Posted on 01/05/2017 10:51:07 PM PST by Springfield Reformer
Quick question to law enforcement FReepers. I'm writing a novel, sci fi romance yada yada, and I have a scene I'm trying to write where the hero is borrowing a motorcycle to meet a friend, and on the way back from the secret meeting, an officer pulls him over for speeding. Story-wise, I need this to escalate to where he gets taken in, the feds pick it up, and intervene, because he is the person of interest in the 'gravitational anomaly' case (long story). Now, the hero here is a fish out of water. He's a time traveler from ancient Rome whose been through about six weeks of life as a modern. So he doesn't know all the rules, like, you need a license to drive, etc. In addition, he still has his Roman sense of honor. He promised his friend he would return the motorbike, and he is honor bound to do just that. So, my question is, based on real life experience, how can I escalate this without it getting really ugly? I need him to end up in the interrogation room, but without any gratuitous violence. I also can say the friend he borrowed the bike from (member of a biker gang he befriended) may have some contraband on the bike. So, yeah, that would be a way to go, but I'm open to suggestions. I need it to be clean, quick, and plausible. Any sleepless FReepers out there with any ideas?
Thanks,
SR
There is a Trump sticker on the bike, and the police officer is black
Just have him flee the cops. Once caught, he is going in. Or have him fail/refuse to show ID.
Have him proudly refuse to cooperate but dutifully submit to being arrested and booked.
He ends up in interrogation when he is foolishly agrees to let the cops go through his pockets and they find.....something that a time traveller might pick up as a souvenir but which raises questions during a consensual search.
Caveat: Old Ben is not and has never been in law enforcement.
As for the contraband.
Biker gangs did and still do manufacture and move lots of LSD. It is very compact, and could be smuggled on a bike.
Your Roman hero does not take acid, but the police find the acid and then your Roman hero goes to explain his being a Roman time travelled and now associated with a biker gang.
The police think he is tripping, but he’s not.
Durring interrogation, he goes into extreme detail of life in the Roman Empire and that confuses the police. Somehow, word of his arrest and his detail of the Roman Empire gets to a local history professor who specializes in Rome. The professor is confounded by his extreme detail and knowledge of the Roman Empire.
He sticks with his Roman Empire-Time Travel story for days, long after he should have come down off the acid.
The LSD in blotter acid and printed on the blotter is “Fifth Amendment.”
It’s irony.
He’s a time traveler and does not know to not talk to the police.
Odd thing about the ID. I asked somebody here in central IL about that and they said it wouldn’t be enough to get him arrested, which surprised me. They said, if the bike was borrowed, they’d just take possession of the bike and send the non-IDed off on his own. Now that does set up a conflict, because my hero, being who he is, won’t allow himself to just walk away. He made a promise and he’s going to keep it. But I played that one out and it still doesn’t feel right. Anyway, thanks for the thought.
Peace,
SR
I think it would. Who would the cop issue a speeding ticket to? Now if they ran the guys name and it came up with a valid DL, then yes, they would issue the ticket. But I don’t think that would be the case in your story.
I'm still trying to get over the language barrier. if you'll pardon the pun.
Nothing irks an officer more than your reluctance to answer questions. People are chatter boxes.
I am always careful what I say, but they always try to get you to talk. I would have thought they would be tired of all the lame excuses.
A friend of mine and I were stopped just off base. The officer played the, “Do you know why I stopped you?” game. My friend answered that he had been going a little fast. The deputy had actually stopped him for a tail light being out. The officer wrote him tickets for both offenses.
One officer told me they ask those questions to determine one’s situational awareness. When she told me that, I told her she was an officer about to write me a ticket.
I hate questions about where I have been and where I am going. Who did I see or what did I eat or drink. Where do I work and live, etc.. Technically, it is none of their business.
I heard an attorney speak before a group of cops and lawyers. He asked if there was a lawyer present who ever wished his client had said more. They laughed. He then asked if there were any cops who had a perp they wished would shut up. They too laugh.
By the way, anything you say, can and will be used against you. However, anything that might exonerate you that you may have said to the officer may not be used under the heresay exclusion. You are better off to say nothing.
Nice. :) It’s analogous to the broader plot. My professor has already been involved for a number of chapters, with a wicked twist later on. Right here in the middle, I’ve got a spook trying to track the hero down, and he picks up the connection because his peeps followed a friend of the hero to the police station. But still, I like the way you think. Yeah, it’s tough to navigate in a world you don’t understand. Which of course is why the friend was going to help him.
Peace,
SR
The language barrier was one of the most interesting challenges. Not only does he speak Latin, but it’s countrified Latin, so not so easy. But with the right resources and a quick learner, our hero by this time is already speaking crude but effective English. Except he had an irritating tendency to put the verb at the end of the sentence. Annoying this is. :)
Peace,
SR
If he doesn’t have a license, he is going downtown unless the cops can ID him by name. His name obviously isn’t in their database, so he’s definitely going downtown. Either the database check or a booking photo is picked up by the Feds because they’re watching everyone picked up by law enforcement in order to find their gravitational anomaly suspect, muslims, and other bad actors. Problem solved.
Off of the top of my head:
Have the motorcycle be reported stolen.
Or have it match the description of a stolen bike and he can’t obviously prove that he’s the owner as he’s borrowing it.
Or have the bike be registered to someone with a warrant of some sort and have your rider not be able to identify himself adequately.
Or if you’re using this walking anachronism from ancient Rome for some humorous moments, have the cops be convinced that he’s on drugs due to his bizarre/out of place behavior.
“No hablo Spanglish.”
In the near future, many of the problems that plague society today are considered things of the past. Gun violence is almost nonexistent, quality health care is available to everyone, food is abundant and accessible, and crime is all but unheard of. These problems were solved by the creation of the Global Union, a worldwide government that treats everyone as equals.
About the Author
William Stacey is a former army intelligence officer who served his country for more than thirty years with operational tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He is a husband, father, and avid reader, with a love for the macabre.
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