Quote:Original post by Richy2k
That sounds like it's either a joke, or something serious.

Not a joke at all. I promise you won't laugh if it happens to you.

It goes like this: You get a letter that says it's voluntary. You know you didn't do anything, so what the heck, you ignore it.
Then you get a letter that from the roughly 25,000 men they screened, only 8 refused. So what, you say... you knew that you refused before. You ignore it.
Next you get a visit from some gestapo-looking guys who tell you that if you did not have anything to hide, you could just comply and deliver. You tell them that you certainly have something to hide, your privacy. They tell you that then you must obviously be a criminal. You turn them away, you didn't commit a crime, so they can't do anything to you, can they.
And then a few days later, your neighbour tells you he had a visit from some sort of police asking all kinds of strange questions like whether you're sometimes following children. He tells you they've been telling a story like you're involved in some murder story.
And finally, yet a few days later, your boss calls you in and you get the "you know, we don't want that kind of trouble here" speech.

My point about this is that what the police are doing is a subversion of fundamental laws. You have to prove that you are innocent, not the other way around as it should be. That's why I'm being stubborn about refusing that kind of thing.

Quote:Original post by JoeCooper
One time I was also out past curfew. The cop didn't really take it seriously though. I as 17 and lived alone, I just said I'd go home and he was like "okay".

Are you telling me that it's illegal for you to be out past a certain time down in the states?

Quote:Original post by Oberon_Command

Quote:Original post by JoeCooper
One time I was also out past curfew. The cop didn't really take it seriously though. I as 17 and lived alone, I just said I'd go home and he was like "okay".

Are you telling me that it's illegal for you to be out past a certain time down in the states?

From what I understand, it's mostly city ordinances and not state/federal laws, so it'll be different depending upon where you live. They only apply to minors, as far as I know.

I've only had one direct experiance with the police; I was walking home around 3am after a night out and at a distance saw two cars with what looked like four guys hanging around them. It wasn't until I got closer that I realised they were policemen; two came over to me and asked me to stop saying somewhere had been burgled and it was someone matching my description (internally I raised an eyebrow at this but didn't make a comment) and they asked if they could pat me down. I said 'sure...' and one of them asked me if I had anything in my pockets he could hurt himself on; being a little drunk at the time I said 'only some keys' and put my hand in my pocket to fish them out, which he wasn't too keen on.. fortuntely my brain kicked in and I took them out slowly.

I was then patted down, asked for my name and where I lived, a ticket thing was written up and I was told that I could collect a copy the next day if I wanted and they let me go on my way.

I'm still amused by the 'someone if my description' robbing a house as I was wearing a long leather coat which is hardly sane 'house robbing' clothing... I guess they probably meant 'tall and dressed in black'.. still, makes me chuckle to think about it [grin]

Quote:Original post by Talroth

Quote:Original post by Yann L
making them an annoying 110kmh max.

What the hell is it with Europeans and the desire to drive at insane speeds in really small cars? You can't go anywhere there without being in spitting distance of something interesting, and yet you still want to go faster? In Canada we can fit half a dozen European COUNTRIES between points of interest, and still get along fine with 110/120km/h high ways. (I can't remember what the 4 lanes are on the mainland, we're stuck even slower than that here.)

It's pretty much 110km/h for 4-lane divided highways on the prairies.

Quote:Original post by Buttacup
I have never had any problems with the Vancouver RCMP.... I've seen a few things though but it was always with guys that where pretty drugged up at the time! When I was a teenager I did the pot rally and smoked some cannons on national TV cops where everywhere(I don't smoke no mores.) So what where you protesting?

Ironically, we were participating in the Solidarity against Police Oppression Rally. ;) (video here) We were walking home afterwords and I was smoking a dub. The officers were seen from some distance and so I tossed my dub into a drain sewer, pulled out a cigarette and started smoking that. When we crossed our paths with them, they asked what we were up to; so I said 'out for a walk and a smoke' - I had nothing on me at this time as I had discarded my contraband more than a block away. I have a feeling these particular officers were a bit riled up from the crowd of people chanting 'fuck the police' and decided to clean up the streets in the neighborhood afterwords. (You can see my friend at 53 seconds in the video)

For those not in Vancouver, pot-smoking is fairly ubiquitous here; There's more than one business open where you can smoke in public. I don't want to get into a discussion of whether or not it should be legal; but I do smoke, and I have had several encounters with officers who have either been friendly and not even paid attention to the presence of marijuana, and I have been kindly asked to move. As a matter of courtesy, I prefer not to put a police officer in the position of having to talk to me which is why I discarded it long before we crossed paths.

For those interested in the social climate in these parts surrounding the Olympic events here in Vancouver, Opposition to the 2010 Olympics. Here's a quote from the Wiki:

Quote:
In October 2009, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia through the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2009, gave host municipalities (Richmond, Vancouver and Whistler) the power to enter residences and other private property to seize signs that are deemed to be "anti-olympic", between February 1 and March 31, 2010.[76] Another amendment changed the Vancouver Charter to allow for fines of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up to 6 months for sign and bylaw violations.[7

This has happened already. Olympic Censorship is in full swing.

Edit: Just as a postscript, I didn't mention pot-smoking in the OP as I didn't want this derail into discussing marijuana laws, but a couple people asked. It's illegal, and you can technically be arrested for it. If I have to be arrested for it, fine; that's a potential consequence of my lifestyle choice - but if I'm going to be arrested I want it done properly, damnit! :)

[Edited by - djz on January 24, 2010 5:06:06 PM]