New AMPmember/Shriner ~ Introduction!

[Porcupine_in_MA]

Thanks for the welcomes!!  And the info.  I will definitely have to make it out there this year.  The mountains look beautiful and I love camping/nature/the outdoors - not such a big fan of snow... but quite used to it living on Michigan's west coast.

I just got my bill today for the Michigan "Driver's Responsibility Fee" associated with my driving on a suspended license offense - 500/year for two years!! Absolutely amazing.  It is supposed to exist "to promote greater traffic safety" .... *sigh*  There has been a bill introduced to appeal these additional fees - thankfully I'm not the only one who thinks this is unreasonable.

I can't imagine New Hampshire has this ridiculous law.  Oh - and I just wiki'd NH and no sales or personal income tax? Nice!

It is great here, a lot better than most states I've visited and lived in. It still has its problems (like the only liquor stores that can operate are ones run by the state, and property taxes that in some towns are bigger than even some Taxachusettes property taxes) but its worth it for libertarians to get together in one state that already has low taxes and less stupid laws than most states and the large part of the population still has a small government mind-set. There is SO MUCH libertarian activism of various kinds going on here. 
 Definitely not "libertopia" yet anyway..

[ImapizzaandIloveRonPaul]

You sound like a pretty awesome girl. Tell me, do you like guns?  Welcome to the forum, be aware that it and it's posters tend to lack class and tact quite often.

[Porcupine_in_MA]

You sound like a pretty awesome girl. Tell me, do you like guns?  Welcome to the forum, be aware that some of it's posters tend to lack class and tact quite often.

Fixed.

[ImapizzaandIloveRonPaul]

You sound like a pretty awesome girl. Tell me, do you like guns?  Welcome to the forum, be aware that some of it's posters tend to lack class and tact quite often.

Fixed.

Thank you. My honest mistake.

[Lindsey]

You sound like a pretty awesome girl. Tell me, do you like guns?  Welcome to the forum, be aware that some of it's posters tend to lack class and tact quite often.

Fixed.

This. 

I hope you're adept at taking insults with a grain of salt, and rolling with the punches when it comes to foul language and dirty jokes.   

[Bethany]

Insults and crude jokes? Haha... I can take 'em.

Guns? Hell yes.  Have I ever owned one?  No... though I should.

In my last apartment we had a repeat peeping tom who would come up to my sliding glass door where my bedroom was late at night and try opening the door.  We had a cop come out THREE separate times and what did he do?  Shine his flashlight back there, tell us he'd drive by later and check on it, and then he'd take off.  I mean I guess there wasn't much else he could do but it just didn't' seem like it was a big deal to him.  He spent less than 10 min with us each time.  But boy did they (cops) enjoy spending time with me (yelling at me, barking orders left and right, shoving things in my face) when I got taken to jail over my suspended license.

Later that month (the month of the peeping tom) a girl my age was kidnapped from the mall parking lot down the road.

ERRRGG I HATE COPS.

<3 Bethany

[spicynujac]

Ugh, I can relate to your cop story.. I came back home from college a few years ago and went in to a police station b/c I thought I had gotten a ticket the last time I was in town and wanted to pay any fines I might have owed--BIG MISTAKE.  Instead of telling me what I owed, I was told to step inside where I was arrested and interrogated by cops (whose questions I refused to answer).  They didn't let me make a phone call, but instead called the jurisdiction where I had gotten the ticket and they sent TWO cops in a car from almost 2 hours away to come pick me up and drive me back (in handcuffs, ignoring the fact i came in voluntarily) and took me to JAIL.  Fortunately, my friends came with $500 to bail me out so I only spent about 5 hours in jail, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was awful.  The cops told my friends they "can't accept cash" so I had to wait another 30 minutes while they tried to find a place that sold money orders in the middle of the night.  Then I was released but stranded 2 hours away from my car, and when I went to court the judge told me he didn't believe my "cock and bull story" about voluntarily coming in to pay a ticket and punished me with further fines.  I was shocked.

The lesson I learned is I will never voluntarily try to pay them money again.. if they want it they can come get it from me--can't be much worse than what I went through.

Then another time I drove 11 hours straight to a friend's house in Virginia and arrived in the middle of the night.  The next morning, my car was stolen.  I called the cops and it turned out they had stolen my car!  I parked on the street in front of my friend's house, and apparently you can't park in the first spot from the corner--there was a sign that said no parking.  Well some time between 3 am and 8 am some cop drove by and noticed this, and instead of ticketing me or something, he got a tow truck, broke in my car, and took it to impound.  Lots of money for nothing, and I can assure you no one needed that space from 3 to 8 am that day.

On top of all that I have a grandmother who lives in a rich neighborhood where the cops have plenty of manpower and great equipment.  Her house was broken into one day and about $10,000 in jewelry stolen.  She knew who did it--a guy who had worked on her house months before stopped by that day to "borrow the phone".  We gave the cops his name, address, workplace, phone # etc.  He had a criminal record.  The cops did NOT fingerprint anything ( I guess someone has to be murdered for that to happen?) and about a week later drove by his house once but he wasn't home.  That was the end of their investigation.  Also in college my roomate caught some punk kid who stole his bike.  The police advised him not to press charges, since he wouldn't go to jail regardless.  I don't know if you've ever had anything stolen from you, but I CAN'T STAND a thief!!!  And when a known thief goes free, and never spends a minute in jail, but you and I do, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with our system. 

Your story, however, is truly shocking.. I heard it on a podcast awhile ago.  That's much worse than my stories, and frankly I'm shocked, and it takes a hell of a lot to shock me these days.  I guess you found out the cops really don't have many rules they follow.  But damn, I thought hot white women always got special treatment from "the system"

Sorry for the rant   Your horrible experience just reminded me of mine.  Welcome and stay away from the 5-0  ! 

[alkanen]

But damn, I thought hot white women always got special treatment from "the system"

Special doesn't necessarily mean good =)

[Bethany]

WOW.

I shouldn't be so surprised at hearing all of your stories.. "spicynujac" but I am absolutely shocked.  Instead of just letting you pay the money you owed them for your tickets, they went though all that trouble to take you to jail?  And TWO cops (hmm.. it took TWO cops to come pick you up? Seems one could have gotten the job done just fine but whatever, I'm sure they had a great time getting paid to take a little road trip together) came to get you from almost two hours away.  Unbelievable. 

5 hours in jail huh? Like Mark said - ANY amount of time in jail is not fun.  The three days I spent were hell.  The cops treated me like dirt.  90% of the time they just strait up ignored what I said, the rest of the time when they did decide I was worth addressing they'd just yell and tell me to stop asking questions.  They do NOT like having to answer questions - too much work.  But nobody tells you what's going on!  The cops I encountered just sat behind the desk (this was while I was in the holding cell before I went to "real" jail) making conversation amongst themselves, one I overheard went like this:

Cop:  "Yea, I've been lookin' to buy a house - this one I checked out the other day's been on the market a real long time.  After I checked it out I knew why - the next door neighbor on the right's a nigger and the neighbor on the left's a faggot!"  (Pardon the terms!!! I am merely making a point at what filthy people the county of Ottawa employs.)

Oh MAN.  My little brother being gay and the girl sitting across from me being black.. you could just feel the disgust in the air.  To this day I haven't met a decent cop.  There definitely isn't any special treatment going on just for being a young, white girl.  Unless you count the scumbags like the one Ian talked about the other day who tried to get a sexual favor from that poor girl to drop her marijuana charges.  URGGH I HATE COPS!!

<3 Bethany

[mark4freedom331]

They have the power and are under no incentive to not take advantage of that power at every opportunity. 

It's getting worse and worse as time goes on. People need to wake up. Bethany and spicynujac keep telling your stories.

[alkanen]

Cop:  "Yea, I've been lookin' to buy a house - this one I checked out the other day's been on the market a real long time.  After I checked it out I knew why - the next door neighbor on the right's a nigger and the neighbor on the left's a faggot!"  (Pardon the terms!!! I am merely making a point at what filthy people the county of Ottawa employs.)

Seems like a really sweet guy, no? =)

[spicynujac]

WOW! I laughed out loud at that cop comment.  Until I realized it's not a line of dialog from a Tarantino movie, but it actually happened.  I know quite a few racists (hey, I live in the south), but none who could ever openly express that kind of sick opinion openly at their place of business, much less in front of strangers in this day and age?!?!  Wait, I just re-read that--are you telling me they said that IN FRONT of a black woman??!

Yeah, the funny thing is, I have NEVER seen 2 cops together in a patrol car in ANY of the jurisdictions around here, so I can't imagine why they decided to send 2 up to get me.  I'll bet they were paid overtime.  I'll never forget being led into a service station to use the bathroom in handcuffs, then one goes in and "checks the bathroom" to make sure it's clear, and then takes the cuffs off so I can go do my business.  As if there was an uzi taped to the back of the tank so I could make my big escape right there.  By the way, I was never even patted down, and had a cell phone, money (and could have had weapons) in my pockets the whole time, including in my jail cell!  Shoddy, shoddy police work.  But hey, on the bright side, I took a "souvenier" from the jail which I keep to this day, and learned some interesting things about where to buy drugs and all types of illegal activity from fellow "inmates".  I can only imagine how educated in criminal techniques a real criminal is after several months in jail.  Luckily I worked part time for a lawyer that summer, and he sued the P.D. and supposedly got my record expunged and a few hundred bucks back.  They broke so many laws, I can't remember exactly what he got them on.  You could maybe do the same, although if you don't have any lawyer "friends", they will probably just screw you more.  The only advice I have is don't worry, as time goes on it will become a distant memory and you'll eventually even laugh about it.  I'm sure it's a horrible nightmare but time heals all wounds.  Plus, it gives you street cred

On a lighter note, how did you come to find liberty?  I was always sort of a Democrat (and still lean that way) but had problems with affirmative action, welfare, warfare, and general government waste.  I don't remember where I first heard about libertarians but I liked the classical liberalism / Austrian economic theories in school, went to a couple of libertarian meetings in college and Harry Browne's "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" was a HUGE influence on my life.  A lot of the entertainers I enjoy have libertarian leanings, such as George Carlin, Bill Maher, Penn Jillette, etc, so I was curious.  And I just read and read and eventually found FTL.

[error]

Thanks for the welcomes!!  And the info.  I will definitely have to make it out there this year.  The mountains look beautiful and I love camping/nature/the outdoors - not such a big fan of snow... but quite used to it living on Michigan's west coast.

We don't have any lake effect snow, just the normal kind, and not nearly so much of it as you might think.

[Porcupine_in_MA]

and not nearly so much of it as you might think.

Some years we get more than others.

[Hologene Relapse]

Um I liek cheez. ^__^