Do not use US 395---Dangerous!

Zipper · Post by **Zipper** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:02 am

I traveled to Reno from Socal via US 395 in 2013. There was HEAVY law enforcement presence all along the route. An actual traffic stop in Bridgeport I went through included canine units. I'm 60+ and don't look like a Burner with my RV and drab colors, so I had no problem. Folks from my camp, traveling in the middle of a caravan, elsewhere on the same route, were pulled over for a tailight malfunction. It ended up in a search and and a posession charge. Don't risk it! go the 5 or 99 from Socal. That's what I'm doing this year, even though I love the scenery on 395, the enforcement activity ruins it.

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 5:00 am

Or, don't do anything illegal...

Post by **AntiM** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 5:06 am

Or only one thing at a time...

lucky420 · Post by **lucky420** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 6:03 am

Bridgeport has a new sheriff this year so it may be different

skippy3k · Post by **skippy3k** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 6:38 am

It would be a shame for someone who hasn't taken 395 before to miss it. It was one of my favorite California highways.

But I would agree...make sure your vehicle is road legal and don't do anything illegal and your stress levels magically ebb away.

Lonesomebri · Post by **Lonesomebri** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:57 am

skippy3k wrote:It would be a shame for someone who hasn't taken 395 before to miss it. It was one of my favorite California highways.

But I would agree...make sure your vehicle is road legal and don't do anything illegal and your stress levels magically ebb away.

Yes, yes.....once you don't do anything illegal, the Law Enforcement will magically quit looking to find out what you are doing that is illegal. So easy.....

tatonka · Post by **tatonka** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:03 am

I came down 395 from Oregon last year , I had my camper on the back of my old blue truck and me and my buddy had cowboy hats. At every gas stop the people would ask if we were going hunting or fishing

So I thought the police would get the same impression

and when we got to the search area at the burn , the little gal says " you thought we were going to search ya " and waved us thru

jneilvindy · Post by **jneilvindy** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:12 am

You're always doing something illegal in the eyes of law enforcement.

It's just a question of how much money or personal liberty they want that illegal activity to cost you.

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:39 am

jneilvindy wrote:You're always doing something illegal in the eyes of law enforcement.

I always love it when people say "just don't break the law and you'll have nothing to worry about".

Zipper · Post by **Zipper** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 10:46 am

CHP ran the stop. The local communities have no influence over the CHP, wheras and an elected sherrif may be more responsive to local business that count on Burners spending money.

Unless it's a different person running the district CHP, why would things be any different than last year?

FlyingMonkey · Post by **FlyingMonkey** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:10 am

Has it come to all of us needing to travel incognito?

I’m not concerned about getting busted for anything illegal, but getting stopped for something minor & then have it turn in to a “probable cause search” would truly suck. I guess I will have to drive wearing a sweater vest, put a "Baby on Board" diamond in the window, & get me a “Honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker. I think making sure your vehicle is 100% (no lights out, plate blocked, bla bla bla), not speeding, not texting, & blending in to the crowd goes a long way though. I know they can spot most of us a mile away hauling our bikes & all our stuff but don’t go out of your way to attract their attention. It shouldn’t be this way but it is & they know that a certain percentage of us possess illegal drugs or other things.

Or, we could travel in groups & have someone “clean” take one for the team. Their car would have peace signs, burning man symbols, pot leaf stickers, a bumper sticker saying something about cops & doughnuts. They would be a sure target. We need decoys kind of like Smokey & the Bandit (I may be dating myself with that reference).

I would advise against driving this

hippiecar1.png

this

potcar1.png

and dressing like this

Hippie.jpg

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:12 am

melodiousdirge wrote:
I always love it when people say "just don't break the law and you'll have nothing to worry about".

I always love it when people tell me exactly what they got busted for while doing nothing wrong.

jneilvindy · Post by **jneilvindy** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:21 am

I got an awesome story along these lines!

My ex was a police officer, probation officer and US marshall, pretty much since he was 21.

We had lived together a few years in an apartment and then built a house. We had a bunch of his law enforcement buddies over helping us move.

We all went to pick up the larger half of the sectional sofa and flipped it on it's side to get it out down the hall and out the door. Blammo! A small, ancient, rubberband rotted away baggie of pot seeds and stems falls out of the couch in front of all these cops!

Now neither my ex or I smoke, let alone do drugs and everyone there knew it so it was no big deal other than the insane amount of comments made as to whether they should drug-drop us both right there on the spot

We never did figure out how the stuff got there, especially given the couch came from his dad's house and his dad definitely always struck me as a guy who fired up now and then.

That was over 8 years ago and I can still remember seeing that baggie hit the floor...

Lonesomebri · Post by **Lonesomebri** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:24 am

Ha, I was once stopped and they didn't recognize signs of the Burn.
Late at night Mendocino county, fall harvest season, I'm driving the post-Burn gear to where I'm going to clean and store it.
A CHP cruiser comes by me, crowds my lane, I cross the line on my right slightly swerving to avoid him. He drops back and puts on the lights. I exited the highway.
Time, place, my actions, shined flashlights in the back of the truck and saw stacks of bags. They said they had probable cause, put me in the back of the cruiser where I could listen to Rush Limbaugh they had on their radio, and watch thru the windows as they took out dusty bag after dusty bag, smiles on their faces, sure that this was the big bust they had been waiting for all night. Even though I had to repack the whole truck that night alone in the parking lot after they had left, it was fun watching them open each bag and pull out a tent, or filthy clothes, the smiles on their faces dropping, the dust on their hands and clothes increasing.

Post by **Savannah** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:36 am

Time, place, my actions, shined flashlights in the back of the truck and saw stacks of bags. They said they had probable cause, put me in the back of the cruiser where I could listen to Rush Limbaugh they had on their radio, and watch thru the windows as they took out dusty bag after dusty bag, smiles on their faces, sure that this was the big bust they had been waiting for all night. Even though I had to repack the whole truck that night alone in the parking lot after they had left, it was fun watching them open each bag and pull out a tent, or filthy clothes, the smiles on their faces dropping, the dust on their hands and clothes increasing.

Ano · Post by **Ano** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:41 am

I know there's that whole "If you're not doing anything illegal, what do you have to fear?" argument, but I think that's hogwash. Sorry if this is off topic for this post, feel free to move it, or delete it, or split it, or pet it, or whatever.

Last year, I wasn't doing anything illegal one night on the playa. I was out at an art car party with some friends, having some wine and dancing and talking and doing all of that "normal" crap you do on the playa. One of my friends busted out a bag of Jolly Ranchers, which are fantastic on the playa, and began handing them out to us. Suddenly, we had a few BLM officers shining flashlights in our faces and threatening to search us and generally acting like power-tripping douchebags. Once they realized we had nothing, we asked for names/badge numbers and they laughed at us and walked off to follow the next waft of smoke or slightly sketchy looking activity. It was a very awful and jarring experience (and was reported via law enforcement forms) and nobody out there should ever have to experience it.

The police problem surrounding Burning Man gets worse and worse every year. Early entry drive last year, I had two BLM pull out behind me and another driver on 447. One of them passed me and followed the car ahead of me, the other stayed right on my tail from the turnoff in Wadsworth all the way to Empire, where him and his buddy pulled off. I was tailgated, and every time the speed limit started to drop, the BLM would tailgate me even worse, seemingly trying to get me to go 36 in the 35. I stayed 3-5 under the entire drive, which was silly. That's not "doing their jobs," that's straight up profiling people and trying to intimidate/waiting for any single thing to go wrong to pull you over and start throwing "probable cause" around to get a search. It was a buzzkill to drive in, riding my brake to stay under 5mph, while two BLM officers sat on the side in their cars with radars looking to pull anyone over. Who the fuck are they keeping safe pulling over vehicles going 6mph between Gate/Greeters? Who is being kept safe and what crimes are they stopping (beyond non-violent ones) trolling through every major crowd? Why is this seemingly okay? I'm all for police presence at Burning Man, I know they have real crime to stop and real problems to deal with, but I'm not for this overbearing presence that seems to happen every year, at least since I've shown up out here.

skippy3k · Post by **skippy3k** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:43 am

Lonesomebri wrote:
skippy3k wrote:It would be a shame for someone who hasn't taken 395 before to miss it. It was one of my favorite California highways.

But I would agree...make sure your vehicle is road legal and don't do anything illegal and your stress levels magically ebb away.
Yes, yes.....once you don't do anything illegal, the Law Enforcement will magically quit looking to find out what you are doing that is illegal. So easy.....

Well, technically I didn't say they wouldn't look for anything illegal. I said your stress levels will be lower. Given a scenario of being pulled over by the police with nothing in the car and pulled over carrying something, I would be more stressed on the latter of the two.

Roundabout · Post by **Roundabout** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:45 am

Most important during one of these stops, very politely insist at all times that you NOT CONSENT to any searches. Continue to do so even if they say they have probable cause. It will help cut through the bluster.

Zipper · Post by **Zipper** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:47 am

From Socal, Highways 5 and 99 really ARE safer to travel. They are straighter, wider, flatter, have consistant speed limits, offramps and onramps, and are mostly free of bicyclists, pedestrians and stopped cars on the side of the road. Whizzing by a small town is not an option on 395. You don't have to be on high alert as you must be while passing/creeping through the likes of Lone Pine, Bishop, etc.

All the inherent dangers of lots of traffic in small towns creates greater risk for mayhem and SHOULD be the main reason why the CHP is vigilant, just as are tribal police from Wadsworth on. On the other hand, tribal police, unlike the CHP, I don't think are acting like the DEA.

It is unlikely that the CHP would run a full traffic stop on the Interstate where such an action with holiday traffic would create more danger than it would prevent.

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:53 am

Ano wrote:I know there's that whole "If you're not doing anything illegal, what do you have to fear?" argument, but I think that's hogwash. Sorry if this is off topic for this post, feel free to move it, or delete it, or split it, or pet it, or whatever.

Last year, I wasn't doing anything illegal one night on the playa. I was out at an art car party with some friends, having some wine and dancing and talking and doing all of that "normal" crap you do on the playa. One of my friends busted out a bag of Jolly Ranchers, which are fantastic on the playa, and began handing them out to us. Suddenly, we had a few BLM officers shining flashlights in our faces and threatening to search us and generally acting like power-tripping douchebags. Once they realized we had nothing, we asked for names/badge numbers and they laughed at us and walked off to follow the next waft of smoke or slightly sketchy looking activity. It was a very awful and jarring experience (and was reported via law enforcement forms) and nobody out there should ever have to experience it.

The police problem surrounding Burning Man gets worse and worse every year. Early entry drive last year, I had two BLM pull out behind me and another driver on 447. One of them passed me and followed the car ahead of me, the other stayed right on my tail from the turnoff in Wadsworth all the way to Empire, where him and his buddy pulled off. I was tailgated, and every time the speed limit started to drop, the BLM would tailgate me even worse, seemingly trying to get me to go 36 in the 35. I stayed 3-5 under the entire drive, which was silly. That's not "doing their jobs," that's straight up profiling people and trying to intimidate/waiting for any single thing to go wrong to pull you over and start throwing "probable cause" around to get a search. It was a buzzkill to drive in, riding my brake to stay under 5mph, while two BLM officers sat on the side in their cars with radars looking to pull anyone over. Who the fuck are they keeping safe pulling over vehicles going 6mph between Gate/Greeters? Who is being kept safe and what crimes are they stopping (beyond non-violent ones) trolling through every major crowd? Why is this seemingly okay? I'm all for police presence at Burning Man, I know they have real crime to stop and real problems to deal with, but I'm not for this overbearing presence that seems to happen every year, at least since I've shown up out here.

I'm sure we all have similar stories to tell. I know I was stopped and hassled for about half an hour in oregon on my way home from BM 2012. My mistake probably for co-operating and letting slip that I was on my way home from Burning Man, but really that shouldn't be an issue. Best you can do is avoid the cops where possible, and know your rights where not possible.

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:03 pm

I'm still waiting to hear who actually got busted that wasn't carrying drugs or speeding.

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:10 pm

Captain Goddammit wrote:I'm still waiting to hear who actually got busted that wasn't carrying drugs or speeding.

Define "busted". I felt that half an hour of accusations and refusing to allow a search, all for going 5mph over the limit was unnecessary and worth avoiding. Safe to say that most of us are doing or carrying something on the way there that could be construed as suspicious or illegal. Do you need someone to have gone to jail wrongly to agree that best to just avoid the LE zealots? Obviously it's advisable to behave on the way there, we get it. It doesn't invalidate the original point.

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:22 pm

If they decide to search YOU Capt., how long do you think it would take for them to dump all your belongings out and for YOU to completely repack everything.

Because that can happen whether you are doing anything illegal or not.

If they trigger the dog, that is what will happen.

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:25 pm

FIGJAM wrote:If they decide to search YOU Capt., how long do you think it would take for them to dump all your belongings out and for YOU to completely repack everything.

Because that can happen whether you are doing anything illegal or not.

If they trigger the dog, that is what will happen.

x2

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:26 pm

My guess, 6 hours!!!

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:28 pm

FIGJAM wrote:My guess, 6 hours!!!

That's why it's best to keep your contraband somewhere accessible to avoid long waits while the cops search for it.

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:33 pm

Then you may as well just hand it over.

The point is that this is NOT about getting busted, but inconvenience and screwing up MY arrival time!!!!!!!!!!

melodiousdirge · Post by **melodiousdirge** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:37 pm

FIGJAM wrote:If they trigger the dog...

Something else to consider is that a large number of burners are travelling from states where certain substances are legal for recreational and/or medical use that are NOT legal in NV. Someone who regularly transports one of said substances in their vehicle could trigger a dog without actually having done anything wrong.

BoyScoutGirl · Post by **BoyScoutGirl** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:38 pm

Zipper wrote:From Socal, Highways 5 and 99 really ARE safer to travel. They are straighter, wider, flatter, have consistant speed limits, offramps and onramps, and are mostly free of bicyclists, pedestrians and stopped cars on the side of the road. Whizzing by a small town is not an option on 395. You don't have to be on high alert as you must be while passing/creeping through the likes of Lone Pine, Bishop, etc.

All the inherent dangers of lots of traffic in small towns creates greater risk for mayhem and SHOULD be the main reason why the CHP is vigilant, just as are tribal police from Wadsworth on. On the other hand, tribal police, unlike the CHP, I don't think are acting like the DEA.

It is unlikely that the CHP would run a full traffic stop on the Interstate where such an action with holiday traffic would create more danger than it would prevent.

This is the most well-reasoned argument I've read in a cop scare thread since I joined the boards.

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:45 pm

All they would find is a licensed, insured, properly loaded vehicle whose driver has a clean record and no warrants, carrying no illegal substances. If that puts me in the minority, then guess why they are so suspicious!!

Oh wait. I keep forgetting. Burning Man is about doing drugs in the desert. Right?
Can't be without that shit for even a few days. And then you bitch that the cops are all over it.

I'm more pissed at the people who bring shit they get caught with and bringing all this on .... well, ME!

Do not use US 395---Dangerous!

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