Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Probably not, but that was what it was written as.
 
That was nice of him.
 
60 in a 55 gets you a ticket? :blink:

Technically yes.

The statutory margin for error is less than 10mph until 45mph and 5mph thereafter. In practice, the only way you get cited for it is if you've been profiled and they're looking for an excuse or a larger offense gets written as it.

PA cops have the fairly odd practice of asking you what you do for a living. My belief is that they do this to gauge how much fuckoff money you have and, therefore, if you answer, say "Software engineer", they'll write a no points ticket because it's basically guaranteed you'll pay the hell out of it.

If you say "I work at McDonald's" you get the whole thing because you were going to go to court and argue about it anyway.


I mean, you could reasonably do the same just looking at people's cars. But this is PA and people drive awful cars here.

The highest paid software engineers I work with drive:
- 86 Fiero
- Buick LeSabre
- GMT800 Yukon with spray painted hood.


And then there's me.
 
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So what do you say if you want to avoid a ticket? 'I'm unemployed'?
 
So what do you say if you want to avoid a ticket? 'I'm unemployed'?

I don't think it's possible. The only time I came away from a PA police interaction without a ticket was the time they arrested me for DUI for funsies.
 
I don't think it's possible. The only time I came away from a PA police interaction without a ticket was the time they arrested me for DUI for funsies.
Huh?
 
Had just bought the Ram and was driving it home on a PA transit license plate, which is paper.

It rained. The license plate went away.

They stopped me and concluded that my paperwork was obviously fake because they didn't know PA had paper license plates and running the VIN came back to someone who isn't me (GEE COULD IT POSSIBLY BE THE SAME GUY MY PAPERWORK SAYS I BOUGHT IT FROM!?)

Supervisor declared them to be morons, but told them they couldn't let me drive away without a license plate. So that's a nonconsenual tow, which isn't allowed to be a "take this heap and me to my house" deal.

So they had to do something with me. Across state lines. In an area with no cab service. Well, fuck it. Search for drugs. Several destroyed plastic clips later, nothing.

So hey, let's run a field sobriety check. In 33 degree rain and a t-shirt. They got no eye dilation response from the flashlight in the eye thing (couldn't possibly have to do with the fact they were backlit by 1 trillion lumens of LED lighting at eye level on top of the squad car) and I was shivering from the cold.

So they concluded I was high, towed the truck, dragged me off to the hospital for a blood test and dumped me in jail.

The only things I got out of the ordeal was a $300 towing billand a $30 bill from the hospital for the blood test (which, technically, PSP owes me for because I was never charged - but it costs more than $30 to get a lawyer to file paperwork to get paid)


Same general story as Roadkill getting stopped on the Lemons rally, except their paperwork was even sketchier and they had cameras pointed at them, so "Fuck it, get out of here I don't want to deal with it" won out over "Fuck it, I don't want to deal with it, let's increase my stats"
 
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Had just bought the Ram and was driving it home on a PA transit license plate, which is paper.

It rained. The license plate went away.

They stopped me and concluded that my paperwork was obviously fake because they didn't know PA had paper license plates and running the VIN came back to someone who isn't me (GEE COULD IT POSSIBLY BE THE SAME GUY MY PAPERWORK SAYS I BOUGHT IT FROM!?)

Supervisor declared them to be morons, but told them they couldn't let me drive away without a license plate. So that's a nonconsenual tow, which isn't allowed to be a "take this heap and me to my house" deal.

So they had to do something with me. Across state lines. In an area with no cab service. Well, fuck it. Search for drugs. Several destroyed plastic clips later, nothing.

So hey, let's run a field sobriety check. In 33 degree rain and a t-shirt. They got no eye dilation response from the flashlight in the eye thing (couldn't possibly have to do with the fact they were backlit by 1 trillion lumens of LED lighting at eye level on top of the squad car) and I was shivering from the cold.

So they concluded I was high, towed the truck, dragged me off to the hospital for a blood test and dumped me in jail.

The only things I got out of the ordeal was a $300 towing billand a $30 bill from the hospital for the blood test (which, technically, PSP owes me for because I was never charged - but it costs more than $30 to get a lawyer to file paperwork to get paid)


Same general story as Roadkill getting stopped on the Lemons rally, except their paperwork was even sketchier and they had cameras pointed at them, so "Fuck it, get out of here I don't want to deal with it" won out over "Fuck it, I don't want to deal with it, let's increase my stats"
:|
 
So hey, let's run a field sobriety check
If only there was a way to do this without getting out of the car and doing tricks for the police... NO WAIT!
 
Welcome to a lot of American road policing.

Department paid by the citation conviction, and paid by the DUI arrest.

See the gap?


I should also note that I just looked up the stats for that department for that month for each of the past 10 years.

They had half as many DUI arrests as usual. And it was the end of the month.
 
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Department paid by the citation conviction, and paid by the DUI arrest.

See the gap?

Don't forget that many departments have an unofficial policy of "if you pulled them over, you *must* do everything you can to find something that 'justified' the stop."
 
Don't forget that many departments have an unofficial policy of "if you pulled them over, you *must* do everything you can to find something that 'justified' the stop."

"Fucker ain't got a license plate" is a perfectly reasonable justification.

The unreasonable part comes when the action taken diverges from a fix it ticket (which I could throw directly in the trash as the PA registration expired and the MD one took effect) and a tow.

Which, incidentally, they never cited me for.
 
"Fucker ain't got a license plate" is a perfectly reasonable justification.

The unreasonable part comes when the action taken diverges from a fix it ticket (which I could throw directly in the trash as the PA registration expired and the MD one took effect) and a tow.

Which, incidentally, they never cited me for.

I should have said "find something that justified the stop AND generated significant revenue". A fix-it ticket is $0-20 and you can't have that be the only revenue generated.
 
IDK if you showed them a temp tag I see no reason to keep bugging you. Me and my uncle got pulled over like that he had no plates on the car because he lost the front one and had to turn the rear one to the dmv. But since it was a TLC (for hire) car he couldn't be given the new plate by DMV only TLC guys. Telling the cop that and showing the supporting paperwork got a "have a good day sir"
 
Welcome to a lot of American road policing.

And I thought Brazilian police was like that, although that treatment is usually reserved for black people.
 
Over here we call that a DWB.
 
I always giggle a little when I see this sign.

8a757f4f0516a1ae68b4b62b1b7eeb08.jpg
 
Finally assembling the timelapse of the Lemons Rally from a few months back.

Working title: "Man struggles with uncomfortable armrest for a week"

Overall length looks to be about 41 minutes....
 
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