Boys in the blue in Montana,
Pulled over a giant banana.
Drawn by the appeel of the yellow four wheeler,
They spun jokes deadpan and deadpanner.
That thing is so cool and I've seen it in the wild a few times.
> The truck beneath the banana has now traveled more than 250,000 miles.
It is also possible to register a vehicle built from scratch, but this typically requires a lot more paperwork to do.
Reminds me of Dumb and Dumber when the cops say they're following a "1985 Sheepdog, sir"
Who knew that abuse of privilege could be fun! But then I think it's only natural that the LEOs of a banana republic would feel a magnetic attraction to a giant banana.
> Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, (1, 2) in contrast to 10% of families in the general population.(3) A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24% (4), indicating that domestic violence is 24 times more common among police families than American families in general.
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2017R1/Downloads/Comm...
It’s especially funny because the owner of the vehicle has zero problems and none of you have evidence of abuse of power but oh no, you’ve all made up your minds and ACAB.
It’s embarrassing you have all decided to stop thinking.
> Often officers simply wanted photographs.
> Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.
> His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia.
> A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.
> A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him.
> A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.
> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"
Their job is to take advantage of their authority to have fun at the expense of the time of citizens?
SCOTUS made race-based Kavanaugh Stops legal. Stipping a banana on wheels is a much lower bar
The prioritization of a respect for authority over a respect for the rule of law is notoriously problematic in small town america in very real ways.
At even just 10 minutes a stop, that is over 30 hours of this poor man's life he has spent staring at the berries and cherries just because some entitled cop thought he deserved a photo op.
This man is driving a homemade banana car across the continent specifically because he wants the attention it garners. It's the whole point.
However we interacted as equals and I was free to refuse the conversation or end it when I wanted. I was free to set boundaries.
I would not feel the same if stopped by cops.
It's perfectly reasonable to question whether that vehicle is street legal when it passes by on the road. It would be my first thought. It looks like it's mounted on a boat trailer chassis, and the windshield appears to have questionable effectiveness at high speeds. Pulling him over to ask about it seems like they are doing their jobs. Especially when I am also a driver on the same road.
I understand your perspective, but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.
What a privileged point of view. For a lot of people police are indeed nothing but a potential threat.
Now, the officer could be interested in the car because it is a banana, and want to stop it to take a picture of it, but they have to have suspicion of some specific violation first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whren_v._United_States
For example:
1. "Hey that banana car looks weird" > "it doesn't look like it has turn signals" > [pulls them over] > "hey do you have turn signals", "yes", "ok my bad have a nice day" = legal, because not having turn signals is an equipment violation.
2. "Hey that banana car looks weird" > [pulls them over] > "hey your car is weird can we get a picture?" = illegal, because looking weird is not a crime.
But other examples in the article like "Often officers simply wanted photographs." would not be a legal reason.
A belief that they have violated some law. They cannot do it for these reasons, from the article:
> Often officers simply wanted photographs.
> Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.