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I had multiple police cars show up tonight while I was packing my parachute in a public area not known for crime. They pulled guns on me and shook me down, for packing a parachute and submitting to their orders, such as putting my hands up and staying still. They left after interrogating me and searching through all my gear. Dipshit cops. I think I need to relocate to Europe to end this bullshit.

Do you americans have any rights anymore????

packing a parachute and ya get a shake down

hahahhaha

sounds like a movie

Did you earlier give one the cops' wives a porking?

That sucks... also is weird.

I have packed at plenty of
random, public places and
have had zero problems.

Churches down here usually
have a grassy spot or two
under some shade trees.

The fuzz ever give you a
reason why you sparked
their interest? Purple hair?

with no hair, you look like an albino who has just victimized someone. i'd probably call the cops, and i know you.

There has *got* to be more to the story. I'm guessing that someone called the police either because something they saw concerned them (whether rightly or not) or they just wanted to fuck with you.

I'm not saying you deserved that shit but even under President Hitler, I mean Obama, street cops do not randomly do that kind of thing. ATF and drug enforcement officers do, but not not street cops--especially to someone like you who looks innocent.

So what's the rest of the story?

Walt

There is nothing more to the story. That's what's so screwed up about it. It's completely irrational on their part. They were constables. Houston police wouldn't bother me but this happened about 20 miles south of Houston in Clear Lake. HPD has harassed me before but only to tell me "no camping!" followed by me telling them it's a parachute, which ended the conversation.

That is truly bizarre. I hope you call their boss and talk with him about it. I'm not talking about filing some sort of formal complaint--just ask him why that happened.

Walt

I wasn't drinking, there was no beer, no trash, and I was compliant, so it seems a bit frightening to me. They pulled up with lights on me using the loud speaker "Put my hands up!" Then they asked if I was on drugs because I looked so nervous and I replied "Yes, of course, high blood pressure meds. I'm nervous because you guys are frightening."

I would wager that someone called in and reported "suspicious behavior". Did they apologize or explain the reason for their concern?

Walt

The only place I had a gun pointing at me, was in Florida after speeding on a motorbike in 105 miles per hour.

By the way, this was way far before Obama and long time before Osama

They said they were notified of suspicious behavior. No, the didn't apologize. They just told me to hurry up and finish the packjob and walked away.

I would have gotten somebodies Badge # & fierce cop hating Lawyer.

Before getting really worked up, I'd try to find out their side. Something fucked up was going on. Sounds like 460 was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Walt

I agree. There is no advantage to making police officers mad. They serve an essential function on keeping the peace, even though many people would disagree and browbeat them, even though they are necessary. I would disagree with my above statements for some parts of the U.S. and several parts of the world. Walt, how are you doing my amigo?

Ask if you can listen to the 911 call that was made to report the suspicious behavior. This might give you a clue as to why the police acted the way they did.
What time of day did this happen?

Law enforcement seems to attract power tripping pricks in every country but most are OK. I've met some cool cops in USA under a bridge I shouldn't have been under .

Whoever is complaining about the current Prez, go read the USA PATRIOT Act - that's what the previous guy did for you, that and make up stories about WMDs to start a war. How many million a day did/does that cost? (hint something like $2.50 per day for every man woman and child)

"The land of the free"

Do you really think that moving to Europe will make things better?

Whos country is this? It seems as though most americans believe it belongs to the government or any other agency that claims authority. The cops are going to gets more power hungry because NO ONE knows their rights, so they keep pushing more and more.
As soon as you ''submitted" to their first "order" you showed them that you were under their jurisdiction/authority.
Submission - A yielding, or readiness to yield, to the authority or will of another. Blacks Law.
Order - A command, direction or instruction. See Mandate (which goes into a whole different rabbit hole about contracts and in reality that is exactly what all of our interactions come down to... contractual)

Before submitting to another entities or persons authority one should be asking questions to be clear on what they want and why they are accosting you. Do not identify yourself until you have sufficient ID from them. How do you know they have authority over you until you verify it? And in reality who has any authority over anyone else? The government certainly does not have authority to control us unless we agree to it. In your case you agreed right off the bat and then most likely handed them your ID. They were not dipships just because of their actions, they were only doing their job and you agreed they could do their job on you.

They don't need a reason to hassle you if you agree to be hassled! And the more you think they are assholes the more they will treat you in the same way. Attitude going out will bring attitude back in.
It's unfortunate our system has turned into this, but the people agreed the whole way here and it's not going to change unless we start calling them out on their shenanigans instead of calling them assholes after the fact.

Google Taser Deaths. haha

I understand it could get out of hand pretty quickly, we just need to stay calm and act rationally. I have successfully talked a cop down from tazering me... he had it on my neck ready to go. I kept asking relevant questions when he would order me to do something. He was not happy with someone challenging his authority but he knew he could not force me to do anything. He could yell and scream and act all scary and angry to get me to do what he wanted but if I didn't fall for his theatrics, he knew he would be in a world of trouble if he tried to force me into anything. When we were leaving, since they didn't have any reason to charge us with anything, they cop acted like we were good buddies, which might have been the case. I was respectful yet firm in my actions. The only time I broke down was when my friends who were there were not happy I was getting the cop riled up and believed they were going to get more in trouble by my actions so I laid off a little.

Not saying you arent correct, but being right doesnt mean you still wont get your ass kicked and end up in jail.

Have you heard the audio of the confrontation with the man openly carrying his firearm legally? He did exactly what you said, was very calm, said he was doing nothing wrong, quoted the exact law to the cops about 15 times. Guess what, he still got his ass beat, and he is still fighting the legal battle for not complying. From looking at videos and listening to audio of numerous confrontations of the cops, even if they approach you without legal reason, if you don't comply you will get fucked. Cops have this catch all loophole. "He wasn't complying with my instructions and I felt threatened." Once a cop says he feels threatened it's fair game because his boys and blue are gonna back him up.

Hell, look at the recent suspension of the cop that threatened to execute someone when they were complying. The same cop did the same thing over a year ago. If something would have been done then he wouldnt have had a chance to do it a second time, but it wasnt.

Personally i think its more beneficial to comply at the time and fight it legally afterwards. If you dont comply with the cops then its going to be harder to make your case. Really wanna get under a cops skin? Next time you are asked to sign a ticket or a warning, sign it but then add "under duress." That pretty much says "See you in court asshole."

Yes, I think moving to Europe would be an easier solution than living in the "United Police States of America."

Therein is where a big part of the problem lies. We should be more scared of losing our rights and freedoms than from an asskicking or jailtime.
If that guy carrying his firearm plays his cards right he could shut down that police station. If more people would do the same, things would start to change. He knew his rights but we will see if he can keep them. Sounds as though he is going to have a tough time since he has jumped into court with an attorney. The system does a great job of keeping people in a continuous loop. People believe it's easier to pay an atty than to challenge it themselves but if you have read my thread on atty's and who their loyalty is to, you would understand it's a losing battle. What people don't realize is that they are paying the lawyers and courts to take away their freedoms... it's ridiculous!
I don't think you fully understand what it means when you write Under Duress on a ticket. It means a threat of harm was made to compel you to sign the ticket/contract. If the cop just hands you the ticket and you sign it that way there was no duress and you will lose in court. A better thing to write on tickets, and is what I do, is to write 'all rights reserved' or UCC 1-308. This statement at least sets you up to have a little better chance than the 'under duress'... unless of course you were under duress. But then do you know how to prove your case?

I'm not saying it's easy and I'm not saying that we won't mess up and get dinged for it, but if we want a society that isn't all about fear and control, we need to willing to at least attempt to make a change and not be fearful of the consequences. Fear is keeping us from questioning those who CLAIM authority over us.

Everything you wrote seems correct, decent and logical. The flaw is that you aren't always dealing with decent logical cops, they have backup, tasers and guns.

As for the people ruling the government rather than the other way around, that's the theory. It practice isn't not very effective. Only the French seem to be good at balking and saying NO NO NO to something.

Getting the public to get organised and work together is like hearding a group of base jumpers.

If you believe you are fully in control of your destiny they've won already. What better slave that the one that thinks he is free.

The ACLU might put some starch in their shirts . Generally packing a parachute in a Public park only invokes curiosity. Cops were probably ROIDED up. Did they seem ridiculously big but had no balls? Not sure you are giving the whole story.j

It's the whole story. If there was any slight justification for their zealous concern, I wouldn't have posted it on here. I've done work with the ACLU before. It seems the best thing currently is not to harass them. It's the state of the country right now. It's strange that 80 years ago that many cops were admired for serving the public good, prior to the drug war that criminalized a large percentage of the population, with the exception of publicly mandated racist persecution of minorities. I'm tired of this. I want to take my doctorate in physics and develop and enrichen another country.

80 years ago they were called peace officers, today they are corporate police officers.... 2 totally different things although most believe they are the same thing just like the General Post Office and the United States Postal Service, the Constitution for the United States and the Constitution of the United States, The united states of America and the United States of America.... slight changes but a huge effect on the interpretation in law.

Slyly, corporations have taken the place of our true government and that is why they seem to run amuck with no regulation.

I know you only have a doctorate in physics but is 'enrichen' an actual word?

Below is what happened in an undisclosed place somewhere in Europe a couple of months ago.

In the middle of the night (2-3 am), on a parking lot next to the object. The parachute was being packed and a police car drives up. This is an area where you have nothing to do in the middle of the night. The parking lot is being lighted, which makes it a perfect place to pack on.

The police car stops and looks at the packjob.
The packer says "Hi" and the policemen responds "Hi".
He looks at them, they look at the packjob, at the object, put on a small smile and drive away.

......

Don't you mean, "boredened?"

Ok cops of grammer and spelling, if I move abroad, then the locals won't be able to readily recognize such mistakes, assuming English is not their native language.

Oh, trust me, we can. We actually had to study English in school to be able to speak and read it :) Maybe if you move to ukraine or something? (Damn you, you broke my lurking.)

And how would that make it any different?

While slightly off-topic and slightly on-topic, I've actually been surprised over and over again at the skill level of English spoken by people from Scandinavia. I mean it's not that one expects them to be bad at English, but their vocabulary is actually really really good, broader than many countries where English is the first language. Well, that has been my experience at least.

Yes, the Scandinavians are very well educated compared to many other regions of the world. It's refreshing to know there are progressive areas still in the world.

Going a bit further off topic but it is of course delighting to hear compliments of our (scandinavians) language skills. Personally, though, I would not give the credit of my english to our educational system (which undoubtly is pretty ok as well) but to the fact that TV and movies are not dubbed but subtitled (at least in Finland). Since the day you are a kid old enough to wacth tv, you see and hear every day english with the corresponding subtitles in your own language on the bottom of the screen. 99% of the movies you see are in english (with subtitles) and majority of people old enough to read read also english websites. Also it is very common to read literature in english since first of all not all books are being even translated to finnish and even if they are, I among many others feel that the book anyway better captures the original story if read in the original language.

So with that exposure to foreign language in your youth, it is very hard not to develop decent skills in it. :)

you want to export suomi movies to the US to improve their language skillz ??

In case some of you have not seen this, I thought it would go nicely here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqzcUMrDmjM

Move along... you are not allowed to do that here, this is private property

Nothing to see here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjK2Oqrgic