Fishing for Revenue
I am parked on commercial property with various storefronts downtown Los Angeles earlier this evening:
So I am having a conversation with someone sitting with me in my car ( while we wait for two other folks ) and I notice a police vehicle on the street reading all the other plates on the cars. All the cars are parked facing the street and have no sidewalk between the pavement and the parking lot / private property, so the police get a good look. I alert my friend to what's going on and add my registration is expired.
Our friends arrive and I let them know what just happened but suddenly the copper tops just drive off... so I breathe a sigh of relief ( for the moment ), for when everyone is getting settled in, I notice the copper top's car now sitting at an alleyway which ends on the street we're at.
It's a waiting game, now. Or so I think.
We sit there for a while and I check the mirror ever so often... and in a blink of an eye, I see they have driven off! Now, I must caution, the street is a one way and the entrance to the freeway ( what is our preferred travel plan ) is three blocks in the one-way's direction. I notice the cop, instead of turning right as before and waiting at the alley around that corner, now has made a left turn.
One of my cohorts ( lol ) suggests I get going NOW and make the light in the direction of the freeway ( straight ahead / opposed to the left turn the coppers made ).
Sounds good, so as I pull out of the space, the light turns from red to yellow, and not thinking with traffic arriving, I go ahead and pull into traffic and stop at the red light in first position. I look left, and they have made a u-turn and are just inching forward to their white line, with their mugs set on me.
Many thoughts rush through my mind. LOL.
I notice the guy in the car behind me has his left blinker on, so I make a left as soon as the light goes green and as I pass them, I notice they preparing for a u turn.... oh yeah. Not only did the nerves kick in with all the talk in the car and these copper tops outsmarting this kid, now I'm sitting at another red light, now to consider what to do, in second position but in the second first of two lanes ( the right lane ). I want to return to private property and come to a rest ( get pulled over on private property ), but the strip club at the corner has no nearby parking lot, lol. The officers of corporate law are behind the car behind us, so as soon as the light hits the green, I too turn left with the arrow even though the painted white lines on the blacktop didn't let me know I could do so.
I do that left like that ( in plain of view of all witnesses AND the coppers ( smooth Jack I am, eh? ) and they make the same left and blow me up ( slang terminology for lighting you up... or, they turn their Christmas lights on and chirp out a boink, almost like a zoiks.
Another red light with their red and blue lights flashing all around.... the thought of losing the car that night begins to come over me and I begin to hunt down the resolve.... feeling like a teenager again and reliving a high-school moment.
Light blinks green and I pull over to the left sidewalk ( another one way ).
Rookie cop comes up right side and appears with flashlight in hand and beaming into the car before sidewalk / driver cop begins with 'do you know why I stopped you?' I say I have a few ideas but I'd like to hear his. He mentions the unsafe left turn and the expired tags.
He asks for license, registration, proof of insurance, one at a time, and I comply without issue.
He asks if I still reside at the address on the license. I'm a bit perplexed because the address is a P.O. Box, and I point that out to him.. which he acknowledges as he already knew that but I suppose he's asking to test me. He asks for my current address, and instead of getting into right to privacy and all that, I just say I'm staying at various places, currently looking after a friend's dog. He directly asks for my mailing address ( where I receive mail ), and like a goober I give him one I shouldn't have.
He walks back with his rookie and I sit there NOW pondering the feeling of walking to the train, walking more.. in the cold... and now to try and get that car back with all those tickets, no registration and no insurance to boot! Some condemning scriptures start to ring in my head in a tone all too familiar... and so my body relaxes in a zen sort of state ( I guess ) to await the lashes, humility and sticker price I'll be smacked with when all this is done away with... or so the feelings of dread creep into my conscienceness.
The two gentlemen now walk back to their previous positions, he hands me a piece of paper he identifies as a citation, my old insurance card piece of paper, my license laminated piece of paper with halfway decent image of my likeness and my expired registration piece of paper.
He hands me a ball point pen and asks me to sign after he reads off the charges... gracing me by not citing me for the funny left turn. I take the next ten minutes and ask him questions from "what happens if I don't sign this" to "when did you know my tags were expired if you were to my left when I saw you in traffic?" to "since this is a contract, can I alter before signing?"
His response to the signing part, was that he'd take me in to be booked with these charges. I mentioned meeting the magistrate. He said that could happen as early as next Monday or on the court date in late February. To the tags, his initial response was he could see my front plate even at the angle at the intersection ( I gave him that one ), but I responded saying he could have ran my plates at that intersection sure, but I knew it happened while I was parked on private property and he was rolling slowly behind me running every car's numbers! I also mentioned how he was laying in wait for us was all too obvious and not technically a traffic stop and perhaps out of procedure ( but he was sticking to his intersection story, although he then added it doesn't matter whether it was from the street looking at your car parked or from the intersection ), which I thought useful in the affidavits my companions will be writing out for me!
I asked a bunch of other questions until my friends and the officer seemed to have shuffled enough times for me to let it go already... so I mention I'll be administering this issue without appearing and that I'd like to cross out the "I promise to appear" part, which he objects to. So I print my name in short form, and follow it with "without prejudice" and "all rights reserved."
He asks if that's my name / signature on my license and also what the rest of it is. I explain and he's fine with that. I ask for his business card after I hand him the papers and pen, he hesitates for a moment but pulls one out and jots down his and the rookie's names, badge numbers, district and the event in short hand on the back... he did a good 'job' and didn't give me any trouble and didn't seem offended nor too bothered by my questions and I was surely surprised I was driving away in a car without insurance or registration.... must be my clean record, lol. Not anymore, right?
Wrong. Who cares, I'm getting rid of my license and removing my private property from the first position lien called a state registration.... either this car or the next, but it's happening. The cop affirmed he desired proof of identity to satisfy his curiosity in place of the license ( and which charge can be defeated / dismissed under right to travel, for no commercial activity taking place ), and in regards to the car, the DOT number I was telling him about and asking for a response from considering this different scenario: him actually pulling me over for a traffic 'violation' - like the left turn from the right lane that I gave to him but I wasn't cited for - ? - and seeing the DOT number instead of a state's plate. He said so long as it runs 'exempt' it would be no issue.
Very interesting.
My plan is to give Notice to rescind this citation in three days, gather the affidavits of truth to provide as the second wave of correspondence ( building the record ) and then will move to challenge the jurisdiction of the revenue court and demand dismissal of these 'citation' due to the officer's admission he was fishing for expired tags not on public ways, but on private property!! Not to mention the lurking around like a shark with the laying in wait, like the tax collecting highway robbers they bureaucratically are.
Now that I ponder the evening: If I had the DOT plates instead, would he even had bothered to wait and then stop me after I left the private property or would he have moved on to other sharking and sifting activities?
So I am having a conversation with someone sitting with me in my car ( while we wait for two other folks ) and I notice a police vehicle on the street reading all the other plates on the cars. All the cars are parked facing the street and have no sidewalk between the pavement and the parking lot / private property, so the police get a good look. I alert my friend to what's going on and add my registration is expired.
Our friends arrive and I let them know what just happened but suddenly the copper tops just drive off... so I breathe a sigh of relief ( for the moment ), for when everyone is getting settled in, I notice the copper top's car now sitting at an alleyway which ends on the street we're at.
It's a waiting game, now. Or so I think.
We sit there for a while and I check the mirror ever so often... and in a blink of an eye, I see they have driven off! Now, I must caution, the street is a one way and the entrance to the freeway ( what is our preferred travel plan ) is three blocks in the one-way's direction. I notice the cop, instead of turning right as before and waiting at the alley around that corner, now has made a left turn.
One of my cohorts ( lol ) suggests I get going NOW and make the light in the direction of the freeway ( straight ahead / opposed to the left turn the coppers made ).
Sounds good, so as I pull out of the space, the light turns from red to yellow, and not thinking with traffic arriving, I go ahead and pull into traffic and stop at the red light in first position. I look left, and they have made a u-turn and are just inching forward to their white line, with their mugs set on me.
Many thoughts rush through my mind. LOL.
I notice the guy in the car behind me has his left blinker on, so I make a left as soon as the light goes green and as I pass them, I notice they preparing for a u turn.... oh yeah. Not only did the nerves kick in with all the talk in the car and these copper tops outsmarting this kid, now I'm sitting at another red light, now to consider what to do, in second position but in the second first of two lanes ( the right lane ). I want to return to private property and come to a rest ( get pulled over on private property ), but the strip club at the corner has no nearby parking lot, lol. The officers of corporate law are behind the car behind us, so as soon as the light hits the green, I too turn left with the arrow even though the painted white lines on the blacktop didn't let me know I could do so.
I do that left like that ( in plain of view of all witnesses AND the coppers ( smooth Jack I am, eh? ) and they make the same left and blow me up ( slang terminology for lighting you up... or, they turn their Christmas lights on and chirp out a boink, almost like a zoiks.
Another red light with their red and blue lights flashing all around.... the thought of losing the car that night begins to come over me and I begin to hunt down the resolve.... feeling like a teenager again and reliving a high-school moment.
Light blinks green and I pull over to the left sidewalk ( another one way ).
Rookie cop comes up right side and appears with flashlight in hand and beaming into the car before sidewalk / driver cop begins with 'do you know why I stopped you?' I say I have a few ideas but I'd like to hear his. He mentions the unsafe left turn and the expired tags.
He asks for license, registration, proof of insurance, one at a time, and I comply without issue.
He asks if I still reside at the address on the license. I'm a bit perplexed because the address is a P.O. Box, and I point that out to him.. which he acknowledges as he already knew that but I suppose he's asking to test me. He asks for my current address, and instead of getting into right to privacy and all that, I just say I'm staying at various places, currently looking after a friend's dog. He directly asks for my mailing address ( where I receive mail ), and like a goober I give him one I shouldn't have.
He walks back with his rookie and I sit there NOW pondering the feeling of walking to the train, walking more.. in the cold... and now to try and get that car back with all those tickets, no registration and no insurance to boot! Some condemning scriptures start to ring in my head in a tone all too familiar... and so my body relaxes in a zen sort of state ( I guess ) to await the lashes, humility and sticker price I'll be smacked with when all this is done away with... or so the feelings of dread creep into my conscienceness.
The two gentlemen now walk back to their previous positions, he hands me a piece of paper he identifies as a citation, my old insurance card piece of paper, my license laminated piece of paper with halfway decent image of my likeness and my expired registration piece of paper.
He hands me a ball point pen and asks me to sign after he reads off the charges... gracing me by not citing me for the funny left turn. I take the next ten minutes and ask him questions from "what happens if I don't sign this" to "when did you know my tags were expired if you were to my left when I saw you in traffic?" to "since this is a contract, can I alter before signing?"
His response to the signing part, was that he'd take me in to be booked with these charges. I mentioned meeting the magistrate. He said that could happen as early as next Monday or on the court date in late February. To the tags, his initial response was he could see my front plate even at the angle at the intersection ( I gave him that one ), but I responded saying he could have ran my plates at that intersection sure, but I knew it happened while I was parked on private property and he was rolling slowly behind me running every car's numbers! I also mentioned how he was laying in wait for us was all too obvious and not technically a traffic stop and perhaps out of procedure ( but he was sticking to his intersection story, although he then added it doesn't matter whether it was from the street looking at your car parked or from the intersection ), which I thought useful in the affidavits my companions will be writing out for me!
I asked a bunch of other questions until my friends and the officer seemed to have shuffled enough times for me to let it go already... so I mention I'll be administering this issue without appearing and that I'd like to cross out the "I promise to appear" part, which he objects to. So I print my name in short form, and follow it with "without prejudice" and "all rights reserved."
He asks if that's my name / signature on my license and also what the rest of it is. I explain and he's fine with that. I ask for his business card after I hand him the papers and pen, he hesitates for a moment but pulls one out and jots down his and the rookie's names, badge numbers, district and the event in short hand on the back... he did a good 'job' and didn't give me any trouble and didn't seem offended nor too bothered by my questions and I was surely surprised I was driving away in a car without insurance or registration.... must be my clean record, lol. Not anymore, right?
Wrong. Who cares, I'm getting rid of my license and removing my private property from the first position lien called a state registration.... either this car or the next, but it's happening. The cop affirmed he desired proof of identity to satisfy his curiosity in place of the license ( and which charge can be defeated / dismissed under right to travel, for no commercial activity taking place ), and in regards to the car, the DOT number I was telling him about and asking for a response from considering this different scenario: him actually pulling me over for a traffic 'violation' - like the left turn from the right lane that I gave to him but I wasn't cited for - ? - and seeing the DOT number instead of a state's plate. He said so long as it runs 'exempt' it would be no issue.
Very interesting.
My plan is to give Notice to rescind this citation in three days, gather the affidavits of truth to provide as the second wave of correspondence ( building the record ) and then will move to challenge the jurisdiction of the revenue court and demand dismissal of these 'citation' due to the officer's admission he was fishing for expired tags not on public ways, but on private property!! Not to mention the lurking around like a shark with the laying in wait, like the tax collecting highway robbers they bureaucratically are.
Now that I ponder the evening: If I had the DOT plates instead, would he even had bothered to wait and then stop me after I left the private property or would he have moved on to other sharking and sifting activities?
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