Cop pulls man over for making direct eye contact......

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2015/08/31/dayton-ohio-man-pulled-over-for-making-direct-eye-contact-with-officer.html

DAYTON, Ohio - John Felton said a Dayton officer followed him for two miles before he was pulled over back on August 15.

The 25-year-old decided to capture the stop on video. When the officer approached his driver side window this is what he recorded:

Felton: I'm not doing nothing because I have a Michigan plate other than that why you trailing me?

Officer: Because you made direct eye contact with me and held on to as I was passing you.

The title of this article is misleading if not downright false.  

The driver was not stopped for making eye contact with the Officer.  

The Officer was "trailing" him because he had made direct eye contact with the Officer.   (the "hard stare" or "stink eye" I presume)   Nothing unlawful about that.

The Officer stopped him for improper signaling before a turn

"the officer told him he was being pulled over for not signaling 100 feet before a turn."

Read the article closely and you'll see the distinction.

A police officer doesn't need probable cause to merely observe a persons public activities .... only to stop/detain that person.


To me, what this article highlights more than anything is the serious lack of reading comprehension in this country.

The best policy in the sorry society we live in today, is to never make eye contact with anybody in another car, regardless if they're cops or criminals either one.
I never do that and I'm still alive and free to tell about it.

Unusual public behavior is cause enough for a police officer to decide to observe a person's public activities. Probable cause is not required to merely observe someone.

There's no lack of reading comprehension. The man got the cops attention by staring at him. The cop followed the man until he found a reason out of the hundreds of regulations there are to legally roust him....pretty standard cop behavior. If it had been a pretty girl I am sure the cop would have done the same thing.

New York still hasn't tried Stop n' Frisk at Wall Street, and that's where all the real crime is. Most of the coke, too.
— John Fugelsang

TEOTWAWKI wrote:There's no lack of reading comprehension. The man got the cops attention by staring at him. The cop followed the man until he found a reason out of the hundreds of regulations there are to legally roust him....pretty standard cop behavior. If it had been a pretty girl I am sure the cop would have done the same thing.

If you stare at a cop .... don't be surprised if s/he stares right back at you to try & ascertain why you were acting that way.   (Which, in a way, is what the cop was doing.)  

Then the driver committed a traffic violation and now wants to cry foul.

No story here, folks.

One time when I was in high school,  I went to the Fair with others.
The fairgrounds at that time was on Fairfield Dr (where the street got it's name from).
There was a parking lot behind the fairgrounds and that's where we parked.
We then started walking around the fence to get to the front entrance where we intended to pay the small entrance fee.

As we approached the fence at the back,  I walked over to it and put hands on it to look at what was going on inside the Fair.
Almost immediately,  a uniformed Escambia County Deputy grabbed me and said "so you think you're going to jump the fence to get in,  huh,  smart ass".
(I learned later that other teenagers had been doing that,  jumping the fence to get in free).
But at the time I knew nothing about that and I tried to tell the cop that I had no intention of jumping the fence.   But when I did,  that just pissed him off more because he thought I was lying to him.
With him still grabbing me by the arm,  he then says "I'm going to teach you a lesson,  punk".  And then he dragged me around the whole side of the fairgrounds until he got me to the front entrance.  He then handcuffed me to a post right beside the entrance and said "I'm going to leave you here to think about what a lying punk you are".
He left me handcuffed to that post for more than a half hour.   With everyone who was in line to enter the fair gawking at me the whole time.  Some were people I knew.

From that day,  I have had a fear and a hatred for any kind of uniformed cops.  And that feeling is still with me.

On the other hand,  behind the houses across the street from where I live is where the hood begins.  And about two blocks from where I live is where Jamal Lee once lived.
Jamal Lee was the gangbanger who got a riot started at the Rave theater on W Street.  After the riot moved across the street to the Burger King,  Lee shot and killed another gangbanger in the parking lot.  He was never convicted of it because all the other gangbangers who had agreed to testify against him decided not to at the actual trial.  Why?  Because the "no snitchin" nonsense that was so big at the time convinced them not to.  And for that reason Jamal Lee was never punished for the murder.

The point of me telling you this,  is that even though I have not wanted to have anything much to do with cops since that incident at the fairgrounds long ago;   I realize that IF THERE WERE NO COPS,  that hood behind the houses across the street would have overrun my house and done me in long ago.

For me,  cops,  like government,  are nothing but a necessary evil.
There are times when I need cops just like there are times when I need government.  But I would never turn my back on either.  And I never want to "make eye contact" with any of it.
Instead,  what I've found to be the best policy,  is to try to stay clear of cops as much as possible.  Just like I do the government.  And just like I do the criminals.
I have to co-exist with all of it.  But I don't have to be in love with any of it.

We can all learn something from other creatures.  I've been learning something from watching them in my backyard.

There is birdseed all over the backyard when I throw it down to grow the grass seaoat likes to mock me for.
That has caused my backyard to be a gathering place for a great many squirrels and birds.   Because of course the squirrels crave the birdseed just like the birds do.

What I've learned is,  those birds and squirrels are pretty smart dudes.
While I pose no threat to them when I walk outside,  they don't know that.
They've been fucked over by humans in so many ways that they don't just willy nilly trust me to be the one who won't fuck them over.  That wouldn't be smart on their part.
So they try to avoid any close contact with me.

I am to those birds and squirrels what cops are to me.  The birds and squirrels benefit from my existence,  but that doesn't mean they're stupid and they have to always trust me.
The birds and squirrels co-exist with me like I do with the cops.  That way we can all reap the benefits of the association without ignoring the risks.

Bob wrote:We can all learn something from other creatures.  I've been learning something from watching them in my backyard.

There is birdseed all over the backyard when I throw it down to grow the grass seaoat likes to mock me for.
That has caused my backyard to be a gathering place for a great many squirrels and birds.   Because of course the squirrels crave the birdseed just like the birds do.

What I've learned is,  those birds and squirrels are pretty smart dudes.
While I pose no threat to them when I walk outside,  they don't know that.
They've been fucked over by humans in so many ways that they don't just willy nilly trust me to be the one who won't fuck them over.  That wouldn't be smart on their part.
So they try to avoid any close contact with me.

I am to those birds and squirrels what cops are to me.  The birds and squirrels benefit from my existence,  but that doesn't mean they're stupid and they have to always trust me.
The birds and squirrels co-exist with me like I do with the cops.  That way we can all reap the benefits of the association without ignoring the risks.

You should publish that analogy...very precise.