So tonight my girlfriend and I went out to the fireworks at jumpin jacks on my boat with my family, and afterwords decided to stop at the lot to see if there was anything going on there. I’m on 155, probably about two hundred yards from the light on central (coming from Niskayuna), and I’m going about 40-45mph (not speeding), my system was at a low volume. Just sorta cruising, and a colonie police crown vic rips past me in the oncoming lane, and cranks a U-turn. About 50 feet later, he throws the lights on, car behind me pulls off, he drives around the car, and spotlights me, so I pull over.
Walks up to my window “why are your headlights yellow” (I have 35W DDM tuning 3000k HIDs in my low beams, they’ve been on the car since december).
Me: “The stock lowbeams on this car were really weak, and the yellow color lets you see really well. I don’t even notice the color anymore. And I think it looks nicer than blue does”
CP: “Come on, you have to have a better excuse than that, even just saying they look cool. They aren’t legal. They gotta either be normal headlights or LED (I think he meant HID, which mine are)”
Me: “I’ve had them since december, honestly this is the first I’ve ever had them mentioned”
CP (interrupting me): “really? I’ll bet you the ticket I’m writing right now you are gonna try and tell me your exhaust is legal too”
Me (sorta laughing at this point): “The exhaust is factory dude, I think its the original from 1997. You can look again and see”
CP: “it doesn’t look stock, its too shiny”
Me: “when I wash the car, I clean off the muffler so it doesn’t look grubby next to the clean car”
CP (seeming less smug now): “oh. You aren’t going to the kohl’s plaza, right?”
Me: “why?”
CP: “don’t go, we just kicked everyone out. We hate you guys, with all due respect” (that’s kinda like saying “go fuck yourself you piece of shit, with all due respect”)
Me: “what?”
CP: “every weekend, we get at least 3 calls about you guys doing burnouts and fights and stuff over there”
Me: “not all of us do that. I have some friends that go there, we get some McDonald’s and talk about cars and check out some of the cool cars that show up, and clean up when people leave. Its a decent way to spend an evening”
Girlfriend: “yeah, we kinda hate the people who do dumb shit like set off fire works too”
CP just walked back to his car at this point.
really, I think he was being a dick. Seriously, I’m greatful as fuck for not getting a ticket, but the comment about “hating you guys” was totally unwarranted and unprofessional. He is a police officer, a public servant paid by tax dollars. He isn’t supposed to express hatred for anyone or anything.
TL;DR: Colonie police pulled me over for my yellow headlights, gave me shit for my apparently illegal factory exhaust, told me they all hated all of us (meaning car enthusiasts), and then didn’t even leave me with a warning. I probably won’t be removing the HIDs.
What follows is the letter my girlfriend and I wrote, and are on the fence about sending. Might send anonymously. Bear with any spelling or punctuation issues, since it was written at 1am.
To whom it may concern,
Recently I was pulled over for my headlights being yellow. Although I do not deny this, and am sincerely grateful for not getting a ticket out of the situation, I feel like during the stop I was not treated with the “dignity, honor and respect” promised by the Colonie police department’s mission statement.
Upon being pulled over the officer asked me if I was headed over to the parking lot near the McDonald’s. After answering with an honest yes, the officer retorted with the statement “We hate you guys, will all due respect”.
I feel as though this sort of statement is unprofessional and uncalled for. Although the officer did use the words “with all due respect” there was nothing honorable, dignified or respectful about that statement.
I am not going to deny the fact that some of the people at that parking lot are looking to cause trouble. However, the vast majority of us are not. Most of us supply patronage to the McDonald’s business and while eating, go outside, discuss our cars and enjoy each other’s company. Generally, a good portion of us discard our waste using the proper receptacles, and after the lower parking lot has been cleared out, we even come back to clean up the mess.
With all of that in mind, it seems greatly undignified and disrespectful to for a police officer to tell someone that they are hated simply because they are headed to a location where a select few act in an unsavory manner. For those of us who truly are concerned citizens, who abide by the law, provide a business with a market, and even go so far as to help clean up the mess, this is discouraging. Why should we try to help clean up the mess and even sometimes try to discourage people from doing reckless activities (although we can only do so much, we don’t have the same authority as the police) if we are simply going to be unjustly lumped in with those people anyway?
Sincerely,
A concerned citizen.