Times you were fuzzled over by the police.

[Glongpre]

I was once pulled over by a policeman for not having a bell on my bike...

Where in the hell do you live where bells are mandatory?

Ontario, Canada. It is so that you have a way of letting pedestrians know you are around. There seems to be no other way to do that, so bells are mandatory for safety reasons.

You also need a light (for night riding, which is understandable), front and back reflectors (for night as well).

 

[Zontar]

Once, me and two friends were super high and a police officer busted the younger brother on shoplifting. It wasn't much, so he'd say we'd just get a warning if we could pay them, and back then I was a broke teenager, but I had enough to cover the charge. Thanks to that cop, I lost $8 bucks and was never reimbursed.

Seriously, live in Texas and am a 'person of color', but that's the worst i've gotten. Honestly wasn't that bad.

Wait, it took a bribe of only $8 to not get cuffs on your hands for theft and public intoxication? I'm going to be honest, that sounds like getting off easy to me, especially with the drug war and all.

 

[WolfThomas]

Well, the police laid off my Mom. That sucks, I guess.

(EDIT: "Off" is sometimes a terrible word to leave out of a sentence.)

Sometimes putting the word Off unnecessarily in a sentence is almost as bad for example "My uncle was beaten off by police when he was drunk" (Example sentence I don't have a drunken uncle).

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

When I was eighteen I was heading out to Ullswater with a few friends for a fishing trip. We all had our rods, bait boxes, keep nets etc, but halfway to the lake we were stopped by the fuzz, who wanted to search us because "you look up to no good". Upon being searched, my gutting knife - which I had bought from a legal outdoorsman shop on my town high street - was declared to be half an inch over the permitted legal length for a blade and I was done for possession of an offensive weapon. Even though no court proceedings were brought against me, I have a pretty serious blemish on my permanent record.

For going fishing.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Not so much fucked over as inconvenienced for no reason. In my city, we have this people called Peace Officers. They're more for traffic violations and misdemeanors than real cops (no they're not RCMP or even City police, this isn't me being mean, it's a fact). Most of them are probably great, but some of them seem to be on real "power" trips.

One time when I was driving home, I turned off the main road and into the residential area that I live in. In my city, the speed limit in most residential areas is only 20 km/h. This was coming off a road where you go 60, so I made sure to slow down for the turn. During this, a Peace Officer had been coming up behind me rather quickly and instead of switching lanes to go around me while I turned, they proceeded to come up ridiculously close and then turn on their sirens while I turned. I pulled over for this lady, trying to figure out what I'd done wrong. She came up to my window and told me that I had turned too slow... When I explained to her that the speed limit for the street we were now currently on is only 30, she said that what I did was still dangerous. I asked her if she was going to give me a ticket and she said no, but that I needed to be more careful in the future.

In hindsight, I should have asked for her badge number and reported her for this shit, but I was kind of flustered since it was the first (and only) time I'd been pulled over.

 

[Worgen]

I'm lucky, I've only ever been pulled over once and just got a warning. It was for passing a bike but I think the way I did it was legal. Other than that the longest Ive been in police presence was when some guy on a motorcycle rear ended me.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Wait, it took a bribe of only $8 to not get cuffs on your hands for theft and public intoxication? I'm going to be honest, that sounds like getting off easy to me, especially with the drug war and all.

It wasn't a bribe, I had to go back inside the store and pay for the items shoplifted. We got to keep the snacks and everything. We were also out after curfew so, that was great. All I had to do was pay for snacks, and that's the worst i've been fucked over by police so hey.

 

[conmag9]

My contact with police has thus far been limited, polite and professional. Giving them details on a shooting that happened a few hundred feet away (mercifully, nobody was hurt) was the most memorable, really. Oh, and that one time my car's battery died in an illegal parking spot. Officer in question was very understanding once I explained.

So, pretty positive for me, at least. I'm sure there are bad apples, but that's true of any position with the slightest bit of power. I don't like judging groups based on that sort of thing.

 

[Signa]

The worst I've had to deal with is one speeding ticket, but since my experiences have been rather split 50/50 between good and bad cops, dealing with the bad cops has cost me far more time and effort than the good ones. It sticks in your mide a lot more that way.

Then there was this video on Failblog today:

from my perspective, that seemed like a pretty cool cop being directed around by a complete asshole. The driver probably was in the right, but he still was an asshole.

 

[wulfy42]

I've been driving over 30 years and have gotten 3 tickets from police in that time. The first was before I got a drivers licence, as a passanger in a car. I was not wearing a seat belt and a law (which I had not even heard of at the time) was passed saying they where mandatory in CA. I laughed at the ticket (having no car) until I went to get a licence 3-4 years later and found out I had to pay it (with a ton of late fees) before getting one.

Second time was a ticket for parking my car too far from the curb lol. It wasn't in the street or anything but I guess the cop was hard up to give out tickets.

Finally the last time (about 5 years ago), I was driving 2+ hours each way every day to a hospital my wife was in at the time (she's better now), and I got a ticket for going freaking 5 miles over the speed limit. I complained that the cars in front of me where going faster and I was just trying to keep up with the traffic in that lane, and the cops response was "I can't pull everyone over".

No major big deals here, but considering I've been driving 25 years with no accidents, no moving violations (except that one for going 5 mph over the speed limit), and I'm a very careful driver.....it just shows how rediculous they can be about giving out tickets. It's supposed to be about enforcing the laws to make it safe for everyone to drive....not about making money for your department.

Considering I had 3 such episodes in my life and I'm so careful, I imagine most people must have gotten at least a few tickets they don't feel they deserved in their lives.

 

[FPLOON]

Not me personally (unless you count "brutally" staring at me while I danced down the sidewalk), but I did witness my grandmother get "fucked over" by the Police not helping her find the culprit that almost totaled the trunk of her car... It's been over several years since then and she still's waiting for the culprit to get caught so that they can pay for the damages...

Other than that, I also witness my mom getting fucked by the police by being the only driver (that I'm aware of) caught speeding down a school zone... Fuck you, coincidence! She was barely over the corrected speed limit compared to the other drivers that got away...

 

[mad825]

Never been screwed-over by the police however I've been stopped several times because reasons. I got my own back by annoying the hell out of them each time.

 

[Wakey87]

When I was eighteen I was heading out to Ullswater with a few friends for a fishing trip. We all had our rods, bait boxes, keep nets etc, but halfway to the lake we were stopped by the fuzz, who wanted to search us because "you look up to no good". Upon being searched, my gutting knife - which I had bought from a legal outdoorsman shop on my town high street - was declared to be half an inch over the permitted legal length for a blade and I was done for possession of an offensive weapon. Even though no court proceedings were brought against me, I have a pretty serious blemish on my permanent record.

For going fishing.

You can carry any size knife in the UK with a legitimate purpose. The 3 inch rule only applies if you don't have a reason to be carrying it at that exact time.

I bet you just accepted the caution, you should of gone to court or atleast spoke to a lawyer. The police may be there to enforce the law, but they don't actualy know all the details of it.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Well the UK has a few more regulations for the police, so the asshole cowboy types are rare to experience. Plus my past activities included a lot of various things that would fall under criminal behaviour, and the few instances I did deal with them were my own stupidity and arrogance or actual serious issues that needed to be resolved.
I do however have a slightly positive story though. As one night, a particularly emotional night for oneself due to, shall we say, negative experiences with a specific lady that is best me very much forgetting about, I got pretty drunk and decided to walk from one Devon town to another along a completely dark rural country path at 3 in the morning with guitar on back and bottle of wine in hand as I needed to get away to a friend's place before going completely insane. Somewhere along the journey I had to cross a road to continue, but a police car pulled up to stop me. Thinking it was the wine drinking, I assumed it was no use pretending or running so stood and waited for the anvil of countryside justice. But instead they were looking for a crash victim that had escaped their destroyed vehicle and run off. I had to wait for another policeman running up the path with a dog so the beast could identify whether I was said runner. When the dog did its' duty, I was offered a lift to the town I was heading towards, with open bottle of wine still in hand I gleefully accepted. They didn't takes my drink and gave a free lift! I'd say that is a bonus and helped forget about lady problems temporarily.

Ok, a less positive story, but from a friend. Who got pulled over for flicking a cigarette end out while driving at 7 in the morning. They made him pick it up and throw it in the bin. Slightly trivial and understandable, though embarrassing for the friend, but It's nice to know they're committed to environmental health.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Oh, I have a couple of stories on both ends. How the police needlessly harassed me and how they were saviors to me. Oddly enough, Police just tend to be human and run the gambit like the rest of us.

A time where a police officer was needlessly dickish to me. I was living in Montreal and I had a fight with my girlfriend. I was so ticked that I wanted to call my friend back home in Westchester. Area code for westchester is 914. While she was yelling at me, I hit the one twice. I looked up to retort to whatever she said, and realized my thumb was still on the one. I hung up, tried to dial again, but she didn't want me to talk to anyone so I stopped.

Twenty minutes into the fight, we were currently not taking as much but mending. We heard a knock on the door, and yup, it was the police. They said they got a disconnected call from my apartment to which I was confused about, but then I realized what happened. So I showed them my ID showing that I'm American and I was trying to call my friend.

Which he didn't take kindly to. He figured I was wasting his time. We both explained that we were fighting, but we weren't trying to call the cops for any reason... to which he made it clear that I needed to be really, really careful the next time I dialed, because if they received another call at my building for anything, he was going to come up and collect me as well. If I had another mistake for any reason dialing, I was to be arrested because 'they can't just keep coming in for false reasons' and that the court is going to want to hold someone responsible. And since we were fighting, the courts are going to consider me the aggressor as I'm the male and it would be his duty to haul me to jail. To which he ended: "And I won't lose a bit of sleep over it".

A time that the cops were great to me? Recently. My dad has dementia and there was a time that he was gone from the house over 5 hours. He didn't take his phone with him, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to search for him. And also my mother has dementia, so I couldn't leave her alone. I had to take a risk and go to the police office down the street.

The police officer on duty took a real interest. I gave them a recent photo. And he said he was going to do all he could. I came back home and waited. He dispatched an officer to come and get another description, but while that was happening, my father walked in like nothing happened. I was split between being enraged that he scared me half to death but happy to see him again. The officer followed up, asked the questions he could of my father, and gave me some literature on elder gps tracking.

But more over, the officer on duty came by 30 minutes later, as he just went off duty and wanted to make sure that everything was already. He came to my house not because I asked, but he was concerned.

For every ass associated with anything, there is a kind soul who doesn't deserve to be lumped in the hatred cultivate due to the asses. We all need to remember that.

 

[Odbarc]

Once I was running really fast and a cop in a parked car said "No speeding!" and we both laughed.

 

[bjj hero]

As an English gent I wad pulled over while living in Houston Texas.

I was speeding when I saw lights behind
I pulled over in a safe spot (all of the roads in H town appear to have 25 lanes and no where to pull over so it took a while) then exited the car and waited. The officer asked for my ID, what I was doing and if I knew why I had been stopped?

As a token Brit I was polite, if not completely honest, stating I was aware I was driving fast but not exactly how fast. The officer said he would let me off but if stopped again I would receive a ticket... and to stay in the car next time I am pulled over as I could have been shot!

On the balance I would say a good experience.

 

[Phasmal]

When I was a kid, my dad drove this two-seater little van thing. Of course, he had three kids. So when we were being picked up by dad, my oldest sister would sit in the front and me and my other sister would sit in the back of the van where there were no seats or anything. My dad would remind us to duck if we saw any police. To this day I still get the urge to duck when I see a police car. I think we were pulled over twice for that but my dad managed to talk his way out of it both times.

Other than that little aside, I generally avoid the police. Not because I'm doing anything wrong, but I'm an anxious person and they make me nervous. When we moved to Scotland we were surprised by how polite the policemen in our area were. One time a policeman up there stopped me to ask me for the time and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I'm a skittish person.