{"id":12380,"date":"2008-05-16T14:04:29","date_gmt":"2008-05-16T21:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/05\/16\/but-occifer-i-only-had-tree-martoonis.html"},"modified":"2008-05-16T14:04:29","modified_gmt":"2008-05-16T21:04:29","slug":"but_occifer_i_only_had_tr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/16\/but_occifer_i_only_had_tr.html","title":{"rendered":"“But Occifer, I only had tree martoonis!”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

What to do — and not do — when you get pulled over for a ticket<\/a>. In most cases — pretty much common sense and courtesy, leavened with a recognition of both the balance of power in the transaction and the perspective of that cop or trooper walking up toward your window …<\/p>\n

I.e., don’t give them any reason to worry about you, and don’t tick them off. Words to live by. And they might get you a smaller fine.<\/p>\n

Things to do <\/strong>(read the article for explanations and further guidance):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pull to the right at the first safe opportunity, then turn off your engine.<\/li>\n
  2. Stay in your car with your seatbelt fastened. Roll down your window. Turn off the radio. Don\u2019t even think about touching your cell phone.<\/li>\n
  3. Place your hands on top of the steering wheel and sit quietly. Ask passengers to remain silent.<\/li>\n
  4. Retrieve license, registration, and proof of insurance only when asked to do so.<\/li>\n
  5. Answer questions succinctly. Avoid arguing, cursing, or interrupting when the officer speaks to you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And things to not <\/em>do <\/strong>(which are mostly the reverse of the above):<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Don\u2019t slam on your brakes when you see the flashing lights, and don\u2019t continue driving for an extended distance.<\/li>\n
    2. Do not jump out of the vehicle, do not make any sudden movements, and do not approach the officer.<\/li>\n
    3. You can complain, you can proffer wild explanations, but not for long.<\/li>\n
    4. Do not lie. If you were speeding, admit it. If you honestly have no clue why you were stopped, wait for the officer to tell you.<\/li>\n
    5. Do not show your contempt by peeling away after the stop.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I will say two things.<\/p>\n

      First, this is pretty close to my own behavior, and I generally have had pretty good luck with the cops either letting me off with a warning or treating me what seems reasonably (I can only think of one time when it was not a righteous pull-over).<\/p>\n

      Second, on the first #1, during my one stint at post-ticket driving school, the instructor, a former CHP officer, said that when the lights go on, pull over then <\/em>— that it’s the call of the officer to decide whether it’s a safe place. I think it has to be a judgment call, though, and the tactics described above make sense.<\/p>\n

      Again — honesty, civility, and not giving the cops any reason to think you’re a threat (or someone who needs to be taught a lesson) are pretty safe rules to follow. Is that knuckling under to the Man? You could look at it that way — but in most cases it’s probably <\/em>a smarter idea to go back to your computer and blog a nastygram about it than try to “stand up” right then and there. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      What to do — and not do — when you get pulled over for a ticket. In most cases — pretty much common sense and courtesy, leavened with a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8114,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/05\/18\/weighty_busines.html","url_meta":{"origin":12380,"position":0},"title":"Weighty business matters","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-May-05 5:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not unexpectedly, a week of business travel, followed up by a long weekend with my parents in town, all of it heartily leavened with some fine eats, pushed my weight...","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3661,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/11\/blog_o_the_day.html","url_meta":{"origin":12380,"position":1},"title":"Blog o’ the Day","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-Oct-02 11:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"So, how does one get into the Link List o' Incredible Honor off in the sidebar? 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That's tough\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8155,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/05\/06\/serenity_sneak.html","url_meta":{"origin":12380,"position":4},"title":"Serenity sneak peak – an un-spoilered review","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 6-May-05 12:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. Five parts of an extended Firefly episode, leavened with one part Aliens, one part Bourne Identity, and one part Magnificent Seven. A rich dense-pack of suspense, humor, philosophy, action,...","rel":"","context":"In "Firefly \/ Serenity"","block_context":{"text":"Firefly \/ Serenity","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-fireflyserenity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15858,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/22\/tweets-from-2009-09-22-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":12380,"position":5},"title":"Tweets from 2009-09-22","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Sep-09 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Opening of new broadcast TV season is so incredibly not of interest to me. Which is, itself, of interest to me. # Now sitting at the boss' dining room table, engaging in thrilling, exciting exchanges of ideas. Plus, sweet rolls. # D'oh! Knew there was something on my to-do list\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}