Originally posted by jackinthebox
Okay, and?

Okay and I've been in a lot situations where I had to deal with the police. Several of those were not my fault and I have had some treat me disrespectfully and even arrest me without sufficient evidence, but I've never let it sour my attitude toward the police.

So, my point is that my experience is not much different than those who hate the police, but I don't and I have a simple technique to help me survive those kinds encounters.

Besides that, I respect the law and I do my best to stay out of trouble and strive to be a model citizen, even if I'm sometimes woefully deficient.

[edit on 2008/5/20 by GradyPhilpott]

Here's some real life for you.
I used to hang out at a friend's house all the time. We were only 18/19 years old, so cheap housing was a must. One night I leave his place, and get followed by an officer. As I reached the end of the block, I see another one sitting around the corner, and he turns on his lights and pulls in front of me. The officer behind me turned on his lights, and when I pull over, he walks up to my car and asks for me to step out of the car, so I do. Then he asks to search it, and I let him. The entire time they are asking me where the drugs are, did I leave them at "Dude's place". I was basically harrassed. I quit going to my friend's house for a couple months until he found out why I had police always following me. Turns out that a guy on the other side of the block was a dealer, and the cops thought I was walking through the back yard. My license was logged, and I was followed by 3 different officers. Always the same three.

Now, this is the hypothetical: What if they had that tech back then? I would be getting pulled over on a constant basis by EVERY officer who has this device installed on his car, just because they decided that I must be going over to that dealer's house.

I can ask the same what if about my parents getting a call from an officer claiming that I was hanging out at a known drug dealer's house when I was 16. The dealer apparently lived in the UPSTAIRS apartment, but my friend lived in the downstairs apartment. His parents were military... hardly the drug using type. With this tech, the same thing would have happenned, most likeley, and I would be logged into the system and followed.

Now, on the basis of "If you haven't done anything wrong, you should have nothing to worry about", I call that as a total copout. 2 places I hung out I would've been logged... it doesn't take but maybe thos etwo dealers being related in business somehow and I would've been implemented into some drug ring I didn't even have a clue about. Evidence can pile up unwittingly when you are logged like that. Heck, I'm willing to bet I would've been logged ALOT, especially when most of my friends figured out that trailers were better than apartments for many reasons (don't have to listen to your neighbor's midnight rompfest directly through the ceiling, for starters). About that same time was when meth was hitting hard, and all the sudden you find out that there were 3 or 4 "kitchens" in your neighborhood.

Basically what I'm saying is there is real life 'guilty by association', or rather 'guilty by parking spot'. I've been a victim of license logging, and I've been harrassed. Just imagine not being able to drive 10 minutes without getting pulled over, and every time you do get pulled over, you get your car searched. After about 5 times, you get really sick of it.

BTW, if you try to claim they are harrassing you, word gets around, and you just get new officers pulling you over thinking that you are trying to desperatly get them off your tail. Friend tried that one. Total BS. Just makes them think you are trying to hide something.

"If you haven't done anything wrong, you should have nothing to worry about" should NOT be used as an argument, imho. I know firsthand what can happen without the technology. The main concern is that they basically are tracking you, every where you take your vehicle. As we've seen here on ATS, you can compile information into any argument you want. Statistics can be twisted to have whatever meaning the person wants them to have...

an example of this is the commercial that said "Two out of every three drivers involved in a fatal accident tested positive for marijuana" (paraphrasing, but accurate as I can remember)... what they tried to get across was that 2 out of 3 drivers involved in a fatal accided were stoned... BS! Just means that there are a high number of people that had traces of marijuana in their systems. Marijuana stays in your system for anywhere between 3-10 days, and reports of even up to a month and a half in ultra heavy chronic users. Twisting the statistics, or basically twisting the evidence.

All they gotta do is run a program that analyzes and compiles the logged info, and they can build a quick case on you even if you are innocent. It isn't like they don't have the software model available (Ahem... IP tracking... keyword tracking, and the software to compile that data and look for patterns).

Other than what I listed above, I'm all about making sure the "idiots" aren't allowed to drive illegally, or whatnot. I actually have 2 DUI's, one of which I hit a pole at 40mph because I slid down the bridge and couldn't make my turn. It impairs your judgment, and I can attest to that first hand. What if I HAD hit someone else? I've ran that through my mind more times that I can count, or care to. I've almost got hit and ran off the road by drunks. My GF got screwed because the girl that totaled her car gave an insurance card, but hadn't payed in 2 months, then ditched town and ditched court. We'd LOVE to see them catch her.

I'm basically saying that there is already abuse of power, and data logging can lead to total misinterpretation and opens up even more abuse of power. I keep pleading innocent, but they have me logged at X, Y, and Z places, therfore I must be guilty. And for anyone who's gonna say "well, you should be more cautions of areas you hang around" I'll say it now... are you absolutely sure none of YOUR neighbors are cooking meth in their garage? The cops may know about it, and you don't. What happens when your buddy starts getting followed just because they log his license plate at the cook's house because he parks across the street? Ya gonna pat the officer on the back and say "Good job! That's a fine piece of technology there!"

BTW, if you kill someone while under the influence, they get you average 5 years for manslaughter. This is america, people demand justice. The law looks at it as "You knowingly got behid the wheel while intoxicated, which is illegal. You are guilty by risking the lives of others". They quit screwing around with that hokey let-em go crap a LONG time ago. Wherever you got that idea is beyond me.

Originally posted by cutbothways

Originally posted by budski
It's really quite simple - if people obeyed the laws of the land, the police wouldn't need to do this.

Can't do the time, don't do the crime.

I have zero sympathy for motorists who behave irresponsibly or illegally.

Well, you probably won't mind when they start looking into your bedroom window to make sure your wearing a condom when making love, to keep with the new population control ordinance, will you.

Typical. These will be the same people screaming for their rights as their hauled of to "camps"

Haha typical liberal fear-mongering. There are no "camps" (I assume you are referencing Nazi concentration camps) in The United States of America, and there never will be. "Big brother" is a threat to you or paying attention to you if you are engaged in criminal activities. The sensationalist notion that American citizens will be rounded up and sent to camps is laughable. i'll tell you what, I'll bet you 10 Dollars I won't see you in "the camps". If we see eachother in "the camps", I'll pay you your 10 dollars, or cigarettes if that works. I understand cigarettes are currency in prison. On the topic of the plate reading equipment, I believe it will be a valuable asset in the war on illegal immigration, one car or truck at a time.

[edit on 20-5-2008 by ppskylight]

I certainly understand your outrage, regarding this new gadget mobile. These new licence plate readers are located on both civilian along with a couple of police cars.
I'm by no means a person, who thinks that goverments are our best friends, but I don't believe in anaki either. Well my friends, then there's this necessary evil, we have to address.
Some of the "fattest" cat's in any city or town, is almost without a doubt insurance companies. Car insurance, house insurance, medical & deltal plans etc.

Over 1.000.000 cars are stolen per year in the USA alone. That is costing us all buco dineros, so the result is that insurance is skyrocketing. Besides, it's not just cars, but stolen merchandise along with other things, add it all up, and what do you get.? A part in paying off over several $ billions to the gov. These losses will not only be written off annually by the IRS & the bank, but also during taxes by trying to establish, if anybody's home is on solid ground, or close to bankrupcy.

So in other words, i'm not to scared regarding their new toy. The goverment don't think so. Instead i hope that the tax-payers finally gets something out of this.

I don't mind the cameras, like it's stated here they track and catch problem vehicles and having been hit by uninsured drivers twice in the past I'm all for it. In Blackburn especially a new grid of wireless camera's (long pole wireless panel antennas and cameras) have been going up around the place on the roads every half a mile or so, no doubt they'll be linking into the DVLA computers. For people who believe the cameras will be abused, I'm sure you probably right, they will although I’m sure if they pissed people off enough they would be "taken out"