Re: north saline road washout location
Posted by Bodie the Dog on November 26, 2003 at 17:01:29:
In Reply to: Re: north saline road washout location posted by Randy S on November 26, 2003 at 14:18:39:
From my own dogbreath, anti-law experience, and numerous successful graduations from Traffic School, it appears that the law states police vehicles need to be well marked and plainly visible. But in practice, this has been eroded bit by bit, with court interpretations favoring the cops.
Fer example: used to be that while an unmarked car could clock you, he/she had to call a marked patrol unit to pull you over. Then, those low profile stealth camaros were introduced, ostensibly to snare speeding big rigs. Light bar was moved to the grill, bumper was changed. Clear markings were removed, with different patterns tried. My favorite is the model which has the CHP logo on the driver's door only, with really small typeface on the rear bumper as well. Of course, you have to tailgate the cop to read the "California Highway Patrol" part.
And nobody objected to using these stealth rigs to go after the trucks. I mean, who can argue with the danger of a reckless big rig? It's the old "If you object then you must have something to hide. Your dissent is threatening public safety!" But then, it became, "oh, and those same low-profile units can pull over the more dangerous traffic offenders in cars as well." So a couple months back, I saw two cars pulled over to the side, one of them a Durango. Then I noticed one of the guys is writing the other a ticket! So I rolled down my window and asked, "Hey, don't you have to be marked to pull us over?" His reply: "Nope."
Then there's the courts' interpretation of "clearly visible." Turns out, a cop is not considered hidden if at least one side of his/her vehicle can be seen. So that cop could back into a gully off the road, with only his front grill visible as you drive by, and be considered to be not hidden. That cop can sit up on the summit overlooking the roads and use binochulars to document your crimes, because he is out in the open, and if you had binochulars or knew where to look, you could see part of his vehicle.
And how do patrol aircraft fit into this? You and I would say they're stealthy bastards, but I guess the courts have disagreed.
The above is all heresay, based upon multiple conversations with different cops, but I think it's pretty accurate.