So, I was driving down the highway, not speeding, and minding my own business. A cop zooms past me at first, then slows down at first to get behind me, then he pulls alongside me (it was a 4-lane highway) and matches speeds with me for about a minute. Then he flashes his lights and pulls me over.
The cop approaches my car from the passenger side. I crack the window. He says, "I won't be able to hear you well, please open the window all the way." I refuse, saying I can hear him perfectly well. He immediately asks me to step out of the car. At this point, I have no idea what is going on.
I put my hand in my pocket and climb out -- okay, mistake -- and so he starts patting me down, saying to take my hand out of my pocket and that now he has to check if I have a weapon. He's feeling my thigh up basically, not really looking for a weapon, exactly! You'd think a gun in my pocket would be obvious after a pat or two. I'm starting to get upset.
I ask him "Am I being detained?" He says no, so I ask "Am I free to go?" He says no again, and now changes his mind, that yes, I am being detained. "Under suspicion of what crime?" He says DUI -- I sort of chuckle in disbelief, because it's 4 pm and I'm dead sober. He says I was drifting in the road (I wasn't). Then me makes me touch my finger to my nose and all that crap. Then he asks if he can search my car! I obviously say no, and then he tells me I can leave.
Is there anything I could have done differently, or do people just have to put up with humiliating and annoying cop games like this these days? It got me pretty upset, because one minute I wasn't doing a damn thing and next minute I'm being molested by a government thug.
The cop approaches my car from the passenger side. I crack the window. He says, "I won't be able to hear you well, please open the window all the way." I refuse, saying I can hear him perfectly well. He immediately asks me to step out of the car. At this point, I have no idea what is going on.
I put my hand in my pocket and climb out -- okay, mistake -- and so he starts patting me down, saying to take my hand out of my pocket and that now he has to check if I have a weapon. He's feeling my thigh up basically, not really looking for a weapon, exactly! You'd think a gun in my pocket would be obvious after a pat or two. I'm starting to get upset.
I ask him "Am I being detained?" He says no, so I ask "Am I free to go?" He says no again, and now changes his mind, that yes, I am being detained. "Under suspicion of what crime?" He says DUI -- I sort of chuckle in disbelief, because it's 4 pm and I'm dead sober. He says I was drifting in the road (I wasn't). Then me makes me touch my finger to my nose and all that crap. Then he asks if he can search my car! I obviously say no, and then he tells me I can leave.
Is there anything I could have done differently, or do people just have to put up with humiliating and annoying cop games like this these days? It got me pretty upset, because one minute I wasn't doing a damn thing and next minute I'm being molested by a government thug.