I hate reading alot of cop bashing. A cops job is to uphold the laws that were adopted by our society. If you don't like the laws that exist, it has nothing to do with the cops, they just enforce the law, they don't create them. If you're breaking a law it is their job to prevent you from doing that, plain & simple. I agree some atv laws are ridculous but hey, that's the breaks. I'd like to be able to drive my car as fast as I want but I can't without breaking the law. If I get caught speeding, I get pissed at myself, not the cop that was just doing his job.
If your next door neighbor goes on a killing spree with an AK-47, you're going to call those same donut munchin' cops to come & protect you I bet.
Bottom line is, ride within the law & the cops won't have a need to bother you in the 1st place.
If you want to ride on the road and you get caught, suck it up & take it like a man, instead of whining about those no good cops that won't let you do whatever you want on your atv.

 

I think it was 3 months ago when a we got caught. We were parked out in frount of a gas station.The people who worked there said it was fine for us to park there.There were 4 of us.Then a state trooper pulled in and parked right in back of our quads so we could not get out.Only 3 of us were registerd.So he was acting like a tough guy prancing around and looking at our plates.Then our other friend that wasen't registerd was smokeing and the wind blow some of the smoke in the officer face.Then he starts making a big deal about it and saying do you have a problem with me.Then he finally said he has to have someone bring it home for him or he is calling a flatbed.Luckly there was a guy there with a pick up and he brought it home for him.Right before the cop left he said for us to go home because the people don't want us here.So we went in and talked to them and they said that they never called them.But for 2 weeks 3 other cops pulled in there to see if we were registerd.They just looked at our plates and said goodbye.The third one we talked with for about an hour and a half.So there are some good cops out there and some of them live up to the name pig.

 

What kind of registry and plates allow you to ride on the road? I would like to get that stuff cause I have to ride on the road anytime I want to go riding. The cops in my area are really cool. They are all rednecks and could care less. I have talked to a couple and ran one time because a state patrollman came at me with his sirens going. So I think you should top. If you get fined or your quad get's impounded then just remember that next time and RUN!

 

There was a a problem with cops around here in beckley west virginia till a cop pulled a dumb move and rear ended a 400ex while it was wide open and sent the 2 people into a 6 foot concret wall and killed the one guy on the back and the one driving was injured real bad and ever since then i can ride down the road for almost any distance i want and drive by cops and wave and they wave back.


and that was really sad cause i knew both of them.

 

Crawdad, I agree with you, but I also feel that there is a very fine line between "doing their job" and "abusing their powers".

The situation that I spoke of earlier was an event that occured with my brother, some of his friends, and two game wardens. My brother and 5 friends were out ice fishing, and two game wardens were watching them with spotter scopes from the top of a hill over 2 miles away. When of them went for more bait, the game wardens came down and started getting nasty to the other 4. They accused them of smoking pot, illegally patted down a 13 year old (they have to be 18 or have parental consent), and illegally searched the vehicle of a 17 year old (by law, they must have probably cause or visual evidence of something illegal in the car, and they did not. He was looking for a bag of weed, he found an empty package of beef jerky). They cornered the only girl in the party and got her to say that she was not fishing, which meant that everyone else had had too many traps in when those 2 left for bait... nevermind that the girl HAD been fishing, she'd pulled up a few good-sized fish, but she was so scared that they basically forced it out of her.

These 2 game wardens abused their powers and harassed some innocent kids who were just having fun out on the ice. There was NOTHING illegal going on, they were just enjoying the outdoors, doing something that kept them off the street. Nevermind that there was a group of people on the same lake that was so completely drunk that they drove one of their snowmobiles THROUGH their ice-shack that day, not a half hour after the event with my brother and the wardens (drinking and operating a snowmobile in Maine carries a harsh punishment... dunno how it is for other states).

These guys had, without question, crossed the line of "abusing their powers", and though I have never had a personal encounter with a game warden that was as nasty as this episode, I have since completely lost what little respect I had for the game warden service.

But local cops (I say local... we don't have town cops in my town, the only ones we see are Staties) don't seem to have the same problem as game wardens, which is ALWAYS a good thing.

 

The nice thing about Florida and cops is they CANNOT chase you unless you are suspected of commiting a felony. SO in other words, I see them when I'm doing things I'm not supposed to be doing......I run.

BAD COP.....No donut!

 

Isn't evasion of a police officer a felony? lol...

Or wait... it's probably just a misdemeanor...

 

Yes, just a misdemeanor. I was told by 2 buddies of mine on the Sherriffs office to run if I want to avoid a ticket BUT if I do some how get caught be prepaired for multiple tickets. Most are pretty relaxed about riding on the road if you wear a helmet and obay the street laws. They usually pick on kids without helmets and leave adults with helmets alone. Then you have the "rookie" cops, they have to make a name for themselves so they write everyone a ticket. So to avoid any confusion if I'm doing something I'm not supposed to be doing by Florida state laws.......I run.

Bad cop.....No donut!

 

I can't beleive it...I was out riding this morning and a Sherrif pulled infront of me to "have a talk". But, as usual, they (2 in the car) were pretty cool about it. They just asked where I was going, and if I was watching out for "careless drivers, who pay more attention to there cell phone than the road." It seems that last week in a town by ours, someone on a dual-sport dirtbike was taken out by an old woman not paying attention to where she was going. Then they Joked around about my tires not being dot-approved, so I told them to have a look at the sides (I had Marshall Radials on the front). They just laughed it off. They told me to be careful, and "watch out for people trying to be hero's" (Vigilanties chasing ATV's is quite a problem in our area). I ususally stop for sherrif's because they are cool about it, but there is this one cop that somes down from a bigger town who has to be a bad *** all the time, and he will have your quad impounded.

 

I've only been stopped once. Yeah I've ran a lot of times. I was about 13 and it was about 11 at night and I live in a small town population 2,000 or so. Anyway at the time I was storing my quad on the other side of town at my dads shop which is like 4 blocks away. I was crossing a road and I saw the cop sitting under the light and made a run for the shop. Well right when I got there the cop was right behind me. Tell you guys what at the time I was pissed but I didn't realise how lucky I was. Goin wide open through town at 11 at night and all the cop did is ask me a few questions. I was honest and polite with him. He ran my VIN number to make sure my quad wasn't stolen and just let me off with a warning. Now that was a cool cop.

I've been stopped in my car a few times by some guys around here but my sister works on the ambulance here and my uncle is on the village councel so they know who I am and go easy on me. But there's one rookie here that thinks he's gotta be a hot shot. I had this guy following me around town for an hour (my friends and I were drivin my car with our motocross helmets on [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] ) Granted my car didn't have an exhaust at the time. So I went for the county line 5 miles away the guy followed me right up to it. I looped around and was heading home and he followed me right to my driveway. I couldn't believe it. He was waiting for me to mess up so he could give me a ticket. I think it was the duct tape flames that I put on the front end that made him jealous [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]. I've got pictures of it somewhere looks pretty cool. Maybe I'll post them when I find them.