The other day I was on the way home from breakfast at Ihop and I noticed a cop starring at me from the opposite lane. I thought nothing of it because they always stare at me. I just kept riding home. Anyways I make it home and I am sitting on my porch and two cops pull in my driveway and ask" Were you just driving this car?" I said yeah. cop says "You were evading the Police we have been trying to pull you over for 5 miles" At this point I am like WTF. So the Cop throws me on the hood of my car, handcuffs me and puts me in his car. So the two cops search my car. About 3 minutes later the Sargent pulls up and says to me "we are gonna give you the benefit of the doubt because the officer never turned on his blue lights, can we search your vehicle?" I say they already searched my car and why am i in handcuffs? Sargent says " well you were speeding and you have excessive tint on your windows" So they end up taking me to jail for a speeding ticket, reckless driving and excessive tint ($1600 in fines). I was not speeding or ever pulled over, how can i be charged with this? I am seeing a lawyer friday!! Columbus Cops:gaysex:
Wow... Someone needs to get their badge taken away... That is retarded... Good luck with that man, that is 110% bullsh*t.
The worst part is I took my tint off and two days later someone breaks into my car and steals my touchscreen nav/dvd headunit. WTFFFFFF
Your lawyer should be all over this. Unfortunately doesn't surprise me with revenue based law enforcement so prevalent here in Georgia. I am sure these cars are profiled often mine is for sure. You may want to discuss, approaching the local press, with your lawyer. Couldn't hurt all they can say is yes or no.
Oh Yeah its true believe or not. And Yes Columbus sucks I've only been here 2 months and I cant wait for the housing market to turn around so I can sell my house and leave this shit-hole.
I would definitely consider moving especially if you win the case. They will have a hard on for you if that happens. Either that or buy a second car and garage the STi. You would think you were in Cuba or the X Soviet Union, what a "police state".
Oh yes we are profiled that MAD. I got pulled over right after buying my car because plate sticker was starting to peel off cas the dealership didnt put the applied for date sticker on good. It took 3 officers to pull me over, 1 behind me, one blocking the parking lot I pulled into, and a 3rd waiting for me down the road. All that just to tell me that it was coming off, the officer was nice and poliete and I just taped the sticker down but 3 officers? wtf...
I got a nasty ticket a couple of years ago and now play it super clean when I drive and have been ticket free since (knock on wood). I took a defensive driving course shortly there after for points reduction which actually paid off yesterday. A Sandy Springs cop followed me from Hammond Drive to Roswell Rd. A total of roughly ten miles of side streets going 25 to 30 mph through local neighborhoods with speed bumps etc. I am sure if I had even tipped my front end past a stop sign he would have nabbed me. My buddy owns a GNC on the corner of Hammond and Peachtree Dunwoody Rd a major intersection. He was telling me how he sees people get pulled over there all the time and shortly thereafter always two or three squads pulling up and many times searching the vehicle. Georgia is looking to privatize more and more of their prison systems, which ultimately means crime pays. A good example of this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/29/national/main5452332.shtml *In 2004, Georgia ranked 11th in the nation for length of sentences served. The state had the fifth-largest inmate population in 2007, according to the federal records. http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/01/19/story10.html
Wow. I'm so sorry that happened to you. That was wrong. Getting a good lawyer is absolutely the best thing to do. You could always call the local news station too, just to see if they would put some pressure on questioning the police department about it. If the police didn't put their blue lights on then you weren't evading them. That's ridiculous. And do they have a radar reading? Probably not. Too bad you don't live up here. I know probably the nastiest, meanest (to the system) defense attorney in Atlanta.
I was not aware they could step foot on your property (assuming you owned it) without some sort of warrant for arrest, etc.
Ding ding ding. They can't. They can't. The biggest dumbfuck lawyer in GA should be able to win this case. You can probably take these sons of bitches for everything they have.
Thats what I thought too!! And yes I own the property. IDK I will see what the lawyer says tommorrow.
Oh Yeah I see a forester in the near future, still gonna keep the sti though. I am trying to find a wingless trunk right now and I already took the tint off.
Good luck with this man. That is messed up. So you are saying the cops never were behind you with blue lights, stepped onto your property without a warrant, and arrested you? Smells like a case set in stone here.....lawyer up ASAP.
DO NOT WASTE $$$$$ FOR A LAWYER ON THIS ONE!!!!!!!! If i was you i would ask for a possible video tape and DEFINITELY the audio recording if the sargent said they never had their blue lights on. How are you suppose to know you're being pulled over if the cops NEVER had their lights on. Go to court yourself, fight it, explain the situation to a prosecutor before speaking with the judge. Accept the window tint, but plead not guilty to reckless driving and whatever you were charged with. Trust me on this. If you need any advice, just reply back on this post
^^^ Agree to disagree... Reckless driving is a serious ticket, better to spend the $$ than get a huge fine, raised insurance etc..
If you go to the press, make sure you record exactly what you say. If your story varied at all later in court they could throw out your statement and then its all on what the cops say. Either way it should get thrown out for them coming on the property without a warrant and since they roughed you up a bit they should be happy to at least pay your lawyers fees with just a threat
and this whole situation is bullshit, I used to be so nice to cops but have grown more and more tired of some of their bullshit
First off if you have proof they arrested you at your house, then they SHOULD have charged you with evading otherwise you would have pulled over IF they were trying to pull you over as you say they claimed. Either way this is BS and I would not get a lawyer, I would go and talk to the prosecutor and if need be the judge. I say this with experience of metro atlanta court systems as when you plead not guilty around here they reschedule so they can bring in the cops for their side. Check on how they operate in your town before taking my advice, if they are willing to try you there on the spot I would lawyer up in your case.
A good lawyer will talk to you for about an hour at no charge, call the local ACLU chapter and ask for a reference of members of at least ten years and go from there. I hope you have all of the officers names who were involved, a lawyer will have more pull to check if there has been other complaints against those officers to see if there is a pattern. If you have a lawyer snooping around and asking questions then the DA's office and police department will be more inclined to play on a level playing field. As of right now your just some dumbass about to get steamrolled.
Justin, I meant in the DA's and police eye's, not mine. Regardless of what the law is as for tint, there are constitutional rights that every citizen has. When those rights are violated by the very people who are sworn to uphold them, then they should expect to pay the consequences. If I was in his shoes I would not be wasting time on this forum ranting about the mistreatment from the police. I would spend the time gathering resources for the best representation and defense of the charges filed against me. There are other avenues that should be taken advantage of i.e., GBI, State DA office, Justice Dept, ACLU (granted of their communist leaning) but do serve a purpose, then the press. You have to fight fire with fire, and what better way to do this than to start a bunch of little fires, figuratively speaking of course. Besides lawyering up, the rest is free. They expect most people to just lay down and get rolled over, if you stand up to them they will cower because most are cowards hiding behind the treat of law. Once they realize they have royally screwed up then take it to civil court, they will offer to settle out of court because they know a jury of twelve will screw the police monetarily.
This is a few days old, but.....Why is everyone saying a cop can't step foot on you property without a warrant? They can not enter your residence without a warrant (or probable cause) but they can definitely walk onto your property. Also, FYI, your car is an extension of your residence. You can deny their right to search without a warrant. Although it's not advisable because you will be bringing the pain!
I flat out denied a cop from searching my car a few months ago. He asked why and I told him truthfully that I don't feel like him crawling through my stuff. Then told him I have the right to refuse and unless he had probable cause he couldn't. He said my denying was probable cause to which I said Negative...I know the law. He then said well I will call K9. I told go ahead you will be wasting everyone's time. He let me go as he knew he wasn't getting anywhere. In order to search my car he has to have lawful reason, my permission, or has to arrest me (which again he has to have lawful reason to do so). Why was I pulled in the first place? My fender liner fell and I heard it scrubbing the road. I rolled down the window to listen and swerved a little. At 3 Am he rightfully pulled me hoping for DUI and I was ok with that but then when he wanted to search and all that I was NOT ok with that (not that I had anything to hide).
and then they use the bullshit that denying them to search your vehicle is probable cause that you are trying to hide something...
haha, same time. sorry im hacking the interweb from someone across the street from my grandparents place. so its a little slow
Sounds like you met one of the few reasonable cops in this area. If you get into a small town late at night and the cops have nothing better to do...expect to be there for hours subjected to multiple sobriety test, drug dog searches, etc, etc. Oh yeah, and they can legally arrest you to have a mandatory blood test if they "suspect" drug use. Then they will impound your car and do an "inventory search"...so I've heard ;-)
Not in SC they can't (this happened in SC where I live). He thought I was doped up when I had been up for 28 hrs straight (rode to Topspeed to have a buddies car tuned and rode back home same day) and I was pounding RockStars trying to stay awake! I imagine my eyes were red and bloodshot.
My experience has been that the burbs hate modified cars. Cant tell you why. For some reason we look like scum to them. Metro Atl doesn't care about the modded, but rather the monte carlo on 28's Good luck with the case dude. Sounds like BS on their part. Cheers :beer:
i'm curious to know as well. i'm not too happy with the extremely high police presence in the shallowford/chamblee/dunwoody area where i live. seems like i might not even be able to take a shit without the cops staring at me
Damn this is my old thread! lol Anyways so basically my case got thrown out cept for i got a ticket for my "illegal" tint that came on my car (bought it in Tampa) I took the tint off and put 35% on there and havent had a problem since. The cop that pulled me over was a rook and fucked up pretty bad Im sure he got in some kinda trouble. Now Im riding legal and wish they would pull me over again for some bs.
Oh and FYI in the state of GA illegal tint is a fingerprintable offense. So if the cops a dick like he was in my case they can def take you down town for some fingerprinting if they want to....
i hate tint. im not a cop. why do i hate it? because i used to ride sportbikes and every once in a while i'd see a socker mom chatting away on her cell phone and pulling out in front of me. being able to see that the person was not paying attention was worth its weight in gold. i no longer ride a bike. but it still makes me nervous when i see a heavily tinted car roll up onto (onto seems the best way to put it) an intersection like they aint gonna stop. and you cant tell shit about what they are paying (or not paying attention to). now the cop in you case should have been fired. and if anyone asks your permission to search your car. always so NO. ALWAYS. never give up your rights. there's some law professor, (ex cop i think) on youtube that gives a 30 minute lecture as to why you should never ever give up your rights..
I never consent to a search. Not that I'm hiding anything, I just don't like anyone going through my personal space.