Open Thread - 05-06-22 - I Fought the Law and I Won...

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 9:11am

...just this once.

I've previously written about my 17 year old escapades. Here's another.

One fine summer morn back in '71 I was hanging with some buds near the County Courthouse where we "freaks" gathered almost daily. What's a "freak" you may ask, it's just another word for hippie albeit with more shock value. My hair was down to the middle of my back as was my attitude. I was young, dumb, and full of, well, piss and vinegar.

It was a small gathering, about 3 or 4 if I remember correctly. We were hanging around a street corner shooting the breeze. Next to us was a large trash container that one could find on every street corner in the downtown area of the small northern Illinois town where I lived. The trash container was approximately 3 feet by 3 feet and 4 feet high. The top was rounded so as to make a perfect seat if one was so inclined and, since I was so inclined I hopped up on top of it like a court jester sitting on the king's throne. We continued our deep metaphysical conversation that was most assuredly about freaky stuff.

After just a few minutes on the throne a cop came cruising by and pulled over after spotting our little congregation. This caused a pause and a gasp in our conversation. The cop focused like a lazer on myself and ordered me down from the trash container. I complied and hopped down. As soon as the cop went around the corner I hopped back up and resumed my haughty perch. We all resumed our deep conversation. Much to my chagrin the cop had only driven around the block and when he saw me up on the container again he again pulled over. This time he ordered me down from the trash container and in the back seat of his squad car. i was put under arrest.

I was taken to the police station, booked, and then transferred to the County Jail. This was no ordinary County Jail. An ex County Sheriff had written a book about it titled The Bad Ass Cell. It had a reputation as a place one must avoid. It was an old jail that had harbored many a hardened criminal over the years with jailers that were mean as hell. I was placed in the bullpen, as they called it, with about ten other hard core looking, ahem, gents.

In this County Jail one could be put in a cell with someone charged with a misdemeanor or a murder charge, hence the name Bad Ass Cell. I found a little spot where I could sit on the floor. It was a motley crew I was incarcerated with, all older than myself, and almost all dangerous looking. It reminded me of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Massacre "Mother rapers. Father stabbers and father rapers". I listened to the jailhouse chatter when one of the inmates asked me what I was in for. I replied "for sitting on a trash can". This utterance from me brought the jailhouse down in laughter. "For sitting on a trash can" one howled through his belly laugh as the whole cell echoed with their jocularity. I was a long haired 17 year old among what looked like to me hardened criminals, and I'm sure some were. I became the butt of many a joke in the short time period I was there. My dad showed up a few hours after I was arrested and threw my bail.

A couple of months later I was called to court to answer for my freakish trash can caper. I was very apprehensive about this situation. I went to court with my dad and an attorney. My case finally came before the judge and before anything proceeded the officer asked that I, my dad and attorney go out to the hall and have a discussion. The cop beat around the bush for a while and finally said that if I were to promise that I wouldn't get on any more city owned trash containers that he would drop the charges. I hesitated and looked at the floor like I was considering it, and then I agreed with his terms. We went back into the court room and the judge dismissed the case. I later found out that the rookie cop had arrested me for the wrong charge and I was also illegally detained in the County Jail because I was only 17 and one had to be 18 to be jailed there.

So, I was let go. I was able to win that cop encounter but will always remember the humiliation of my jail house confession and and how the bullpen rocked with laughter at my expense.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 9:17am

Good morning folks...

I'll be off taking a ride on this today, so I may not be around to host.

Chug-a-chugga. Have a good one!

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:08am

Good morning Johnny. Have a great time and ride.

Wandering off to the Oakland museum today. Every day this week & month something else doing, Gardening and garden planning squeezed into the interstices, plus keeping all the feeders full.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by Lookout on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:40am

Bet you still had to pay the attorney

So no legal charge, just financial. Better than a conviction.

Hope y'all have a great train ride!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxNuvJBKyCA]
Once recorded this one with a local gospel group, but never heard the final mix.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by aliasalias on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 2:57pm

This brought back a memory & it includes a dumpster & cops

I read your story before I went on my daily walk,and what memories it brought back to life. I thought about it all during my walk and I decided that when I got home I'd tell about that memory.

In 1969 I was living in Boulder Colorado and I spent most of my time in a pool hall located 'on the Hill' called 'The Golden Cue',right next to the University. Before the Boulder Police put a Sub Station on 'the Hill' the area was an open air drug market where you but a hit of acid or a thousand-lot of Acid, a gram of hash or pounds in big numbers, a 'Lid' of 'Grass' or as many pounds as you could afford. Hippies and students everywhere buying and selling different drugs.

Downstairs in the pool room I eventually became friends with some hippies from San Francisco who offered me a great deal on a lot of Acid, very good Acid because selling it wasn't as easy as selling in tabs or sheets of it. So they wanted to unload it all, because the problem was that the Acid was dropped on Cough Drops,a name brand in its box.
The San Fran Hippies wanted to move a lot of stuff and didn't want to spend all the time it took to prove to people it was good by having to stay with them until they started getting 'high', and they got very high.
So me and my friend Eric ended up with a lot of boxes of cough drops.To prove this wasn't a rip off we both chose from a different box from which to take a sample. Now to sell it.
Long story short we put in the time and effort to sell it, which became a lot easier as the word spread about the 'acid cough drops'.
So we made good money but this stuff was getting too well known and I heard some things on the pool room grapevine that made us both feel we needed to get away from the whole scene asap.
Eric was from Chicago and suggested we go there and don't come back until we've sold it all so we flew there and hung out in an area he knew which was also where a lot of hippies lived.

I don't remember how it came about but we ended up on a University campus that had basically been taken over by the students who were 'liberating' one building after another and the 'liberated' cafeteria was where all the meetings were held to decide what was next.
The street on the campus was blocked off at each end by dumpsters that had been pushed there and it was a big around the clock party. But what really topped the whole thing off was the famous 'Hog Farm' bus was there with speakers blasting music at all times.
One night in the liberated cafeteria it was decided we should all storm the ROTC Building,confront them all, drive these so called 'leaders' away. Anyway a lot was said and it was agreed that we'd all meet in the cafeteria the next morning then march to the ROTC Building.
That's what happened, with the fence around the building torn down everyone headed for the main front entry.
I wasn't alone in expecting that a lot of violence was inevitable but the whole crowd surged into the building, only to find it was empty. Not one person was in the building, not one.
Apparently a snitch had been at the meeting and tipped them off but how do you explain that future Officers of the armed forces, 'Leaders', had evacuated their own building during the night instead of setting up a defense against a bunch of students and hippies?
About the Dumpsters. One of them had a red flag and chair on top of the dumpster so I climbed up there with my gallon of Rhineskeller Wine, the cheapest stuff and probably good for removing paint in a pinch.
But today there were more cops than usual parked on the other side of the blockade and they were certainly angry.I can't remember what was said but they talked trash to me, the wine was taking effect and I didn't hold back telling cops things I always wanted to say to cops, I felt safe on my perch.
Things changed when one cop came close to the dumpster, pointed at me and said he really hoped I was going to be right where I was sitting tomorrow morning. To put it lightly, this was not said in a friendly tone.
It was time to leave Chicago, which we did and by all accounts that we eventually heard the cops did come the next morning, lots of them and a lot of students, hippies and others were viciously assaulted and jailed.

I gotta add that this is not a good way to keep acid, yes you can safely walk around with a cough drops box in your shirt. But eventually due to your body heat, and gravity,it will seem like they've got weak,and that it will take more than one or two to really get high. But eventually when you do get down to the cough drops near the bottom of the box....hang on tight.

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 4:26pm

Great story

@aliasalias

an unforgettable saga of cough drops!

I read your story before I went on my daily walk,and what memories it brought back to life. I thought about it all during my walk and I decided that when I got home I'd tell about that memory.

In 1969 I was living in Boulder Colorado and I spent most of my time in a pool hall located 'on the Hill' called 'The Golden Cue',right next to the University. Before the Boulder Police put a Sub Station on 'the Hill' the area was an open air drug market where you but a hit of acid or a thousand-lot of Acid, a gram of hash or pounds in big numbers, a 'Lid' of 'Grass' or as many pounds as you could afford. Hippies and students everywhere buying and selling different drugs.

Downstairs in the pool room I eventually became friends with some hippies from San Francisco who offered me a great deal on a lot of Acid, very good Acid because selling it wasn't as easy as selling in tabs or sheets of it. So they wanted to unload it all, because the problem was that the Acid was dropped on Cough Drops,a name brand in its box.
The San Fran Hippies wanted to move a lot of stuff and didn't want to spend all the time it took to prove to people it was good by having to stay with them until they started getting 'high', and they got very high.
So me and my friend Eric ended up with a lot of boxes of cough drops.To prove this wasn't a rip off we both chose from a different box from which to take a sample. Now to sell it.
Long story short we put in the time and effort to sell it, which became a lot easier as the word spread about the 'acid cough drops'.
So we made good money but this stuff was getting too well known and I heard some things on the pool room grapevine that made us both feel we needed to get away from the whole scene asap.
Eric was from Chicago and suggested we go there and don't come back until we've sold it all so we flew there and hung out in an area he knew which was also where a lot of hippies lived.

I don't remember how it came about but we ended up on a University campus that had basically been taken over by the students who were 'liberating' one building after another and the 'liberated' cafeteria was where all the meetings were held to decide what was next.
The street on the campus was blocked off at each end by dumpsters that had been pushed there and it was a big around the clock party. But what really topped the whole thing off was the famous 'Hog Farm' bus was there with speakers blasting music at all times.
One night in the liberated cafeteria it was decided we should all storm the ROTC Building,confront them all, drive these so called 'leaders' away. Anyway a lot was said and it was agreed that we'd all meet in the cafeteria the next morning then march to the ROTC Building.
That's what happened, with the fence around the building torn down everyone headed for the main front entry.
I wasn't alone in expecting that a lot of violence was inevitable but the whole crowd surged into the building, only to find it was empty. Not one person was in the building, not one.
Apparently a snitch had been at the meeting and tipped them off but how do you explain that future Officers of the armed forces, 'Leaders', had evacuated their own building during the night instead of setting up a defense against a bunch of students and hippies?
About the Dumpsters. One of them had a red flag and chair on top of the dumpster so I climbed up there with my gallon of Rhineskeller Wine, the cheapest stuff and probably good for removing paint in a pinch.
But today there were more cops than usual parked on the other side of the blockade and they were certainly angry.I can't remember what was said but they talked trash to me, the wine was taking effect and I didn't hold back telling cops things I always wanted to say to cops, I felt safe on my perch.
Things changed when one cop came close to the dumpster, pointed at me and said he really hoped I was going to be right where I was sitting tomorrow morning. To put it lightly, this was not said in a friendly tone.
It was time to leave Chicago, which we did and by all accounts that we eventually heard the cops did come the next morning, lots of them and a lot of students, hippies and others were viciously assaulted and jailed.

I gotta add that this is not a good way to keep acid, yes you can safely walk around with a cough drops box in your shirt. But eventually due to your body heat, and gravity,it will seem like they've got weak,and that it will take more than one or two to really get high. But eventually when you do get down to the cough drops near the bottom of the box....hang on tight.

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:22pm

You never know here what a morning open thread

@aliasalias

will bring back. Your experience was quite an entertaining reflection on the past, thanks.

I read your story before I went on my daily walk,and what memories it brought back to life. I thought about it all during my walk and I decided that when I got home I'd tell about that memory.

In 1969 I was living in Boulder Colorado and I spent most of my time in a pool hall located 'on the Hill' called 'The Golden Cue',right next to the University. Before the Boulder Police put a Sub Station on 'the Hill' the area was an open air drug market where you but a hit of acid or a thousand-lot of Acid, a gram of hash or pounds in big numbers, a 'Lid' of 'Grass' or as many pounds as you could afford. Hippies and students everywhere buying and selling different drugs.

Downstairs in the pool room I eventually became friends with some hippies from San Francisco who offered me a great deal on a lot of Acid, very good Acid because selling it wasn't as easy as selling in tabs or sheets of it. So they wanted to unload it all, because the problem was that the Acid was dropped on Cough Drops,a name brand in its box.
The San Fran Hippies wanted to move a lot of stuff and didn't want to spend all the time it took to prove to people it was good by having to stay with them until they started getting 'high', and they got very high.
So me and my friend Eric ended up with a lot of boxes of cough drops.To prove this wasn't a rip off we both chose from a different box from which to take a sample. Now to sell it.
Long story short we put in the time and effort to sell it, which became a lot easier as the word spread about the 'acid cough drops'.
So we made good money but this stuff was getting too well known and I heard some things on the pool room grapevine that made us both feel we needed to get away from the whole scene asap.
Eric was from Chicago and suggested we go there and don't come back until we've sold it all so we flew there and hung out in an area he knew which was also where a lot of hippies lived.

I don't remember how it came about but we ended up on a University campus that had basically been taken over by the students who were 'liberating' one building after another and the 'liberated' cafeteria was where all the meetings were held to decide what was next.
The street on the campus was blocked off at each end by dumpsters that had been pushed there and it was a big around the clock party. But what really topped the whole thing off was the famous 'Hog Farm' bus was there with speakers blasting music at all times.
One night in the liberated cafeteria it was decided we should all storm the ROTC Building,confront them all, drive these so called 'leaders' away. Anyway a lot was said and it was agreed that we'd all meet in the cafeteria the next morning then march to the ROTC Building.
That's what happened, with the fence around the building torn down everyone headed for the main front entry.
I wasn't alone in expecting that a lot of violence was inevitable but the whole crowd surged into the building, only to find it was empty. Not one person was in the building, not one.
Apparently a snitch had been at the meeting and tipped them off but how do you explain that future Officers of the armed forces, 'Leaders', had evacuated their own building during the night instead of setting up a defense against a bunch of students and hippies?
About the Dumpsters. One of them had a red flag and chair on top of the dumpster so I climbed up there with my gallon of Rhineskeller Wine, the cheapest stuff and probably good for removing paint in a pinch.
But today there were more cops than usual parked on the other side of the blockade and they were certainly angry.I can't remember what was said but they talked trash to me, the wine was taking effect and I didn't hold back telling cops things I always wanted to say to cops, I felt safe on my perch.
Things changed when one cop came close to the dumpster, pointed at me and said he really hoped I was going to be right where I was sitting tomorrow morning. To put it lightly, this was not said in a friendly tone.
It was time to leave Chicago, which we did and by all accounts that we eventually heard the cops did come the next morning, lots of them and a lot of students, hippies and others were viciously assaulted and jailed.

I gotta add that this is not a good way to keep acid, yes you can safely walk around with a cough drops box in your shirt. But eventually due to your body heat, and gravity,it will seem like they've got weak,and that it will take more than one or two to really get high. But eventually when you do get down to the cough drops near the bottom of the box....hang on tight.

Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:06pm

I am so glad you did not

wind up on the chain gang.
Also glad those cell mates didn't beat the crap out of you, or worse!
That one time I was arrested after I hit a man in the mouth after he got my brother arrested, I was in the cell less than an hour before my Dad got me out. The case was dismissed as the affidavit did not match the charge. The judge was my childhood dentist. I had just graduated from law school and was awaiting the news as to whether I passed the bar exam or not.
The cop said I really tore the guy's lip apart with my big old diamond ring. Then, he giggled.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by aliasalias on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:29pm

Good story! Fwiw I've a lot of bad jailhouse events

@on the cusp @on the cusp from a few months in the LA County jail to back home in the Tarrant County jail in Ft. Worth and the El Paso County jail was no joke (15 days for 'Vagrancy' because I couldn't pay a $40 fine for being broke, crazy world) none of them were a joke. I was 18 at that time.
All that aside, I was 19 when I was living in Boulder in '69 and once I got 15 days in the County for stealing a sandwich but that was the best jail I was ever in as it was full of hippies and it damn near felt like a commune. Good vibes and not one fight and no pecking order.
I was lucky for another reason, at that time Boulder didn't bother fingerprinting misdemeanors so I got away with using someone else's Draft card for ID and I had skipped out on a Texas felony probation and a Felony marijuana charge in LA.
Some trivia about the system in LA. I was busted on Sunset Blvd, right across from the famous Whiskey a Go Go and this was all Beverly Hills' Police jurisdiction and I found out it had two different jails for booking people arrested in Beverly Hills, and needless to say I didn't get sent to the one that was reportedly more like a comfortable lounge.
Anyway enough of all that, the 1960's certainly were something amazing.

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 12:04am

omigod!

@aliasalias No fingerprinting in Boulder's cool jail saved you from a Texas prison! Dude, can't emphasize it enough: Texas prisons are now run by gangs. Join, or get your ass beaten daily. Back then, it was the guards that would beat your ass every damn day because...
Well, we two hippies made it here, and we are as ok as ok might be defined, eh?
What an amazing life you have lived. If you are still in Texas, I would love to meet you, but you some drinks to celebrate your travels through the "justice" system!

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by janis b on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:11pm

I watched the video linked on the home page

It must have been quite a spectacular ride. The part of the history mentioned reminded me of the game Monopoly, and the value of different railroad companies.

My first of only two encounters with the police was when my friend Jane and I (at age 12) were picked up for trespassing. There was an old, neglected mansion near the new suburb we lived in that we used to sneak into through a window. Our favourite place in the mansion was the attic where we found lots of treasures and memorabilia collected in the past. I remember the newspaper photos best, but not the content. The interior was mostly dark, even during the day, and one day we were turning the corner of a hall when we were blasted with a flashlight in the hand of a policeman. He told us we were trespassing and he was taking us to the police station. We obediently got in the car, and he graciously dropped us off at the bottom of the hill near where we lived, and told us next time we would go to the police station. Shortly after, the property became part of the town's land, and the windows were wired with an alarm which we surprisingly found out when we tried again to enter through the window. Luckily we were warned and never went back.

Hope you're vacation is enjoyable and you stay out of the sight of the law ; ).

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 12:55am

We backed off the train ride in favor

@janis b of a walking tour. That tour was almost as ridiculously expensive as the train ride. It will come in the future.
We have not drawn the attention of the Colorado police. I think it is our age and appearance, not that we observe the speed limits!
Yesterday, the Sangre de Christo Mountains scenic road, and today, scenic roads in the Rockies.
All good here, hope it is all good in NZ, chica!

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:37pm

My one encounter with a cops was in New Orleans

when this sheltered Utah gal met the daiquiris in a mini mart and after consuming quite a few of them rolled up my pants and went wading in a fountain in the middle of the night. He just gave me a stern talking to and let me go on my merry drunken way. That you could buy daiquiris just like I bought slurpees here at home was quite a treat. I was there for a convention and only went to 1 class and went to the football game and on the steamboat instead with total strangers. Boy did I have a fun trip!

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 12:11am

That is what you are SUPPOSED to do

@snoopydawg at seminars in NO.
Like, I am missing out on a probate continuing legal education course going on at the Moody Gardens Hotel in Galveston. My county judge is there. No damn way I would sit in some room, listening to something that is videoed, available in PDF form. Of course, I would be out doing stupid things, listening to cool bands in cool bars.
Places like those bring out the free spirit beast in all of us!

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981