On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 09:11:13 -0600, Eric F. Richards
wrote:

"Buzzygirl" wrote:

Not that this would dissuade the kind of cop who takes your
carrying such documentation as a personal challenge to his authority.

I would bring it up to a judge in traffic court and lodge a formal complaint
with the PD, if it had to go that far.

Hah. You don't remember the case of the kid who was an ARES worker a
few years ago... had an RS HTX-202, which had no out-of-band
capabilities at all, cop stopped him, kerchunked his radio and --
surprise! -- it desensed his police radio. Confiscation and charges
ensued.

It took a lot of work and time (years) to get it untangled, and it was
a headline issue with ARRL for quite a while.

The only good news to come out of it was that particular police
department got publicised as the ****heads they were. I wonder if
there's an active ARES chapter left there...

...search engines are wonderful. Here's a more accurate summary of
the endgame:
Charges dismissed in Godsey case: It took more than two years, but
all charges against a Kentucky ham for impersonating a public servant
and disorderly conduct finally were dropped in December. Greg Godsey,
KF4BDY, of Hopkinsville, was just shy of his seventeenth birthday when
he was arrested by police in his hometown. At the time, Godsey was
active in ARES as Christian County EC. He claims the impersonation
charge stemmed from his ARES association. Police also had charged
Godsey with carrying a scanner capable of receiving police frequencies
and confiscated his Radio Shack HTX-202. The scanner charge reportedly
was dismissed in court the following month, and his H-T was returned
to him. The other charges had remained on the court docket, however.
Godsey, now 19, said the charges were dropped in December after he
agreed to not sue anybody over the matter.

Nice bit of cop thuggery there -- we'll sustain charges
against you, probably ruining your chances of getting a job to support
yourself with, unless you, in effect hold us harmless from any suit
based on our thuggery

Wouldn't the correct description be "extortion under color of
authority"?

"Challenge my authority and enter a living hell for as long as
I choose to make it so, especially if you're in the right."


Godsey says he and his
family spent more than $3000 fighting the charges against him.

Source: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/1999/02/23/3/

I would have ****in' sued to bankrupt the city. Not that I'm bitter
about power-mad authority types, oh, no.

(Local situation is much better and I am an ARES member. Cops here
actually treat us with respect, and get the same in return.)