quite upset that I won’t answer her question. She asked if she could look inside the truck, and I refused. With that, she told me to wait in the truck, while she stomped off to the sheriff’s office building. A few minutes later, out comes her boss, the Sheriff himself (this IS one sparsely populated county), and he asks me why I won’t tell them if I have guns on me or not. I replied, “Sheriff, since I’m not a person prohibited by law from owning firearms, and the Second Amendment guarantees my right to own and BEAR then, I’ve no more reason to disclose my transporting any firearms in my vehicle any more than whether I’ve got Smithfield hams on board”. With that, the sheriff tells me to wait, and he and the lady deputy chat for about two minutes, then she comes back to the truck, hands me my license and paperwork, and tells me, “Sir, you’re free to leave”, which I do so…promptly, but with stinting compliance to the traffic laws until I was out of that county, in spite of my bladder being burdened by two energy drinks guzzled down since I stopped for gas in Fallon. I made an honest effort to ‘hold out’ until I got to Ely…but age and too much caffeine and liquid was taking it toll, much to the detriment of some unfortunate bush about 50 yards off of Highway 50!
Agreed — don’t tell cops you have a CHL, that just makes them start wondering why you told them that… “Was that a threat? Do you have a gun? OMG better just shoot you for safety’s sake!”
Eric,you nailed how to handle a cop.Im always polite and deferential/non threatening and I treat them as human as far as I can.And it works.I made a blatantly illegal left turn.When the cop pointed that out I HONESTLY slapped my forehead and blurted out “Your right! Ive seen that sign a hundred times and totally blanked on it” Got to talking,he mentioned he knew who I was from where we worked (That 1959 VW Transporter is NOT your grey man vehicle,LOL!) and knew we were temporary workers and danged if he didnt send me on my way without a ticket!
If every single person you deal with is a surly lying jackass,being genuinely nice is so refreshing to them it really plays in your favor.
If the guy is a jackass I just shut up and let them do what they must,and get away from them as soon as possible,again it isnt worth the trouble or danger setting off the steroided out armed uncontrolled above the law gang-banger.
Hope your new life is getting along OK too.Thats a big change.
Hi Fred. YMMV. I just got a ticket several weeks ago from a seemingly bored middle aged deputy. I was very polite to him, but that made no difference.
About 5 weeks ago I got pulled over for not coming to a complete stop. He told me why he pulled me over, and I replied politely that I saw that nobody was coming, so I continued on because I have common sense. He challenged me on my notion that I could just simply ignore a LAW just because because no traffic was coming. I barely kept myself from answering that question; but I KNOW that the expression on my face told him my opinion of stupid laws. He went back to his car for awhile. I had already resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be ticketed when he returned, handed me my paperwork back, and gave me a verbal warning to obey all laws even if I didn’t agree with them. I was very surprised!
You’re not alone, Eric. I’ve got a few cat problems myself
From the cat’s perspective, they have a “Human problem”…or else they at times have to get that big, funny looking UGLY ‘cat’ to do what’s he’s supposed to do…get their dinner!
Cats have the same problem with their owners as humans have dealing with their masters. Both the owners and the masters are routinely feeding their animals food that is grown on depleted soil and contains little if any nutrition unless it is added during processing. Thus was born human supplements and Dinovite.
Doug,
As someone who has fed stray cats most of my adult life, I never knew how mych they can truly eat, until a few years ago, when a couple of ’em worked their way into the house as full-time residents!
They eat more than large dogs!!!!!
O death in life, the days that are no more!
Ternnyson
Cops with hair (and I mean more hair than the military Idiot Rugs) are more likely to be nice. But there’s still no such thing as a good cop.
Aint that the truth, Kent.
You can almost always anticipate how they’ll behave by their appearance and age.
Young cop with sides shaved: Gonna be a dick and a bastard.
Young cop with normal hair: Definite dick, may be a bastard, but not as bad as the above.
Middle-aged cop with normal/abundant hair: Best bet for being almost human.
Middle-aged cop with sides shaved: Unpredictable unstable bastard.
Older cop with normal hair (may be sparse due to age but not shaving)- Second best bet for being nearly human.
Older cop with shaved sides: Watch out! This is gonna be one sadistic nasty bastard!
(Level of dickiness and bastardity increases with opacity of sungalsses)
Some of the most anti-cop people I’ve ever known (and who influenced me a lot) were older former cops with “normal” hair. They despised what cops have become– and in some cases this was 20 years ago, and we all know how much worse it is now.
I’ve come across that too, Kent. Always, conveniently after they’ve retired, or are close to it…. When they have a lot of years to go, they just drink to soothe what is left of any scraps of conscience they may have.
Hi Nunz,
The cop I dealt with was middle-aged, had hair – no sunglasses. I haven’t seen one like that in years. He was human and it was literally startling given how bad it has otherwise become.
Eric,
Yep! Call ir “profiling” or “stereotyping”, but it’s true!
I went to look at a used car a few years ago, and the middle-aged guy selling it was a pig (I had figured that out before I even went- I can smell ’em a mile away].
The guy had hair; was not overly neatly groomed; just seemed like a hapless, laid-back guy. I couldn’t believe it. He even puffed on a pipe as we went for a test drive…
Nothing intimidating about him at all; wasn’t a big guy; wasn’t trying to act like he was.
I was dumbfounded!
I was torn between almost liking the guy…or beating the crap out of him just because I could! 😉
Hi Kent,
Agreed on both counts. Cops with the “Heinrich Himmler” cut think they are in the military – if not the Waffen SS. In other words, they’re presumptively delusional. This is not to insult. It is to diagnose. Cops have been taught to emulate the military, but – sorry guys – you’re not actually in it. And a system which encourages them to believe they are in the military is either foolishly dangerous or deliberately vicious.
Eric, why must you impugn the few surviving Waffen SS vets so? Their organization had higher ethical and professional standards than the typical American law enforcement agency of today!
Agree wholeheartedly about cops calling members of the public they’re supposed to ‘protect and SERVE’ as “civilians”. Anyone who is in the military or formerly of it ought to be even more incensed. My response to being called a ‘civilian’ is, “what, did we declare martial law? Are you part of of military. officer? Where did the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 get repealed?”. They can wear whatever costumes they want, effect a military-regulation buzz-cut or shaven skull, but they’re STILL ‘civilians’, and they’d goddamned well better act like it!
Interesting too, how over the last couple’o decades, their costumes have changed from blue to black.
That cool-looking black uniform, designed by Hugo Boss & Sonn, belongs to the Allegemeine-SS, which pre-dated WWII. It was considered a dress uniform. For combat, Waffen-SS personnel typically wore the same Feldgrau, but with the “lightning bolts” on their lapels and on the sides of their respective Stahlhelmen, with the pips showing rank on one collar lapel. Waffen-SS personnel were also issued a particular “cammo” pattern for smocks, jumpsuits, and helmet covers.
Hogan’s Heroes, besides the utter irony that the “Germans” were all portrayed by Jewish actors (as was CPL LeBeau, Robert Clary), has Oberst Klink’s perpetual nemesis, “Major” Hofschtedder (though his pips indicate he’s a Obersturmbannfuhrer, equivalent to LTC), portrayed by Howard Caine, wearing the black Allegemeine-SS uniforms, and when accompanied by SS guards, they also wear the “Schwarz” (may it always be with you!). This is historically quite wrong, as a Gestapo officer would wear plainclothes (most favoring, during weather cold enough to justify it, a black leather overcoat) which was business attire, like most police departments then and now. The Gestapo didn’t have their own “soldiers”, if Hofschtedder needs ‘backup’, he’ll commander the local Kripo (Kriminalpolizei) or a military unit…including Klink’s own Luftwaffe guards.
Glad to hear that you did not get killed, injured, or relieved of your property (except for $25) in this instance Eric- but as far as the CC/CHP thing goes, remember who you are dealing with. The more info they have on you; the more things one signs themself up for, and the more info WE provide, the more entangled we become, and the more likely a target when they decide to come after you when they decree that what used to be legal, will now be illegal.
And furnishing the CC/CHP obsequiously- really, how is that any different than getting a “Real ID” license, just so they’ll make nice-nice with you, or to make encounters faster?
I’m nit saying don’t get a CHP if you truly need one…but to get one just to smooth encounters, or to voluntarily gove them more than what they require/the law requires/they ask for, even if it means saving a few hundred bucks, seems like a step in the wrong direction to me- which is one of the reasons I moved to KY, where we can buy, sell and trade guns among ourselves with no gov’t paperwork….. as registration is just a final step before eventual confiscation.
Funny this subject should come up now, though- as I was just watching a video last night, made by an expat living in China [He’s from NY, so I guess even China seems free to him by comparison]- but he was mentioning how in China, they have speed cameras on the highways, and red light cameras on the local streets- but other than that, there is virtually NO traffic enforcement. People basically do whatever they want on the roads, with zero chance of being pulled over.
Just shows the level of tyranny here, when one can be freer in their cars in communist China, than in any state in the US.
Back to the ticket: What are ya supposed to do in a situation like that? Thank the prick for not robbing you as badly as you had expected him to?
So far I have refused to pay the fees and jump through the hoops to beg permission to defend myself and family however and wherever I happen to be.
But there are “work-arounds” and I carry about 98% of the time anyway.
I really don’t get the people who consider a concealed carry permit to be some sort of an “I am special” badge ???
Hi Anonymous,
I debated getting the CHP for a long time. On the one hand, I understand and deeply grok the wrongness of having to get permission to exercise a right; also that by getting the CHP, I’ve let them know I have guns – which means if they ever ban us from owning them, I can expect to be among the first Hut! Hut! Hutted!
Is it better to just run under the radar? Maybe…
On the other hand, what if I got pulled over for some traffic trivia and am found to be in possession of a gun? In VA, open carry is legal but – in my opinion – extremely dangerous. To legally open carry in a car, the gun must be in plain sight – on the passenger seat, for example. Or on your hip. A cop sees that gun when he walks up… and… not good. Yes I know – one could call out: “I’m armed”… and the result is the same. You are going to have a Glock pointed at you by a nervous and possibly murderous cop. No thanks.
But if you keep the gun out of sight – and don’t have a permit – it’s a felony bust if the cop finds it. You are looking at huge lawyer bills, at the very minimum and the real possibility of a felony conviction, which is a life-ender for most people because it is a career ender.
So I got the permit.
I also prefer to concealed carry. No offense to open carry people, but I don’t see the point – other than making a point. Defensively, you’ve lost a big advantage because you have drawn a bead on yourself as the guy who can shoot back. Which means the scumbag is going to shoot you first.
In a life or death scenario, I’d prefer to get the drop on the scumbag.
Eric, I agree with everything you said above- but one point I think should be made, for those who might be on the fence- or for anyone to consider, is that not only does gun registration and permit-holding identify you as the first to be in line when confiscation comes around, but even now, it often determines who gets a visit from ye old SWAT team for relatively routine matters.
Having permits is tipping your hand to a far worserer[sic 🙂 ] set of thugs than one tips by openly carrying…. I worry far more about the badged thugs, because the other kind will likely just move on and find an unarmed [or seemingly so] victim- while many [if not most] of the badged variety of thug considers an armed citizen his competition; and unlike the average run-of-the-mill thug, he is allowed to eliminate the competition.
Agreed, Nunz…
I know I am on the list; several, probably – given the things I write about. It’s ok. Let them come. I have said this before, but for the benefit of those who haven’t read any of my previous posts on the subject:
I’m too old to start over – so I’m not leaving – and I’m too damned tired to hide or put up with what they have in mind; so when the time comes, they can come and get me. I am not a tough guy. I do not want a fight. But if necessary, I will fight.
I haven’t got a wife or kids. It’s just me. That gives me more freedom of action than most enjoy. I have enjoyed a pretty good life. I hope to live a long life. But if they come after me – a peaceful dude who only asks to be left in peace – I will respond in kind.
Nunzio, Unless you obtained your firearm completely off the books, you already have a paper trail “superhighway” leading right to your front door.
Getting one more permit, especially one that provides so much legal protection, is a risk/reward no-brainer.
True, Mike- but here in KY, state residents can buy, sell and trade firearms without any paperwork or government involvement/paper trail. None of my guns are on the books…and yet it’s perfectly “legal”.
One of the reasons I moved here. I WILL NOT ever put myself in a position where I must put a target on my head which is visible to all tyrants- because those who do will, like the Jews in Nazi Germany, be first in line, well before any real criminals (And already are, in many cases).
Consequently, the porkers here tend to have a lot more respect/restraint, than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. They never know what or how much one has….and they can’t treat everyone like a crazed hostage-taker- so they tend to watch their step a little more- at least here in the rural parts- because it’s still a gun culture, like America used to be.
Eric, our state has kind of weird firearm laws. You can conceal (or open) carry anywhere outside city limits, and the definition of “conceal” is rather specific for those times one has to venture into town.
We WOULD HAVE “constitutional carry” if not for Democrat governors who keep vetoing it. Next chance is 2021 and I may not care by then.
A couple years back I got stopped for the first time in over thirty years, for a cracked windshield. The trooper was decent enough I suppose for an ass-hole – ha! I think he was fishing for “no insurance” cause my pickup is a junker. Anyway my .357 was stuffed into the crack between the seats (60/40 bench) and he never asked and I never volunteered.
In Texas, you are required to notify the cop, when acting in official capacity, by handing your CHL and declaring whether you are carrying and the cop will know if you have a CHL once they run your DL.
Get stopped by a cop:
1) Signal and pull over.
2) Turn off car. Maybe put the keys on the middle console, out of view.
3) Open window and turn on inside light, if dark.
4) Pull wallet out of pocket and remove DL and CHL, if carrying concealed. Put wallet on middle console, out of view.
5) Get insurance paper/card.
6) Put hands on top of steering wheel and wait.
The few encounters I had with cops, the majority have been polite and professional. Aggravating, sure. And more than once all I have gotten were a warning.
A couple of times I got the ticket … I deserved it for not paying attention and doing something stupid. In those occasions, I admitted my stupidity and that I should have known better. Those interactions started a bit serious but relaxed a ton.
Agreed. This is why I typically maintain the same laws as the “People’s Republic” of Cali(porn)ia imposes in violation of the Second Amendment when I travel out of state. Sure, I could quite legally, once I’ve crossed back into ‘Murica’, pull over at some parking lot in Stateline (Hwy 50) or Verdi (Interstate 80), open the trunk, get the locked case holding either my Ruger or Smith&Wesson, unlock it, get the locked case holding my ammo, load the sidearm, and place it on the passenger seat or other conspicuous spot. (NOTE: Nevada still does not allow one to carry long firearms, even unloaded, in the passenger compartment, I believe that long arms, rack mounted on the rear of a pickup, are legal, though, but MUST be unloaded). However, unless I would anticipate NEEDING the sidearm, and the prudent thing is to AVOID the situation where I might NEED a firearm, lest Archie Campbell of “Hee Haw”, in his country doctor guise, start flailing me with a rubber chicken! (“Stay outta them thar places!”). My encounter with the “Nervous Nellie” of a deputy sheriff in some Nevada desert town would tell me that it’s quite unwise to be openly carrying just for ‘shits and giggles’. And suppose the piece falls and slides out of view? You want to be fumbling for it when the cop sez, “Good afternoon, sir, know WHY I stopped you?”? I don’t think so!
We have to reconcile ourselves to several basic facts: (1) De Facto, the Second Amendment has been REPEALED. Especially in Cali(porn)ia, it’s just ink on a scrap of paper. (2) Most cops do NOT believe the average citizen should have guns and especially not CARRY firearms in public, the Constitution and state permitting laws be damned (3) they look for potential danger in ANYONE they encounter, which of itself isn’t a bad thing (‘situational awareness’), but being armed automatically makes you a deadly threat, in their view (4) The Fourth Amendment has been likewise de facto REPEALED. Cops will simply ignore your refusal of consent to search and do it anyway; all you can do is record, Record, RECORD that refusal if and when they plant something on you after you’ve drawn their ‘ire’. Or they will, if you refuse them entry into your home, simply push you aside or kick the door in, claiming some manner of ‘exigent circumstance’ (which means whenever they want in) (5) Police department management, municipalities, states, and the courts are reluctant to discipline and/or dismiss errant and/or abusive cops, due to fear of powerful police unions (usually welded in lockstep to the Democrat party) and a public that demands “law and order”, even foolishly at expense of their very rights (6) Lastly, law enforcement, by its very nature, tends to draw persons with (a) inflated egos (b) a nauseating sense of self-righteousness (c) ‘anger management’ issues (d) are authoritarian, perferring to BE the ‘authoritai’ and, (e) have the “Us vs. ‘Them’ mentality. Unfortunately, the burly, buzz-cut, bulldog-jowled sporting the Ray-Bans, or the ‘butchy’ female, her hair pulled tightly in a bun, wearing her ovaries “on the outside”, with “Daddy” issues, is more than a Hollyweed stereotype!
So, if a non-consensual encounter with “the Law” encounters better than what you might expect from Judge (and jury, and EXECUTIONER) Joseph Dredd, and especially if your wallet isn’t lightened, you’re not on “Double-Secret Probation”, and your “permanent record” isn’t marred, then it’s a GOOD one…What’s the BEST encounter with the cops? The one that DIDN”T happen!
Good reason to stay within the speed limits [wink]
Don;t know about Eirc’s home state, but in most states the Mother May I Card is linked to the driving license and the vehicle number plate. In other words, before the cop exits his vehicle he’s run your plates and he knows whether you have that Mother May I Card to carry a handgun concealed upon your person. So by volunteering this document Eric does not provide any information beyond what the copper already has at his disposal.
It makes me firious that most states mandate you carry a paper copy of the registration for the vehicle, when the copper ALREADY knows who it belongs to, whether the registration is current, whether the description on file matches the vehicle he’s just stopped…. just one more way of fleecing the flock if you don’t have that precious paper IN POSSESSION.
Records show that when a car is broken into somewhere, particulary at a large parking lot or shopping mall, the one thing the perps will ALWAYS try hard to find is the registation paper. They now know yur name AND address…… and since your car is parked five miles from home, guess where you are nost likely NOT??!!??
Stupid gummit making life harder and more dangerous for us all…… not to mention expensive.
Hi T,
In my case, it’s a little different because I am often driving a car that isn’t mine – the press cars I test drive. Not registered to me. Also, in VA one is not required to advise the cop that one is a CHP holder, but by doing so, you’ve made a psychological gesture and it (for me) has usually worked to my advantage.
There was once a law that required that the current registration being displayed in copiously-open view, like on the steering wheel cover. Fortunately, because it tipped off crooks that the owner’s home MIGHT be unattended (funny, the idea that there’s more than one car at that residence or there are more adults than cars there might not have occurred to those morons), this was done away with.
Good point about having a concealed carry permit. Out here in Colorado it’s administered by the county sheriff. I’m still kicking myself over not getting one in Grand County way back when, all you did was fill out a form, cut a check and they hand you the permit. Pitkin county had more requirements and a pretty hefty processing fee. A quick check just now looks like most of the county requirements are about the same everywhere, so maybe there’s been new requirements handed down by the state.
Nice thing about living near a town called “Rifle” is that there’s a fair number of places were you can take a CC class. Might be something to add to my list of things to do…
We drove through Rifle on the way moving from Coloradofornia to Montana in 1997.
Back then at least, as soon as you get over the pass towards Meeker and Craig, it felt like you were already starting to get into Wyoming, or at least turning the clock back to a much more relaxed and free Colorado that used to exist.
Right?!
They may as well rename Denver “East San Francisco”.
More like Chicago, perhaps? It’s been that way a long time.
Eric,
I think this piece is a good start to your own *Civilian Interaction Training* film.
I’m trying to understand why you didn’t buckle up after pulling over. Why admit to something you can avoid?
If they see you do that, there’s zero chance of any leeway. They could also freak out with you reaching near your hip.
I think that he handled this brilliantly. Having a workable violation like belts is probably what led to him not getting a speeding ticket. My guess.
Swamps, with psychos[pigs] ya never know what they’re thinking… Could be that TWO violations [speeding + nanny belt]= get pulled over, whereas just one, the pig might not have bothered. Ya never know/can’t predict.
It’s like the last time I got pulled over- 1996- Driving an old-fashioned tow truck a few days after NY had enacted a law that tow trucks (engaged in the business of towing0 must now carry special [read: EXPENSIVE] tow truck insurance.
TWO pig-mobiles pull me over after following me for miles! Porker says something to the effect of “Whose car is that?” [motioning to what’s on my hook]- I knew “where he was going”- a fishing expedition to catch those who did not comply with the new law. I whip out the car’s title, and say “It’s mine now!” [I wasn’t towing for hire- just transporting my junk car- (so didn’t require the new insurance)- which I’d buy or be given by the former owners]- understanding that the pig was probably incapable of reading the “NOT FOR HIRE” lettering on the side of my truck. Pig is satisfied, and says “O-K” and starts to walk away.
Me, being me, I stop him as he’s turning to walk back to his pig-mobile, and say “Why did you stop me?”- In other words , what was the excuse for probable cause? Granted, that was a calculated risk, as the pig could have used the opportunity to issue a ticket- to justify the stop, even though I was not in violation of any law- but my gamble payed off! The porker stops in mid-step and freezes for a second. You could see the hamster wheel in his head spinning- and then says “Uhh…..you were a little close to the outside of the lane!”- as he immediately turned, and almost RAN back to his car!
To this day, I’m kinda amazed by that. I wonder if maybe he thought I was part of some sort of undercover internal-affairs sting operation or something- ’cause usually pigs don’t react that way when one calls their bluff.
That’s another reason why I really need to go expat. I don’t do confrontations well. No “Yes sir, officer sir” here…..
I think in the long-run, we’d all be better off if we let the badged scum know that we know the law and our supposed rights- and confidently stood for them. The pricks are gonna be pricks no matter what you do- but it seems that some [espeically the dumber ones or more corrupt ones] are somewhat intimidated by those who know the law and who stand up for themselves.
Opposite Lock is right Jim. Way back in the ’80’s I did exactly what you have suggested twice. I tried to sneak my seatbelt on, but the cops saw my shoulder or shoulder belt movement and asked me what the hell I was doing. I knew then that I was caught anyway, so i honestly told them that I was putting my seatbelt on in the hopes of avoiding being ticketed for that. They told me in no uncertain terms to never do that again because they thought that I may be drawing a gun. Coproaches today are far more likely to shoot first, and ask questions later.
Getting treated well by the cops is either the #2 or #3 best reason to get your carry permit (the other one being able to skip the background check at the gunshop). It even works when you’re a witness to an accident – there was a multi-car fender-bender and I hung around to give a statement. All I had to do was let him see both the license and the permit and it was friendly-time.
And here’s some recently-made 80’s synth for you (it seems to be .. ‘back’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBEi7Sq9KTU
Coming down from Bozeman, MT on a library meeting for my wife and getting close to Pierre, SD get pulled over by SD Trooper early Sunday morn and also did the same pull over quickly in a wide area, shut engine off, window down, handing him my license, CHP and reg and was armed and told him that and where it was. He asked him to accompany him to his car as my dogs were being yappy (they don’t like cops either). He runs me and writes up a warning ticket for the speed (72 in a 55) on a 2 lane rural state highway. He said to me that we had our seatbelts on and I was courteous and forthright about my CHP and weapons, he thanked me! No paying paper and no points.
LOL,dogs in the car.My last encounter had the GSD and Husky,who usually imitate Garfield plastered on the window,doing their best “We want to kill and eat you” routines.2AM,we get the fishing expedition almost felony style stop,with the other cop slinking around silently to approach passenger side.Both dogs just sat there and did their best,sweetest “We are golden retrievers” impersonations.Wife and I shocked at that behavior. Got off with a verbal for a tail light out.
LOL,got my dogs playing grey dog (grey man) now,too funny!!
If anyone suggests that this might be some sort of evidence that your (and our) vehement dislike of American copping is overstated, bullshit.
This is an extreme exception to all that is warned about on your pages: American copping is out of control and never to be trusted.
It’s an indecent job. There are some decent people doing this job who don’t yet realize that this is a terrible way to make a living.
All of that must have something to do with the fact that police departments prefer those who are not too smart and have experience oppressing those whose society they have conquered and occupy. Judging by the fact that the military has similar tastes in intellect and moral turpitude, one can understand why being a police officer is better than being a soldier. At least the police officer can quit.
Neither job would be necessary if the militia had not abdicated.
Jim, no decent person could even sit through one training class without gagging and bolting, if he were truly decent. They basically tell them to look upon EVERYONE as scum (Even 25 years ago, that was true).
No person with even a modicum of conscience could put up with the training, much less expect to spend decades following the orders of the cretins who advocate and accept such.
Any decent person, upon interfering with his very first motorist who was doing nothing more than minding his own business and just exceeding the arbitrary “speed limit” by so little that you need the read-out of a machine to even know he was doing so, would ever want to do that again…much less over and over again for decades to come.
Could YOU imagine ever doing that, even once? “Uh, I’m going to have to interfere with you as you go about your business, even though you’ve harmed no one; and I may also relieve you of some money, and your dignity, because I’m just following orders, and the read-out on my machine said that you were doing something that you shouldn’t have been, although your conduct was so harmless and subtle that I wouldn’t have known you were doing it, but for my machine; and I had to do the very same thing for which I am about to penalize you for, in order to catch you…”
No person of normal intellect and with any conscience could do that- and that’s the least of what these pricks do, every day.
This sounds like what occupying American soldiers have always done to those they occupy, before they murder them.
Nunzio– About 14 years ago I sat in a bar talking to the bartender (karaoke had been canceled but I was already there…) who was a guy in his early to mid 20s. What got us on the topic was something on the TV about the state capitol. I said the thing needed to be bulldozed and done away with. He said without it and the “laws” flowing from it, there would be chaos and we’d all be raping and killing each other.
Turns out he was attending cop training. ONe of the things he told me was that everyone is guilty and his job as a cop would be to figure out what we are guilty of and make an arrest. I continued to sit and talk to him for an hour or two. The things he said chilled me, and I’ll never forget his attitude.
Again, there may be nice cops, there is no such thing as a “good cop”.
When the only tool issued is a hammer, EVERYTHING starts looking like a NAIL.
They really believe that BS too, Kent! I guess that’s why the state only wants the stupid as cop applicants.
Just the things I’ve heard in the past (and many years ago, no less- it’s much worse now) by relatives who becoming revenuers and enforcers of the state’s decrees, would chill me too.
After they’d unashamedly proclaim some of the things they were taught, and continue right on their merry way, pursuing that vocation, not even being ashamed to admit to what they were accepting, I would have to sever ties with them.
It disgusts me that members of my own fambly can blatantly become the tools of such evil, after my grandparents came here and made great personal sacrifices so that their descendants could have better lives and be free from the fascism of Dago-land- and these diseased twats trample upon all of that, and become the very promoters of what my grandparents came here to escape.
Seriously, I hope that every one of these bastards ends up with a bullet in his head. (So far, only one ended up with a bullet in his leg- and in turn, has lived for decades now on 3/4’s salary at taxpayer’s expense. But as luck would have it, he got injured in a freak accident while enjoying his pension, and is now almost a retard. Justice!
Kent,
You don’t think this fellow is a good cop?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/11/02/feature/if-you-dont-get-at-that-rot-you-just-get-more-officers-like-josh-hastings/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1c89ecb5be18
He wasn’t even a “nice” cop.