Just got pulled over in FL with out an endorsement

[screamineagle]

You should have chased her down and called boarder patrol on her.

 

[bardo688]

eh oh well makes me what to get a nice truck and huge grill guard and bumper with a huge trailer hitch sticking out the back...this is gunna turn into death race lol

 

[rndrkeagle]

hey Screamin... A couple weeks ago I got profiled by a Texas DPS officer.. He actually made an illegal U-Turn on a 5 lane highway at night just to go after me because I was on the bike. Followed me for like 10 miles looking to see if he could find a good reason to pull me over. Finally did so because he ran my plates and found that the owner (me) of the bike didn't have a Class M endorsement.
I plan on fighting it though because he had no "Probable Cause". I've gone and taken the rider's safety class and will get my endorsement today, but this cop had no justifiable reason to go after a motorcyclist like that. I was not speeding, driving erratically and performed no "Moving violations". He saw a bike and decided to go after it.
Oh.. and if I have to, I will file a freedom of info act to get a copy of his dash cam tapes. When I got off the bike as he pulled me over, I asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

His answer was, "I don't know, May I see your license?"

Well if you don't know if I've done anything wrong... then we should not be talking. You have no "Probable Cause" for pulling me over.

I'll let you all know how things work out.

 

[konarider94]

please do let us know how it works out. im interested to see if that defense works for you since you in fact did not have an endorsement. I dont think a cop needs probable cause to run your plates and he had probable cause when he figured out the owner of the bike did not have an endorsement.

 

[afinley]

Cops don't need probable cause to run your plates. And knowing you don't have a license is a pretty good reason to stop you. Getting your endorsement after the fact is not going to help; that is like sobering up to fight a DUI charge. I am afraid you are going to get laughed out of court.

 

[rndrkeagle]

my defense is going to be predicated on two things... #1 that he profiled me. He was going the other direction and saw a motorcycle. He obviously either doesn't like bikes or is under the assumption that all motorcyclists are law breakers because he then spent the next 10 miles after making the U-turn just following me (very dangerously too I might add since he spent the entire time driving in my blind spot except when I went to make a right turn and he swerved in behind me with his bumper less than 3' from my tire!!!) The fact is there were plenty of other vehicles on the road but he without cause decided to focus his attention on a motorcycle. In the end, I was going to get pulled over for something.. he had it stuck in his craw that I must be a bad person and he was just looking for me to do something wrong.

#2 will be his own admission (which I will get from his dash cam if I have to) that he did not know if I had done something wrong. when he answered my question with the words, "I don't know" he effectively admitted that he had no probable cause. In the end, there are many bikes in this country that are not operated by their registered owners. (Fathers own them, sons ride them etc).

(soapbox rant)
The fact is that this is a violation of a number of laws. Unlawful detention without probable cause, presumption of innocence.

The day we let a law enforcement officer decide it a person is innocent or guilty is the day we lose the foundation that this great country was built on. When a law enforcement officer becomes so convinced that a person is a bad person just because of the type of vehicle he drives, the color of his skin, or anything else that can be seen from the opposite side of the road at night traveling at a closing speed of close to 90 (him going 45 in the opposite direction from me going 45) he's choosing to act as judge and jury and failing to permit due process. We do not live under Marshall law and we are not a police state. They are supposed to enforce the law for the sake of protecting the citizens of this country. They are not allowed to act as a revenue stream. That's why so many police agencies in the US have gotten in trouble for setting quotas on their patrol units.
(/soapbox)

 

[rndrkeagle]

so the process here in Texas is that I plea innocent and will go talk with the County Attorney. The JP may also be at that meeting. I will at that point discuss the merits of the case with them. My expectation is that they will consider the situation, and given that I have an otherwise clean record, will offer to give me deferred adjudication. (nominal fees, no points to my license) If I keep my nose clean for 90 days, then nothing else will come of it. If I get in trouble in the next 90 days, then I get "double whammy'd".

My concern more than anything else is the points. Texas has gone to this points system where every point you have against your license increases your insurance costs and puts you that much closer to a license suspension. It takes like 15 years for a point to expire too.