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What do you do if a cop approaches you and starts questioning you while you're sitting in your car in a public parking lot? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

122 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Unfortunately, I drive a ghetto minivan which causes the police to profile me and has caused people in small towns to call the police on me if I am in a public park or in their neighborhood. I even had someone call the police on me at campground that I had pre-paid for and the police were not sympathetic at all to my right to just exist.

I am aware of stop and identify laws and know that a cop needs reasonable suspicion to demand to see your ID. However, can't the cop just make up some lies about reasonable suspicion?

If a cop approaches me can I immediately start with: "Officer, do you have reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred, is in the process of occurring, or is about to occur?" It seems like that will immediately escalate things even if technically the law is on my side.

I just want a damn right to exist law and to not be a target for an overactive imagination by the police which treats me like a criminal until they can check me for warrants.

Honestly, I want to tell them to fuck off right away but I also don't have money for a lawyer.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (12 children)

different towns....also the incident at the campground happened and there were other people camping. The cop didn't go check in on any of them. His specific "reasonable suspicion" was that in the past at that campground they have had trouble with "riff-raff". Great! So be it, then why not go ID check all the other campers then? I was being profiled and targeted because of the vehicle I was driving. If you don't understand then that's because this hasn't happened to you 10 times or more. It gets tiring.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (9 children)

Were the other campers actually camping and you were just a minivan parked at a campsite?

Because not many campers just sit inside a minivan the whole time.

But meth heads do, because they can't smoke meth out in the open.

Stop being angry people notice you, and start trying to blend in. If you're paying for the site, you might as well use it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I have a ghetto van. It does not blend in. The campground was one incident. There are many more which have happened in parking lots where other people are also sitting in their cars. Since the invention of smart phones a lot of people sit in their cars for various reasons and look at their phones or use laptops. It's not illegal nor suspicious to sit in your car. - Anytime you vent online people look for an angle to blame you. I just want to exist without being harassed like everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Can you grab a crap tent you can throw up, just to look the part? Something that’s quick to put up just to look the part. Or heck just leave camping gear outside conspicuously

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I have thought about that. It is a good idea. I believe in psychology they call that "signaling". Might have to start doing that. But I don't go to campgrounds a lot. I still get harassed if I am eating fast food in a public park or just sitting somewhere on my laptop.