Re: Bring Your Sidearms To The Banks of the Potomac.
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:40 pm
^^^
I have heard of Rainbow Gatherers getting pulled-over and hassled, leading to vehicle-searches and other citable offenses, on the claim by Forest Service or the special Incident Management Team cops brought in for the purpose that the party was driving 'left of center' ON A National Forest GRAVEL ROAD, full of frost-heaves and potholes. Talk about bogus -- Its intimidation and fine-trolling, nothing less.
Good tip on telling the District Judge in Traffic Court you plan on appealing. One way to do this with a little subtlety is to ask the Judge before trial starts to please have a written transcript made with a court stenographer in CASE you wish to appeal. Or else a stenographer won't be assigned -- at least that's how I remember the advice I've heard.
One way to play the never-consent-to-vehicle-search card w/o antagonizing a cop unnecessarily (avoiding the slippery-slope idiocy of 'If you have nothing to hide, then why should you mind?') is to simply say that your Polisci teacher in Constitutional Law class made the whole class vow to never forfeit our right to be secure in our person and property, and to stand on principle as a duty of our citizenship -- IOW, the class as one promised to NEVER give voluntary CONSENT TO a VEHICLE or Personal Search. 'Course, in the current climate of assumed guilty of suspician until proven innocent a cop will search your person without your permission on the slightest urge that he thinks he should and there's about dick-all you can legally do to prevent him (or her). Give him a little incentive and he WILL NOT hesitate to taze you (well, most probably, there are always a few exceptions). Or worse. Like hit you with his flashlight in the head a dozen times, drag you out the window of your car, THEN taze you.
BTW: I think 23 had it right all along.
I have heard of Rainbow Gatherers getting pulled-over and hassled, leading to vehicle-searches and other citable offenses, on the claim by Forest Service or the special Incident Management Team cops brought in for the purpose that the party was driving 'left of center' ON A National Forest GRAVEL ROAD, full of frost-heaves and potholes. Talk about bogus -- Its intimidation and fine-trolling, nothing less.
Good tip on telling the District Judge in Traffic Court you plan on appealing. One way to do this with a little subtlety is to ask the Judge before trial starts to please have a written transcript made with a court stenographer in CASE you wish to appeal. Or else a stenographer won't be assigned -- at least that's how I remember the advice I've heard.
One way to play the never-consent-to-vehicle-search card w/o antagonizing a cop unnecessarily (avoiding the slippery-slope idiocy of 'If you have nothing to hide, then why should you mind?') is to simply say that your Polisci teacher in Constitutional Law class made the whole class vow to never forfeit our right to be secure in our person and property, and to stand on principle as a duty of our citizenship -- IOW, the class as one promised to NEVER give voluntary CONSENT TO a VEHICLE or Personal Search. 'Course, in the current climate of assumed guilty of suspician until proven innocent a cop will search your person without your permission on the slightest urge that he thinks he should and there's about dick-all you can legally do to prevent him (or her). Give him a little incentive and he WILL NOT hesitate to taze you (well, most probably, there are always a few exceptions). Or worse. Like hit you with his flashlight in the head a dozen times, drag you out the window of your car, THEN taze you.
BTW: I think 23 had it right all along.

