By Thursday of every week, you should have completed the activities associated with 1 project. You should blog about your experience as a comment to the blog posting of that particular project. Your blog comment can be largely experiential--tell us what it was like to do the project and what you learned. Products associated with the project and a more detailed analysis of the project will go in your portfolio (see the Portfolio blog post).
Project #14 - Your Experience
You may choose to document your own personal experience with crime or the legal system for this project.
Recently, I was involved in an experience where I had to give witness testimony. Las Thursday evening, someone had been driving by my friend’s house and accidently knocked the mirror off my car. Had my car been a clunker, I probably would’ve shrugged off the incident but my car is relatively new and I was fortunate enough to get the gentleman’s insurance information so I filed a claim. The accident took place at 11:45 pm, and I promptly called the insurance company around 12:30 am. The insurance agent asked me several questions about the incident and I was amazed at how little I remembered from not even an hour prior. Since we had been talking about witness testimony earlier in class that week I paid particular attention to my answers and my memory. I was greatly surprised at how little of the details I remembered. I could not remember the color of the car the other guy was driving, if he had any passengers with him or not, or even his licenses plate number. Even though it was midnight and I was a tired, I still was surprised at how little of detail I could give to the agent. I also paid close attention to the questions the agent was asking me. They seemed to use questions that would not influence my responses. For example, they asked me “What were the weather conditions like at the time?” Had they said, “Was it icy out?” I might of associated the fact that it was winter and said “Yes, it was icy.” It was a relatively warm night actually so that question might have influenced my memory. Since then I have been on the phone with numerous other agents and I find myself remembering less and less. Not only do I find myself remember less, but I find myself becoming more annoyed with answering the same questions, so my responses are getting less and less detailed. I can appreciate how many times people have to tell their story to police and law officials and I can really see why someone might tell two completely different stories as they tell it more frequently. As of today, the mirror has not been fixed and I am still on the phone with insurance agents.
The experience I am going to write about is one that I talked about briefly in class. I was on my way back to UNI on a Saturday night and was in a hurry because 1. I hate driving 2. I wanted to meet up with friends and 3. My trip is extremely boring. Anyways, I decided that I would speed and since I drive the route as much as I do would slow down in places I know they patrol. Unfortunately for me a state patrol officers caught me about 20 miles out of Tama (an area I now know they patrol often, but have hiding place, just a heads up) I was going about 68 in a 55. We met in opposing lanes and I knew immediately that he was going to turn around and pull me over, so no use in trying to slow down. Sure enough he did. I pulled over and he approached my window. I began digging around for my registration. Once he got to my window he informed me that I was speeding excessively. Not wanting to get a ticket I immediately came up with the lie "I'm so sorry I've just really got to use the restroom" dishonest, yet worth it. He told me that I was 20 miles from the nearest restroom, so that was going to be an issue for me. He then took my license and registration back to his car. A few minutes later of me sweating and wondering how expensive my ticket was going to be and how I was going to explain to my mom, he returned. He informed me I had handed him my registration to my previous car (why I had it still I'm not sure) I began to search for it and he told me not to worry about it that he was just going to give me a warning since my records clean. Biggest feeling of relief ever. Needless to say the rest of the trip I went a strict 55mph. However, when I got home to look at my warning not only had he put down my old registration information he put that I was a red head or blond. Obviously, he wasn't paying much attention because I am very much a fake blond.
I would very much say that this officer used discretion since I'm a young female adult, have a clean record, gave him no trouble, and since he let me get away with old information. All of which I'm very thankful for.
I haven't had a lot of run in's with the legal system, but my senior year of high school, our whole school got involved.
I go to a very small school of about 200 people, my class was the biggest with 59 kids. So when we were on the Channel 8 news, it was a pretty big deal for us. Someone had found that in one of the boys' bathroom stalls, someone had scribbled in the paint, "I'm going to bring a gun to school on Thursday." I think this was either found on a Monday or Tuesday, so all week, we were waiting for Thursday to come to see if this was true, and the announcement was made that our school would be on "Lock Down" on Thursday. Thursday came, and when I arrived, State Patrol cars along with our town police surrounded the school. When we walked in the front doors, we had to walk through metal detectors, and also they searched our bags and made us empty our pockets. I'm going to be honest, this was a huge joke to me. People had been saying that the note had been there all year, no one just ever reported it. But during class, all doors had to be locked and we were not allowed to leave. They would pull people out of class to get information on who it might be. Cops stood at the end of all the hallways serving as hall monitors. It was actually a really exciting day!
As expected, nothing ever happened that day. Later that night, I got a call from our police chief asking me to come into the cop shop for questioning. The police had also gone through everyone's locker that day, looking for things that may be suspicious. Well up until Thursday, I was kind of nervous and scared about the whole thing, so of course all my friends gave me crap about it. One of my friends put a note in my locker that read "You're first on Thursday!", and me being the blonde that I am, forgot to take it out. So they found that, asked me about it, and I simply said it was a joke that my friends played on me, it was nothing serious. They also questioned me about homework that was found in my locker that was not mine, but it was from one of my friends who just put it in there after class one day, no big deal. They also found a picture my friend drew of my boyfriend who she doesn't particularly get along with, so of course it was a cruel drawing, and they asked me about that. I was nervous, however, going into it because I didn't know what to expect! Although nothing found in my locker was serious, they just wanted to make sure I didn't have any information on the person who might have wrote the message.
This may seem like no big deal, but where I'm from, it definitely was. They never did find the person who wrote it, but most of us think it was intended as a joke, but even so, you shouldn't joke about those kinds of things. After school that day, people were getting interviewed in the parking lot, so that was a pretty big deal. We all went home that night to see if one of us might be on the news. Since that day, our school has installed video cameras on the outside doors so they can monitor who comes in and out of the buildings.
I have had a few run-ins with the law in the past few years-mainly related to traffic violations. My first ticket was my sophomore year of high school. I was leaving my house at 8:12, class started at 8:15, there are two big hills on the way to the high school with my former elementary school at the bottom of the two hills. I was flying down the hill at about 55 mph-speed limit of 25 in the school zone-I slowed down when I saw the police officer running radar at the bottom of the hill. As I slowed passed him, he pulled out behind me and I knew my late morning had just gotten worse.
He followed me into my reserved, front row parking spot, so everyone that was walking into the school saw us. I had known the officer since I was a little kid, but I knew that wouldn't help me. He told me I was speeding, and asked for license and registration. He knew school had started at this point, so he hurried with everything. He came back to my car, no need to ask why I was in a hurry, and gave me the ticket. He told me I was going 47 in a 25, but wrote the ticket for 35 in a 25. I didn't cry or anything, I thanked him for lowering it, and we told each other to have a good day.
I was late to class and got in trouble for that, as well. The officer called my dad as soon as I walked away, so my parents knew before I called them at lunch to tell them. My first paycheck from my new job paid for the ticket. I had to meet with the D.O.T a few weeks later, and after the meeting, and I had my license suspended for 30 days, that may have been the worst punishment-for me and my parents, then I had to re-take the driving test before I could get my license back.
I wasn't mad at the officer, I knew what I had done was wrong, and dangerous. The reason the license was suspended was because I was speeding in a school zone, which is a very bad idea, even though there weren't any kids around.
I have received only one other speeding ticket since then, that one the speed was also lowered. I explained the situation, and apologized to the officer which I think helped.
I have received a couple warnings in the last two years, but I really didn't know the speed limit in the one area was only 45. I told the state trooper that I was leaving Cheerleading Try-Outs from UNI to go home to get ready for prom that night and I was running late. He let me off with a warning, to this day, I always slow down when driving in that area on Highway 21. I think explaining to him the situation and being polite helped him to use his discretion. I greatly appreciated it, because that weekend was stressful enough.
I am someone who is very scared of the law and getting in trouble. Growing up I always followed the rules of my parents and teachers. Needless to say I managed to avoid any real trouble throughout high school. However, when it came to driving I have a lead foot and tend to ignore most of the minor traffic regulations. This first caused me trouble before I even turned 16. My parents were out of town and I was staying with my grandma and had my permit, but you are not supposed to drive with anyone else in the car other than your guardian. Well I did and my friend’s parents called the cops on me and the sheriff showed up at my grandma's house. Luckily I live in a town of 300 any the sheriff grew up with my grandma so all they did was catch up and then he told me not to do it again.
The next run in with the law that I had was after I turned 16 and got into a major car accident. I was speeding on gravel and flipped my car into a corn field three months after I received my license. After this I had to go into the DOT and discuss whether I would get my license pulled and what measures would be taken to prevent another accident. Once again a family member knew the officer I had to go and talk to. My dad and her grew up together so it was a very easy meeting and I got to keep my license.
The next accident I was in was on school property and I rolled into a phone pole and the pole fell down. Once again living in a small town the line shut down the only main rode we have in the town. This would have been my second accident in a year and if it would have been reported I would have gotten my license pulled. But, the pole I hit was rotten and the school would have gotten sued for it, so the principle did not turn me in and I once again got off.
The next accident I was not so lucky. I managed to pull out in front of a car 100 feet from my house and them t-boned me. There car was totaled and because of this a report had to be made. Because someone else was involved in the accident it was the worst of all. The people did not try to sue me or anything, but statements still had to be taken from witnesses and us involved in the accident. After this I got my license taken away for a month. The thing I found interesting about this was that it took a month for them to take my license away. So, I did not actually get my license taken away until two months after the accident.
I have also has some run ins with the cops when it comes to speeding. I have had many cops that were jerks. I currently had to find out how many tickets you can get in a year to get your license taken away and let’s just say I am quite close. I think that the most common run ins with the law tend to be traffic incidents.
A couple of years ago I had been hanging out with some friends at a bonfire, there was not drinking involved, thank god. Anyways I was headed back to my house in my white chevy truck, which is the only one it that area of town and I dont live in a very good area people know it by many names (flats,crack ave, &$%#$%#$ nine,) the most ironic thing is that it is actually called pleasent valley. So i was passing two of the many rundown vaccant houses and about a block from my house at a stop sign at 11pm when out of no where I hear this loud pop noise which It took me a second to realize what it was. I realizedmy window had been shot out and it broke out drivers side window and passenger window while I was driving and I felt a stinging in my arm and I slammed on the gas around the corner and pulled in my driveway and jumped out of my truck trying to avoid all the glass. I only had a mark on my arm where some glass hit me at that point I wasn't worried about my safety I was pissed off that somebody would do stupid crap like that and how much it would cost to repair the windows.I called the police department and they were like ya well we don't know who did it and a bunch of other stuff which is understandable but at the same time so frusterating because it is the same people doin crap like this who dont have a job and sell drugs out of their car all day. The police just filled out a report and swept the area where it happened and asked me to describe the sound and what direction it came from. I wwent inside and called the insurance company they didnt cover vandalism darn and my sister was borrowing my truck the next day and called me and was like what did you do to the windows which was funny.I ended up paying a lot out of my own pocket to fix the windows, but it could have been worse. A week after that two kids about 15/16 yrs old were apprehended for shooting a car and got charged with i think attempted murder and possesion of an illegal firearm or something like that,because there was a person in the car in broad daylight. It makes me wonder why all these people think they are thugs when they live in fort dodge iowa it is not Chicago.
My experience with the legal system has been thankfully limited. I haven't even gotten a speeding ticket despite more then earning more then a few of them. I have had to give my version of event for a few traffic accidents though. The first occurred about a month after I got my first car. I was returning with my dad from Marshalltown as we drove past an exit a green car decided that law of physics be damned they would pass through my car. Watching the girl who had been driving the cars expression almost made up for her hitting me when I got out she looks rather relived figuring I would not put up much argument when because I'm not the most assertive looking person. Then my dad got out of the car and she looked like someone had just canceled Christmas. he police arrived a few minutes later the officer spoke to me for a few moments got my version of events. He spoke to the girl much longer then cam back to us to say that she had no insurance and had "mis-placed" her license suffice to say that my insurance company would still like to talk to her. Beyond this my experience with the legal system remains very limited and as a matter of preference I would lie to keep it that way.
Last year I was up at Iowa City visiting some old friends. We decided to head to a party about 4 blocks down the road. We decided to stop at the liquor store (had not been drinking before hand) and buy some things for our night out. We also had 7 girls and one car to drive. I know this is not the smartest thing in the world or the brightest, but we all piled in my friend’s one car and made it to the liquor store. It had been foggy out that night, and I remember this because my friend put her bright lights on to see in front of her...and that’s what got us pulled over. We were driving out of the store to our friends house and we seen flashing lights behind us. Immediately we panicked and "tried” to hide the alcohol underneath the seats, not even thinking about the trouble we would be in for having that many people for one car.
The cop comes to the window and the first words out of his mouth were "HOLY SH*T" He proceeded to say that the only reason he was pulling our car over was to tell my friend to shut off her bright lights because it was distracting to others driving in the fog. So after he seen all of us in the car he made us all get out and back up arrived. They questioned us on where we were going and why we had so many people in one car. Then he asked if we had anything in the car we shouldn’t have. My friend that was driving told the officer the truth and they searched the car and found all our alcohol.
Since we told the truth from the get go and were being very cooperative he believed that we hadn’t been drinking (which we hadn’t) and he let us all of by making us dump our alcohol out and calling another car to put some people in.
I know the police officers used their discretion. They were all very young officers and were guys. I think they kind of got a kick out of 7 college girls in a car and so freaked out that we immediately told the truth and gave them permission to search our car. The whole time they were making small talk to us. I think if it had been guys in the car things would have gone a little bit differently.
Not very long ago, I was at the Hub with some of my friends. I'm underage, so I did have my hand stamped with the dreaded 'MINOR'. I've been to the Hub SEVERAL times, and have never seen a police there. However, this particular Thursday night there seemed to be police everywhere. I saw the cops enter into the bar, so I made sure to not have a drink by me, nor sip the drink I previously had. I had to go to the bathroom, so I got up and went. Not even 10 minuets after I sat down, the cops rushed to my table and demanded they see my ID. After the pointed out the obvious that I was a minor, they asked me why I was drinking. This really upset me because I KNOW for a fact they didn't see me. After that, they said it was really obvious that I went to the bathroom right after the entered the room. I didn't know having to go pee was against the law. At this time, they also asked my other friend for her ID. My other friend had the girls wristlet, which contained the ID, thus causing my friend to have to find her to get her ID. It took my friend a long time to find her wallet, and in the meantime the cops informed me that if my friend didn't return I was going to jail. When I asked why, they said because of public intox. I WAS NOT INTOXICATED IN THE LEAST. When my friend returned with her ID, the cops made us go outside because we were being 'disruptive'. A) I sat there quitely. B) my friend wasn't there for the majority of it because she was looking for her ID, and C) we weren't be disruptive! The cops then yelled at my friend and told her she was going to jail. When she asked why, they said don't question 'authority'. They then gave us MIP's (even though we were never breathalized) AND they never saw us with a beer/drinking one. Oh, and ps...they spelled my last name wrong on the MIP ticket. I do respect cops and all they do, but there was NO reason for the way they treated my friend and I. We listened to everything they said, and did it without fighting or talking back. Yet, we still got threatened to go to jail for no reason...twice.
I was living in Fort Dodge a few years ago and at the time I was part owner of a bar in town. That night after we closed I planned on driving home to see the parents - roughly a two hour drive to home - at 3:00am mind you. I had been walking around the bar and drinking since we weren't that busy, because well, I could! Finally started my wondrous journey home and of course I figured hey - why not drink on the way!? Capital idea!! So I'm driving along going through a small town along the way and I happen to notice a cop sitting there waiting. Oh great I thought, half-popped, 3am, going 60 mph in a 45 mph zone -- I don't see the problem! All kidding aside he begins to pull me over. Call me weird but I somehow was "smart enough" to plan for such an event; I casually reached behind me and grabbed my overnight bag, opened it with one hand, and slid my open beer into the bag. Then I pulled out a bottle of water - and THEN finished pulling my car over. I chugged the entire bottle of water before he even got out of the car. He approached my car did the routine of license and registration - so far so good. In the past I had heard a tip that if you were intoxicated, try using short words that end with your mouth closed. So instead of saying "yes" I used "yep" making sure to be as tight-lipped as possible. Everything checked out and I didn't have anything on my driving record. Turns out I was pretty lucky considering I only received a verbal warning for going 60 in a 45. I believe it would be an understatement to say that my heart was in my throat. Luke 1 - OWI 0. Looks like I (luckily) won that round.
Throughout high school, I found myself hanging out with older kids all the time so when I was a senior, I had plenty of friends in college. February of my senior year, my friend was having a party, which involved alcohol. She went to a college in my town and had invited a lot of her friends, who had in turn invited a lot of their friends. Needless to say, there was a lot of people in a little house. While hanging out in the basement sometime after midnight, I heard the dreadful scream "cops!". Dozens of kids started running out the back door into at least a foot of snow. I happened to be wearing heels that night so I didn't want to run. I decided to hide in a closet instead and sure enough, the cops found me - about 20 of them (I think it was training night or something). I was the only person there under 18 (embarrassing) so I had to wait in one of the bedrooms while a cop called my dad to tell him the great news. Although it seemed like my life was ending at the time, it wasn't that bad. Because I was under 18, I only had to go to a drinking class with my mom rather than pay a $300 ticket like all my older friends. The class was actually really informative and I definitely learned a lot of about drinking underage.
The only big incident i have had with the law becides getting a speeding ticket was one night last year me and a few of my frieds were drinking a little bit and we decided to go out to a friends apartment. On the way acouple of my friends ran ahead and left me and another guy to walk by ourselves. When we got to the apartment our friends hadn't arrived yet so we continued to have fun and waited for them to show up. Eventually they showed up and joined everyone. About an hour later the cops showed up at the door and asked for my friends that ran ahead earlier. No one knew what was going on so we just decided to go to bed and then the cops came back and asked for the guy i was with the whole time. He went with them and the next day i found out that all of my friends, including the guy i was with, were charged with a bunch of stuff. That is where i come in... I had to go interview with a detective about what happened that night to help them make sure my one friend was inocent. I was really nervous because i have never had to interview with a detective before. I didnt want to say anything stupid or wrong. the detective was really nice and kind of eased my nervousness because i think he could tell i was. Everything eventually ended up ok with my friend but it still shows how easily people can be convicted even if they had noting to do with it. If i didn'd do the interview my friend would have been charged and it would have cost him a lot of money for an incident he wasn't involved in.
I have not had much experience with law enforcement but from my perspective of other people's experience I feel that law enforcement has to make some changes. On one hand, I am thankful to only have a history of two warnings after being pulled over and not being issued a ticket, but yet it makes me wonder what people get away with. One time when I was pulled over for driving 41 in a 25, and I received a warning when the police officer realized I was from Parkersburg. I am assuming he did this because two weeks before Parkersburg had been destroyed by an F5 tornado. I was obviously very appreciative but the fact that I had not personally been affected by the tornado made me question the whole situation.
On another topic I know a person who literally gets in physical fights with people on purpose and has a long history of unlawful violations. Yet the most that has happened to this person was that they had to pay a fee once. Three times this person has sent people to the hospital after a fight, yet this person never gets in trouble. Also this same person has driven without car insurance their entire life and has been pulled over multiple times yet never gotten a ticket because this person lies to officers telling them that they just bought the car and will be getting their insurance soon. In my opinion it is frustrating when people get away with unlawful acts, but I am aware that law enforcement uses their own discretion which can make their job difficult. Also, growing up in a small town when this person got pulled over they never got a ticket for no insurance because this person personally knew the officers. These are just a few problems that I have noticed throughout my life, but with jail and prison populations increasing rapidly it changes the ways in which the law enforcement uses their discretion.
My experience with law enforcement would have to be that I was lucky almost every time. A little while ago when I was 20, a bunch of friends and I went to Wartburg College to party and go to the dance club. We had been drinking the whole night and my friend and I were going to be driving home together(the sober one would drive of course). My friend stops drinking at like 10 and I continued to drink until about 12 or so and we headed home at like 1. As I walked to my car I sat in the drivers seat and said to my friend, "well I'm not even buzzed but my luck is running short so you should probably drive, just in case." So he drives my car and we come up to a red light and we see a cop that should have been driving but he was just stopped at a green. So we took a right on red and drove a bit, and sure enough the cop pulls us over. Well he walks up to the car and asks for the typical stuff and said we turned right on a no right on red. The cop takes my friend to his car to see if he had been drinking and he knew it was my car and that my friend was just driving me home because I was drinking. My car smelled like alcohol and he let my friend off with a warning. We looked back on that street and there was no sign that said no right on red. So much for a legit excuse to pull us over.
Recently, I had to report an incident to the police. I will save most of the detail for my portfolio, but I did go through the process of being questioned several times as a victim and had to give an official statement to the police. Although it was a long and drawn out process, it was still interesting to see how the process actually works.
Yesterday I parked at the study abroad office. I paid the meter for 00:59 minutes. I went inside for a meeting and was very happy when my hour long meeting got out 10 minutes early. I talked to my friends for awhile and headed out to my car. I noticed a lovely orange ticket on my car as I headed out there. I looked at the meter that read 00:04 minutes. Yeah, I was cutting it close. But honestly a ticket? I read the ticket and it said, "Violation : Expired Meter". What a joke. I stormed back into the office only to have a lady say, "Well, you will have to make an appeal and then we will talk to the person who wrote the ticket and ask them what happened." I asked her if I needed her to come look at the meter to show the proof, but she said no. She said the person who wrote the ticket would have to report what they saw. This almost made me laugh because honestly, what person is going to admit they gave someone a ticket when they did nothing wrong? She explained that I could appeal it and we would just have to see. I can handle paying for a $10 ticket. But the fact that person wrote a ticket when I had four minutes left is a joke. It will be interesting to see what the university does in this case. I'm sure I'll get a lovely letter in my mail box for a $10 ticket. But this is a very bogus ticket. It makes me wonder if this is some kind of scheme to get more money out of students. Doubtful, but I still felt jipped. But it really was just a totally unnecessary situation. Thanks for the ticket UNI!
My experience with the legal system is a little different from the norm. When I was a senior in high school I took 16 credits at a community college for Criminal Justice and it just so happened that my instructor was the Lieutenant for the Ames Police Department. The class was a lot of fun. We were able to do things that no normal senior in high school would do. For instance, one day he took our whole class to the gun range where the officers practice and taught us how to shoot his .50mm handgun. He also shot his sniper rifle and 2 other guns at a sock that was filled with blood to show us how blood spatter differs with every gun. The same day we were able to walk through a house that the tactical team uses to practice, which had no roof. That year I learned a lot about writing police reports, crime scene investigation, and how to shoot a handgun correctly.
Another interesting run in that I had with the legal system was a year after I graduated from high school. I was 19 years old and worked with the Ames Police Department on conducting stings for alcohol. But, since I worked at one of the places in Ames I was unable to conduct a sting there. It was a lot of fun and I went around the whole town in a car with two police officers that were undercover. At the end of the night we ended up having two businesses sell alcohol to me without asking my age or for my ID (which the officers took from me). We also busted 3 teenage boys at a local Kum and Go who used another kids ID (who was 21) in order to guy the alcohol. The teens were clearly not of legal age and all of them were taken in and given court dates.
One of the interesting aspects of the legal system when I was conducting stings with the Police Department was the fact that I had to fill out statements of what happened, who sold me the alcohol, what was said, and what was sold. I also had to give the time and date of the incident. I was also told that if the establishment wanted to go to court I may have to testify to what happened and what I saw. I never did testify for a sting, basically because they were clear cut cases.
My experiences with crime and the legal system have been a lot of fun so far and this summer I plan to have an internship with the Ames Police Department in order to further my experiences.
My first, and only run in with the law happened in Iowa City. I went down with my boyfriends family on a Friday night because we were all planning on going tailgating at the Iowa Vs. UNI football game. We all got up early Saturday morning and made our way to the parking lot. My boyfriend and I were both 20 years old at the time, and of the whole group (about 15 people) we were the only two underage. Everyone there was encouraging us to drink because they didn't think we would have any issues with getting caught. Well, they convinced us. Shortly after 8:00 a.m. a police officer tapped my boyfriend on the shoulder and asked to see some ID. After making eye contact with me, he asked for mine as well. My boyfriend was an idiot and lied about not having his ID on him, but the cop saw that he had his wallet so the officer was not impressed. I actually didn't have mine on me, but I was too scared to lie so I told them my information. (I could have lied and said I was my older sister Brittany, because she was 21 at the time!!) After being humiliated in front of EVERYONE we got handed a Three hundred some dollar ticket! I was mostly mad because I wasn't even planning on going tailgating but everyone insisted that nothing would happen. Also, earlier that morning I jinxed myself because I said I was the only one in my family who has not got caught for drinking. Although I know the officers were doing their job, and I was breaking the law, I KNEW there were tons of other underage people who were acting obnoxious and they didn't even get in trouble at all. Overall I have learned my lesson and don't plan on drinking in public again!!!
My experience deals mostly with traffic violations and interactions with police officers. I have been pulled over twice, one time for speeding and another time for running a red light. Both times, I was let off without a warning, however, after I ran the light, the officer intended to write me a ticket, but her computer was down. These were both interesting experiences, because I had clearly broken the law in both incidences. The officers had to use their personal discretion in making the decision in how to punish me.
When I was pulled over for speeding, I was at least 10 miles over the limit. The officer simply pulled me over, took me and took my license. I did not have the up to date registration, however he just checked it on his computer. I was very fortunate to not be given a ticket. He could not have been nicer.
When I was pulled over for running the light, which was also pretty blatant, the officer did intend to write me a ticket. Initially, she thought I may have been drinking, which I hadn’t. I just ran the light because I am dumb. She was quite forthcoming initially, however, after realizing I was not drunk, she was much kinder. She did decide to write me a ticket, but her computer was down, so she let me go. It was pretty nice.
In both of these situations, my fate was really up to the hands of law enforcement officials. Thankfully, I was lucky and avoided a ticket both times. Just random chance prevented me from being punished further in one situation, so it is interesting to note how simple things like that can affect someone in how they are punished. Also, in terms of my behavior after being pulled over, it did change. Since I was still in high school when I was pulled over for speeding, and had just got my license, I did not speed for quite some time after that. However, eventually I did return to my old ways. I do not normally run red lights, so my behavior as not altered that much since that incident.
I had a run in with law enforcement a couple of years ago in CF. The incident took place in the Sterling parking lot. Me and three other friends left a party in one of the apartments and during our way to our car, one of my "smarter" friends decided to break a mirror off of a car. It just so happened that a CF police officer was sitting at the corner of the parking lot. After my friend did this we continued to our vehicle and the police car came up to us and asked what was going on and we just said that we were just leaving. He said that he had seen ME and my other innocent friend break the mirror off of the car. We were then all patted down and before I knew it me and my innocent friend were arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to jail. Of course the guilty "friend of mine didnt say anything and he was then let go and he walked off. We were held in the CF jail for a while and then were taken to Black Hawk County and booked in there. After a long night sitting in jail we were let out on the streets and told to leave. I eventually fought the case and spent a lot of money for a lawyer so that I would not have this charge on my record. I did get found not guilty of the charge. This experience was definately a bad experience for me, but I did learn a lot about the system works from personal experience although I would of rather of learned it in a class room!
One year ago leaving VEISHA, two of my friends and myself had contact with the State Troopers. The three of us had been drinking, like the other 30,000 people there. About a mile outside of Ames my friend was driving and began to feel very sick, the alcohol doesn't affect you as bad when you're walking around but as soon as we sat down in the car, it hit us. We told him to pull over to switch drivers. He did, and turned the flashers on. About 30 seconds later a trooper pulls up behind us with their lights on and comes up to see what's going on. The driver is obviously intoxicated and he can smell the alcohol on us. The driver gets out and performs the sobriety test--very poorly I might add. Another trooper has arrived and is asking for me and the other kid's licenses. I have to get mine out of my purse in the trunk, the officer is assisting me by shining his flashlight in the trunk...illuminating bottles of alcohol and fireworks. The driver is taken to the Story County Jail to spend the night and go to court in the morning, and me and the other kid are sent home. The kid that we were trying to switch drivers with when we pulled over had to blow, and blew low enough for the troopers to send us home. The driver received an OWI because the vehicle had been turned on while we were pulled over. The officers and judge were more lenient with the driver because they knew he was pulling over to switch drivers when he realized he was too intoxicated to drive. So turn the car off if you switch drivers if you realize you drank too much.
I haven't had a lot of run ins with the police, but when I was going to another school at the time in my sophomore year in college and my roommates and I decided to go to a house party. I was the lucky one that got voted to drive. We meant up with one of my roommate's boyfriend at the party. My first thought when we got there was "This place is going to get busted" and I said that thought to the people that were there with me. They didn't seem to care much about the police coming, and busting the party. So, we decided to go on in, and I wasn't too happy about it. We hung out in the living room and made our way to the kitchen. We were in the house for about 10 minutes and a herd of people went by us yelling "the police are here!" and ran out the back door. Naturally, I was pushed out of the way so the group that was with me and two other people were stopped at the back door. So, the seven of us all got questioned about who owned the home...etc. I fortunately didn't drink at the party and was the only one who actually spoke up and explained that we didn't know who lived here, and we just got here. They finally let us all go, after threatening us that they would bring us all to jail if we didn’t say who lived there, and we drove away without any tickets but just a strong warning. I must say, I haven't gone back to a house party since that night!
I have had some interaction with the law, but luckily only one time it was my fault. I have gotten one speeding ticket before, which was last summer. I was speeding up to see my cruise control to 60, but I was still in the 50 mile zone. A state patrol clocked me going 63 in a 50 and pulled me over. I was a little scared, but not as scared as the five children I had in the back of my car. I was taking my niece and some of her friends to a water park that day. The officer was kind of a jerk. He did knock my speed down to 55 in a 50 mile zone. But I had my dad's vehicle and I couldn't find my insurance card. The state patrol said that if I couldn't find my insurance card, he would have to take me into the station, which made four of the children start to cry. Luckily I got a hold of my dad and he told me were the insurance card was. I ended up getting a 75 dollar speeding ticket, for going five over the speed limit.
Growing up my uncle and some of his girlfriends had it out so we had the police get called to our house a number of times. Once because my uncle was dating two women at the same time and they found out about it and had a psychical fight in my front yard. There were some other instances where we had to call the police on some of my uncle girlfriends. My uncle’s girlfriends would come over to our house and try to have it out with him; usually this occurred after they just broke up or had a big fight. When my family couldn’t get her to leave, they called the police on her.
We lived next door, for two years, beside a young couple who had a little girl. The wife Abby, who was pregnant with her second child, and her husband Miguel were always fighting so the police were getting called over to their house a lot and we would get asked questions if we heard or saw anything. Miguel had a tendency to get physical with Abby too. Abby was 5 months pregnant when Miguel pushed her out their big picture window. Their daughter Raven came running over to our house crying. I had to call the police while my parents ran over to Abby's. By that time Miguel had left so we had the police searching everyone for him. They ended up finding Miguel in my grandma's old garage in her back yard. We had probably 10 or 11 interactions with the police because of Abby and Miguel. Miguel is not in prison for rape, he raped a woman from another town, and Abby and her two girls are doing just fine.
Those are my different interactions with the police throughout my life. Since I work at the police station had have daily interaction with the police officers there and learn about a lot of cases too.
I've actually never had much interaction with the cops before last week. I haven't been pulled over or had any real interaction with the cops in my past. Then I got a lot of it. On the 21st, my girlfriend and I were having a little ride near the airport. Out of nowhere, a state cop pulled her over for speeding. This was a first for my girlfriend, and she couldn't find her insurance. Granted, I didn't have much interaction here, but since the state trooper came to my window, I had to hand stuff between the two. In the end, she got a warning for both the speeding as well as the insurance.
The very next day, I had to drive to Chicago for work (military drill). When I got to Iowa City, I witnessed a semi truck in front of me T-bone a sedan that came out of nowhere. I pulled over to help, but luckily, everyone was fine. An ambulance came first and treated some basic cuts and scrapes. I was somewhat surprised that one of them asked me what I saw. In short, they said I could continue with my trip. I started to drive again to my destination. I never made it.
About 40 miles later, I lost my transmission. I was on the side of the highway trying to figure out the problem, trying some basic repairs, and the such. Even in a uniform, I couldn't get a single person to pull over nor did I see a cop on the highway for 2.5 hours. I got towed to the I-80 truck stop. I called a friend in Chicago to give me a hand towing my car back, but he had to do his finals. He and his girlfriend arrived the next day around midnight, so I decided to stay at a nearby motel until then. Once he got there, we pushed my car up onto a trailer. Around 2:00 AM, a few cops rushed in and told us to freeze... Not so easy when you're pushing a 2-ton car against gravity. When they saw nothing was wrong and a few questions later, they asked us what was going on. We explained pretty much everything I've explained here and told them we tried to use what little acceleration we could get from the car to help. My friend and I sometimes had to yell over a clang sound the car made for her to let up on the brake or to brake if we couldn't push anymore. The cop told us that someone called in that "We were assaulting a young teenage girl with weapons." My friend's girlfriend is somewhat short and looks young, but she's 20. There were no tools involved except a couple of large rocks used as brakes, but the car did make that loud clang from time to time. After all the explanation was over with, we pushed the car onto the trailer and fixed it into place.
It's funny that a guy who had no real police interaction in his days was somewhat near an Assault with a deadly weapon charge made by mistaken witness. However, since there was nothing that matched what the witness saw, other than two men and a woman, by the time the police came, we were quite safe. Last we saw, the cop went into the motel. I assume to inform the witness what really went on.
While I do not have a criminal record (at least to my knowledge) I have encountered the legal system on many occasions, the text to follow will describe my most recent encounter.
On a beautiful Sunday morning in January, I was headed northbound on a desolate 2-lane highway somewhere between Maryville, Mo and the Iowa border. I had driven down the night before to surprise my kid brother who goes to school at NWMSU for his 21st birthday.
Needless to say, the last thing ANYBODY wants to do after a 21st birthday celebration is drive for 5 hours, so I was definitely driving over the speed limit in an attempt to shorten my drive home.
Sure enough, a Missouri state patrolman didn't think my speeding was appropriate for the Sabbath, and did a U-turn after passing me going the other way and flipped on the all too familiar "cherries".
At the time, I had the car I was driving for about two weeks, and didn't have my insurance cards in the glove box. So I thought "oh great, I'm going to get a ticket for not having proof of insurance too".
Anyways, the patrolman walks up to the window and says "I got you going 69 back there, and the state of Missouri says you gotta keep it at 60. Can I have your license and registration please?" So I hand him the goods, then he says "Why don't you come back to my car".
When we get into his cruiser, he says "I see you've got some music equipment in the back, did you have a gig last night?" And what the heck do you know, he was right. Before I left for Maryville I played an early show in Des Moines, packed my gear in the backseat, and headed south.
So the patrolman says "you know, I used to play in a Country Western band myself, but then I got this gig as a patrolman, and got out of that game. Its too hard spending that much time in taverns and such, then arresting the people that are supposed to be your fans, you know?"
Yes sir, he's absolutely right. So then he says "Well man, keep your speed down, and have a great day". Thats it. I would guess approximately 3 minutes passed from the moment I handed the patrolman my license to the moment I left his cruiser.
I remember thinking "son of a bi^%$, the music business actually saved my ass for once, usually it just gets me into more trouble". But I'm not going to be some cliche d-bag and write a song about it...
I was recently out on the hill and was asked in a bar for my license. I had noticed the police walking through the bar asking random people for the identification, but it never really occurred to me that they would ask me since I am 21. When they did, I handed it over to them. In my license I have blond hair and currently have brown. They asked for a second form of identification and I told them that I didn’t have any. They then made me go outside with them in order to prove that it was indeed me. I had to answer a series of questions until they finally believed it was me.