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Threatening gestures while driving...?

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SphinxnihpS said:
First of all, half of you posting in this thread are road raging morons yourselves. Second, call the cops over a guy giving you the finger? You fucking pussies!
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You must have read a different OP then me...

and starts waving his hand in the shape of a gun.
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That's a bit of a different threat than just a middle finger...
 
hanoverphist said:
wwhen i was 17 a guy sitting at a stop sign next to me and a few friends saw a toy cap gun we were playing with. he called cops and told them a band of ruffians were driving around pointing a gunmetal grey revolver at passing cars. i was met at my house 30 min later by 3 cop cars. for one, the cap gun was plastic, black and had an orange tip on it. even with that in mind, the cops arrested me for brandishing a weapon. even tho i had never actually "brandished" it. the guy that called was a retired dps officer, so he insisted on charges despite the cops telling him it was a black cap gun toy.

i had to attend a 2 week "behavior" class with the first 4 days being TASC program for drug awareness and prevention. i didnt even do drugs at that point in my life, was funny.
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you just happened to be playing with a toy cap gun while sitting in traffic? Lets see... group of teenagers (i.e. idiots) sitting in a car with a toy gun... I'm sure none of you jackasses showed the gun to the car next to you in typical idiot teenager brainless fun. I suspect you're not getting a lot of sympathy for the arrest.
 
Jeeebus said:
you just happened to be playing with a toy cap gun while sitting in traffic? Lets see... group of teenagers (i.e. idiots) sitting in a car with a toy gun... I'm sure none of you jackasses showed the gun to the car next to you in typical idiot teenager brainless fun. I suspect you're not getting a lot of sympathy for the arrest.
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Yeah teenagers do a lot of dumb shit.

One day in high school we decided it would be clever to buy half a dozen cap guns and have a two-car gun fight driving down the street. And there were definitely real guns in the neighborhood already, and cops. Now that I think about it, we were pretty lucky no one stopped us.
 
Jeeebus said:
you just happened to be playing with a toy cap gun while sitting in traffic? Lets see... group of teenagers (i.e. idiots) sitting in a car with a toy gun... I'm sure none of you jackasses showed the gun to the car next to you in typical idiot teenager brainless fun. I suspect you're not getting a lot of sympathy for the arrest.
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The oversensitivity and irrational fears people have to guns doesn't not justify an arrest in this case. Also, can't you shed a tear for his attorney?
 
SphinxnihpS said:
The oversensitivity and irrational fears people have to guns doesn't not justify an arrest in this case. Also, can't you shed a tear for his attorney?
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My point is that they likely were a bunch of scrawny white kids who pointed a toy gun at another driver thinking it would be funny/cool, and thus I have no issue with them being arrested. If someone points a gun at me while I'm driving, I'm sure as hell not sticking around long enough to determine whether it's a cap gun or whether it's gonna make my head go splat.

No tears for his attorney... sounds like he did his job and got him off with a slap on the wrist.
 
Jeeebus said:
My point is that they likely were a bunch of scrawny white kids who pointed a toy gun at another driver thinking it would be funny/cool, and thus I have no issue with them being arrested. If someone points a gun at me while I'm driving, I'm sure as hell not sticking around long enough to determine whether it's a cap gun or whether it's gonna make my head go splat.

No tears for his attorney... sounds like he did his job and got him off with a slap on the wrist.
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Yeah jesus...maybe his mom took away his Pokemon cards that day.
 
Jeeebus said:
you just happened to be playing with a toy cap gun while sitting in traffic? Lets see... group of teenagers (i.e. idiots) sitting in a car with a toy gun... I'm sure none of you jackasses showed the gun to the car next to you in typical idiot teenager brainless fun. I suspect you're not getting a lot of sympathy for the arrest.
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really, youre the jackass here. i, the driver, passed it to a friend in the passenger seat. he looked at it, put it in his lap and we turned left when traffic cleared. but go ahead and call me the jackass, you prick. ive been arrested for stupid things in my life, ill take the hit and admit them freely. this was not one of those times. i wasnt looking for sympathy either, it was just a story to relate that perception is more important than reality in real life.


edit:
missed this one
Jeeebus said:
My point is that they likely were a bunch of scrawny white kids who pointed a toy gun at another driver thinking it would be funny/cool, and thus I have no issue with them being arrested. If someone points a gun at me while I'm driving, I'm sure as hell not sticking around long enough to determine whether it's a cap gun or whether it's gonna make my head go splat.

No tears for his attorney... sounds like he did his job and got him off with a slap on the wrist.
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nope, didnt point it at anyone. also, not a bunch of scrawny white kids. my family came from mexico, but i do look whiter than most of my family. well, a couple of guys in the car were white tho. also, a retired cop should have a much easier time identifying a firearm than some idiot like you, since they have a bit of training.
 
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I'd love to know the psychology behind people's increased aggressiveness and impatience while driving, at least from a professional.

My take on it:
1) The unnaturally high speed of the car causes some part of your brain to kick into higher speed, or at least attempt to do so.
2) Partially as a result of #1, and partially as a result of knowing that a car can get you to a destination in a relatively short time, you become impatient more easily.
3) This society views vehicular travel as some sort of right, and also as a rite of passage. Anyone questioning your ability or impeding your travel is in effect directly questioning your suitability as an adult, just as a male deer may physically challenge a rival's mating rights in a certain territory.
4) Communication barriers. You can't say much of anything to anyone else on the road, being limited only to various lights, and (usually rude) simple hand gestures. It's kind of like an Internet forum, except the trolls are piloting a multi-ton brick at high speed.


1) If you're consistently late getting to a certain place, leave sooner.
2) If you're likely going to be late, accept it. Drive dangerously, and a hospital may be your new, and involuntary, destination.
3) My own take, obviously, but I find the "rites of passage" of various cultures to be just another in a long long list of humanity's silly little rituals.
 
Jeff7 said:
I'd love to know the psychology behind people's increased aggressiveness and impatience while driving, at least from a professional.
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i think its the detachment. my dad always told me "dont say anything in traffic you wouldnt say face to face". ive lived by that rule my whole life. sometimes getting myself into face-to-face arguments on the side of the road, sometimes not. im actually a pretty mellow driver, i let people in front of me and rarely yell at idiots doing stupid things. ive managed to not be in any major accidents in the 25 years ive been driving, so i think its working out. so far.



Jeff7 said:
1) If you're consistently late getting to a certain place, leave sooner.
2) If you're likely going to be late, accept it. Drive dangerously, and a hospital may be your new, and involuntary, destination.
3) My own take, obviously, but I find the "rites of passage" of various cultures to be just another in a long long list of humanity's silly little rituals.
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agree completely.
 
hanoverphist said:
really, youre the jackass here. i, the driver, passed it to a friend in the passenger seat. he looked at it, put it in his lap and we turned left when traffic cleared. but go ahead and call me the jackass, you prick. ive been arrested for stupid things in my life, ill take the hit and admit them freely. this was not one of those times. i wasnt looking for sympathy either, it was just a story to relate that perception is more important than reality in real life.


edit:
missed this one


nope, didnt point it at anyone. also, not a bunch of scrawny white kids. my family came from mexico, but i do look whiter than most of my family. well, a couple of guys in the car were white tho. also, a retired cop should have a much easier time identifying a firearm than some idiot like you, since they have a bit of training.
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I think I hit a nerve with the cap gun carrying tough guy. Watch out folks... he might bust a cap in my ass.

In other news, how do you manage to expose a gun to someone's line of sight when passing it from driver to passenger seat, where the gun sits on someone's lap? Unless you have invisible car doors, that seems a wee bit awkward. Not that I would question your rendition of the story... I'm sure you're being completely honest.
 
Jeeebus said:
I think I hit a nerve with the cap gun carrying tough guy. Watch out folks... he might bust a cap in my ass.
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lol, not likely. i do carry a firearm regularly, i have been trained on how to (as well as how not to) use it, but theres not much chance youd ever get me riled enough to actually pull it on anyone. i find people like you funny, not angering. your simple little worlds, where everything is black and white, youre always the cool, tough guy and everyone bows to your wit.

Jeeebus said:
In other news, how do you manage to expose a gun to someone's line of sight when passing it from driver to passenger seat, where the gun sits on someone's lap? Unless you have invisible car doors, that seems a wee bit awkward. Not that I would question your rendition of the story... I'm sure you're being completely honest.
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his minivan was taller than my car, he was sitting right next to us. not too hard a concept to visualize, at least if you have higher than 4th grade logic skills.

there was a guy here in mesa that got arrested for public indecency for having a sculpture of a penis on his floorboards while he was transporting it to an art gallery for a showing. FLOOR BOARDS. a woman saw a reflection of it in his rear view mirror and called cops. some people are inherently assholes, and feel the need to impress their version of what other people should do, regardless of the actual situation.
 
i had a guy grab a bat in his car or something and wave frantically at me. And then I pulled into a street parking spot right in front of where cops were starting to set up a DUI checkpoint for the night. 4 of them were just chatting there, and it was only 6pm or so. I pretended to park, and the guy drove off. HAH.
 
DLeRium said:
i had a guy grab a bat in his car or something and wave frantically at me. And then I pulled into a street parking spot right in front of where cops were starting to set up a DUI checkpoint for the night. 4 of them were just chatting there, and it was only 6pm or so. I pretended to park, and the guy drove off. HAH.
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it would have been cool if he didnt notice all the cops too
 
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