So, Friday night I went to go see Man of Steel. After the movie let out, it was around midnight. I wanted to smoke a few cigarettes before returning home. Due to the heat and the lack of air conditioning at our house, the windows are open and it bothers Clancy if I am smoking near the building. So I went to the local Motor Court and had, bought some hot chocolate, and went behind the building.
I’d been there about ten minutes when a cop car rolled up. It’s never a good thing when you’re hanging out and a cop car rolls up. I’ve been through the drill before. They get out, shine a bright light in your eye (if it’s night), and start asking you a bunch of questions. What are you doing here? Do you have somewhere else you should be? Are you waiting for someone? What are you waiting for someone for? Do you live in town? Could we see your driver’s license? Is this driver’s license current? How long have you lived at this address? Where did you live before you lived at this address? Did you drive here? Where is your car? Would you mind if we searched it? And about a hundred thousand ways of asking why I am acting so suspicious-like.
When it’s all said and done, no ticket is issued. It’s mostly just a nuisance and a notice that I need to find some other place to go in the future. If I’m not from whatever town this happens in, they suggest that I leave and maybe next time I find some other place to stop. If I do live in town, they suggest that I just go mosey on home.
I had my answers in a row by the time it stopped in front of me. I just got out of a movie and am smoking a couple cigarettes before I go home. I’m smoking here because it bothers my wife and I have an infant at home. I was a tad irritated because, seriously, they were going to quiz me when there are three fellows over there sleeping in that drainage ditch and a family of six that has parked for the night in that van over there? I’m the person of interest here?
They never got out of the car, though. They just parked there for about three minutes. Then they drove, did a Uey, and then parked behind the aforementioned family van and stayed there for about five minutes. Then they pulled out and went back on the street and left.
I guess they’re a little on high alert due to the fact that it’s Hippie Week and they have people spending the night in vans in parking lots and drainage ditches. Having thought about it, this hasn’t happened in Arapaho at all. Either because I am a local and people recognize me, or the community trust quotient is high enough that a guy standing there smoking doesn’t raise alarm bells like it does in other places I’ve lived. The only time I have been hassled in the last three years has been when we took a trip back home to Deltona. In that case, the cop was actually pretty cool about it and made it clear from early on that he was just needing to collect enough information to fill out a “Suspicious Person Contact Form.”
Many years of reading police logs for the local newspaper taught me an interesting thing: Often, these little questioning sessions happen because someone’s called in, reporting a suspicious person. It’s not always the cop acting like a jackass or control freak.
As often as not, I assume this to be the case. The guy in Deltona said as much. (I was wearing a trenchcoat, so someone called in to say that there was some guy flashing people (?!).)
“I was a tad irritated because, seriously, they were going to quiz me when there are three fellows over there sleeping in that drainage ditch and a family of six that has parked for the night in that van over there? I’m the person of interest here?”
I’ll bet that that was precisely the reason – you were the person least likely to lead to complications (i.e., work). They could bother you, and say that they were doing their job.
Living in the city, I don’t have to worry about this nearly so much. In the suburbs, cops are paid to harass folks there on business (mostly canvassers) — some of the cops can be pretty ferocious.
Strict suburbs aren’t all that bad about this, in my experience. It never happened in East Oak. The worst places have been near city cores (though I think large cities are less likely to be as intrusive as smaller cities – Boise worse than Seattle and Pocatello worse than Boise).
I hate to break this to you, but standing around smoking behind the motel is prima facie suspicious. This is from someone who wouldn’t trust a police officer to tell me tomorrow was Tuesday.
The trick is to keep moving. If you were walking and smoking, then no one would have blinked. Similarly, if you are driving and arrive at your destination early, you will cause less trouble for yourself to keep driving rather than park and sit in your car. Sitting in your car is also prima facie suspicious. Also, are you not allowed to smoke in your own car? As a non-smoker, I think that would have been a logical place to do so.
You don’t have to be a civil libertarian to know to NEVER allow a police officer to search your car without a warrant, so I hope you said no.
I know you well enough to not comment on the incongruity between it being hot outside and you drinking hot chocolate.
Trayvon was moving.
The police left him alone.
So only your posts can’t get threadjacked about Trayvon Martin?
prima facie suspicious
Why is sitting in a parked car or smoking while standing around remotely indicative of a potential threat of some sort?
I never said it was a threat; I said it was suspicious.
I do sometimes move around. But part of the point is to relax and soak in the universe, and that sort of defeats the purpose.
I’ve fallen out of smoking while sitting down. It somewhat tracks with when I quit smoking-while-driving.
I let the police do it the first time I was asked. That was a long time ago. I didn’t the second time (“I don’t believe you have any reason to need to search my car”). To my relief, they didn’t push it.
It’s worse than just smoking outside, in the heat, while drinking hot chocolate. I was wearing a jacket, too. It made the relaxation more difficult than it otherwise would have been.
I let the police do it the first time I was asked. That was a long time ago. I didn’t the second time (“I don’t believe you have any reason to need to search my car”). To my relief, they didn’t push it.
What do you mean by “push it”? You mean insist? Or actually get a warrant?
I think we’d live in a better world today if more people asserted their rights, but we rarely do.