JUD: Illegal Walking
Wow, this will be my first Jacked Up In The Desert post here on LJ. For those who've never read any of my JUDs at my website's old weblog, basically they are a bunch of true stories about the oddities that sometimes come with living in Arizona. Some are funny, others horrible, but all are about strange things that actually did occur, no exaggerations needed.
So there I am walking home from ERAU at 1900 hrs (7:00 pm) the sun is almost down and there are no street lights for the sidewalk on this particular stretch of Willow Creek Rd that I'm walking along. I'm minding my own business, I mean what else is there really to do when you're walking by yourself and there's no one else around for literally miles, and suddenly one of Prescott's Police cars pulls alongside, flips on the search light (destroying my perfectly good night vision I might add) and demands to know what I'm doing.
Snarkily, I replied: "Walking." I am honest enough to admit I was in a bad mood mentioned in an earlier post and unwilling to deal with a nitwit who could plainly see exactly what I was doing.
The rest of the convo went something like this:
"You're not allowed to walk here."
"Really? Last I saw this was a public sidewalk on a public street."
"You're still not allowed to walk here."
"Funny, last I looked I lived in the United States. We are still a free country right?"
*insert cop glare here.* "Well move along."
"I never would have stopped if it wasn't for your male inadequacies in the first place." (Yes, I really did say this line verbatim if you are interested in knowing.)
*increase cop glare to death glare as he peels off with his car*
*me giving the cop the one fingered salute.*
"Fucking moron."
So apparently some cops now think it is illegal to walk from place to place in Arizona on public streets and sidewalks. Sorry, but that sounds just insane to me. Sure, most places in AZ you'd just drive it given the way we Arizonans like to spread everything out but still, some of us do like to walk. In this case I'm in situation of either walking, riding my bike, or bumming rides (which I hate to do) from friends. Still it's pretty wacked when walking automatically makes you suspect. Wierd.
It does remind me of another JUP story that I never got around to posting about the anti-gang sweeps when I was still in highschool in the late 80s where I got accused by two different cops (while walking home, I might add) of being a crip and a blood. Well, first off I'm white, I'm female, and I was wearing a red shirt and blue sweatpants. (The cops were basically following the young, black male thing at the time.) How that made me a "known" gang member was beyond me, but basically an uncle from my father's side of the family I've never met let alone know cleared me from the "watch list" (or so my uncle from my mom's family told me).
Strangely, I find both incidents amusing now.
So there I am walking home from ERAU at 1900 hrs (7:00 pm) the sun is almost down and there are no street lights for the sidewalk on this particular stretch of Willow Creek Rd that I'm walking along. I'm minding my own business, I mean what else is there really to do when you're walking by yourself and there's no one else around for literally miles, and suddenly one of Prescott's Police cars pulls alongside, flips on the search light (destroying my perfectly good night vision I might add) and demands to know what I'm doing.
Snarkily, I replied: "Walking." I am honest enough to admit I was in a bad mood mentioned in an earlier post and unwilling to deal with a nitwit who could plainly see exactly what I was doing.
The rest of the convo went something like this:
"You're not allowed to walk here."
"Really? Last I saw this was a public sidewalk on a public street."
"You're still not allowed to walk here."
"Funny, last I looked I lived in the United States. We are still a free country right?"
*insert cop glare here.* "Well move along."
"I never would have stopped if it wasn't for your male inadequacies in the first place." (Yes, I really did say this line verbatim if you are interested in knowing.)
*increase cop glare to death glare as he peels off with his car*
*me giving the cop the one fingered salute.*
"Fucking moron."
So apparently some cops now think it is illegal to walk from place to place in Arizona on public streets and sidewalks. Sorry, but that sounds just insane to me. Sure, most places in AZ you'd just drive it given the way we Arizonans like to spread everything out but still, some of us do like to walk. In this case I'm in situation of either walking, riding my bike, or bumming rides (which I hate to do) from friends. Still it's pretty wacked when walking automatically makes you suspect. Wierd.
It does remind me of another JUP story that I never got around to posting about the anti-gang sweeps when I was still in highschool in the late 80s where I got accused by two different cops (while walking home, I might add) of being a crip and a blood. Well, first off I'm white, I'm female, and I was wearing a red shirt and blue sweatpants. (The cops were basically following the young, black male thing at the time.) How that made me a "known" gang member was beyond me, but basically an uncle from my father's side of the family I've never met let alone know cleared me from the "watch list" (or so my uncle from my mom's family told me).
Strangely, I find both incidents amusing now.