Adventures in Illinois Law: An Encounter with a “Bluecoat”
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By: Shane Radliff [social title=”” subtitle=”” link=”facebook.com/luatruth” icon=”fa-facebook”]
July 16th, 2015
Many Americans are beginning to recognize the devolving political climate that we are living in. The list of grievances is constantly growing and the abuse by the State onto its citizenry certainly provides a grim outlook for the future. The abuses don’t stop at violence, democide, or even imprisonment—a great deal of the abuse comes in the form of user fees and fines.
In Roger Roots’ academic whitepaper, titled, “Are Cops Constitutional?”, he makes the veracious statement that, “In effect, road travel itself is subject to a near total level of police control…”
The State is surely milking the cash cow of its monopoly on roads and since everyone has to travel at some point, no one can avoid the physical and financial abuse that takes places on government roads.
The majority of police extortionist encounters take place in the form of normal traffic stops. The reasons can range from speeding, expired registration, running traffic signals, all the way to giving a cop the (well-deserved) finger while driving. In addition to that, when you are detained in a traffic stop, the police extortionist is conducting an investigation to see if there is anything else they can potentially pin on you. The first thing (other than running your plates and turning on the “magic lights”) the officer does is take a look in your car to see if there is any “contraband” or anything “suspicious”, utilizing the plain view doctrine. Next, they will attempt to get a confession from the operator and most of the time they are successful. Progressing through the encounter, the police extortionist will continue the attempt in getting the operator to talk to see if there is any way to escalate the traffic stop, potentially in the form of a search of the vehicle.
If at any point, the operator shows the police extortionist disrespect, that will automatically escalate the situation and they will more than likely be asked to get out of the car. If at any time, the operator resists this use of force, the police extortionist will only escalate the violence, to the point of severe injury, or even death (additionally, potential charges of “resisting arrest” or “disobeying a ‘lawful’ order”).
Many basic traffic stops have turned deadly and the price for any of the minor infractions listed above, could lead to an early death.
On July 15th, I had my own experience in dealing with one of these police extortionists. Thankfully, I’m still alive to write this article.
The Facebook status I posted a couple hour after the encounter.
I’ve had a few run-ins with police extortionists in the past, so this wasn’t the first time (the last one being 2-3 years ago). Albeit, it was the first encounter I’ve had after I started role-playing police interrogations.
The time was early morning. I had just gotten breakfast and was heading to work. About halfway through my daily commute, a police extortionist pulled up behind me. I wasn’t concerned, as I wasn’t speeding or violating any of the other arbitrary traffic infractions. The police extortionist followed me for a couple of miles and when I turned left, he followed. At that point, I still thought I was okay, and as soon as that crossed my mind, the “magic lights” came on.
For the first time in my history of police extortionist run-ins, I wasn’t panicking. It was more so just, “What in the fuck is he pulling me over for?”
I decided that I wasn’t going to audio or video record the encounter, for whatever reason.
After a brief moment, Officer “Friendly” walked up and asked me how I was doing. I dodged that question and immediately responded with, “Sir, can I ask why you pulled me over?” He promptly responded with, “Your registration expired in March. It is July.”
From my training in police interrogations, instead of mouthing off by saying, “Well no shit, Sherlock, do they teach you your months at the police academy?”, I responded with, “Oh, it is? I forgot all about that.”
The next demand was that I, “Show my papers.” I handed the police extortionist my ID but I could not find my proof of insurance; reason being, I was a dumbass and hadn’t put an updated one in there for nearly a year. He then asked if all of the information on the ID was correct, and this may have been my only mistake, albeit, a minor one. I told him that, “The address on the ID is wrong, but it’s updated in the system.” He mentioned my street address and I confirmed that it was correct.
He instructed me to continue looking and if I find it, just to wave my arm out the window. He then advised that, “If you can’t find proof of insurance, I have to assume you are driving an uninsured vehicle and will issue a citation for that as well.” He then went back to his cruiser and wrote me my citations.
After about five minutes of waiting, hoping that this wouldn’t make me late for work, a second police extortionist pulled up. They greeted each other and the second police extortionist stood on the sidewalk with his arms crossed in an authoritative manner. I didn’t have any interaction with the second one.
About 5 more minutes passed and the officer came back to speak with me. He stated that: “I wrote you two citations. The first one is for the expired registration, which requires no court appearance; the second one is for driving an uninsured motor vehicle. That is a Class A Misdemeanor and does require a court appearance. If you go to court and prove that you were insured, this misdemeanor will be dropped, but it is up to the State’s attorney if you are required to pay the fine. All I need you to do now is sign the ticket.”
I asked him, “What are the ramifications if I don’t sign the ticket?” He responded with, “Then I have to take your license as bond. When you sign the ticket, you aren’t admitting guilt, it’s just a guarantee that you will attend your court hearing.”
Satisfied as much as I could be by the response, I signed the ticket. He then asked, “Have you had any bad interactions with police officers in the past? You seem nervous and fidgety and you asked about signing the ticket.” I responded with, “Sir, is that relevant?” He shot back, “No, but as a police officer, it is my job to look out for those signs. Are you feeling okay?”
I wasn’t going to deal with this line of interrogation for any longer so I asked, “Am I free to go?” He responded with, “Yes, the traffic stop is over.” I told him that I was going to leave and to have a good day.
As I drove away, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the two police extortionists chit-chatting in the street. I would be interested in hearing how that conversation went.
On the way to work, I examined the tickets for any errors, which would invalidate them. Unfortunately, I did not find any.
When I got home from work that evening, I looked up the charges in the Illinois Compiled Statutes.
For driving an uninsured motor vehicle, that is found in 625 ILCS 5/3-707.
“However, no person charged with violating this Section shall be convicted if such person produces in court satisfactory evidence that at the time of the arrest the motor vehicle was covered by a liability insurance policy in accordance with Section 7-601 of this Code.”
I do have car insurance so this one is a non-issue, just a major inconvenience.
For the expired registration, the ILCS is vague on the fines and punishments; “vague”, meaning, that they provide nothing to the effect at all. The charge for this one is found in 625 ILCS 5/3-413(f).
“No person shall operate a vehicle, nor permit the operation of a vehicle, upon which is displayed an Illinois registration plate, plates or registration stickers after the termination of the registration period for which issued or after the expiration date set pursuant to Sections 3-414 and 3-414.1 of this Code.”
I did some further research on this charge and if I show initiative and pay the extortion tax for the renewal, then there is a chance that this might be dropped altogether. I was unable to find the fine for 2015, but in 2009, the fine was $90. Since then, the fines have all gone up, so I can expect to pay a bit more if the charge isn’t dropped.
I did my due diligence and went and got my registration renewed the day after I received the citations, so hopefully I can get that one dropped as well.
Conclusion
I thought I was finished with the Adventures in Illinois Law series after my trip to a local Libertarian Party chapter meeting. I certainly didn’t envision a violently coercive encounter with the local police extortionists.
To put it frankly, I’m not even so much angered because of the potential fines and guaranteed user fees. Obviously, there are some issues with that when it comes to right to travel, but that is a topic that will be saved for another time.
What angered me the most from this encounter is that I was put into a dangerous, violently coercive situation all because the ink on my registration sticker wasn’t positioned correctly or in the right shape. That is the simplest way to put it. Many other police extortionist encounters have been for things even more minor than that, and the drivers sometimes didn’t make it out alive.
Finally, the State is imposing an opportunity cost upon me. Instead of spending that time on other, certainly more important things, I am being coerced into attending, yet, another court proceeding, only in this case, it will be my own.
It’s time to acknowledge that we live in the United Police States of America. We must also recognize that all police extortionists are our enemies. Their jobs are immoral. They “swear an oath” to the Constitution, but their job is unconstitutional on its face, making the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers (CSPOA) and the Oath Keepers look rather hypocritical. Additionally, being a police extortionist is not a dangerous job. According to their own statistics, it doesn’t even make the top 10. To conclude, the police state we live in is not making America safer, on the contrary rather. Government policing is dangerous and a detriment to our lives, Liberty, and property.
It would behoove us to consider also, that police extortionists carry out the orders and do the bidding for the most dangerous superstition. “I’m just doing my job”, or “I’m just enforcing the law,” are no excuses and are the same ridiculous phrases that the Nazi officers in World War 2 said, when they were sending millions of Jews into gas chambers to become victims of democide.
There are much better alternatives, the most plausible one being the privatization of security, where the consumers decide which businesses are actually protecting their life, Liberty, and property, rather than having to rely on an unaccountable, run amok government monopoly. It is also the utilization of the economic means, rather than the political means, which has a much higher chance of success in regaining our Liberty.
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