stunned and bewilderd

[Andy Le Blanc]

So... I'm coming home from the tonight's gig, it dumping rain, good show.
The audience was thin... I'm going like grandma, it's deer season, as soon
as hunters hit the woods the deer are out of the woods, leaves are all over
the road, bad driving...

And... in the middle of god damned no where I get pulled over by a county
trooper. I really mean the middle of nowhere, the back road to home.
It's sober gig, no worries there, ain't speeding, ain't doing nothing...

The guy initiates a traffic stop because he saw me pitch a cigarette out the window.

No ashtray... Now I know there are places where you don't do that.
But in the middle of nowhere in the rain its hard not be miffed.
Everything's fine, and the officer was good about it, and so was I...

But I laughed my ass off for a good five miles... still can't believe it.
Such is the face of authority.

[dynaman]

Hmmm....I got a DUI about 10 years ago and received 5 days of community service as part of my sentence. I did roadside cleanup duty alongside a host of other folks that all got 10 days of community service and $500 fines for simply flicking cigarette butts from their windows.

You need to clean up your act Andy. Try using an ashtray.

Yes, I'm also a smoker.

[Andy Le Blanc]

And you accept that...

There's no act to clean up, and my taxes pay his salary, good thing I vote.
It's a full time gig, no one needs to be shook down like that, despite the
hours you have to keep. The economy's bad, and DUI's are down to
less than 3% of successfully prosecuted traffic stops, no money in it any more

The pecker head was out fishing

Its one thing criminally dump trash, but that was just pathetic, made the poor
bastard look like a fool and he knew it, makes law enforcement look flaccid.

land of the free..... my arse

And the state elected a republican governor, its only gonna get worse....

[Furtz]

Up here in Ontario, there is a complete ban on smoking in a workplace. This includes vehicles that are being used for any kind of business even if the driver owns the vehicle. Police can and do ticket smoking drivers and the fines are pretty stiff. If you are a working musician with gear in your car, you better not be caught smoking.

[vibratoking]

Yes, the cops could and should find something better to do. Agreed. I don't see what the driving conditions have to do with you tossing butts or the cop pulling you over?

I also agree with dynaman. Andy, clean up your act. Sorry, throwing butts out the window really isn't acceptable behavior.

[Gibsonman63]

Definitely a fishing expedition. I agree, there are bigger crimes to persue.

I have a theory of finite luck. I definitely pushed mine way too far surviving my late adolescence, driving when I had not business driving and other stupid things. Now that I have used it all up, I have to be careful all the time.

I should have saved a little for the lottery.

[Andy Le Blanc]

It was a dark and stormy night...

If you've ever had a pig tail you with high beams, to create a justification
for a traffic stop at it's discretion, being unsuccessful for miles in the worst
driving conditions, The butt out the window is a lame excuse for a traffic stop.
No traffic, middle of the night, no residences for miles, I'm just lucky he was
a real officer, and every thing was 5/5 so he starts going on about a typo
on the cars registration looking for excuses to prosecute, trying to get me to flub up.
UN@#$%BELIEVABLE

No butts about it, It's a state where the sliding scale of morality really
doesn't care, legislating, enforcing ethics, fashionable morals, aesthetic
behavior choices,is not a safe or sane approach, its an intrusion.

You talk like you bought your liberty at walmart, to bad its made in China.
But its cheaper like that...

This one really got me going, and then you see them sitting on the side o
the road playing farm town, cruising the web, yaking on a cellphone...
and we're cutting public school funding to pay for THAT, piss off...

[gearhead]

Not surprised at all that he tailed you for a while.

Driving late at night, not a biggie. But driving like a grandma late at night is usually a drunk. Was probably looking to see if you were gonna weave, checking license plate, etc. Throwing a butt out the window was definitely an excuse to get a closer exam. Questioning your registration enabled him to see your reactions and speech tells. Good thing you hadn't been drinking, or even had any close tells, or you'd have been wallking the line in the rain. Now -that- woulda pissed me off too.

AFA throwing a butt out the window in the middle of nowhere? So what that it was in the middle of nowhere. Throwning crap out your window is just wrong.

[Structo]

I got a ticket back in June for careless driving.

I got into an altercation with an off duty state trooper.
He tried to cut in line in a construction zone and I wouldn't let him in.
He waited until the last possible moment to merge right. He was the only car that did that.
He phoned in a report that I was driving carelessly. I was later pulled over 40 miles to the South!

Long story short, the off duty cop was a 23 year veteran state trooper.
I pleaded not guilty and filed my declaration about what happened.
I did not have to physically appear in court.

The trooper lied in his report and said I was driving erratically.
He also said I was driving over 100 mph and tail gating.
First of all the traffic was much too heavy for any type of speeding and secondly, I only tail gated him after he slammed on his brakes in front of me.

When I filed the last paper work with the court, the post office didn't deliver the papers in time and the judge threw the case out and convicted me.
The post office assured me that my papers would reach the court before the due date so I didn't pay for registered mail or anything. Bad mistake.
I have a clean record which I informed the judge of. It would be out of my character to drive like that and almost impossible to act like that in the traffic conditions that were present.
$285 fine!

I have no doubt in my mind that it pissed the trooper off that I didn't let him cut in line. In his declaration he said he knew that maneuver angered motorists.
SO WHY DID YOU DO IT!

I really lost a lot of respect for cops that day.

[TheGimp]

Best I can find is that a cigarette butt (filter element) is made from cellulose acetate and may take a long time to break down (up to 12 years?). Some sites state that this is the period for the fibers to separate, and not the true breakdown time. However film is made of cellulose acetate as well and studies show a breakdown of it although with a longer timeline as film is normally stored in conterolled conditions.

Aside from being unsightly, there is the remote possibility of ingestion by small animals in which case it could be leathal.

My wife's car has no cigarette lighter or ash tray so she got a small ash tray that fits in a cup holder and uses that.

I'm guilty of occasional littering as well, but only apple cores and banana peels on the side of the road in the grass.

[Ken Moon]

Since you don't have an ashtray in your car, I guess all your butts go out the window?

I agree that the cop could have found a better use of his time (or maybe not, you said it's the middle of nowhere), but seeing someone throwing a butt out the window pisses off lots of otherwise calm people.

Maybe it's because I've lived in places where that's likely to start a big fire, but it seems awfully selfish.

I'm old and quiet now, but when I was a teenager, I had a habit of picking up butts off the street and throwing them back into the offending car - now that's a great way to make new friends

[ToneMerc]

It was a dark and stormy night...

If you've ever had a pig tail you with high beams, to create a justification
for a traffic stop at it's discretion, being unsuccessful for miles in the worst
driving conditions, The butt out the window is a lame excuse for a traffic stop.
No traffic, middle of the night, no residences for miles, I'm just lucky he was
a real officer, and every thing was 5/5 so he starts going on about a typo
on the cars registration looking for excuses to prosecute, trying to get me to flub up.
UN@#$%BELIEVABLE

No butts about it, It's a state where the sliding scale of morality really
doesn't care, legislating, enforcing ethics, fashionable morals, aesthetic
behavior choices,is not a safe or sane approach, its an intrusion.

You talk like you bought your liberty at walmart, to bad its made in China.
But its cheaper like that...

This one really got me going, and then you see them sitting on the side o
the road playing farm town, cruising the web, yaking on a cellphone...
and we're cutting public school funding to pay for THAT, piss off...

Sounds like you were expecting a big ole' group hug.

Surely you didn't post this experience for sympathy. I don't have anything against smokers, as I grew up in the heart of the tobacco belt and pulled tobacco as a kid. However, tossing your butts out whether in the middle of nowhere or at a stoplight is just plain nasty.

Not to mention your insult at LE and your comment about Liberty. How about some personal responsibility or that that too much to ask from such a "don't tread on me" attitude.

Too bad you don't live in Singapore!

TM

[spl3444]

I interviewed for a job at a water treatment plant. A quick tour through that place would cure most of us of the urge to just throw our garbage on the ground.

[Andy Le Blanc]

personal responsibility is a convenient political slogan these days.
Its republican-ese for bend over and take it....

Why is it so easy to accept the basic loss of liberty for what ever reason.
I've seen an open and rural state turned into big box BS land, the actions
of law enforcement actively deny the exercise of personal responsibility.
How does one enforce personal responsibility, internment, sterilization,
reeducation. Is religion, sex, equality based on my personal responsibility.

Any way... no insult ment, I live here to not have that kind of experience.
Its pitiful to think some are so accepting of the day to day loss of liberty.
cigabutts aren't really to point. who wants the hug?

[ToneMerc]

Why is it so easy to accept the basic loss of liberty for what ever reason.
I've seen an open and rural state turned into big box BS land, the actions
of law enforcement actively deny the exercise of personal responsibility.
How does one enforce personal responsibility, internment, sterilization,
reeducation. Is religion, sex, equality based on my personal responsibility.

Any way... no insult ment, I live here to not have that kind of experience.
Its pitiful to think some are so accepting of the day to day loss of liberty.
cigabutts aren't really to point. who wants the hug?

Wow, I didn't know your oppressive dreadful life in Maine was comparable to 1939 Poland.

No insult taken.

take care

Door Kicker