Ethnically Speaking, May 31
by Larry Meeks
Dear Larry: As a responsible working student and new dad, I worked double shifts on the weekends and had to drive home late at night through a resort community. Going home always proved to be a nightmare.
Within a two-year period, the police pulled me over 16 times. After they stopped me, they would ask whether I had been drinking. Frequently this would happen after they tailgated me for three miles. This tailgating was nerve-racking. It would happen going along tight curves, and I did ...
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Posted by: BB
Comment: #1
Sat May 31, 2008 1:10 PM
Larry's advice is also good when DWW. I was pulled over once on suspicion of burglary. I was driving a VW bug and people driving one of a different color had broken in to a general store. In my back seat were mops, pails, cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner. I sat while the officers talked among themselves, called it in, and let me go 30 minutes later. I didn't point out that my plate didn't match the perpetrator. Of course, this happened on the town square of a new town we were moving to.
With all the crazy people driving out there, the best thing to do is to follow your steps. An officer never knows whether you will pull a gun to shoot him or try to run him over. Of course, being a white female, I have never been pulled over just "because." However many, many years ago, male college students and truck drivers used to try to make me drive off the road when I drove a tiny car, smaller than the bug, in South Bend, IN. If it isn't one thing, It's another.
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Posted by: KPW
Comment: #2
Sun Jun 1, 2008 6:21 PM
Ditto on the advice BB. Any driver should abide by those rules. I know I do. And if you want some other advice Always apologize. It has gotten me a lesser ticket or a warning.
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Posted by: Matt
Comment: #3
Tue Jun 3, 2008 11:06 PM
I can relate to the letter writer. I delivered pizza for the two years immediately following high school, and during that period the police stopped me no less than thirty times. I eventually got four tickets, but I did also once make the mistake of jumping out of the car - because I was trying to deliver a hot pizza and was in a hurry to get rid of the officer. The cop informed me that I had nearly been shot...and he proceeded to make demeaning comments to me - including mocking my store-issued cap which read "safe driver." Then he told me he wouldn't be ticketing me because I "might lose my job." I drove a "classic" car which was yellow in color and had sporty wheels. Like the letter writer, I later switched to a more conservative vehicle and was never bothered again, but it was many years before I got over my intense dislike for police officers. (And I'm a white guy - I can barely imagine how black fellows must feel.) Larry's advice, however, is quite good. I wish someone had told me this stuff back when I first received my driver license.
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