Quote:Holy crap, just reading that makes me pissed off. "Two teenagers with a backpack", wow what a great description. That was a blatant abuse of power, and I sure hope that cop suffers a terrible fate. WHO THE #$%& THREATENS A GUN AT TEENAGERS THAT HAVEN'T SHOWN ANY SIGN OF BEING A DANGER?
Yes, that's exactly how I felt at the time, trust me! But truth is, everyone out here knows the Santa Barbara police department (the county sheriffs in particular) can have quite a hardball point of view, most of them having transfered from the L.A. divisions themselves with their big-city mentality. There were several times where I felt my civil liberties were being violated by the S.B. police, but I rationalized it as it must be something I'm doing, perhaps an energy I left off when around them? Who knows?
Let me tell you about this one incident where I actually got so mad, I asked the sheriff for his badge number but he just walked away from me: It was about noon'ish 10-years ago. I was driving in my blue Chrysler mini-van with my 1-year child in his car seat behind me. Out of nowhere, the local sheriff rolls up behind me in his patrol car and flashes the lights. I oblige him by pulling over, rolling down my window, and getting ready my license, insurance, and registration. Of course he sits there for a bit, running the plate - and it came up without any warrants or anything I assure you! He then comes up to my window and says, "license and registration," without so much as telling me what I'm being pulled over for. I show him my information and he stands at my window examining it when my kid starts crying. I tell the officer I'm going to get my kid and he tells me to, "SIT DOWN!" Then he walks to his patrol car with my wallet and sits in his car - he doesn't even punch in any information so I'm not sure what the hell he was doing. I kid you not, slightly less than 10-minutes later he comes back, and by this time my kids screaming high hell and I'm afraid to get out of my seat because this cop seems irate and I don't want him to try taking my child or anything, even though I know he is detaining me illegally. When he walks back up, I ask him what I was being pulled over for and he ignores me and hands me my wallet. I then demand to know his badge number to which he responded by getting into his patrol car and driving away. Man, I still get mad just thinking about that asshole! It makes it hard to trust any cop, but then I realized that he was just one out of many. I still believe cops are just as corruptible as the rest of us [absolute power corrupts/power corrupts absolutely], and while I hold certain reservations when I meet one, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin