Friday, August 19, 2011

8/19/11

This may be a little off topic...

When the Hickoids were out west I got a ticket for not wearing my seat belt. The "CHiP's" officer noticed us (Tom and I) sleeping on the bench seats and assumed (correctly) we weren't wearing seat belts. She pops open the side doors of the van and starts searching an open box right by the door. It was the typical "Cop trap" EVERY band should use.

You have a semi closed box near the door and you fill it with various piddly things (this one had cds, stickers, stamps and a half eaten bag of almonds). Generally a cop looks in the box and if the don't see weed, coke, or paraphernalia they are cool and let you go on your merry way.

Not this cop, she gave us tickets.

I'm not one for conspiracy theory kind of crap, but I believe the seat belt law in California is not about saving lives (I'm sure it does) but is more about making the state some money.

My ticket was $155.

This was my first offense. There is zero kindness in the California Highway Patrol.

It's a pretty sad, I didn't even know where we were. When I fell asleep we were leaving Vegas. I wake up and get fined $155...pitiful.

I was speaking with Curt from the Meat Puppets and it turns out two of them got hit with the no seat belt fine on the same stretch of the 5 the week before it happened to us. Different cop, same result.

The moral of the story is they profile white vans, especially if you have Texas plates. So keep a "cop trap" right by the door an wear your stupid seat belt.

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