That's just not enough motive to waste someone's time.

And, no offense intended, that car is not that interesting. I guess policing must be boring.

Agreed, the lede should be unburied! I've made that the top link and will put the submitted link in the toptext. Thanks!

"current project is a “Diesel punk” vehicle called the Starfield Dragonwing Intergalactic Speedster"

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXfDQb7EmU4/

It’s like looking at an adult Richard Scary tale.

I'm presuming the original headline was some variant of "Giant Banana Pulled Over in Montana: Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Of Times" (originally submitted URL, since changed).

Mainly because the colon from the original was omitted, imo.

Let me be the first to say that this is a lovely website in a lovely, slightly modernized turn-of-the-millennium style.

In the early 2000s the media ecosystem decided to re-tell every story, but darker & “grittier”. Then 9/11 happened and the darkness became permanent. It would be nice if we were coming out of that phase!

Yup. That's a clear Fourth Amendment violation.

Same with the "pulled over to give you an ice cream" feel-good ops they do. https://abc7ny.com/post/video-police-hand-out-ice-cream-inst...

An illegal detention is still an illegal detention if it's being done nicely.

He’s totally fine. He’s driving a car that basically no minority would ever drive, plus it has an open cockpit to facilitate the officer’s “trust but verify” instincts.

Oh don't worry, if history is any indication it shouldn't be much longer than 30-40 years from now. Basically 2 generations from the previous shift.

In the meantime, be the change you want to see! You don't have to be darker&grittier yourself just because the media ecosystem has decided that's where the current fashion is.

Gloriously boring WordPress, too.

In one of the vaguely-parallel timelines, a defendant is being asked by a judge why they didn't pull over and responds with: "I thought they were going to try to give me an ice cream cone, and I'm lactose intolerant so I didn't stop."

The issue is false pretext

There's almost a zero percent chance of a police officer harming him during one of these stops. Annoying him a perhaps violating his civil rights, possibly, but not harmed.

While absolutely and sadly true, something tells me that rogue banana drivers are not the ones most likely to be killed in a traffic stop.

Besides, his family would surely win the resulting case… on a peel.

Traffic stops can and do go bad. Each is a risk, even if small. If they discover something like a bag of drugs in the back, it raises clear Fourth Amendment issues.

Cops shouldn't be putting law-abiding citizens at risk for a selfie.

Finally! A nice story about cops pulling over a 23-foot banana motor vehicle for years without any consequence other than spreading joy to the people involved and years of fame!

No? You could also pull the public tax dollars spent card, or other crimes not being pursued while you're at it but it won't help sour the mood!

Meh, you might technically be right but the world is better if everyone can have a bit of fun, even police. I’m not super sympathetic to the “I was minding my own business driving a giant banana when the police pulled me over to ask me about it” argument - this guy seems fine with it too, but it’s not like there’s any reason to drive it other than for the attention.

And the “I pulled you over because you peeled out” - I mean it’s fun. Anyway, if it’s harmless I don’t really see the problem.

Well done, sir. clap

My answer is to fire their lardasses for due cause and make them unhirable across the nation.

But this country's courts said this shit is cool. And so is highway robbery by pig. And they don't need to come for help if you call 911.

Oh and qualified immunity means they can what the fuck ever they want.

If RICO act was serious, they'd shut down all pig stys (police stations).

Wow you waited from 2012 to crack this joke with that username

This. I’ve ridden a bike year round in southwestern Ontario.

In general, I’m fairly waterproof.

-30C was pretty cold, especially moving, but rare enough I could dress for it and keep my body parts.

Snowstorms are always fun. Free physics lessons included. How much traction can you get? Whoops, I’m laying on the ground.

Thunderstorms and hail you might want to avoid.

It could never be against the police officer themselves due to qualified immunity. They are free to break the law however they wish. And that completely lack of accountability creates the risk inherent in every (US) police interaction.

"Violating his civil rights" is harm.

> rogue banana drivers are not the ones most likely to be killed in a traffic stop

...until the bananas go brown, of course.

> A nice story about cops…

This is not a nice story about cops.

What possible technical problem would a cop be qualified to not only recognize and diagnose, but also have any useful input on?

Cops shouldn't be pulling over anybody without either direct evidence of a potential crime or a warrant.

However, the distraction car is breaking the law in Smokey and the Bandit. It’s not incorrect for them to try and pull it over.

worth it.

I'm rooting for you to get laid. Seems like you could use it. Plus, that's not how qualified immunity works.

Unless having their rights violated in this way is one of their kinks.

Yes, you're totally right, I was referring to being beaten or killed on the side of the road. I should have been clear.

The thing is, you can be reasonably sure when you pull over a big banana car, that the driver won't be a curmudgeonly prick who invokes the fourth amendment.

What do you do for your hands and feet especially, and if you wear glasses, the inevitable frosting of them. Heck, if you don't wear glasses, what do you do for windburn?

I've biked as low as about -15C, though it's much more comfortable keeping it above -10 -- -5 or so.

Such a negative attitude is incredibly counterproductive.

You want police to have a positive presence in the community. Innocent engagement with a banana car helps with that, doesn't hurt.

You are my comedy hero, tremon. This is the joke I was looking for and failed to find.

That sounds nice.

Over here in reality, when a man with a badge and a gun pulls people over for a bit of fun: Refusing to play along with whatever game it is that they have in mind is a criminal offense.

> You want police to have a positive presence in the community.

Can they not pull up alongside and wave? Give a thumbs-up? Roll down the window?

The movement is still alive. I hosted a couchsurfer last week.

https://www.bewelcome.org/

https://www.warmshowers.org/

If being a positive presence in the community isn't enough incentive to be that, you don't deserve to be police.

And if that sounds hackneyed and like a ridiculous standard, you're damn right it is: we let them have outsized influence in our existence as otherwise free people. Their standard has to be a double standard.

> A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.

> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"

> For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.

> "He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"

> The banana jokes, he said, are "never-ending."

> Fortunately, so are the laughs.

..Are we discussing the same article?

> Braithwaite recently drove the banana into Mexico, where he was pulled over five times in three days.

> Every encounter was friendly, he says.

This is a great international story about cops!

> Now he's thinking much bigger.

> His goal is to drive the Big Banana Car through Central America; somehow get it shipped across oceans and eventually circle the globe.

> "I just want to keep going," he said.

> He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour."

> A sign mounted to the back of the vehicle carries the slogan.

> "The world is dangerously low on whimsy," says the man hoping to make a difference.

That last paragraph hits it out of the park.

If cops want to be a positive presence in the community then they shouldn't regularly extort and abuse citizens and protect their violent and murderous coworkers.

Some heavier Thinsulate gloves were always enough for me. Maybe a pair of those thin fabric cheapies underneath.

Boots were just my regular winter boots. I think they all say "comfortable" down to -40C at this point. Comfortable is probably overselling it, but I still have all of my toes.

I don't remember my glasses ever really fogging up until I'd get inside. I don't like things on my face, so usually just a hat with ear flaps. Add a scarf for neck and lower face. Perhaps a beard helped too. It and my mustache have certainly frosted up.

When I was doing it regularly, those days just weren't common enough to justify doing anything special. I could generally keep the rides short which really helped out.

There's a lot of anger towards police coming through in your comments. It's just a banana car.

Yeah I'm a Black immigrant with a funny name, I have a lot of anger about what we tolerate of police vs what we should.

Are you under the impression all cops are known for is harassing banana cars?

It's a banana car that has been pulled over illegally hundreds of times.

> For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.

This is not a good story about cops. This is a good story about a guy, that includes cops as part of its plot.

It's like those "kid sells his toys to fund parents' cancer treatment" stories local news does as a feel-good segment. Great kid! Shitty system!

Thanks!

None of my cycling / running gloves cut it. I didn't get to buying heavier winter gloves last season. Layering gloves, using hardware-store work and waterproof gloves has also come up. Key is to combine insulation, a wind/vapour barrier, and possibly something rugged on the outside against wear/falls. I can't find the reference I had in mind, though this one is similar: <https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/hiking-and-b...>.

Feet aren't as much an issue for me, but insulated booties would be good. I have a pair, but they didn't fit over my most recent cycling shoes. I did find a lower-profile older pair recently, might get lucky with those.

I wear a Spandex balaclava, which tends to direct breath toward my specs. That's also a problem walking in cold weather (which I also do a lot of, particularly when my glasses fog too much to ride ;-), and I'm leaning toward over-the-specs ski goggles or something along those lines.

Power to you though!

> For a moment, x______________ didn't know if he was being serious or not.

I'm still inclined to think that an /s is coming up in later replies. A bad story about cops and a banana motorist is that the motorist is dead, incarcerated or has a bounty on his head and is traveling around the world to ..evade.. his notoriety.

Cops on the road, who drive alone in their car, are entitled to a bit of fun.. or as Braithwaite put it, "more whimsy"!

Don't they? Help me understand..