Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

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Joe Guy
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Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Joe Guy »

Elderly couple pulled over after their Buckeye car decal is mistaken for a marijuana leaf

By Graham Watson | Dr. Saturday – 21 hours ago

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Apparently Ohio State – and college football in general – isn’t very popular in the state of Tennessee.

At least not with the police.

Bonnie Jonas-Boggioni, 65, and her husband were driving home to Plano, Texas from Columbus after attending her mother-in-law’s funeral when a pair of black police SUV’s stopped the couple a few miles outside of Memphis.

“Knowing I wasn’t speeding, I couldn’t imagine why,” Jonas-Boggioni told the Columbus Dispatch. “They were very serious. They had the body armor and the guns.”

On the back of Jonas-Boggioni’s car was a Buckeye leaf decal, similar to the one players’ have on their helmets, and cops mistakenly thought it was marijuana leaf.

Yes, really.

“What are you doing with a marijuana sticker on your bumper?” one of the cops asked Jonas-Boggioni.

(AP)After trying to explain that the sticker was not a marijuana leaf and that she and her husband were not trafficking drugs cross-country, the police advised Jonas-Boggioni to remove the sticker as to not cause any more confusion.

You know, just in case there were any other moronic drug cops out there that didn’t actually know what a marijuana leaf looked like.

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From the Columbus-Dispatch:

[Jonas-Boggioni] was too rattled to notice what police department the officers represented. But she suspects that a joint drug-interdiction effort was under way because they had passed several law-enforcement vehicles from different agencies.

Neither the Tennessee Highway Patrol nor the Shelby County sheriff’s office in Memphis had information about the traffic stop. A marijuana sticker would not be a sufficient reason to stop a car, said a spokeswoman for the West Tennessee Drug Task Force.

Regardless, Tennessee police apparently aren't botany experts. If they were, they’d know a marijuana leaf has seven leaflets (see above picture) and a narrow shape as compared to the Buckeye leaf, which is fat and has five leaflets.

At least that’s what it says on the Internet. I have no firsthand knowledge of this.

As for Jonas-Boggioni, she acknowledged the cop’s wishes, but got back in her car without removing the sticker.

“I didn’t take it off,” Jonas-Boggioni told the paper. “This little old lady is no drug dealer.”

Just an avid Ohio State fan.

source

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Econoline
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Econoline »

:roll: Yeah, everybody knows that drug dealers advertise their business by putting stickers on their cars. :loon
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Lord Jim
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Lord Jim »

“This little old lady is no drug dealer.”
Yeah, that's your story, sister....

Personally, I applaud the initiative of this officer....

Better to stop a thousand people with anything looking remotely like a marijuana leaf on their bumper, than to let one drug crazed mary jane toking hippie escape the hand of justice....
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dales
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by dales »

the fuzz was stoned immaculate

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


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Joe Guy
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Joe Guy »

Back in the 70's my friend had a Volkswagen Beetle with the Zig-Zag logo painted on the front (trunk). We went all over the Bay Area in that car and never got pulled over, even though my friend looked like Tommy Chong and I looked like Richard Dreyfuss with hair.

rubato
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by rubato »

Joe Guy wrote:"...

Regardless, Tennessee police apparently aren't botany experts. If they were, they’d know a marijuana leaf has seven leaflets (see above picture) and a narrow shape as compared to the Buckeye leaf, which is fat and has five leaflets.
... "
Marijuana leaves are palmately compound and have an odd number of leaflets. Not always 5. 5-9 are common.

http://video.about.com/forestry/What-Ar ... Trees-.htm

I wouldn't criticize the police for being no worse informed than, well, you are.

And as to intelligence,a they have chosen one of the highest-paid jobs with the fattest pensions for the lowest levels of education (In Calif.). I can't say that's dumb, exactly.

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Joe Guy
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Joe Guy »

rubato wrote: I wouldn't criticize the police for being no worse informed than, well, you are.
If you read the article I copied and pasted, you would probably know that I didn't write it. I copied and pasted it. So if anyone is misinformed, it is the author and/or anyone who thinks that by copying and pasting the article I agree with everything written in it.
rubato wrote:And as to intelligence,a they have chosen one of the highest-paid jobs with the fattest pensions for the lowest levels of education (In Calif.). I can't say that's dumb, exactly.
If you read the article you would also know that the cops were in Tennessee and that the "lowest levels of education" requirement for their $37000.00 per year job may explain why these particular cops made a dumb mistake.

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Lord Jim
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Lord Jim »

I wouldn't criticize the police for being no worse informed than, well, you are.
I respond with less insult than I receive.

yrs,
rubato
I'm sorry , I must have missed the bit in this thread where Joe insulted rube, triggering his "response with less insult than he receives" reply...

I guess we can just chalk that up to my poor reading comprehension skills; it must be here somewhere....
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rubato
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by rubato »

AAannnnnd ladies and gentlemen we have two, count 'em two people dancing the "Self Justification Tango" together!


Hardly a shred of self-respect between the two of them.



yrs,
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Lord Jim
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Lord Jim »

In any event, all of this misses the central point:
A marijuana sticker would not be a sufficient reason to stop a car, said a spokeswoman for the West Tennessee Drug Task Force.
What happened here that was the central wrong, wasn't the rather amusing failure of the cops involved to know the difference between a marijuana leaf and the leaf associated with Ohio State....

It is the idea that they would pull someone over based on what was on their bumper sticker, regardless of what sentiment was expressed on it....

If it had been a "LEGALIZE WEED!" bumper sticker, with a proper picture of a marijuana leaf on it, they still would have exceeded their authority by pulling this car over, based on that alone...

And at least one of them compounded their completely unwarranted action by suggesting that the car owner remove the bumper sticker to avoid "confusion" (As though having a bumper sticker on your car that was pro-pot was an acceptable reason for the police pulling you over.)

I'm certainly not suggesting that the cops involved should lose their jobs over this, but they should be reprimanded...

It is not acceptable in this country for the police to act under color of authority to use that authority simply because they don't happen to like a bumper sticker on the back of a car....

Even in Tennessee....

(Nothing against Tennessee; some of the nicest folks I have ever met hail from The Volunteer State...They rank right up with North Carolinians on the niceness scale....)
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Lord Jim
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Lord Jim »

AAannnnnd ladies and gentlemen we have two, count 'em two people dancing the "Self Justification Tango" together!


Hardly a shred of self-respect between the two of them.



yrs,
rubato
Taking advantage of the warm weather to fire up the blender and mix up a few Margaritas are we rube? :D
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Joe Guy
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Joe Guy »

I'm inclined to excuse rubato for his behavior. It doesn't appear to be something he can control.

The explanation is that lashing out at others for no justifiable reason is rubato's defining characteristic.

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Lord Jim
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Lord Jim »

The explanation is that lashing out at others for no justifiable reason is rubato's defining characteristic.
That would certainly appear to be the case....
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oldr_n_wsr
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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by oldr_n_wsr »

Are the Tennessee police taking lessons from the NYPD "Stop and Frisk" program?

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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by Sue U »

Lord Jim wrote:What happened here that was the central wrong, wasn't the rather amusing failure of the cops involved to know the difference between a marijuana leaf and the leaf associated with Ohio State....

It is the idea that they would pull someone over based on what was on their bumper sticker, regardless of what sentiment was expressed on it....

If it had been a "LEGALIZE WEED!" bumper sticker, with a proper picture of a marijuana leaf on it, they still would have exceeded their authority by pulling this car over, based on that alone...

And at least one of them compounded their completely unwarranted action by suggesting that the car owner remove the bumper sticker to avoid "confusion" (As though having a bumper sticker on your car that was pro-pot was an acceptable reason for the police pulling you over.)

I'm certainly not suggesting that the cops involved should lose their jobs over this, but they should be reprimanded...

It is not acceptable in this country for the police to act under color of authority to use that authority simply because they don't happen to like a bumper sticker on the back of a car....

Even in Tennessee....
Exactly. These are clear violations of the 4th and 1st Amendments and should be treated seriously.
GAH!

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Re: Dumb Cops should Leaf them Alone

Post by oldr_n_wsr »

When I did grow, my leaves were of the 5 point variety. They looked a little different than those worn, but similar. Still doesn't give the police a license to stop the couple.


Wonder if they would have been stopped if their bumper display showed a bottle of moonshine. :mrgreen:

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