The_quorum

Yesterday my battery died when I was on my way out the door to my first appointment (about 30 minutes away). Of course I was running late so I was in a rush. I got my neighbor to jump-start me, and I took off flying down MD32 to I-97 heading for Annapolis. Pushing 95-100 (not a lot of traffic) to make up time, I pass a riced out red Accord v-6 w/ Altezza rear lights & coffee can exhaust tips. He sees me and tries to catch up because I can hear his exhaust buzz to life. At this point I'm not trying to race, I just want to get to my appointment.
The accord pulls right behind me and starts to follow me going 100 (I'm in the left lane, just got onto I-97 and there's a Chevy Lumina ahead of me that is "puttering" in the left lane). The Accord changed lanes before I could and went around on my right as I came up FAST on this blue Lumina's *** and had to slow down. As soon as he got around, I went around the Lumina on the right, and took off again. I look in my rearview only to see flashing blue and red lights from the Lumina I just passed. I wave to let him know I saw him and started to pull over, he rushed past me (waving to me to pull over as he does) and nabs the Accord as well. So we're stopped on the shoulder, Accord in front, Lumina behind him, then me behind the Lumina (now identified as an unmarked police car). The guy gets out of the Lumina (plain clothed w/ badge & ID around his neck). He identifies himself as AA county police, presents me with his badge and ID, then asks for my licence and registration. (keep in mind I'm in my suit, laptop open on the passenger seat w/ my cellphone, and empty carseat in the back seat). My had is shaking from adrenaline as I hand him my license and our conversation went like this:

Him: Do you know why I stopped you?
Me: I was going a little fast.
Him: More than a little, guy. Why so fast?
Me: I'm really late for a crucial appointment.
Him: Do you know the guy in the red car?
Me: No.
Him: Were you trying to race him?
Me: No.
Him: How's your driving record? (he's rubbing the edge of my license...I guess they do that nick-the-licence-thing out here in MD too)
Me: You'll find it's perfect. (which it is)
Him: Ok (hands me my license back). Slow it down, buddy. Go on your way, I'm going to deal with the punk in the red car, he obviously wanted a race. Have a good day.

I drive away counting my blessings and thinking "Poor accord driver".

Knock on wood, that makes 12 times pulled over in my driving career (10 years) and all resulted in verbal warnings. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the Accord. That would have been entertaining.

redmaxpa007

iTrader: (21)

You are one luck person...then again i would have let the Maxima driver go and ripped the honda driver...yessss



jeff

The_quorum

Maybe because my car looked "normal" and his was riced out.
Or because, I was in a suit & had all the gadgets out and didn't look like a problem and was talking reasonably to the guy.

The driver of the accord looked like Slim-Shady complete w/ skull-cap.

1997 Maxima SE

You shoulda stayed and talked to the accord guy about takin that fool of a cop to court how are you going to stop 2 cars for speeding and give one car a ticket and let the other go if I was the accord dude I woulda kocked someone out.


Pisses me off readin junk like this. This is along the line of you see a white man in a lex with a suit on he's a buisness man and you see a asian/black/hispanic it's a drug dealer or some kind of ganster. Leave the white man be and pull over the others. Damn ******** cop i woulda shot him for fun.

Morpha

Kinda well hokey to me. Your point is well-taken, not only is that cop not doing his job but he's doing exactly what they're trained not to do. So what if someone wants to "rice out" their car, that doesn't mean they get legally abused, just like you don't if you want to keep your Maxima stock. I almost believed the story until he said he's 12 for 12. I've gone through MD twice on the way to DC and gotten ticket both times. So to each his own. Use your common sense, you pull up close to an unmarked car, then pass him on the right? How reckless is that? C'mon, Crown Vic, Caprice, new Impala, Camaro, possib cop.

greggmax

Sounds like it could have been entrapment if the unmarked was puttering in the left hand lane. I remember hearing something on the radio in NJ about something like this. An unmarked in the left lane going slow and drivers flipping him the bird and getting into some road rage. I don't know if it actually panned out that way in court, but that's what they were speculating.

DA-MAX

iTrader: (10)

and it makes no sense that someone should be pulled over and a ticket should be decided on how they look (i.e.-"slim shady" w/ a "skull cap"), but in this case I think it was simply the kind of cars each guy was driving, its known fact that red cars complete with "loud exhausts" and all the other "racing" goodies attract police attention so I can see why the cop would put more attention to the Accord, <b>but if he in any way discriminated by using skin color or "appearance" then he was very wrong!!!!</b> I'm a black man myself and have been harrassed by cops in both my '91 Max and my dad's '00 Buick Regal, both times were for BS calls(never for speeding, etc. or anything major!) and have always had the classic "harrasment" techniques before they pull me over, such as tailing me for several blocks, giving me "that look" when I pass by 'em and when they finally stop me they ask me the classic question <b>"whos car is this?"</b> MOTHER****ER it's mine.........WTF why can't it be?? and all who've asked were white cops, I'm not the one to jump on the black/white thing a lot <b>and I know there are only a select few out there that do this</b> but you can't say it isn't there! <b>I really think the incident that in the original reply was tottally different though, BUT what made the difference was the cars, simple fact cops don't like "RACERS", plain and simple they'll go all out to get you if your car is hooked up and speeding no matter what color you are and they should since it unsafe in the first place!!!!</b> just my $.02......

The_quorum

For the record, of the dozen times I've been stopped, about 4 were for speeding. The rest were for things like rolling through stops, and 3 times for having expired plates (Damn State of Wisconsin was always slow sending them to MD...ex-wife was stationed here). They were not all for speeding.

As far as the accord driver, I agree, appearance of the person should not play a role. Appearance of the car shouldn't either. I sometimes get sh*t because I'm Asian. Even had one PG county policewoman ask "what type of foreign name is 'Tan'(my last name) anyways?", what's funny is that she was a minority herself.

My co-worker drives a nice Jeep Grand Cherokee. Tinted windows, brush guard, alloys. Tight ride. He's African-American, younger (27), and probably one of the most professional and upstanding people I know. Once he was stopped for speeding (15 over) when he had his suit (work clothes) on, and they let him go with a written warning. Two weeks later, Baltimore police stopped him for running a yellow/red light, he was wearing a team jersey, cap, really baggy jeans. Made him get out of the car, searched it, told him he was driving on a suspended licence, impounded his car, and made him walk home w/ about 6 citations for various things ranging from "no seatbelt", "posession of a suspended license", "operation of vehicle with suspended license", "invalid emissions equipment", etc. He went through hell that night. Turns out it was a "clerical mistake", he had a clean record and his license was in order the day he brought his lawyer with him.

I don't know...the unmarked car wasn't running radar (my detector was silent) so he couldn't use speeding against the accord driver, could he? Seemed to me he was more concerned about whether or not we were racing each other and if one was egging the other on. The accord also passed the cop first due to his lane change from behind me, so maybe it appeared to him like the accord was starting it.

And as far as looking for unmarked cars, I can usually spot them. This one had NO extra antennas, and no lights in the rear deck at all, all he had was a red/blue on what looked like his visor, and the alternating high-beams/ and when I was behind him, all he had was flashing reverse and brake lights. Didn't even have a dual exhaust to indicate a higher performance vehicle.

tan_camry

Two tickets last year, 70 in a 55 on I-95 and the beltway. One speed trap, and the other, late for work. Tell me you secret.

tan

xHypex

iTrader: (1)

Can police even use radar while they are moving? I was under the impression that they had to be stationary to get an accurate reading that is admissible in court. I do think that the Accord would have gotten a bad wrap because of his mods, but thats what stereotyping does for ya. Maybe I should replace my racing center caps I got off my last ticket with my stock SE wheels.
-hype

bullseye

Um, may I recommend decaffeinated coffee? You jumped to a conclusion, and now you are foaming at the mouth... Chill.
Our "Mr. Briefcase" left the scene, so we cannot know for sure if "Red Ricer" got a ticket or just a warning. My best guess is they *both* got a warning. If Red Ricer did get a ticket, he richly deserved it. Red Ricer broke inside and cut-off Mr. Briefcase, nearly causing him to rear-end the slow-poke cop in the Lumina. Red Ricer was the aggressor in this event, and the cop probably saw the whole thing unfold in his rearview mirror. The cop knew who to talk to. He just made sure these two weren't racing before he let Mr. Briefcase go with a warning. That's how I see it... Peace.

1997 Maxima SE

He said in one of the last line the cop said was the guy in the other car obviously wanted a race. If this cop wasn't predetermining what the accord guy wanted to do it wouldn't be that bad. I hear: I ask you if you wanted to race I tell the other guy you were racing and you and your car are getting locked up cuz I don't like racing but the guy in the maxima can go becuase he's not a racer he's just late.

You can still kill somone or your self being late going fast or racing going fast. Why should being late be a a legal reason for going fast.

theblue

maybe OT, but worth sharing.

A coworker of mine got two tickets in the same day a while back (in different towns) and went to each court asking for mercy because of the other ticket -> got out of BOTH.

nforg

About this whole thing in general, it is unfair that people make decisions on other people's appearance; but, that's life. I'm guilty of it too, I always hold doors open for women because they're women, rarly do I go out of my way to hold a door open for a man. I guess that makes me a sexist.

Also everything you described, "whose car is this", "where'd you get it from", "mind if you step outta the car son", glares from cops, cops tailing you.... sorry this is not a race thing, this is just a typical jerk cop thing.
Everything you said ( and a lot more ) has happened to me on numerous occasions, oh it must be because im a white, or because I'm italian, oh wait the cop is white and his last name is calderon; maybe that cop is just an *******. No that makes too much sense, it's gotta be race or something.


Don't get me wrong, racism exists, but I think it's just used as an excuse if things don't go your way. My friend said he wasn't popular in highschool because he was asian, but when I looked in his year book guess what the prom king was, asian. When I asked him why that was he said "oh well he hung out with the preps that's why." Also 5,000 kids went to his highschool, what are the chances of being one of the popular ones .0001% Doesn't make sense does it.


Another friend said he was harrassed by cops because he was black. At first I was pretty pissed off, but then when I talked to his brother I found out that he was being asked how old he was because he was smoking a ciggerate ( at the time he was 15, but you only had to be 16 to smoke in illinois, just had to be 18 to buy)
He told him (instead of his age) "Get the fu*k out of my face pig." The cop was in his squad asking him from his car window. The cop then got out & probably did harrass him and eventually wrote him a ticket for underage smoking. He must have been harassed because he was black, because I coulda said "get the f*ck out of my face pig" and wouldn't have been harrassed because I'm white. Doesn't make sense does it.

Although when a close friend of mine was denied a job because he was white, it wasn't racism, it was "affirmative action", because too many white people already worked for that company and they were looking for someone, well with a different skin color. Doesn't make sense does it.

Or when I drive through the south side of Chicago I almost always get pulled over, why, because I'm white. What else would a white person be doing on the south side other than buying drugs. It just doesn't make sense.


-Nate

94SUPERMAX

Dude relax with the shooting for fun.
I know some of them can be racist and stuff but not all of them.

OWhatAThrill

Nate, awesome response! Racism exists and is tragic, but you cited perfect examples that we all need to remember.

As for the original post, makes you wonder if the nice dressed professional individual had been in the Honda and the punka** w/skull cap had been in the Maxima, might the situation be reversed? And we didn't see what the cop saw, if he thought the Honda was being the agressor and drove more irratic and senseless, it would be logical for him to come down harder on one than the other and who knows, if the driver of the Honda, despite his appearance, was respectful, he might have gotten off scott-free too.

When I was pulled over couple weeks ago, I know it was solely because of the max...the black w/dark tinted windows and a driveout tag. This small town cop thought he was gonna get a out of town bada**. I'm sure he was disappointed when I rolled down the window and he knew me. I honestly believe this. Didn't even ask for my license altho he said I was going 43 mph in a school zone, which I contested and then he said "well, you were going 43 in a 30 then". I felt at that point, I was going to be a target and knew I'd get pulled over faster than a less conspicious car in an identical situation. If that cop hadn't known me, and I been a young male, black or white, it would have been "step out of the car son...".