Right on Peter!

1) First of all, guys who ride like this give us all a bad name. No sympathy for him at all, none, zero, bumpkis.

2) why did the PO pull his gun? No idea. Maybe he saw some lunatic endangering the lives of everyone on the highway and thought he may be fleeing a triple homicide, or had just robbed a bank, or was high on something, or was mentally deranged.....and pulled the gun for his own safety. Seems like a pretty proportional response to me. It's clear from the video he holsters the weapon almost immediately. Never even pointed it at the rider, although he probably should have given the circumstances. I fail to see what anyone thinks he did "wrong".

3) As additional evidence of what a jackass the rider is, given the fact the camera is rolling throughout, apparently it was HIS PLAN to go out and endanger not only his own safety but the safety of others on a public highway. Not cool at all.

4) As far as being charged with wiretapping......oh well. Is that what the statute says? Oh well then. He posted the video with the express intention of embarassing the PO, when he himself is the jackhole here. Huh. Guess it kind of backfired on him. :-)

5) And this is tongue in cheek. Tony, STOP READING THAT SITE, :-):-)

Obviously the author and others there have an ax to grind with LEO's, and don't mind twisting the facts in order to do it.
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+1:-)
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As a laymen, the cop didn't seem very "thuggish" to me. I don't know whether or not the gun was necessary, but he never pointed it at the guy and it went back into the holster as soon as he had the guy stopped. All in all his actions seemed pretty professional in the heat of the moment, especially considering how often riders try to flee when they see the police. I think the uniforms laid back so the plain-clothes could stop him unawares without spooking him first and starting a highspeed chase that would have ended disasterously.:-)
As for the idiot on the bike, in Cali he would have been arrested for the speed alone, as they can take you in for anything 100+ Not to even mention the wreckless driving on top of that. He should have considered himself to be getting a lucky break and have called it a day. Posting the video was petty and while I think it is over the top what the police did to get the video and the wiretapping charges are bogus, there's a lot of leeway in search and seizure since the Patriot act, so while it shows how much our freedoms have been eroded in the last ten years, its not out of keeping with the general climate of our times, I've had friends get their house invaded on far less substantial claims.
I've had two friends that rode like that. One's dead and left a 2 year old child behind, the other is now a paraplegic with severe brain damage that makes talking nearly impossible. He is a huge and painful burden on his family. Riders like that endanger themselves and everyone around them in a reckless manner and deserve a good smack down by the law. It'll save their families a lot of grief down the line.
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I don't think the officer was out of bounds in drawing a weapon. He didn't point it at the guy and holstered it quickly.

And the guy isn't exactly a model citizen. He deserves whatever he gets.

What bothers me, assuming it's all factual, is the aftermath of raiding the guy's home and confiscating things. Even though the bike rider may be an idiot, that's a little too over the top for me to support. We have to have limits on both the good guys and the bad guys.

I say they all need a good kick in the a** :-)
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I'll take that under advisement counselor :-)
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I wouldn't have minded seeing the guy forced to sit bare assed on the hot pipe for being such a reckless rider and had "Suzuki" branded on to remind him of his asshattery.
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:-):-):-)
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The bike rider should have his license revoked for a minimum of 5 years. I see no problem with the cop having his gun drawn, the bike rider was acting completely irresponsibly. The warrant - well, that's the judge's fault.
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All good and valid points made. My only issue is I don't think we're being given the whole story. Obviously the writer of the article is putting a nice big SLANT on this story and the fact that he feels Officers should be targeting "hippies" and "foreigners" makes me question his credibility even more.

I would love the full story as the way its written now leaves me with more questions than answers. :-)
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I found another video of just the end, but with sound.
he says twice to the rider to get off the motorcycle, and the third time he says get off the motorcycle, State Police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHjjF...eature=related
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the second video Tony just got of amplifies in my mind what a douchebag the rider is. Apparently the first time he posted the entire video, and must not have liked some of the comments directed at him.

Solution:

Just post another video with only the last 20 or so seconds, where he is just sitting there looking like he's minding his own business and someone pulls a gun on him.


Quote: " I got pulled over for speeding and the cop decided to pull out his sidearm... Thought I'd share it. "

Really? Is that what happenned, you got pulled over for speeding and some PO pulled a gun on you?

What a tool. This guy is not the sharpest tool in the shed, apparently.:-)
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Yeah and some of the comments on youtube are scary.
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Personally i think both of them are in the wrong.this so called kid gives legitamate bikers a bad rap,and i think too many cops head swells up when they get a badge and gun.
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5-0 could have pulled his badge just as easily as his gun. He needs to remember that he's in street clothes and not be pulling guns in these situations.
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As a LEO I'll say this, The cop had no Idea why this guy took so long to pull over and yes that was a long time just think how far you could travel in just 30 seconds. Most reasonable people pull right over and don't run from the cops so to the cop he may have been wondering why is this guy running maybe he's got a gun of his own. Lets put it like this neither the cop or the motorcycle rider had dinner together the night before and DO NOT KNOW each other. When the officer saw the situation was safe he holstered his weapon no harm no foul. As for the warrant and other stuff it just sounds like revenge to me.
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sometimes pulling that shield first before the gun could mean life or death.
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How does it seem to you that this guy's head is swollen? Nice stereotyping. :-)

Exactly, jitzy....and those who haven't lived that reality aren't really credible when commenting on what "5-0" should or shouldn't do. :-)
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I agree.:-)
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Dang, you beat me to it, that's what I was thinking as I was reading your post. I am not a LEO but I really hate to see the news anymore when the Police are involved in pulling a gun or God forbid having to actually use it. You always see all the folks in the neighborhood commenting on the news that they shouldn't have used force blah blah blah. It's very easy for me to sit here and say what they should have done, but like Tom points out, till you been there, you don't have an appreciation for what these guys have to go through. Just remember most of them have family that they want to get back home to in one piece when the shift is over.
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Here's how an old bike riding outlaw looks at this...first of the rider broke some traffic laws...so what? That warrents a ticket...not an attack of a maniacal gun waving thug-cop...the cop could have stepped out of his car after blocking the rider then identified himself as a LEO and asked the guy to get off the bike rather then running up waving a gun and grabbing the bike which he had no right to do...what he had business to do was to call a marked car to stop the biker not cut him off and start waving a gun in his face yelling at him to get off the bike...I'd tape that too...at that point you have no idea the guys a cop...especially considering he's handling this in the worst possible way he could handle it...furthermore, they were out in public...never before heard where you can't video something or take a picture in public...did it catch the cop acting like a wild man? Yep...and posting on YouTube? After that kind of treatment I'd want the world to know what the cops are pulling...I've already been in one showdown with a bunch of gun-waving cop-thugs, and you have no idea how overboard they go...hell, when I was in the middle of it I called the news stations so if the cops shot me or anything at least the truth would get out...and I was unarmed when this was going down...all these f'ing cops have Wyatt Earp complexes these days and don't feel they have to obey the laws they're sworn to protect...I hope the rider gets himself a good attorney and sues those jackasses for violation of his civil rights, including the reason-less raiding of his house and confiscation of his computer...for that matter sue the judge who handed out such a groundless warrent too...the cops there have acted like the jack-booted thugs they are...get a civil rights attorney to hand them a smack-down...
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