Papers, please.

Originally posted by Beestie
I'm not sure I see a huge problem with the ruling.


I guess my point is a cop whose intention it is to hassle someone didn't need this ruling. They already have enough interpretive bullshit to justify a shakedown (e.g., "reasonable suspicion", "his taillight was out", "he flipped me off", "he was taking pictures of a bridge", "he checked Mein Kampf out of the library and returned it a day late", etc.).

If a cop wants to screw with you, he doesn't need this ruling - he's already got a full bag of tricks.

Yes, indeed. Here's a true story. Me and my trusty sidekick were driving down an empty stretch of highway in western Colorado. I was at the wheel and obeying the speed limit (for once!). There was nothing wrong with my car. It had valid front and back plates, tailights and signals worked, etc. Suddenly out of nowhere, officer descends upon us and pulls us over. I scrabble around for all the correct documents - license, proof of insurance, title while feeling completely confused about the reason for this encounter with the highway patrol.

The cop stares with true longing in his eyes at my friend, Mike. Mike has long hair and a beard and looks the complete part of a hippy musician. I'm sure the cop was hoping that we had been driving along toking on some of Mexico's finest weed, but, alas for him, we had only been smoking American Spirit cigarettes, a pack of which lay in full evidence on the dash.

The cop went back to his car and ran my papers thru his computer and I came up clean, much to his disappointment. He came back up to the car, stared with longing at Mike again (I know the cop was dying for an excuse to get him out of the car and search him for countraband, but Mike gave him no excuse - just smiled nicely at him. The cop then told me that he had pulled me over because I had a small "dream catcher" with dangling feathers attached to my rear view mirror. He claimed that this item constituted a hazard because it blocked my vision (it did no such thing, its small and in no way impacted my ability to see what was in front or behind me). The cop ordered me to remove it. For a moment I considered challenging him on the basis of freedom of religion (I am part Cherokee and that medicine wheel has great significance to me - like what someone else might think about a cross or a St. Christopher medal). However, I decided that the better part of valor was silence, so I removed the dream catcher and when we had gotten about 10 miles down the road, Mike tied it back on again.

I suppose under the new law, the cop could now have asked Mike for his name and run him on the computer, as well. Neither one of us had anything to hide, but the whole police state aspect of it is disturbing to say the least.