"COPS" (Part Drei) "The Kansas Two-Step"

Soooooo, on my way home this morning from saving the Earth from Vorgon the Dreaded (I'm winning!), I drove past my friendly gas station.  Which was advertising the price of its alternative to electricity.  Ready?  Unleaded regular, which my buggy consumes, is now priced at..Ta Da!!!

                  $5.29 a gallon!

So if you live in one of those $3.89 a gallon states, which O'Biden's minions continually focus, take a look at this!  And then understand why those of us who know we're sitting on a river of oil but with a weenie governor are so pissed!  We could poke a hole in the ground with a stick and it would bubble up, ala those folks in the Beverly Hillbillies.  But NO!  Too simple for simpletons...

Now back to our regularly scheduled rant:

                        ////  !!!   \\\\

Have you had it with flying?  I mean paying too much to park, paying some dude to take your luggage, fighting your way through line after line, where everything over 4 oz. just has to be confiscated, having some overweight babe feel you up as you go through the magnatometer, then fighting your way into a cramped aluminum tube so you can hurtle through the sky at 500 mph, hoping you don't run in to anybody.  'Cause it could cause a yuuuuge bang if you did!

Plus those of us who are acrophobic (we wish we were shorter!) would really prefer to remain at ground level (you can't fall down from down!), are just fine with hopping into our faithful steeds and motoring comfortably toward our destinations.  And if the destination is too far, then we simply shall not go.  After all, I've been in 37 countries and 49 states, and I don't really need to go back.  

Got it?

However, driving carries with it another peril.  Road pirates.  Boys (and girls) in Blue, earning their money by taking ours.  I don't like that, on principle if for no other reason.  They're out there, lying in wait, hiding behind some road sign, ready to pull you over and write you up.  To put their hands in your pockets and extract your money.  So I'm here to alert you, my faithful readers, with one of the pitfalls of so doing.  One of their unseemly little tricks.  Ready?    

 Ever heard of the "Colorado Two-Step?"

Well, you will now.  Against the wishes of the Colorado highway patrol.  

There's this guy who just got arrested along the side of I-10.  The fuzz was able to conjure up a reason to search his car, during which they found a small amount of maryjowanna.  Except they had no reason to search his car.  So he sued, and these Road Pirates lost both their qualified immunity and their jobs.  

Plus, the State of Colorado wrote him a $Big Check, reportedly several hundred thousand dollars.

You have to have a reason to search a citizen's car, you see.  This is not Nazi Germany.  But the "Colorado 2-Step" makes up a reason to search.  It goes this way:

You're cruising down I-10 and the patrolman stops you for a faulty taillight.  Whether it's faulty or not.  Most folks don't walk all around their cars and make sure all systems are "go" before they head out, so they don't know whether their lights work or not (hint, hint).  

The trooper gets your information and checks you for wants and warrants.  It's so comforting, you see, for them to find a felon every now and again.  One with a warrant.  So they can put them cuffs and take them to the station.  It gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling to lock them up.  It's like fishing.  

Notice, they don't call it "catching."    

Otherwise, they give you back your I.D. and bid you adieu.  Oh, except, after a few steps, using their best Colombo, they turn and ask you just One More Thing: "Oh yeah, you don't have any drugs or guns or Rocket Propelled Grenades on board there do you?"  (heh, heh, comedians).  And especially, they'll ask, slowly, if you have any fentanyl, or heroin, or methamphetamine, or maryjowanno, or Xanax, or Molly, or any other illegal drug under the sun.  

You say "No, sir" after each.  They'll then ask if they can search your car, just because, you know, that's what they do, and, ummm, everybody says yes, and, ummm, "officer safety."  

You say "Thanks, but no thanks."  

They'll try and talk you into it, but they really don't care.  Because they'll tell you they just happen to have a "canine drug detection unit" nearby.  How lucky are they!  Their puppy is on the way they tell you, and can run around the outside of your vehicle just to be absolutely positive.  Which they can legally do, BTW.  Whether you want them to or not.  

And whether they have any reason to or not.  Just because they have a big doggy available they just bought for a whole pile of dough.  Who's just been trained in Germany to put your ass in jail.  So, they want to put your ass in jail.  And so the courts have said they can delay you until the pooch arrives.  

Within reason.  Up to 20 minutes in most jurisdictions, 30 in others.  And then Fido arrives and checks the outside of your buggy.  If he alerts,* bless his little K9 heart, you are then pulled from your car by a bunch of goons and put in cuffs and made to sit on the side of the road while they joyfully toss your car.  It's the high point of their day.  It's why they live.  

       It's the Colorado Two-Step:

Step 1:  "Your light is out."  

Step 2:  "You're detained."

It's like opening Christmas presents for them!  And only their body cams will prove whether or not a bad apple among them planted evidence during this scam.**  Or even if the body cam was turned on.  If it sounds like I don't trust them, I don't.  They are there to take our money.  They will if we let them.  I want to make sure they don't.

The Russians' problems with "road piracy" were more pronounced.  Their pirates are so corrupt they made it nearly mandatory for everyone in that country to have, and to use, a dash-mounted front/rear camera.  And remember:  You're not paranoid if they're really after you.  And fellow Patriots, they're really after us.  So there's literally not an accident in Russia that's not videoed.  Nor a traffic stop.  And it's done wonders to limit "road piracy" over there of the type we're herein dicussing.  

So long as dragging motorists off the highway and picking their pockets pays so well, so much of the budgets of "wide spot in the road" towns, they'll keep on doing it.    

     Until we start recording them.  

The Bottom Line is, the only way to prove they're not after you, is to "...record them in the conduct of their duties."***  From what I hear cops get real friendly, and tend to follow the Consitution, especially well when they know they're being recorded...

So buy a dash cam.  And a radar detector.  Use both.  They will pay for themselves, trust me.  Did for me.

As I will write in an upcoming posting, think of it this way:  "100% of us taxpayers hire 3% of our citizens to police the other 97% of our population, with apparently far too little supervision, or support, or oversight."****  Does that make sense to you?"  

     -  We need to entice our best and brightest into the "Blue," instead of those for whom policing is a second or third career choice. 

     -  We need to find a way to force our police out of their HQ and back into the neighborhoods.

     -  Instead of more cops, we need better cops.

     -  The "paramilitary" model upon which modern policing is based needs to be scrapped in favor of one more community friendly.

     -  Lose the dark blue and the dark green for a nice light tan.  Something a little less intimidating.  Something a little less "Robocop."

     -  Far too many cops are injured or killed responding to domestic violence calls.  We need to install psychiatric social workers into our police departments to try and defuse these situations first, before the cop - with the gun - is called in.  As a last resort.  Remember, the shooting only starts in most instances when the armed officer arrives...

     -  And lastly, we need for our policing agencies to prove they are not rewarding officers based upon the number of tickets they write.  And that writing tickets is a last, rather than a first, option.  Punishing their employers isn't such a good idea...   

Do you agree with my positions on these issues?  Some?  All?  None?  Chime in and let's begin a dialogue.  Maybe something positive will come of it.  Just think.  A guy in a trailer writes a song, puts it on the Internet and changes the world.  

Leaving policing to the police isn't working.  Let's you and me start a movement...

*         A Harvard Business Review study stated that canine outer car drug sniffing is only accurate 49% of the time.  A Chigago Sun Times study from 2019 was even more damning.  They stated the puppies were wrong 66% of the time!  But it gives the cops acces to your car!  In short, give them an inch and they'll take you to jail...

**       Always use the Freedom of Information Act to request the body cam footages of the cops who stop and ticket you.  Tell them that you intend to do so.  Before the ticket is written.  And be sure to ask them if it's on.  It's usually free, they have to have it, and they have to provide it.  And it just may provide you with the proof you need to get the case tossed.  Remember, most motorists simply consider the cost of tickets the cost of doing business.  They should contest any ticket they deem illegal or unlawful.  I do.  And I haven't lost one yet.

***    "Turner v. Driver," 4th District Court of Appeals.

****   The Chuckmeister, 2023.  That's me talking...