this is still pissing me off. i need to rant.

[ButterflyBlood]

last night I went to see the bands Ampere and Death to Tyrants in Sioux Falls. They both kicked ass, plus I got to see Ampere play a secret show later in my friend's basement. so that was a fun time. But the ride home wasn't.

I had to stop for gas, so I figured I'd look for an open station in Worthington, the only city between here and Sioux Falls that would be likely to have one open that late. A police car keeps following me until I finally pull over. Then he does and turns his lights on and screams at me to stay in the car. Then later he tells me to get out and come into his car with him with my license. He checks it and finds out it's valid. Then he starts asking me if I've been drinking, have had any drugs, if I'm on any medication, the answer is of course no. Then they ask me why I was here and keep asking me if any drugs were involved at the show or at my friend's house later, the answer is always no. ANOTHER car pulls up. Then he tells me to step out, but the other cop follows me. He asks me to stick out my tongue probably some sort of drug test. Then he keeps asking me if I can cross my eyes, which I can't. I suppose being fairly drowsy and having bloodshot eyes from leaving my contacts in for too long makes it look like I could possibly be stoned, but rather than simply giving some test, he keeps asking WHAT sort of drugs I was near, and then finally gives me some sort of test to follow his finger with my eyes. Well I pass. But then they decide to give me tests to see if I can safely drive at this point. I keep passing them and seem to be annoying the cops.

Well then one says "are you sure you don't have any drugs or any sort of weapons in your car?" I say yes and he asks if he can check. I figure whatever but say I'll have to give him the keys to unlock him. He then starts asking why I locked the door while I explain it's just a habit. Well finally he goes and looks and finds nothing.

So he comes back sounding fairly dissapointed saying "alright, you can go." that's it.

I can't help but think I'm the victim of the fact that some small town cops were bored and had nothing better to do than harass some random kid driving through the town because he had weird bumper stickers on his car and kept hoping I was a law breaker in some way so they could arrest me and get a thrill. I'm still so irritated.

[dorktv]

1. Wow...That is worse then Sheriff Joke Arpiao's Jail here in AZ.

[enki23]

2. woah... i was born in worthington

lived just over the border in iowa, and went to sioux falls fairly regularly. my old stomping grounds, though i never had much stomping opportunity when i lived there.

and yes, small town cops are annoying as hell. they haven't much better to do around there than harrass teenagers. it doesn't help, of course, that small town teenagers are usually so bored they don't have anything better to do than harrass *everyone.*

[ButterflyBlood]

3. you grew up in northwest iowa?

ugh. that part of the state is one of the most close-minded, unfriendly and scarily right winged places i've ever seen.

[enki23]

5. yes i did, and yes it is

i left at eighteen and never looked back.

[politicat]

4. You have my sympathy! I got it all the time, too, when I was younger.

Okay, I drove a 20 year old car with some of the most inflammatory bumper stickers I could find for the area on the back. I had a new look three times a year (hair color being one of those things that really changes what I look like) and tended to live - like most students with little money - in the lowest rent districts. And I smoked, which made the cops hope for pot. (No, officer, just good old, American tobacco that supports American farmers. Pot would kill me, seeing as I'm allergic to it....)

I got pulled over 19 times in 18 months, and never did a single incident take less than 45 minutes to resolve - usually with a car and me search. (Many times the extra time was because I insisted on a woman to do the pat-down so they'd have to call for one. I don't let strange men touch me, especially when they're likely doing it for the thrill factor. I will not be some blue boy's wet dream material.) Lots of random, "what is the neurological point of this test?" tests. (I still don't see what the good of asking me to do 30 situps on the sidewalk was. That I've been doing my crunches?)

It gets better... slowly. I can say that as I approach 30 - and even with the inflammatory bumper stickers - I get a lot less harassment.

Hang in there, and if you feel you were being harassed for something legally protected, you can call the Chief of Police or the state office of civil rights. That's your choice of course.

Pcat

[sandnsea]

6. Oh tell me about it

I am 46 freakin' years old and I got that treatment last year on a supposed speeding stop. I swear to god I wasn't speeding. I haven't been stopped in years and when one of them came up on the right side with his flash light and started peering in the back of my car it just scared me to death. And all the questions, grrr. I finally got mad and told them to write me a ticket or I was going to leave. The cop was rather shocked. (I don't recommend that unless you really do look like a regular 46 year old mom.) After a few more words he just shook his head and said "just go lady". What you kids have to put up with these days, gads.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Ah, yes, bored small town cops

I used to encounter them when I lived in a small town. Make up traffic laws on the spot and pull people over for "violating" them. I actually had one tailgating me in the right lane of a four-lane street and flashing his lights. When I pulled over and asked what was wrong, expecting to hear that I had a flat tire or a burned-out signal light or something, he said that I had failed to move into the left lane when he wanted to zoom through in the right lane.

Yup, that's exactly what he said. I refrained from asking why he didn't move into the left lane if he was in such a hurry, because I had encountered this kind of small-town cop before, and I know that they do not take challenges in a good mood. (And if he was in such a hurry, why did he take the time to stop me?)

Anyway, I knew he couldn't do anything if I just listened to him rant. What judge was going fine me for moving with the flow of traffic in the right lane?

[Birthmark]

8. Don't let it get to ya.

That happened to me between once and three times a week in one town I lived in. The cops just KNEW I was one of dem potheads...and he was gonna catch me. He was exactly right on the first count, but woefully overconfident on the second. :)

Sad thing was, I generally had pot on me when he stopped me. ;)

Hey, it was the 70s.

[newscaster]

9. I pretty much had the same thing happen to me

in the small town of Conway Arkansas. The cop followed me for about twenty miles before putting on his lights. Then he dragged me alllllll the way back to Conway where I was charged with crossing a solid yellow line. There had not been any solid yellow line on the stretch of road he designated. Then he tells me the fine will be 185 dollars when I appear in court next Thursday. When I told him I could not be in Conway next Thursday, he told me to pay the fine to him and he would give it to the judge. I told him okay but first, I wanted him to write out the full traffic ticket, sign it and hand me a copy.
He wouldn't do that. I told him In don't pay until he writes out a ticket. He tells me he decided to leave it as just a warning and that I was free to do.
The putz did not know that I was on television in Little Rock and was rather good friends with Arkansas richest citizen, Winthrop Rockefeller.
I had the cops ass fired the next day.

[Downtown Hound]

10. I hate stories like that

Yeah, it happened to me too. I'm 27 now and it happens a lot less now, but I'm not out of the woods. The thing that really pisses me off about it is that cops always seem to wonder why people don't like them. And then you find out that so many people have stories like this, and you just wonder when they're going to get a clue. Now, I don't hate all cops, and I know it's a difficult job, and that society would be worse if no one did it. But when so many of them get their jollies by harassing people and flaunting their authority, it doesn't help matters any.

This is also another example of why the drug war is such a mistake. It turns the cops into morality enforcers, when what they really should be doing is protecting the public's safety.