[cad455]

i was heading north on 95 around the north/south carolina border, just doing my own thing. 85-90 in the right lane, passing when necessary.

i see a black late model mustang GT bearing down in the left lane. i'm in the right. there's a truck in front of me, so i ease off, and let the mustang pass before getting behind him. i'm a passive freeway driver.

so, as soon as i get behind the stang, he slams on his brakes, and starts pacing the truck at 70mph. i patiently sit behind him for a few seconds before giving a friendly "yeah, you got me" wave. he replies with a middle finger. i retort with a smile and thumbs up. i love stupid people.

after a minute or so, he punches it and takes off down the freeway. cool, i guess. i resume my 90 mph in the right lane, free of the idiot...or so i thought.

moments later i find him again. once again, i move to the left lane to pass the cars in the right, and he does the same thing again. he's pacing some old buick or something. at this point, i'd gotten pretty fed up with this guy's attitude. i'd done nothing wrong. we're passing an entrance ramp onto the freeway, giving me a few hundred feet of a 3rd lane. i decide to drop it into 4th and pass both cars on the right.

i fully expected the feared V8 to come roaring from behind and embarass me, but at 90 mph i checked my rear view and saw that he was barely approaching. at 100, i thought he was about to overtake, but he sat there until 125, and then gave up.

so, i'm confused. i know the tC isn't slow, but i know it isn't all that fast either. i really expected a stang GT to eat me for breakfast.

so, what happened?

**disclaimer**

yeah, i'm against street racing, and acting dumb. but once i passed the slow car to overtake him, there was absolutely no traffic ahead. i wouldn't have taken the plunge if i was endangering anyone else but myself. i just thought i'd get that out of the way. wear your seatbelt.

 

[zoltiz]

http://www.roadrage.com/samples.htm

I was thinking about buying these, but then thought - heck. I have a nice laser printer in the office and a bunch of binders - I'll just make my own

As for you and the stang - great job. I love stupid people, too

(Marty - here's the guy to learn from)

 

[basilisk4]

Some jackass in an Excursion cut me off badly while I was on the Florida turnpike on Monday, and I ended up cutting him off a little shortly thereafter when I tried to go around him in the other lane and ran out of room. Anyway, after that, he tailgated me (about a foot off my bumper) for miles, and when I tried to speed off, he did his best to pace me and get back in front of me. Finally, I gave up and pulled over to the right lane and slowed down, and some guy in the passenger seat rolled down his window and flashed a badge at me.

Moral? I dunno. I guess it's that some cops are assholes too, or at least the people they ride with.

P.S. This is not the first time someone has flashed a badge at me in traffic.

 

[Labfish]

Flash him your lawyer badge

 

[basilisk4]

No, but sometimes I wish I had become a prosecutor so I would have a badge. It would have been kind of funny to flash a badge back at that guy. Ah well, who knows...for years I've toyed with the idea of trying to go work for the FBI, and I will probably look into it more seriously towards the end of this year when I'm looking for a new job.

 

[Labfish]

Sweet

 

[510sciontc]

next time throw a fistfull of pennies, that will get their attention


TC=thrwoing copper

 

[Duckman]

LOL

 

[Azrael]

^^^Said it all.

 

[cad455]

hm, i think i'll have to pick up a shiny toy badge to flash at road rage idiots from now on

 

[Labfish]

That would be very, very illegal and unwise. And if you happned to flash an idiot plainclothes policeman...well... Marty, tell him what he would win.

 

[basilisk4]

A night in jail, at best? I dunno what the penalty is for impersonating a police officer in your state, but it's probably not fun.

 

[Labfish]

Isn't most states that is a felony offense?

 

[basilisk4]

Apparently it is in Georgia:

§ 16-10-23. Impersonating a public officer or employee

A person who falsely holds himself out as a peace officer or other public officer or employee with intent to mislead another into believing that he is actually such officer commits the offense of impersonating an officer and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or both.

Lucky for you though, cad, it's only a misdemeanor in SC. Up to a year in jail.

 

[Labfish]

It's good to have our very own Perry Mason.

 

[lo bux racer]

Is flashing a badge impersonating a police officer? I can go to any toy store and get a toy badge. Does it mean I am attempting to impersonate an officer? I'think it would be difficult to prove without some other corroborating evidence.

There are only two things I know you go to jail for flashing: your genitalia or a firearm (even with a CCW, you are not allowed to brandish a weapon).

 

[basilisk4]

In this context, I fail to see how flashing a badge could be considered to be anything other than "falsely hold[ing] [yourself] out as a peace officer...with intent to mislead another into believing that [you are] actually such officer." You would be flashing the badge because you wanted to make other people think you were a police officer. That's the very definition of the offense, so it would not be difficult to prove at all, and no other evidence would be required.

Obviously, buying a toy badge is not the same thing as flashing it at someone with the intent to make them think you are actually a cop.

 

[lo bux racer]

So you believe it would be like holding up 7-11 with squirt gun that bears a strong resemblance to a real firearm?

I dunno. The Sacramento County DA refused to file charges against my ex (a felon convicted of forgery) when she sold my two handguns to a pawn shop purportedly because we were married and she had access to them. It may not be prudent to flash a badge if you are not an officer, but it would be an interesting day in court to see how it panned out.

 

[basilisk4]

Originally posted by lo bux racer@Feb 11 2005, 07:16 PM
So you believe it would be like holding up 7-11 with squirt gun that bears a strong resemblance to a real firearm?

I dunno.  The Sacramento County DA refused to file charges against my ex (a felon convicted of forgery) when she sold my two handguns to a pawn shop purportedly because we were married and she had access to them.  It may not be prudent to flash a badge if you are not an officer, but it would be an interesting day in court to see how it panned out.

I fail to see the similarity between flashing a toy badge and your example. Rest assured, though, that holding up 7-11 with a realistic-looking toy gun would probably constitute armed robbery, and it would definitely constitute assault as long as the cashier were in reasonable apprehension of harm -- i.e., if anyone believed it was actually a gun.

As for the situation with your ex, that's perfectly accurate under the law -- California is a community property state, so if she was your wife at the time, unless you could somehow show that the handguns were your separate property, she would have equal title to them.

Look, the bottom line is this: if you cause another person to reasonably believe that you are a cop, and that was your intention, then you are guilty of impersonating a police officer. It's that simple. You may be thinking, "Sure, but how could a prosecutor prove my intent?" It's really not that hard. Intent can (and almost always is) inferred by circumstances, and in fact rarely CAN be proven by direct (i.e., other than circumstantial) evidence.

Suppose you flashed a toy badge at someone in traffic after they cut you off, and that person called the real police, who come and arrest you. In plain english, there are four basic elements to impersonating a police officer in it's usual statutory form:

1. Causing someone else to reasonably believe
2. That you are a police officer
3. While having the intention to cause such belief in another
4. Although you are not actually a police officer

In our example, number 4 is a given. Number 3 seems to many laypeople to be the hardest to prove, but it's pretty easy to infer that you flashed the badge with the intention that the other driver would believe you were a cop. Sure, you could come up with silly and fantastic examples of other things that you could have been thinking when you flashed the badge, but given how blatantly obvious would be from the circumstances what you intended, you would have close to an impossible time proving otherwise. Numbers 1 & 2 go hand in hand -- the only reason I separated them is to highlight the "reasonably believe" part. Granted, if you flash a chocolate coin at another driver, it would be hard to say that the other driver reasonably believed that you were a cop. If you flashed anything even remotely resembling a police badge, however, you're probably sunk -- most people don't know what a real police badge looks like, so it would be hard to say that a person was unreasonable in believing that the fake badge you flashed was a real one. There's also the fact that when you're moving in traffic, it's hard to examine the detail of the badge that you see for one second.

My point is that it would most likely NOT be a fun day in court, at least not for the defendant -- because it would almost certainly end in you going to jail. This would be an open-and-shut case.

Too much information, I know, but when something that I actually know something about and am interested in comes up, I can get carried away sometimes...

 

[lo bux racer]

The analogy is a toy gun and a toy badge. Either way, you will suffer the same result, the law will prosecute to the fullest extent, not dismiss the toy item as harmless, or the intent as not serious.

AFA the ex. A convicted felon is not allowed to possess, much less sell a firearm in California. IMHO, she should have gone to prison for the sale. And the guns were not community property, I owned them long before I married her. Strike two would have been convenient for me for other reasons, but I digress...

QUOTE

Too much information, I know, but when something that I actually know something about and am interested in comes up, I can get carried away sometimes...[/b]

Oh please, like I DON"T do that???? Thanks, your answer is exactly what I was looking for.