61–70 of 136 posts
Reminds me of Dumb and Dumber when the cops say they're following a "1985 Sheepdog, sir"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
More like 100s of cops have abused their authority to harass a middle aged artist. At even just 10 minutes a stop, that is over 30 hours of this poor man's life he has spent staring at the berries and cherries just because some entitled cop thought he deserved a photo op.
The police are human too and often bored on shift. The world needs more whimsy! I understand your perspective, but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.
What a privileged point of view. For a lot of people police are indeed nothing but a potential threat.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cops pulling someone over is never "fun and whimsy".
Not saying I enjoy it. Not saying that I’d drive a giant banana either. But if I saw a police car, pull over a giant banana, I would think it was hilarious. That’s the definition of whimsy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you tolerate small abuses, and let people get accustomed to abusing their power in small meaningless ways, the abuses will only grow.
I can assure you, pulling over the banana stand is not the road to death camps. The death camps are.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Him enjoying the attention doesn't make the actions of the police right or just. He enjoys the attention, they are abusing their authority, Both things are true.
> they are abusing their authority It's perfectly reasonable to question whether that vehicle is street legal when it passes by on the road. It would be my first thought. It looks like it's mounted on a boat trailer chassis, and the windshield appears to have questionable effectiveness at high speeds. Pulling him over to ask about it seems like they are doing their jobs. Especially when I am also a driver on the same…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cops pulling someone over is never "fun and whimsy".
Not saying I enjoy it. Not saying that I’d drive a giant banana either. But if I saw a police car, pull over a giant banana, I would think it was hilarious. That’s the definition of whimsy.
Boys in the blue in Montana,
Pulled over a giant banana.
Drawn by the appeel of the yellow four wheeler,
They spun jokes deadpan and deadpanner.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll happily live in a world where this is the extent of police authority abuse.
If you tolerate small abuses, and let people get accustomed to abusing their power in small meaningless ways, the abuses will only grow.
SCOTUS made race-based Kavanaugh Stops legal. Stipping a banana on wheels is a much lower bar
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are required to have reasonable suspicion that the banana car is unlawful in some way. (e.g. missing required equipment, etc) Simply wanting to question the driver or get a picture for funsies is not quite enough.
IANAL, and would like to believe that what you say is true, but I think in most jurisdictions "reasonable suspicion" that the vehicle was not street legal would float as justification for a stop.
But other examples in the article like "Often officers simply wanted photographs." would not be a legal reason.
Now, in practice, this is a very easy standard to meet, because even if an officer wants to pull someone over arbitrarily, they can simply follow someone until they make a very minor infraction like crossing a line improperly, exceeding the speed limit by 1mph, rolling a stop, or failing to signal... but they still have to do it.