SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS!

[JonLP24]

57. I remember a detective

pulled me over because they were investigating a fare that I just dropped off -- I had no idea they were following me. It was for "driving on the wrong side of the road" -- I was driving on the right and pulled to the curb on the house to the left hand side. I had no idea that was illegal so I was absolutely confused to the probable cause (plus I had an iffy "terry stop" by police in 2011 before) or the reason why they were questioning me especially since they weren't telling me anything.

Anyways during the course of it I gave them my ID, asked if that was my address told him no but couldn't remember the address (a girlfriend's apartment) but gave the intersection, the name of the apartments, the name of the car dealership it was located next to -- I just couldn't remember the damn unit number and was indicating to me that this was a problem. So I call her, tell her the cop wants to know her address she refuses, hang up and tell the cop she refuses. He tells me that he'll have to take me to jail until he figures out what my damn address is (I'm not even on the lease, was there less than 2 weeks) so I call again and tell her she wants to speak to him, he says he doesn't "want to play any games" and refuses to speak to her, she says, "I want to tell him the address, who is the one playing games?" She advises me to hand the phone to another cop which I did -- problem solved.

After they completely searched the vehicle and questioned me to death -- what could I tell him? They apparently knew much more about what the fare was into than I did, how could I help? They wrote me a ticket and asked me to do some undercover work for them -- even giving him a free ride to the suspects house. This was after I lost valuable time and it was particularly bad day (they gave me shit over noticing how little money I had in my wallet and what the daily lease rates were -- like they were happy about the cost of this inconvenience to me). That $20 the fare gave me was the most I made that day of a single fare. Why would I help them out even if I wanted to?

I think police hurt themselves in the long wrong with this sort of attitude. If people are treated rude and disrespectfully, why would they want to help them out in the future? I like to deal with people and situations that are straightforward, I don't like lies & manipulation, and disrespectful behavior which turn me off to the local police.

On edit -- I just remembered I ran into that same detective near the entrance of a grocery store when another officer near him was arrested someone for "threatening" (according to the officer yelling & cuffing him) he turned to me and asked, "Do you remember where I stopped you at?"
"Yes" (me)
"Where did I stop you at?"
"You know where." (me)
"No, where did I stop you at."
"Can I stop answering questions" (or use my 5th amendment right or something to that effect)
"See you soon" (detective)

What an asshole. I still can't figure out why he wanted to have a useless conversation with me on my way to the grocery store while he was in the middle of arresting someone that is obviously unrelated.