CHP Arrests Driver Impersonating Chinese Paramilitary Police
thedrive.com
thedrive.com
I've also heard of journalists and PIs using vehicles that look like undercover/unmarked police cars to get access to areas that might otherwise be off-limits to civilians - they sometimes get waved through perimeters or won't be ticketed/towed if they park in restricted areas.
Could this be someone showing support for Chinese police with over-the-top decals? Or was the driver actively pretending to be a Chinese police officer or is a police officer claiming some right to operate outside of China? The article didn't make the circumstances clear, other than the car obviously has the markings and seals.
ETA: Just remembered another odd situation/use case for fake police cars - as art or performance props. The UK band/art collective I used to work for, The KLF, featured a 1968 Ford Galaxy police cruiser in many of their videos, with the lights and paint intact but modifications to the seal and motto (using "To Serve and Protect" and the band's Pyramid Blaster logo). You can see a picture of it on the back of some of their 45s (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorin%27_the_Tardis) and I know they drove it around London for the 3 A.M. Eternal video.
And in the Boston area there are owners of old Ford LTDs with Boston Police logos from the 1980s and 1990s which are used as movie props (see https://www.universalhub.com/2018/old-boston-police-cruisers...).
That's beyond just having decals.
Plus the one you've referenced - that makes 3 of these driving around harassing people in the US.
Inspired by Occam's razor, the aphorism became known in this form and under this name by the Jargon File, a glossary of computer programmer slang. Later that same year, the Jargon File editors noted lack of knowledge about the term's derivation and the existence of a similar epigram by William James. In 1996, the Jargon File entry on Hanlon's Razor noted the existence of a similar quotation in Robert A. Heinlein's novella Logic of Empire (1941), with speculation that Hanlon's Razor might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor".
In 2001, Quentin Stafford-Fraser published two blog entries citing e-mails from Joseph E. Bigler explaining that the quotation originally came from Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a submission (credited in print) for a book compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law published in Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! (1980). Subsequently, in 2002, the Jargon File entry noted the same.
Earlier attributions to the idea go back to at least the 18th century. A more concise expression of the idea comes from Jane West, in her novel The Loyalists (1812). A similar quote is also misattributed to Napoleon.
Could you explain how you think Hanlon's Razor has any relevance to brundolf's post?
Possibly. In high school there were a couple of guys who liked to cosplay police officers and dress their cars up. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to pull people over.
Never, ever, ever, ever buy a similar make/model and color car of any common current police car. People will drive SO SLOW in front of you because as soon as they see you in their mirror they think you're an unmarked car. grumbles and is glad a lot of the departments here are switching to SUVs the past couple of years. When I first bought my 2013 Impala (in late '13 when they were the common cruiser here), I'd have people in front of me actually let off the gas and drop 10-15mph when I'd get behind them on the interstate eye twitch. It doesn't help that every department has unmarked vehicles here (and have over the years) including Camaros, Toyota and Ford pickup trucks, Escalades, Corvettes, the same made and model of their rest of the fleet, etc. They'eve even used semis to get tickets over the past several years [1]
There is a used car lot by my work that ONLY sells used police cars, they've been there for at least 20 years, and I just don't know why people would go buy them. Most of them still have spotlights on them, the only way I can rationalize people buying them is that they buy them WANTING people to think they are law enforcement.
[1] https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2019/07/16/indiana...
Most of them in that silver but a handful of black unmarked ones and the rest being marked cars. I actually saw someone pulled over by one of the unmarked ones on the way to work today, they've been having some of them follow behind the school buses to nail people that try to blow by the bus stop signs.
Sometimes it's the whole "role playing" thing.
But sometimes - depending on the make/model/etc - it's to get the cop car performance package. As long as the car hasn't been beat to hell, it's a cheap way to get a nice upgrade on what is usually otherwise a low-tier/grandma kind of car.
The Ford Crown Vic with the Interceptor package was one of the "go-to" upgrade kind of cars. Horrible gas mileage. But if you got one with the upgraded gas tank (with racing bladder installed - because they had issues exploding in fiery death when rear ended - ala Pinto) - plus all the rest - it was supposedly one helluva vehicle to drive. And cheap because ugly and used.
While you could do something similar with some other car (ie - LS1 a Honda Civic or something like that) - you would end up spending way, way more money on everything needed to do such an upgrade (also - the CV was rear-wheel drive, which is rare to non-existent in sedans).
I'd personally never buy one, they seem like they'd end up being a money pit with the only benefit being cheap OEM parts because they're common fleet vehicles.
Wow, you must have some awesome stories. "That time when we burned a million pounds..."
https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-472.html appears to be the law they're charging the person with having broken.
>with intent to defraud another
Looks like they have to prove intent. If they were just driving around that sounds hard to prove. Especially if their defense is "it just looks cool" or something.
I'm not a lawyer, so I wonder if there's some standard of per se intent that I don't know about.
In some states this is actually codified.
In New York and New Jersey, if you are a member of the press working in the New York City metro (and verified by the state), you can get license plates with NYP on them for "New York Press." I don't know if Connecticut does it, too.
> They recalled an incident earlier this summer wherein another Asian driver with Chinese markings on his car was arrested following an attempt to pull over an off-duty police officer.
More seriously, I wish there was a simple as star-69 service for phishing phone calls, maybe call it star-86
But it makes me feel better about the second amendment.
100% this is a case of dumb kids decorating their cars.
Just saying.
Unless (as tomcam says) these are actual Chinese police, blatantly here in the US, trying to tell dissidents "even here we can get to you".
Personally... I'd call the non-Chinese drops and drive as quickly as possible to the closest police station.
No one should ever take someone seriously acting on behalf of a foreign country trying to arrest you in America. Even Interpol needs a USA liaison.
Heck, one way to avoid getting pulled over by the police in Beijing is to drive around in a black Audi. They’ll automatically think you are some kind of big wig who they shouldn’t mess with (unless by other black Audi driving police).
Why should they? Is it common for police officers in California to study the customs of police departments around the world?
It’s just so obviously fake in a tuhao way, like seeing POLICE printed on a Porsche or something.
EDIT: that was incendiary and almost certainly incorrect. As others have pointed out, the Chinese police are much smarter about this kind of thing. It’s much more likely to be dumb teenagers.
Drives around in Chinese marked vehicle on public roads with an invalid license plate.
And some guy tried to pull over a police officer? Either he's dumb beyond belief, or more likely the officer mistook him for actual police.
It turned out this was a common "joke" international students from China would play on each other. Sometimes between couples who were dating according to a friend who was able to translate the spray painted language. It's disgusting.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/nyregion/brooklyns-privat...
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