At , you wrote:
>If they can't see what you are doing, some departments
>require them to either draw or loosen their firearms from/in their holsters
>and/or call you out of the car. Departments that don't require this usually
>train their officers to stand in the blind spot of the vehicle and call for
>backup. They will usually wait till that backup arrives before approaching
>the vehicle. Lazy Police officers who casually stride up to vehicles and
>don't really care how it's decked out are usually the ones that end up being
>shot.
It's hard for me to buy into this line of reasoning. I know that sometimes
traffic stops go horribly wrong, but in the vast majority of cases they
don't. I know, the times I've been stopped, as the officer is approaching
I'm usually either reaching in my pocket for my license or digging in the
glove box for my insurance card. I would guess that the majority of people
are doing the same thing when they get stopped. Both of these could be
construed as highly suspicious activities, yet I've never had an officer do
anything but walk right up to my vehicle. Day or night, tinted or untinted
windows, it's never made any difference. My guess is that cops, being cops,
dislike anything hidden and want to be able to see what people are doing
all the time. This is, of course, totally unacceptable. And for them to
exploit the occasional tragedy just so they can stick their noses where
they don't belong is one reason cops have bad reputations with some people.
BTW, the cops in Texas carry around little light meter type thingeys to
measure your window tint. If it's too dark, they make you pull it off on
the spot.
-- Mike Crumley mcrumley@airmail.net 97 RC 3.9L V6 3.55 Auto Rhino Liner Bug Shield Mud Flaps DDBCChildrens Book Titles You'll Never See-- "Candy in the Medicine Cabinet"
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