Just got bagged tonight. I was driving by a club and I blew the horn, one of the detail cops told a on duty cop to grab me. Pulls me over, asks me for my license and registration then asks me to blow my horn. I blow the regular horn and he says “the big horn smart A$$” and I asked him what he was talking about. He proceeds to rip my door open and pop the hood. See’s my tank and start’s yelling in my face. Walks away and comes back with a $135 ticket…
Offensive/Objectionable Noise- $50
Horn Sound when not necessary- $50
No Reg in Pass- $35 (LIE, I GAVE HIM MY REG)
So obviously I pissed them off and they were looking to beef up the ticket with this garbage. Of course I’ll be in court to challenge it because he entered my vehicle without permission and searched it.
He violated your civil rights by an illegal search. Talk to a civil rights attorney with a history of suing your city for civil rights violations. Ask for a 30k$ settlement, they will come at you and offer you between 1k$-10k$ to get you to drop the case outside of court. It cost the city too much money to take you to court because there is ALWAYS a chance you will win with a jury that has had at least 1 bad experince with a cop.
I work for my city’s civil rights department. We defend the police officers who are accused of violating civil rights of civilians. You are pretty much what I deal with all day long. You will get a settlement if your city is like mine and has too many cases piled up to waste time taking you to court. 1-5k$ is nothing compared to what we could lose if you took us to court for such a simple matter. You will have to pay taxes on your settlement though since you were not physically injured.
You can say that cop intimidated you by yelling in your face, ripping your car door open and popping your trunk to illegally search your car. Say you find yourself not trusting cops and such and feel you are a victem and you don’t feel safe around police officers anymore. Talk to a lawyer, there are tons that make their living off suing the city and police officers.
Hey, thanks for the advice. I’m not that upset about it, infact I don’t even care about the incident. I just didn’t want to get a moving violation over a horn, its really a stupid reason for my insurance to go up 20% for 5 years.
I have friends that are police, and great people. I understand there are bad eggs, and unfortunately they abuse a position of power sometimes. He was obviously mad about it and took his anger out on me, unprofessionally. I’m positive this ticket can get tossed, so this is possibly a non-issue. But your advice doesn’t come unwelcomed, I’m keeping that advice in my head for the next time my rights are violated over something as simple as a horn.
If my ticket wasn’t a moving violation, I would’ve just paid it and moved on. A moving violation will up your insurance as much as 20% for up to 5 years. We already have stupid-ridiculous insurance rates. I pay $3,100 a year to insure a $12,000 truck.
I did the same thing when I was pulled over and honked my regular horn and they cop said the other horn and I was like I dunno what ur talkin about…lol he visually looked in my truck, i had 3 other people with me… he said if he hears me again or gets any more compliants (cuz theres been alot on my truck bout the horn) then he will get a search warrant… i told him goodluck and he let me go…lol if i had a camera i would have honked it at him when he walked back to his car but i didnt have one…
Never had a ticket when i had my horn, in fact at the time i had a sticker on the back of my truck…
and most of the cops never questioned itand just wanted me to blow them for them because they say " I wish i has those on my car" including the cop that was driving beside me yelling through his window asking where he could get a set…
Messing with cops can get you real messy, personal experience so I never like them much. Try to settle amicably with that cop if it’s possible, if not learn the lawbook, do your homework properly and hire a good lawyer. All these just to solve your insurance tension which can be a headache and don’t worry it’s not so serious. Good Luck!
