I'm from the south eastern end of Ontario, not quite toronto, but near. Yesterday, I was cruising around the highway 401 exit near London, heading to St. Thomas for some derby racing [ Note, I was riding on my ancient honda jixxer, barely breaks 120 kp/h on the freeway ]. I was speeding (+20 over or so) and should probably have learned my lesson long ago to not speed when OPP is on the beat. An officer comes up behind me and signals me to pull over. I comply and pull over to the shoulder, turning off the bike and setting my kick down. The officer comes over to me and asks the usual blather, license, registration, insurance ect. I hand them over, and he tells me I was "street racing" at 56 kp/h over. Now this is the funny part, I'm carrying a half oz in my back pocket, and my solopipe in the other, but he doesnt know this ... yet. I get off the bike, I'm not aruging the charge of the speed at this time, because I'd rather have his radar get checked first before I complain. He runs my information, comes back and changes tactics completely. He saw my record for possesion of shedule 2 substances and asked my to submit to a vehicle and personal search. I tell him that I refuse to be searched under my rights and that it is a criminal offence if he continues any farther then patting me down [ which he was about to do ]. The best part is how he passed over my backside and only checked front pockets. He asked to do my shoes, I refused. At this point hes getting annoyed and tells me to wait while he goes to radio his dispatch for a warrent. Now IM getting annoyed, I ask him because he has no other reason to hold me, if i can go. Without thinking, he snaps at me and tells me that hes placing me under arrest for harrasment of a police officer [ note, this law does not exist, at least under that wording ]. He goes to the cruiser, talks on the radio for a bit, comes back with this really disappointed face, and tells me to move along. Some cops just don't know how to deal with PROPER recogniztion of rights. They assume you will just cave. Thank you GC for helping me learn my rights.
nice man, ill be honest, i would have caved with a half o in my back pocket. you got pretty lucky there. smoke one and enjoy the awesome feeling of evading an arrest haha
hahaha, great story, gave me a good laugh. i too live in ontario, it's good to know that there's a few cops around here that don't know how to do their jobs properly
Even though the law is different in Canada than in the US, it still pays to know your rights and to know when it's appropriate to exercise them. Glad to hear that you did what was necessary to avoid an invasion of your rights and to protect you from being prosecuted for an offense that most people around here would consider inappropriate in the first place.
the same type of thing happened to me too, just much much more hardcore and i didnt get much justice. it was near where you were, about2 hours away well i was riding my bicycle (like pedal it, not vroom vroom kind) and a cop suddenly passes behind me but i was like w.e im 14(im 19 now) and i look pretty clean cut and the worst crime ive ever committed was J walking but the cop pulls into the driveway just ahead of me and the brakes on my bike werent working so i had to jump off and bail so i didnt run into him and while im trying to recover from smashing my head on the pavement he cuffs me. i just thought there was going to be a raid in the house and he needed to act quick but it turns out someone had just robbed a little caesers and the only description given out was white male, black sweatshirt and blue jeans and on a bike, well gee that could apply to anyone. so shit brick karts me down to the station, head bleeding and all and just before we get there on the radio i hear "robbery suspect found and taken care of" so i see the cop start to sweat, he knows im inocent but he's now too far over his head. so we get to the station and he charges me for riding my bike on the sidewalk and swearing at him. its like a 83$ fine. i was sitting quietly until the sergeant or someone higher up in ranks comes to question or talk to me, so when that finally happened they looked at me, looked at the panicked officer and said, "shit again man?" and im free to go, the cops didnt say anything to me, they just took off my cuffs and walked me to the door. when i got back to where the cop arrested me, my 1500$ bike was gone , someone had just walked up to it and taken it, i called the cops and they said that there was nothing they could do. oh man was i pissed.