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harwoodr 5 days ago [-]
I used to drive a 1991 Suzuki Cappuccino - a tiny right-hand drive kei sports car. The first couple of years I drove it, the police pulled me over on a regular basis - no tickets issued but lots of questions asked.
One time while I was waiting for a light, an officer knocked on my window (which is somewhat startling)... I rolled it down and he excitedly asked "What kind of car is this?!"
It's pleasantly surprising how much positive vibes you can get driving an unusual car. On a business trip last year, I arrived late at night to the hotel and there was a rank of the smallest cars I'd ever seen:
The next morning I was able to hire one out to travel to the venue. At a pitstop on the way, another driver followed me into the carpark and excitedly asked me where I found the car so that he could go get one too.
To be honest, it wasn't a comfortable or easy drive. The speed topped out at 90kph and the steering felt gravelly. But it was fun getting in and out of the front of the car.
eru 2 days ago [-]
I guess you wouldn't really want to go any faster in this kind of car?
n4r9 16 hours ago [-]
At 90kph if you go on the motorway/highway then you're often a sitting duck in the slow lane being continuously overtaken by massive lorries. That didn't feel very safe. Arguably you should avoid motorways in these cars, but it was the only sensible route for me.
bel8 2 days ago [-]
I guess it's slightly safer than a motorbike.
snug 1 days ago [-]
I'd wager a motorbike is much safer traveling at the same speed
snypher 1 days ago [-]
Why do you say that?
forinti 5 days ago [-]
That's just not enough motive to waste someone's time.
And, no offense intended, that car is not that interesting. I guess policing must be boring.
titanomachy 5 days ago [-]
It’s notable mostly for being tiny. With a human for scale: (sorry, it’s an instagram link)
I was stopped eight times in one day driving my DeLorean "time machine" replica. My friend has videos of the (literally) hundreds of times he has been stopped.
It's always for some made up traffic offense ("your lights weren't working, try them now; oh they are fixed; can me and my partner get a photo with your car?").
pengaru 1 days ago [-]
In the context of US roads, it's an extremely rare specimen which by itself makes it interesting.
But even beyond that, lightweight, mid front engine, rwd, turbo variants, this is the stuff of proper race cars. Anything Colin Chapman would approve of is automatically interesting.
I hosted Steve on my couch (remember Couchsurfing?) when he was taking his Big Banana Car to a local art festival. Awesome guy, awesome car. I got to ride along for a bit. It was thrilling to see every single person's face light up as soon as they saw it, like a moving happiness machine. I hope somebody sees this and decides to make their own bit of whimsy
lproven 5 days ago [-]
The movement is still alive. I hosted a couchsurfer last week.
100% that! When did everything get serious and look-alike? Anyway, I am taking off, shopping cart racing in the mall...
Henchman21 5 days ago [-]
In the early 2000s the media ecosystem decided to re-tell every story, but darker & “grittier”. Then 9/11 happened and the darkness became permanent. It would be nice if we were coming out of that phase!
I don't think the 2000s were especially darker and grittier?
Henchman21 8 hours ago [-]
It easily could've started earlier. But the demarcation line of 9/11/2001 is a pretty stark one, kinda hard to miss. Call it the catalyst that forced everything to be darker & grittier?
WJW 5 days ago [-]
Oh don't worry, if history is any indication it shouldn't be much longer than 30-40 years from now. Basically 2 generations from the previous shift.
In the meantime, be the change you want to see! You don't have to be darker&grittier yourself just because the media ecosystem has decided that's where the current fashion is.
English has a lot more of these crash blossoms--not just in headlines--than eg German or other more inflected languages.
It's sometimes charming, sometimes annoying. (But it makes for some cheap joke material that tends to make Poms think they are especially funny.)
dredmorbius 5 days ago [-]
I'm presuming the original headline was some variant of "Giant Banana Pulled Over in Montana: Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Of Times" (originally submitted URL, since changed).
jacobgkau 5 days ago [-]
Mainly because the colon from the original was omitted, imo.
init2null 5 days ago [-]
Every time he gets pulled over for a selfie it's an abuse of power. If he can't ignore it, they shouldn't be doing it. Wait for a random encounter in a parking lot or gas station like the rest of us.
An illegal detention is still an illegal detention if it's being done nicely.
ssl-3 5 days ago [-]
In one of the vaguely-parallel timelines, a defendant is being asked by a judge why they didn't pull over and responds with: "I thought they were going to try to give me an ice cream cone, and I'm lactose intolerant so I didn't stop."
x______________ 5 days ago [-]
Finally! A nice story about cops pulling over a 23-foot banana motor vehicle for years without any consequence other than spreading joy to the people involved and years of fame!
No? You could also pull the public tax dollars spent card, or other crimes not being pursued while you're at it but it won't help sour the mood!
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
> A nice story about cops…
This is not a nice story about cops.
x______________ 5 days ago [-]
> A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.
> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"
> For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.
> "He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"
> The banana jokes, he said, are "never-ending."
> Fortunately, so are the laughs.
..Are we discussing the same article?
> Braithwaite recently drove the banana into Mexico, where he was pulled over five times in three days.
> Every encounter was friendly, he says.
This is a great international story about cops!
> Now he's thinking much bigger.
> His goal is to drive the Big Banana Car through Central America; somehow get it shipped across oceans and eventually circle the globe.
> "I just want to keep going," he said.
> He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour."
> A sign mounted to the back of the vehicle carries the slogan.
> "The world is dangerously low on whimsy," says the man hoping to make a difference.
That last paragraph hits it out of the park.
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
> For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.
This is not a good story about cops. This is a good story about a guy, that includes cops as part of its plot.
It's like those "kid sells his toys to fund parents' cancer treatment" stories local news does as a feel-good segment. Great kid! Shitty system!
x______________ 4 days ago [-]
> For a moment, x______________ didn't know if he was being serious or not.
I'm still inclined to think that an /s is coming up in later replies. A bad story about cops and a banana motorist is that the motorist is dead, incarcerated or has a bounty on his head and is traveling around the world to ..evade.. his notoriety.
Cops on the road, who drive alone in their car, are entitled to a bit of fun.. or as Braithwaite put it, "more whimsy"!
Don't they? Help me understand..
ceejayoz 4 days ago [-]
> Cops on the road, who drive alone in their car, are entitled to a bit of fun…
No, cops are not entitled to Fourth Amendment violations as fun. Turn on the radio or something.
I am entitled to fun, too. That doesn't mean I get to pick kicking you in the shin as my fun.
handoflixue 2 days ago [-]
It is not whimsical when the other party can legally kill you for non-compliance, no.
lostlogin 2 days ago [-]
> entitled
Exactly the right word.
quickthrowman 1 days ago [-]
> This is a great international story about cops!
It certainly isn’t, the police have no right to pull him over, they’re violating his 4th amendment rights. Unless he has committed a moving violation or they suspect him of committing a crime, there’s no cause to stop a motorist.
It’s a good story about a man who hasn’t let police acting illegally prevent him from driving his banana car.
x______________ 17 hours ago [-]
There's no 4th amendment outside of the usa. He got pulled over 5 times in Mexico, and is doing world tour, also no 4th there.
You and that other op dude need better arguments.
ahazred8ta 4 days ago [-]
There was a security incident in 2002: Trooper Fears the Wurst, Stops Wienermobile in DC -- Hot doggers grilled near Pentagon
bell-cot 5 days ago [-]
Do some reading on all the 1000X-worse abuses of police power which are sadly routine in America.
Banana cars getting pulled over for selfies is a massive improvement.
andy99 5 days ago [-]
Meh, you might technically be right but the world is better if everyone can have a bit of fun, even police. I’m not super sympathetic to the “I was minding my own business driving a giant banana when the police pulled me over to ask me about it” argument - this guy seems fine with it too, but it’s not like there’s any reason to drive it other than for the attention.
And the “I pulled you over because you peeled out” - I mean it’s fun. Anyway, if it’s harmless I don’t really see the problem.
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
> the world is better if everyone can have a bit of fun, even police
Police have plenty of ways to have fun that aren't Fourth Amendment violations.
If you wanna give out free ice cream cones, station a cruiser with a sign saying so. People can come to you just fine, without the "what the fuck, why am I getting pulled over?!" worries. The banana guy at least has an inkling of why there are flashing police lights in his rearview, but that doesn't make it OK.
eru 2 days ago [-]
Sure, I agree about the ice cream cones for random people. But the banana car guy is basically opting-in to getting lots of attention.
(And, yes, I realise that this is exactly the same shape of argument that turns into victim blaming when it's about cat calling or worse. No, I don't have a principled way to distinguish the two cases.)
zamadatix 2 days ago [-]
Opting in to getting attention shouldn't imply anything one way or the other about how often you get pulled over. In the real world it does, because the police are a collection of humans and will misuse powers they are able to, but that has no bearing on what's supposed to be right or wrong - it's just the realistic expectation you'll have to deal with.
eru 2 days ago [-]
Well, especially in a democracy what's supposed to be right or wrong is heavily influenced by what the general public wants and accepts.
zamadatix 1 days ago [-]
What the public wants is part of that picture, sure, but what the public accepts is a different thing than either right/wrong altogether. Namely "what you can realistically get away with".
eru 18 hours ago [-]
I agree in the abstract. But the abstract doesn't say anything concretely about what the exact powers of (traffic) cops should be.
For example, your average cop in the UK, traffic or otherwise, doesn't carry a gun. Bobbies can get guns, but it's enough of a bureaucratic hassle that they seldom bother. The absence of guns makes a lot of the tension disappear that I read about in American encounters with low enforcement.
In Germany, police routinely carry guns, but also approximately no one is afraid they might get shot as a result of making the wrong move at a routine traffic stop. (Partially that's because every shot fired comes with lots and lots of red tape. Even warning shots. If the police officer actually hits a person, they get the police equivalent of a court martial. And that's mandatory, even when it's obvious they were doing the Right Thing. Just like a captain in the Royal Navy got a court martial, when their ship sank for any reason.
I say 'partially', because I suspect culture has a lot to do with it.)
BoorishBears 5 days ago [-]
No, they can't have fun this way.
If you mop floors and you have fun by twirling your broom and humming a tune, you're not affecting anyone.
If we give you a gun and the right to shoot people in the head and go home to sleep in your own bed, then we can ask you to lock in a little more than that and not pull over people because it's funny.
cj 5 days ago [-]
Such a negative attitude is incredibly counterproductive.
You want police to have a positive presence in the community. Innocent engagement with a banana car helps with that, doesn't hurt.
ssl-3 5 days ago [-]
That sounds nice.
Over here in reality, when a man with a badge and a gun pulls people over for a bit of fun: Refusing to play along with whatever game it is that they have in mind is a criminal offense.
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
> You want police to have a positive presence in the community.
Can they not pull up alongside and wave? Give a thumbs-up? Roll down the window?
AngryData 5 days ago [-]
If cops want to be a positive presence in the community then they shouldn't regularly extort and abuse citizens and protect their violent and murderous coworkers.
BoorishBears 5 days ago [-]
If being a positive presence in the community isn't enough incentive to be that, you don't deserve to be police.
And if that sounds hackneyed and like a ridiculous standard, you're damn right it is: we let them have outsized influence in our existence as otherwise free people. Their standard has to be a double standard.
cj 5 days ago [-]
There's a lot of anger towards police coming through in your comments. It's just a banana car.
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
It's a banana car that has been pulled over illegally hundreds of times.
5 days ago [-]
BoorishBears 5 days ago [-]
Yeah I'm a Black immigrant with a funny name, I have a lot of anger about what we tolerate of police vs what we should.
Are you under the impression all cops are known for is harassing banana cars?
5 days ago [-]
voakbasda 4 days ago [-]
Except it is literally not innocent. They are violating an innocent person’s rights.
cj 4 days ago [-]
It is crazy to me that the banana car driver seems to like the attention from cops, but here in the comments we are rewriting the narrative because all cops must be evil people.
I appreciate your anger, but it’s misplaced here.
BoorishBears 4 days ago [-]
It's crazy to you because other people are applying critical thinking and you're not.
The cop comfortable with pulling over the funny looking car (that looks like a banana) is the same cop with unreasonable understanding of the responsibility they're given.
It wouldn't matter if the banana car man has a sign that says "I love cops free donuts in the back"
What's really crazy to me is that someone is working over time to try to police (literally) other people's negative feelings about cop misconduct.
What inadequacy leads someone to see others upset at an obvious misuse of power and think "I need to stand up for the guys misuing it!"
cj 4 days ago [-]
> What's really crazy to me is that someone is working over time to try to police (literally) other people's negative feelings about cop misconduct.
It’s crazy to me that you view it as “policing” your opinions rather than simply seeing my viewpoint as just that, and opposing viewpoint.
I’m not policing you. Just offering a different perspective.
I apologize for speaking up. So much for free speech :)
But I’ll say it once more: it’s a freaking banana car. Lighten up bro! Very confused why you’re more upset than the driver of the banana is (who seems to want the attention and is getting it, the desired effect)!
BoorishBears 4 days ago [-]
It becomes policing when you say:
> "I appreciate your anger, but it’s misplaced here."
Weird mix of narcissism to think anyone cares if you appreciate their anger, and arrogance to think you know where it belongs.
You're definitely confused. We can leave it at that.
2 days ago [-]
cj 2 days ago [-]
I don’t mind the insults. I’ll let the downvotes speak for themselves.
5 days ago [-]
1970-01-01 1 days ago [-]
The "(s)he was asking for it" defense is fairly ripe here. I'd say we can all let this one slip.
TurdF3rguson 5 days ago [-]
The thing is, you can be reasonably sure when you pull over a big banana car, that the driver won't be a curmudgeonly prick who invokes the fourth amendment.
qingcharles 4 days ago [-]
I had a car that was pulled over dozens of times so the cops could take pics with it. Most of the time it was cool.
Two times pissed me off: one time a cop had just pulled me over on the highway for a pic, okay cool, I pull back onto the highway and went maybe a mile before I was pulled over a second time by his buddy.
Other time I was just rolling into LA for a comic con, it was 3am and I'd been driving for about 14 hours. I was minutes from my hotel and of course here come the cops. I had to make a big detour to find somewhere safe to stop. The next day someone said "Oh, I think my buddy stopped you last night!" so I had him call his cop friend and was able to safely cuss him out from a distance :)
On the other hand I had one awesome experience with the cops in Oxnard when we put my car on the train tracks and accidentally set off the barriers and caused an enormous tailback in each direction at the railroad crossing. I thought the cops would be mad, but they were hilarious and promised to figure out the traffic snafu for us.
Then an hour later when I was driving the car down the tracks again another cop walked up on me all mad and told me he was writing me a ticket for driving on the tracks, but when I read the ticket he'd written it out to Marty McFly and had a great laugh about it. Here's a pic of him booking Marty haha
Well yeah, all the ones who were too easily annoyed got weeded out over 100k miles ago!
eru 2 days ago [-]
In some purer version of the universe where laws are absolute, you might be right.
In the world as it is, with laws interpreted by humans along notions of what society generally finds acceptable: if you drive a funny car or where an especially funny hat, expect to get a lot of attention from all kinds of people, including cops.
lubujackson 5 days ago [-]
Straight out of Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go": https://a.co/d/0778Ou0A
If you are a parent of a small child, you will be amazed by the depth and fun of this book. I am always surprised it is not more commonly read.
postalcoder 2 days ago [-]
We have a lot of the richard scarry books. I've gotten so many laughs out of them with my child.
> you will be amazed by the depth and fun of this book
+100. These are so fun to read and look at. There are stories in stories. These books are a treasure.
nine_k 5 days ago [-]
(1) Obtain a vehicle that commands attention. (2) Enjoy everyone's attention! (3) There's no point three.
functionmouse 5 days ago [-]
The issue is false pretext
sixsided 5 days ago [-]
ACAB (All Cops Appreciate Banana)
schmookeeg 5 days ago [-]
I enjoyed this, in all of its silly big banana energy.
I have an overdeveloped anti-authority streak, and I did not like to read that he was pulled over so often, but... I mean... that surely isn't a surprise, right? It's almost like reverse entrapment of the officers :)
DonHopkins 5 days ago [-]
Get on the horn to British Intelligence and let them know about this!
Open cars worry me. How do they handle the wind, rain, snow, hail, etc.?
orbital-decay 5 days ago [-]
As someone who rides bikes most of the time, the right question is how you handle it.
doubled112 5 days ago [-]
This. I’ve ridden a bike year round in southwestern Ontario.
In general, I’m fairly waterproof.
-30C was pretty cold, especially moving, but rare enough I could dress for it and keep my body parts.
Snowstorms are always fun. Free physics lessons included. How much traction can you get? Whoops, I’m laying on the ground.
Thunderstorms and hail you might want to avoid.
dredmorbius 5 days ago [-]
What do you do for your hands and feet especially, and if you wear glasses, the inevitable frosting of them. Heck, if you don't wear glasses, what do you do for windburn?
I've biked as low as about -15C, though it's much more comfortable keeping it above -10 -- -5 or so.
doubled112 5 days ago [-]
Some heavier Thinsulate gloves were always enough for me. Maybe a pair of those thin fabric cheapies underneath.
Boots were just my regular winter boots. I think they all say "comfortable" down to -40C at this point. Comfortable is probably overselling it, but I still have all of my toes.
I don't remember my glasses ever really fogging up until I'd get inside. I don't like things on my face, so usually just a hat with ear flaps. Add a scarf for neck and lower face. Perhaps a beard helped too. It and my mustache have certainly frosted up.
When I was doing it regularly, those days just weren't common enough to justify doing anything special. I could generally keep the rides short which really helped out.
dredmorbius 5 days ago [-]
Thanks!
None of my cycling / running gloves cut it. I didn't get to buying heavier winter gloves last season. Layering gloves, using hardware-store work and waterproof gloves has also come up. Key is to combine insulation, a wind/vapour barrier, and possibly something rugged on the outside against wear/falls. I can't find the reference I had in mind, though this one is similar: <https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/hiking-and-b...>.
Feet aren't as much an issue for me, but insulated booties would be good. I have a pair, but they didn't fit over my most recent cycling shoes. I did find a lower-profile older pair recently, might get lucky with those.
I wear a Spandex balaclava, which tends to direct breath toward my specs. That's also a problem walking in cold weather (which I also do a lot of, particularly when my glasses fog too much to ride ;-), and I'm leaning toward over-the-specs ski goggles or something along those lines.
Power to you though!
5 days ago [-]
5 days ago [-]
phyzome 5 days ago [-]
Is this LLM-written, or is this just the sort of annoying "breathless" style of writing that LLMs were trained on?
5 days ago [-]
friedtofu 5 days ago [-]
I hate that we have to ask this question but I'm wondering like cj...what made the post sound breathless? I type like OP pretty often. His post has plenty of valid punctuation. Commas, periods and dashes that(IMO) make me think it isn't LLM-written.
I would honestly be surprised if it turns out it was written by an LLM.
phyzome 4 days ago [-]
In large sections, every sentence is its own paragraph. I don't know what it would be like without all the extra linebreaks, but as it is, it feels like the author is getting their breath back in between sentences.
(I've also seen this style on an LLM-written site.)
pryelluw 5 days ago [-]
I would love to be able to rent it out and have the guy drive me around. I would dress up like Donkey Kong, too.
superkuh 5 days ago [-]
Poor guy. He just wanted to spread some joy and now he's risking his life repeatedly. One of these police stops it's not going to work out. There are just too many US police eager to use physical violence for no reason.
allenrb 5 days ago [-]
While absolutely and sadly true, something tells me that rogue banana drivers are not the ones most likely to be killed in a traffic stop.
Besides, his family would surely win the resulting case… on a peel.
superkuh 5 days ago [-]
It could never be against the police officer themselves due to qualified immunity. They are free to break the law however they wish. And that completely lack of accountability creates the risk inherent in every (US) police interaction.
mminer237 23 hours ago [-]
No, if they violate a clearly defined right, you can often still sue them individually, although that's usually suboptimal as the government has deeper pockets.
superkuh 10 hours ago [-]
Suing them is not justice. Justice is them going to prison after being charged with and judged guilty of the crime.
tjrlx 5 days ago [-]
[flagged]
eru 2 days ago [-]
I don't think that's how it works in theory, but in practice it seems to be pretty close.
(I mostly agree with you otherwise. Mr Banana Car Man would tell us, if he felt himself to be a victim.)
otterley 5 days ago [-]
Well done, sir. clap
tremon 5 days ago [-]
> rogue banana drivers are not the ones most likely to be killed in a traffic stop
...until the bananas go brown, of course.
allenrb 5 days ago [-]
You are my comedy hero, tremon. This is the joke I was looking for and failed to find.
bingaweek 5 days ago [-]
[dead]
eschulz 5 days ago [-]
There's almost a zero percent chance of a police officer harming him during one of these stops. Annoying him a perhaps violating his civil rights, possibly, but not harmed.
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
"Violating his civil rights" is harm.
eschulz 5 days ago [-]
Yes, you're totally right, I was referring to being beaten or killed on the side of the road. I should have been clear.
ssl-3 5 days ago [-]
Unless having their rights violated in this way is one of their kinks.
eru 2 days ago [-]
And as far as we can tell from the writing, it is. (Not in a sexual way, I guess. But he seems to like the attention.)
cobbzilla 5 days ago [-]
He’s totally fine. He’s driving a car that basically no minority would ever drive, plus it has an open cockpit to facilitate the officer’s “trust but verify” instincts.
5 days ago [-]
nekusar 5 days ago [-]
Gee golly whillikers!
Pigs are abusing their authority! Oh whatever shall we do?
ceejayoz 5 days ago [-]
Traffic stops can and do go bad. Each is a risk, even if small. If they discover something like a bag of drugs in the back, it raises clear Fourth Amendment issues.
Cops shouldn't be putting law-abiding citizens at risk for a selfie.
nekusar 5 days ago [-]
My answer is to fire their lardasses for due cause and make them unhirable across the nation.
But this country's courts said this shit is cool. And so is highway robbery by pig. And they don't need to come for help if you call 911.
Oh and qualified immunity means they can what the fuck ever they want.
If RICO act was serious, they'd shut down all pig stys (police stations).
kylegalbraith 5 days ago [-]
Frankly, this sounds like a really fun time. Sometimes the simple things just hit harder.
ms_by_pd 5 days ago [-]
ohk
_tk_ 5 days ago [-]
Alternative title:
Person who wants to get noticed indeed gets noticed
echoangle 5 days ago [-]
I would probably pull him over too but arguably he should be pulled over less than normal, right? The risk that he’s some criminal is probably pretty low since not a lot of criminals would chose a car like that to travel.
On the other hand it probably has an increased likelihood to have technical problems that make it reasonable to pull it over though.
bot403 5 days ago [-]
If im a drug smuggler I'm definitely driving the most boring, common car directly BEHIND the banana car.
ajb 5 days ago [-]
The cops should know that trick by now - the "distraction car" is literally the plot of "Smokey and the Bandit" from 50 years ago. Nevertheless, you may be right :-)
bena 5 days ago [-]
However, the distraction car is breaking the law in Smokey and the Bandit. It’s not incorrect for them to try and pull it over.
5 days ago [-]
iambateman 5 days ago [-]
Yes but every good police officer had watched Arrested Development and so knows that there’s always money in the banana stand.
garyfirestorm 5 days ago [-]
Wow you waited from 2012 to crack this joke with that username
schmookeeg 5 days ago [-]
worth it.
AngryData 5 days ago [-]
What possible technical problem would a cop be qualified to not only recognize and diagnose, but also have any useful input on?
Cops shouldn't be pulling over anybody without either direct evidence of a potential crime or a warrant.
NetMageSCW 1 days ago [-]
Probable cause being it might be an illegal vehicle on public streets?
ssl-3 1 days ago [-]
Are banana-shaped cars illegal to use on public roads? Which laws prevent their use?
One time while I was waiting for a light, an officer knocked on my window (which is somewhat startling)... I rolled it down and he excitedly asked "What kind of car is this?!"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Cappuccino
https://www.drive.com.au/news/microlino-battery-electric-bub...
The next morning I was able to hire one out to travel to the venue. At a pitstop on the way, another driver followed me into the carpark and excitedly asked me where I found the car so that he could go get one too.
To be honest, it wasn't a comfortable or easy drive. The speed topped out at 90kph and the steering felt gravelly. But it was fun getting in and out of the front of the car.
And, no offense intended, that car is not that interesting. I guess policing must be boring.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNI1TfAxyIZ/?utm_source=ig_we...
It's always for some made up traffic offense ("your lights weren't working, try them now; oh they are fixed; can me and my partner get a photo with your car?").
But even beyond that, lightweight, mid front engine, rwd, turbo variants, this is the stuff of proper race cars. Anything Colin Chapman would approve of is automatically interesting.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXfDQb7EmU4/
But you're right!
https://www.bewelcome.org/
https://www.warmshowers.org/
100% that! When did everything get serious and look-alike? Anyway, I am taking off, shopping cart racing in the mall...
And some even in the 1980s or 1970s. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DarkerAndEdgier/Batma...
I don't think the 2000s were especially darker and grittier?
In the meantime, be the change you want to see! You don't have to be darker&grittier yourself just because the media ecosystem has decided that's where the current fashion is.
It's sometimes charming, sometimes annoying. (But it makes for some cheap joke material that tends to make Poms think they are especially funny.)
Same with the "pulled over to give you an ice cream" feel-good ops they do. https://abc7ny.com/post/video-police-hand-out-ice-cream-inst...
An illegal detention is still an illegal detention if it's being done nicely.
No? You could also pull the public tax dollars spent card, or other crimes not being pursued while you're at it but it won't help sour the mood!
This is not a nice story about cops.
> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"
> For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.
> "He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"
> The banana jokes, he said, are "never-ending."
> Fortunately, so are the laughs.
..Are we discussing the same article?
> Braithwaite recently drove the banana into Mexico, where he was pulled over five times in three days.
> Every encounter was friendly, he says.
This is a great international story about cops!
> Now he's thinking much bigger.
> His goal is to drive the Big Banana Car through Central America; somehow get it shipped across oceans and eventually circle the globe.
> "I just want to keep going," he said.
> He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour."
> A sign mounted to the back of the vehicle carries the slogan.
> "The world is dangerously low on whimsy," says the man hoping to make a difference.
That last paragraph hits it out of the park.
This is not a good story about cops. This is a good story about a guy, that includes cops as part of its plot.
It's like those "kid sells his toys to fund parents' cancer treatment" stories local news does as a feel-good segment. Great kid! Shitty system!
I'm still inclined to think that an /s is coming up in later replies. A bad story about cops and a banana motorist is that the motorist is dead, incarcerated or has a bounty on his head and is traveling around the world to ..evade.. his notoriety.
Cops on the road, who drive alone in their car, are entitled to a bit of fun.. or as Braithwaite put it, "more whimsy"!
Don't they? Help me understand..
No, cops are not entitled to Fourth Amendment violations as fun. Turn on the radio or something.
I am entitled to fun, too. That doesn't mean I get to pick kicking you in the shin as my fun.
Exactly the right word.
It certainly isn’t, the police have no right to pull him over, they’re violating his 4th amendment rights. Unless he has committed a moving violation or they suspect him of committing a crime, there’s no cause to stop a motorist.
It’s a good story about a man who hasn’t let police acting illegally prevent him from driving his banana car.
You and that other op dude need better arguments.
Banana cars getting pulled over for selfies is a massive improvement.
And the “I pulled you over because you peeled out” - I mean it’s fun. Anyway, if it’s harmless I don’t really see the problem.
Police have plenty of ways to have fun that aren't Fourth Amendment violations.
If you wanna give out free ice cream cones, station a cruiser with a sign saying so. People can come to you just fine, without the "what the fuck, why am I getting pulled over?!" worries. The banana guy at least has an inkling of why there are flashing police lights in his rearview, but that doesn't make it OK.
(And, yes, I realise that this is exactly the same shape of argument that turns into victim blaming when it's about cat calling or worse. No, I don't have a principled way to distinguish the two cases.)
For example, your average cop in the UK, traffic or otherwise, doesn't carry a gun. Bobbies can get guns, but it's enough of a bureaucratic hassle that they seldom bother. The absence of guns makes a lot of the tension disappear that I read about in American encounters with low enforcement.
In Germany, police routinely carry guns, but also approximately no one is afraid they might get shot as a result of making the wrong move at a routine traffic stop. (Partially that's because every shot fired comes with lots and lots of red tape. Even warning shots. If the police officer actually hits a person, they get the police equivalent of a court martial. And that's mandatory, even when it's obvious they were doing the Right Thing. Just like a captain in the Royal Navy got a court martial, when their ship sank for any reason.
I say 'partially', because I suspect culture has a lot to do with it.)
If you mop floors and you have fun by twirling your broom and humming a tune, you're not affecting anyone.
If we give you a gun and the right to shoot people in the head and go home to sleep in your own bed, then we can ask you to lock in a little more than that and not pull over people because it's funny.
You want police to have a positive presence in the community. Innocent engagement with a banana car helps with that, doesn't hurt.
Over here in reality, when a man with a badge and a gun pulls people over for a bit of fun: Refusing to play along with whatever game it is that they have in mind is a criminal offense.
Can they not pull up alongside and wave? Give a thumbs-up? Roll down the window?
And if that sounds hackneyed and like a ridiculous standard, you're damn right it is: we let them have outsized influence in our existence as otherwise free people. Their standard has to be a double standard.
Are you under the impression all cops are known for is harassing banana cars?
I appreciate your anger, but it’s misplaced here.
The cop comfortable with pulling over the funny looking car (that looks like a banana) is the same cop with unreasonable understanding of the responsibility they're given.
It wouldn't matter if the banana car man has a sign that says "I love cops free donuts in the back"
What's really crazy to me is that someone is working over time to try to police (literally) other people's negative feelings about cop misconduct.
What inadequacy leads someone to see others upset at an obvious misuse of power and think "I need to stand up for the guys misuing it!"
It’s crazy to me that you view it as “policing” your opinions rather than simply seeing my viewpoint as just that, and opposing viewpoint.
I’m not policing you. Just offering a different perspective.
I apologize for speaking up. So much for free speech :)
But I’ll say it once more: it’s a freaking banana car. Lighten up bro! Very confused why you’re more upset than the driver of the banana is (who seems to want the attention and is getting it, the desired effect)!
> "I appreciate your anger, but it’s misplaced here."
Weird mix of narcissism to think anyone cares if you appreciate their anger, and arrogance to think you know where it belongs.
You're definitely confused. We can leave it at that.
Two times pissed me off: one time a cop had just pulled me over on the highway for a pic, okay cool, I pull back onto the highway and went maybe a mile before I was pulled over a second time by his buddy.
Other time I was just rolling into LA for a comic con, it was 3am and I'd been driving for about 14 hours. I was minutes from my hotel and of course here come the cops. I had to make a big detour to find somewhere safe to stop. The next day someone said "Oh, I think my buddy stopped you last night!" so I had him call his cop friend and was able to safely cuss him out from a distance :)
On the other hand I had one awesome experience with the cops in Oxnard when we put my car on the train tracks and accidentally set off the barriers and caused an enormous tailback in each direction at the railroad crossing. I thought the cops would be mad, but they were hilarious and promised to figure out the traffic snafu for us.
https://imgur.com/a/pBcLKqz (we didn't realize the barriers automatically detect stuff on the tracks)
Then an hour later when I was driving the car down the tracks again another cop walked up on me all mad and told me he was writing me a ticket for driving on the tracks, but when I read the ticket he'd written it out to Marty McFly and had a great laugh about it. Here's a pic of him booking Marty haha
https://imgur.com/a/vm0ud5y
In the world as it is, with laws interpreted by humans along notions of what society generally finds acceptable: if you drive a funny car or where an especially funny hat, expect to get a lot of attention from all kinds of people, including cops.
If you are a parent of a small child, you will be amazed by the depth and fun of this book. I am always surprised it is not more commonly read.
> you will be amazed by the depth and fun of this book
+100. These are so fun to read and look at. There are stories in stories. These books are a treasure.
I have an overdeveloped anti-authority streak, and I did not like to read that he was pulled over so often, but... I mean... that surely isn't a surprise, right? It's almost like reverse entrapment of the officers :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCoRGbT3CM
Merry Pranksters Bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Pranksters#Eastward_bus_...
In general, I’m fairly waterproof.
-30C was pretty cold, especially moving, but rare enough I could dress for it and keep my body parts.
Snowstorms are always fun. Free physics lessons included. How much traction can you get? Whoops, I’m laying on the ground.
Thunderstorms and hail you might want to avoid.
I've biked as low as about -15C, though it's much more comfortable keeping it above -10 -- -5 or so.
Boots were just my regular winter boots. I think they all say "comfortable" down to -40C at this point. Comfortable is probably overselling it, but I still have all of my toes.
I don't remember my glasses ever really fogging up until I'd get inside. I don't like things on my face, so usually just a hat with ear flaps. Add a scarf for neck and lower face. Perhaps a beard helped too. It and my mustache have certainly frosted up.
When I was doing it regularly, those days just weren't common enough to justify doing anything special. I could generally keep the rides short which really helped out.
None of my cycling / running gloves cut it. I didn't get to buying heavier winter gloves last season. Layering gloves, using hardware-store work and waterproof gloves has also come up. Key is to combine insulation, a wind/vapour barrier, and possibly something rugged on the outside against wear/falls. I can't find the reference I had in mind, though this one is similar: <https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/hiking-and-b...>.
Feet aren't as much an issue for me, but insulated booties would be good. I have a pair, but they didn't fit over my most recent cycling shoes. I did find a lower-profile older pair recently, might get lucky with those.
I wear a Spandex balaclava, which tends to direct breath toward my specs. That's also a problem walking in cold weather (which I also do a lot of, particularly when my glasses fog too much to ride ;-), and I'm leaning toward over-the-specs ski goggles or something along those lines.
Power to you though!
I would honestly be surprised if it turns out it was written by an LLM.
(I've also seen this style on an LLM-written site.)
Besides, his family would surely win the resulting case… on a peel.
(I mostly agree with you otherwise. Mr Banana Car Man would tell us, if he felt himself to be a victim.)
...until the bananas go brown, of course.
Pigs are abusing their authority! Oh whatever shall we do?
Cops shouldn't be putting law-abiding citizens at risk for a selfie.
But this country's courts said this shit is cool. And so is highway robbery by pig. And they don't need to come for help if you call 911.
Oh and qualified immunity means they can what the fuck ever they want.
If RICO act was serious, they'd shut down all pig stys (police stations).
Person who wants to get noticed indeed gets noticed
On the other hand it probably has an increased likelihood to have technical problems that make it reasonable to pull it over though.
Cops shouldn't be pulling over anybody without either direct evidence of a potential crime or a warrant.