Yeah, you are right. Once I opened the door when I got pulled over by Border Patrol. I opened it because my power window was broken. They did not like me opening the door.
To the guy downvoting every time I comment - do you feel powerful doing that? I even got a downvote for simply stating the country I live in. Dude, I live in a van and I get harassed by cops. I'm just trying to get some advice from people (like that Youtube link @David_Eight just posted) Keep downvoting, you're not going to make my life any worse.
like no shit you would use a different vehicle if you had access.
Thanks for stating that! It's like when there's a cold snap below freezing and some homeless guy freezes to death from exposure and someone says, "Why didn't he just go rent a hotel room for the night? It's just one night"
Watching it now, thanks! It sucks that you have to study the law for rights you already have but "it is what it is".
different towns....also the incident at the campground happened and there were other people camping. The cop didn't go check in on any of them. His specific "reasonable suspicion" was that in the past at that campground they have had trouble with "riff-raff". Great! So be it, then why not go ID check all the other campers then? I was being profiled and targeted because of the vehicle I was driving. If you don't understand then that's because this hasn't happened to you 10 times or more. It gets tiring.
Thanks for that article. I do agree with it. But this might be similar to "there's plenty of dead pedestrians who thought they had the right of way". I already know that technically I can refuse to show my ID without reasonable suspicion but if the cop arrests me illegally I still have to go to court to assert my legal rights and I can't afford the money or the time.
Yep, I agree with you. I do move around a lot. But I also paid for a spot at a campground where you're supposed to be able to just chill and I still got harassed.
All of that is good advice. I do get haircuts and stay clean shaven most of the time. So, I don't look homeless but my van does.
It seems like every day there's a new article about people getting priced out of apartments and unable to afford homes. So, it's just a matter of time before there's some huge "Grapes of Wrath" style caravans of people living in cars. I wonder if it will get to the point where the cops look the other way simply because there's too many people living in cars.
Yeah, you're right about that. I have seen those rules about car camping. Not sure what they were at the campground I was at but I got there around 1:30PM and was only there an hour before the deputy sheriff showed up. Even if that campground had a rule like that it was only 2:30 in the afternoon and surely there wouldn't have been a "you must set up your tent within x minutes of arriving" rule. Cops suck! And the people who call cops because their overactive imagination gets the best of them suck too!
@David_Eight
Thanks for that video. I want to be like that kid. He wasn't always the most elegant with his words but he was right the entire time. That's what I would like to do when the cops show up. I'd just like to state my rights, ask am I free to go, and then have them go away.
I don't want to argue...in fact I don't even want to talk to them. I just want to say "If you don't have reasonable suspicion then I am not legally required to show you my ID" then I want them to go away. I suspect that would not happen. I was hoping someone would read my post and tell me that they did that exact thing and let me know how it turned out.
If I see them approaching from far away and hop out of the vehicle am I then a pedestrian and no longer count as being in my vehicle?
Well, go buy a shitty minivan and drive it through some small towns and then after you get harassed you might get fed up a little. Maybe I was too ambiguous with the post title....I should have posted "what should I do" rather than "what do you do"
Are you living out of said van?
Yes, I am.
I am upset about the profiling. Being poor does not automatically make you a criminal. Like when they profile people of color or Middle Easterns at airports. There's plenty of rich dudes driving $100,000 cars who are committing crimes in society. I know there's nothing I can do...just venting. Also, I had out of state license plates. As long as the locals were using their imaginations they could have just imagined that I was driving cross country (which was actually the case). So, because I am poor and have an ugly van I have no rights to use a campground that I paid for, right?
I have thought about that. It is a good idea. I believe in psychology they call that "signaling". Might have to start doing that. But I don't go to campgrounds a lot. I still get harassed if I am eating fast food in a public park or just sitting somewhere on my laptop.
U.S.A.
Have you seen early 2000s Dodge Caravan models? Imagine one of those with dents and a lot of rust. All of life is about money - sure the solution is go buy a $100,000 RV but if I could do that I would have already done that.
I have a ghetto van. It does not blend in. The campground was one incident. There are many more which have happened in parking lots where other people are also sitting in their cars. Since the invention of smart phones a lot of people sit in their cars for various reasons and look at their phones or use laptops. It's not illegal nor suspicious to sit in your car. - Anytime you vent online people look for an angle to blame you. I just want to exist without being harassed like everyone else.
I have heard of that book. I'll check it out. Thanks!
Yeah, that is a good idea. It would probably work best on a VW van like the kind surfers use. I suppose with enough stickers strategically placed it could look like you were into rock climbing, or surfing, or something involving the outdoors.