Background:
I drive like I'm driving miss daisy 90%+ of the time.
I basically drive at the speed limit, use my signals, obey all traffic laws, and most of my driving is simply to and from work in rush hour.
Today I decided to stop by northpoint mall after work.
Well, as I'm waiting to turn left at the light entering the mall parking area, a cop pulls up behind me.
I turn left when the light turns green, and as I'm winding through the mall lot looking for a good place to park, the blue lights come on.
Long story short, the she-cop tells me she has notes in her system that I've been warned before about my smoked tails.
She gets my license and insurance and comes back with two tickets:
1. Offense - taillights: 40-8-23(A) - tail light covers are not gdot approved
2. Offense - exhaust system - penalty for violation: 40-8-71 - vehicle blowing excessive smoke
Now IMO this is the typical bs revenue generating force at work.
How many actual crimes were going on while I was pulled over?
Now here comes my defense:
I've had these tails on the car FOR YEARS.
All of a sudden now it's important enough to pull me over for, right?
I was pulled over one time last year (also in Alpharetta) and the officer said my tails were dim but that my brake lights were too bright. (wtf?!)
He really didn't give a shit, as again I feel like he pulled me over bc of the car.
Apparently he wrote something in the copcarputer that he warned me. :/
I overfilled my car by 1.5qts of oil last time I added it.
Yes, there is a little (LITTLE) bit of smoke randomly - usually after I've been driving for a while and then stop at a light then pull off again. It's really minor, but whatever.
I don't even have emissions in my county so pfft.
Anyway, I've been pulled over 6x in a 4 month period a while back - all by the same cop, and all within a mile of my work. It's all been clearly profiling. They usually just check my license and insurance and let me go. Sometimes I'd get told that my tint was too dark (it's legal limit) and then they check it and say nm. Usually though, they dont give a reason for pulling me over. The last time, I got irate and told him I pay his salary with my taxes and that he was profiling me and that I was sick of being harassed. He got mad and wrote me a ticket for a 'dirty license plate,'
After that, I didn't get pulled over for like a year.
But now I've gotten pulled over 3x recently.
I really feel like its because I work in a Latino area, and although I'm not Latino, I suppose I must look like I am to these cops or my car looks 'Mexi' to them.
And the time before this, when I got pulled over in Avondale Estates, the cop was harassing me so bad - he searched my person 2x and literally squeezed my balls both times. He was up in my face asking why my eyes were half shut (I'm half Asian and it was 1am) - yelling so much his spit was flying out of his mouth into my face. He got pissed off and told me to not back away and not to lean on my car. So apparently I'm supposed to stand there and have this dick cop yell in my face 2" away with his spit flying and not lean on my own car? :/
When all was said and done, I didn't get so much as a warning.
But when I said there was no reason to search me or even pull me over, he started saying he was going to write me tickets for exhaust and crossing over the yellow line, and car too low... He was literally just making up offenses that I hadn't done!
I had to start saying 'yes sir' a bunch of times to avoid more harassment because basically it wasn't going to get any better. He was just itching to put me in the back of his car for any excuse he could come up with. Even the other cop that came as backup was looking freaked out at how far over the line this guy was. :/
Now here's a pic of the offensive daily driver:
I'm sure there are some good cops out there, but I just haven't encountered any in a long long time.