Close Encounter of the cop kind!

First time out and about at JFK since last September. Nice to get out and see all of you guys and gals. Anne and I had a great time catching up with you all and, of course, having our special guest, Josh Rawlins, from DFW was an added benefit ... until we had our Close Encounter of the Cop Kind.

Apparently some of the beach litter crowd reported some suspicious activity that sent NYPD's finest in our direction. It was funny. A police car pulls up beside us, then backs out, leaves the parking lot and heads over the bridge toward Howard Beach. They were looking for someone we thought but, luckily, not us since they left. Well, they came back five minutes later.

Josh and I were parked against the front curb while Mike P., Phil, Mel, Mike M., Eric and maybe others were parked in the second lane behind us. We were each sitting in our respective cars and an officer approached each separately. I got the little grumpy guy, aka the bad cop, while Josh got the bigger, aka the good cop. He asked what I was doing and I replied taking photos of the planes. He asked why and I told him that was what I do for a living and that I also write articles for magazines. As you might expect he was not happy about that and his attitude immediately changed. He got grumpy and questioned me why again. Then, of course, he asked for my driver's license which I promptly gave him. He went away for a bit, and then returned.

On returning he asked me what the day of my birth was. My NJ license does not show the day, only the month and year. I told him and then he complained to me about the license not having my birth day on it. I told him that if he had a problem with that he would have to take it up with NJ since they issued the license to me.

Well the next thing we know he's asking us to leave. In fact he's telling us to go back to NJ and take pictures there (since my plates are NJ plates). The other cop who was with Josh had told Josh that we were doing nothing illegal. So I balked and asked why we should leave if we are doing nothing illegal? His reply was that they were going to continue to get phone calls about us. I continue to balk at leaving stating we were in a public park and not doing anything illegal ... that led to the officer asking for my vehicle registration and insurance ID card. Just looking for something to tag me on. I gave them to him.

He took the registration and insurance card, went back to his car and five minutes later sent the good cop out to talk to Josh and I. He gave us back our papers and implied we were being somewhat beligerant. Bull ****! We responded much more nicely than the bad cop did when talking to me. We simply took a stand for our rights. We were in a public park, we had complied with the officer's request, and we were doing nothing illegal.

The officer then told us there was a detective on his way down to question us. He then got back into the partrol car and they left. His threat was ridiculous because if a detective was indeed on his way to see us, they would have never left. We stayed for at least an hour after the incident.

Of course everyone in the cars behind us were laughing their heads off as we were going though another Close Encounter of the Cop Kind, and we joined them to discuss the happenings. A short time later they left and headed over to eat and catch arrivals by Costco. We stayed a little longer since Josh wanted to catch the ANA 773, and then we headed over to Boston Market for lunch.

Everyone had congregated at Inwood Park to catch the arrival of the Pink Song and we were the last to arrive. It was payback time. When we arrived we noticed the group out by the water's edge with a cop car right beside them. So it was our turn to sit back and laugh.

Another enjoyable day at JFK interfacing with NY's finest :(

Art

P.S. So Mike M. where is our photo with NY's finest?

Yesterday was an all time record for Police encounters, after we left Howard Beach we went to Inwood Park and the Park Director (pleasant fellow) called the police on us. A Nassau cop came by, very nice, didn't check out ids and left. Then we went over to Costco and were there for a good hour or two and another Nassau cop came over this time asked Phil to move on. Didn't check anyone's id drove away watched us for a bit as we stayed put and continued shooting and he didn't come back. We did see him come back into the parking lot as we were leaving for Bayswater few hours later. Stuff like this really makes it hard for me to respect these people.

Remind me to give you a card later. MIght now do much but it might help with encounters.

Mario

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AAGold

P.S. So Mike M. where is our photo with NY's finest?

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Gonna post that sucker when I get home tonight. Was too tired to do it last night.

Got tied up over at Maxjet so didn't make it out to you guys in the afternoon. Looks like you did well which is great!

Mike

Its official!

Art Brett is thee.

COP MAGNET

(good thing I was with Mike M at Howard Beach and then hanging with Tom T around the block from Innwood, dodged both grillings)

ROTFLMFAO!

Here's the shots Art....

http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/artnypd01.jpg

Here's Art telling the cop to wait while he shoots the Varig 777:
http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/artnypd02.jpg

Mike

OMG, that is too funnyy there is nothing hte guy can do but stand and watch!

seriously, they have to realize we are their best allies!

Thanks for the pics Mike I will add them to my collection. You know, sitting here now I'm beginning to wonder if the concerned citizens that called might not have been you guys in the back row sitting and watching us. I can hear it now ... Mike P. saying: "Let's rattle Art's cage and call the NYPD." And, Phil, having gone through this with me before saying: "Yeah, let's do that!" Did you guys do that to us? Shame on you.

Tommy, you are absolutely right. You know I was brought up to respect the law and I have to say for most of my years I have certainly done that. Repected and to some extent been a little fearful of them. However, since I've re-engaged in this hobby my respect for them has gone downhill due to the way they tend to treat law-abiding citizens who are doing nothing wrong. I, for one, certainly do not appreciate their unwarranted attitude. They come to us and we comply with their request, the whole time getting this attitude that is totally undeserving. It would be a different story if we were criminals caught in the act of some crime, but we are citizens sitting in public places, surrounded by a multitude of others and doing nothing illegal. We don't deserve the disrespect they give us.

Art

I am beginning to think that too Art, they probably did call the fuzz so you wouldn't get that shot and they would.

I tell you it's getting tiresome with these police. Glad Art didn't cave in to the tactics they use to try to bully and run us off.

Hey now! Phil, Tommy and I weren't there until AFTER the cops left. :-P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AAGold

Thanks for the pics Mike I will add them to my collection. You know, sitting here now I'm beginning to wonder if the concerned citizens that called might not have been you guys in the back row sitting and watching us. I can hear it now ... Mike P. saying: "Let's rattle Art's cage and call the NYPD." And, Phil, having gone through this with me before saying: "Yeah, let's do that!" Did you guys do that to us? Shame on you.

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You're welcome! Use 'em however/whereever you want.

You give us too much credit. We didn't even think of doing that. Would have been funny as heck if we did. But of course when Phil/Tommy/Mel show up first thing Phil says is "lets call the cops and report the red truck with jersey plates, I want the cops to come back" :)

Mike

art, asking the cop to wait while you took the shot was golden... wish i was there to see it!!