Stopped For "Driving While Poor"

[REP]

I drive an old car - nothing cool, just a 1986 Pontiac that is properly licensed and insured with a current hcap permit, and I'm a nearly middle-aged disabled white chick with a clean driving record. Loved One and I live in Silicon Valley, and tonight as I was driving home, I was pulled over. I asked why, but the cop wanted to know what I was doing in the neighborhood (boyfriend lives there); why my car is a mess (I'm a disabled slob, that's why); what my address is (?!) and what was in my backseat (laundry and junk). I was never asked for license, proof of insurance and registration. I was never told why I was pulled over, but I figure it has something to do with my car being old, although...

The previous night, while my 40 year old boyfriend and I were out in his fully legal and clean 1999 Pontiac, we were followed for quite some time by a cop. He wasn't just driving the same place we where; he was driving in another ;ane, way below the speed limit to follow us, and would pull up and look hard at us, then drop back again, etc, but no pull-over

Well, at least the police of Mountain View and Sunnyvale aren't just hassling drivers of color - they're after broke, disabled drivers, too.

[Mairead]

1. The more 'centrists' that gain power, the more we'll see of that

It's the 'fringe leftists' who believe in real freedom for all, not anyone further to the right.

Vote for Dennis Kucinich, if you don't think people should be stopped gratuitously.

[Julien Sorel]

2. What exactly does centrism have to do with being pulled over?

Nothing, that's what. The cops who do that sort of thing are generally jackass rightwingers; they call it 'hotdogging.'

[REP]

4. "Hotdogging"?

I'm not disagreeing, but the idea of "hotdogging" by pulling over a sick woman in an old car is, well, screamingly funny. "Watch out - she'll tell you about her kidney disease! We need backup!"

[Mairead]

18. Everything. It comes from a willingness to

use poor people, to treat them as lesser, as things. That's where the willingness to budget-balance on the backs of the poor comes from, too.

[Julien Sorel]

23. True centrists aren't interested in

'balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.' I noticed you mentioned Clark further down, implying he would somehow do this; I challenge you to show me how -- in another thread, as the person who started this thread is rightfully annoyed at you for trying to hijack this one.

So start a thread and show exactly how Clark is going to 'balance the budget on the backs of the poor,' or else shut up with this unbecoming and vague foolishness.

[REP]

3. No, But Thanks Anyway

I'm voting for someone with whom I agree.

I have nothing against "people" being stopped for no reason if ALL people are at risk, but I'm against only the poor, disabled and those of non-majority races being pulled over.

[izzie]

5. I watched some Indians(Am) once with the police coming

in to store after them after they got out of their car. I asked them if that went on alot and they said yes all the time but it was even more so in Canada. They were both Can/Am. since the start of country. The indian said he was used to it. They came from a tribe that really were trouble makers.We both laghted at that.

[Mairead]

19. Well, it's up to you of course

My point is only that actions have consequences, and traits seem to cluster. The guy who's willing to balance the budget on your back is probably not going to be too concerned about whether you get rousted by the cops. Why would he be?

[REP]

20. I'm Not Voting for Bush!

He's the guy balancing the budget on my back.

You like your guy. Great! Start a thread about how nifty he is - don't 'jack mine, 'kay?

[Gore1FL]

7. I take exception to every point

It isn't just the fringe left who believes in freedom for all.

I doubt Kucinich will impact gratuitous stops by local police if elected President.

There are legitimate reasons to support Kucinich. You don;t have to make shit up.

[Mairead]

15. "I doubt Kucinich will impact gratuitous stops"

I think my point was that, if anyone will, he will. The others (apart from Sharpton and perhaps CMB, and Kerry if he sobers up) won't because they are into control (e.g., they can't see that the 'patriot' act is an affront to the Constitution, so they want to 'adjust' it rather than scrap it and start over.)

[Cooley Hurd]

29. "Kerry, if he sobers up?"

I'm not a Kerry supporter, but that type of rumormonging does nothing but support the GOP. What if Kerry gets the nomination? Do you want to hear that unsubstantiated charge being repeated by the GOP? Just keep giving KKKarl ideas... :eyes:

[Mairead]

40. What are you talking about? What rumormongering?

'If he sobers up' is a metaphor, like 'if he comes to his senses'.

Please get a better grip!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. You Are Right-Let's Not Bash A Person Or Group Or Person Before They Do

Something Worthy Of Bashing...

Or we'll become what we purport to loath....


Here... I'll use some colloqialisms to make a point...


Nobody in their right fucking mind, regardless of their ideology is going to applaud a jack ass cop who fucks with people for mo reason....

Did my colloqialisms get through

[Julien Sorel]

6. Think you have problems?

I used to like in Bakersfield, CA, and for a time drove an old Camaro, and work the night desk. About once a week, I would get followed and then pulled over by the cops on my way to work, for such things as 'weaving,' and having a taillight that 'intermittently went out,' except no taillight ever went out unless a cop was following me, of course. I had a friend who was a retired cop, and he said a black guy driving an old Camaro fit the profile of a drug dealer, so they were simply 'hotdogging,' pulling me over hoping to find something to justify pulling me over. After a while, I learned to leave 15 minutes early to compensate for the pullovers; a couple of times they would pull me over twice in the same night. A friend of mine was hispanic, and he also had an old Camaro and they pulled him over all the time, too, once roughing him up pretty badly when he complained about it.

I eventually got revenge, of a sort. A cop was in the opposite lane from me -- he was going in one direction and I was going in another -- and he saw me coming. He started concentrating on me so hard, that he started his inevitable U-turn to start following me without noticing there was a barrier in the middle of the road, and he drove right into it. I still laugh my ass off about that to this day.

[La_Serpiente]

9. LOLOLOL

That's a pretty funny story

[Kolesar]

13. This thread needed some humor (I think Mairead was joking about centrists)

Come on, tell me you were joking.

[Mairead]

21. uh, no, I really wasn't joking.

'Centrist' Dems are not very distinguishable from soft Republicans. I expect that's why Clark sees no problem with any of his pro-Republican stances, and why he could have adopted either label: there just isn't much difference at that point in the spectrum. We can see that here at DU very well, I think.

People who are controlling and classist and willing to delete benefits to the poor but not to the wealthy are not very nice people, in my book. If we ignore what someone says and instead watch what they do, watch the direction in which their choices would move wealth and power, everything becomes much more clear.

[Kolesar]

32. I will take your opinion under advisement

I don't get the connection between cutting benefits and the police harassing the poor, but I see that you have a strong "gut feeling" about this.

[REP]

10. Well, Sorta

'Cause it looks like I'm gonna be broke for a while, and driving the same car to Sunnyvale...

[HFishbine]

31. "fit the profile"

It's funny to see Clark supporters speak against profiling on the road, but remain silent about it happening in airports. You think it's bad now, just wait until the government starts maintaining survelience dossiers on the traveling public so that they can exercise even more pre-emptive detentions.
-------

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A7380-2003Sep26¬Found=true

[REP]

34. HEY! *MY* Thread! No Sniping at Others

I've got a favorite candidate, but this thread is about a broke, disabled DUer being stopped for no apparent reason other than having an old crappy car.

ObSheesh: Sheesh!

[Scurrilous]

8. Driving...

..is not a right, it's a privilege (I wish I had a dollar for every time a cop told me that!). You obviously aren't privileged enough.

[REP]

11. No Shit!

Well, the car was a gift from my brother nine years ago ... that's sorta privledged...

But that's the thing - no "you were doing something wrong" no nothing, except why I was there, where do I live and why is my car a mess.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. My husband was harrassed in Texas

back when long hair and a van with no side windows meant "hippie drug dealer". He was moving, and a Texas cop stopped him and, on appearances alone, threw all his stuff in a ditch full of water. Hubby kept his cool, and the cop said, "Damn. I wanted you to fight so I could beat you up," and left.

[kathee]

26. Mixing long hair and old cars

is a guaranteed stop in Tx. My husband, son, and brother(now gone) all have/had long hair. And drive old cars.

We have this one woman cop here in our town, that likes to pull old cars over, and say "I smell POT', like you are about to commit a drive by. She's the worst of the bunch in my small town.

So, long hair and old cars still make em think drug dealer...

[Kolesar]

14. My old roommate gave the cop "the business" about profiling

He was a white teacher on a slim budget and got around in a scruffy old pickup truck. Once he got pulled over for a "fake reason" and he told the cop "you are profiling me, you just stopped me because I have an old vehicle and I look like somebody without a lot of money".

[Kolesar]

16. The Supreme Court has ruled I have the Constitutional right to do this!

While pulling away from the traffic stop, he extended his fist out the window with his middle finger raised as he drove off.

Actually, I cannot recall if it was the same traffic stop, but I think it was. Doug had cohones.

[BiggJawn]

24. How long before the pepper spray stopped stinging?

Try that in Indiana, and it's an immediate invitation to be thrown to the pavement and forced to lick asphalt.

Told a cop who rousted me once "That seems a little funny...A van EXACTLY like this?" and his response was "How'd you like to yuk it up in jail until Monday morning and then you can tell the Judge how 'funny' it is?"

Assholes. Don't they know there's pills now to fix that limp dick they're trying to make up for?

[SoCalDem]

17. Yikes..I have a 91 Honda, an 82 Toyota, and an 86 Dodge pickup

We will be sure to avoid that are if we are ever in your neck of the woods..:)

My husband calls my car a 4-wheeled trashcan :)

[Mairead]

22. "a 4-wheeled trashcan "

I tell people my car is an extension of my purse. :)

[CWebster]

27. It's all those un-American bumper stickers

you have plastered all over the back. ;-)

[REP]

28. IT GETS WORSE!!

I went to take out some trash, and noticed that my dome light was on and my driver's side door was open - the one that doesn't open from the inside.

Goddammit. Someone got into my car and stole my Walkman, my mini-disk recorder, two Dandy Warhols albums and my laundry change.

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mtn Vw cops were very nice to me, though. They had no idea why I had been pulled over earlier, though.

[FlaGranny]

30. How long and how well

do you know your boyfriend? I ask because of the following story. About 30 years ago, my husband noticed that he was being followed home from work, sometimes by police cruisers, other times by plain dark cars. He was never stopped, though, just followed. He was driving a cheap car. Well, he found out that the two kids he was working with all day were drug trafficking, regularly going down to Florida to pick up drugs and take back to NJ. Soon after, the two kids were arrested. One of these kids especially liked my husband so he gave him a pound of pot seeds. Yikes!!!! I took a shovel and buried that package of seeds about 3 feet deep - this was at the same time he was being followed home from work. I hope the folks who bought our house didn't dig a hole and plant something over those seeds and have them sprout.

Edit: I might add my husband really liked that kid, too. He still keeps a Christmas card the kid gave him 30 years ago.

[REP]

33. 12 Years and Very, Very Well

He's a programmer for Apple - nothing weird going on.

[FlaGranny]

35. It could be that he knows or maybe even you know

someone the cops suspect of drug dealing. You can never tell. :-)

[REP]

36. Trust Me On This - HE'S Not The Problem!

The tenants in the front house maybe though; some stupid asshole with a jailed boyfriend, a jailed brother, and a nasty little brat who screams constantly. I suspect they have something to do with meth, as either users or dealers, but we have nothing to do with those horrible, nasty deadbeats.

[Flaming Meaux]

37. Have you seen any 17 yo GM cars that WEREN'T a mess?

These were designed to dissolve in two to three years. I live in the Northeast. I know. The sun eats the paint, then the salt eats the metal.

I suspect in California, there are a lot of these cars with just crappy paint, but no rust.

This sort of thing burns me up. Since when is the car I drive anyone's business? I think if I had a day off, I'd make it a point to drive around Sunnyvale during rush hour 5 to 10 below the speed limit, coming to a COMPLETE stop at EVERY light, stop sign, and four-way intersection, as if I just learned how to drive yesterday (or I was 90 years old).

Then when I got pulled over, I'd do my best imitation of that old lady Tracy Ullman does on Tracy Takes On... (one of my favorite shows on HBO).

[REP]

38. Mine's A Little Worse than That, Even

Mine was stolen from me back in KC and the thieves really fucked up the body. Not worth putting the money into to fix, since it just looks bad (and not bad like Shaft).

I also have an Iron Deuce - it'll outlast the body by years!

[Scott Lee]

39. Look for a revival of Debtor's Prisons....

citations for "no visible means of support" and other pre-union, industrial age atrocities against the non wealthy. The wingnuts love these sort of things. Remember Orrin Hatch wanted to make inability to pay on your credit cards a crime - this from a guy who hides behind a tax shelter by putting almost everything in his wife's name.

[Classical_Liberal]

41. Yes this does happen.

don't know what in the hell there problem is either.