5 ms·

My Uber got pulled over by the Denver police – and then things got really weird

85 points by arielm 12y ago

yuubi 12y ago
Link should probably be http://www.geekwire.com/2014/hey-denver-police-harrass-riding-uber/ http://www.geekwire.com/2014/hey-denver-police-harrass-ridin...
droopyEyelids 12y ago
A confused police officer made a bad call. Do we have to up vote every single article about Uber?
- themartorana 12y ago
  Good thing he didn't admit he was wrong. That would have shifted the entire balance of power in the nation, and anarchy would have ensued. Edit: gonna leave my initial snark for context, but this isn't about Uber to me. It's further information about how completely out of bounds the power structure is in the US, and how accountability for police action is continuously declining. "Uber" gives the article some sex appeal, admittedly, but I prefer to have articles about abuses of power up-voted. The more you know, and whatnot. Apologies for the snark, but I'd rather read this article than not. You give the officer an out - he was "confused" and whatnot - but when you hold power over the general population, "bad calls" aren't as easily forgivable, because they cause real world harm - and every time they aren't held to account, police feel a bit more invincible.
  - blazespin 12y ago
    No it's about the accelerating evolution of technology and disruption and the social chaos it's generating. Not saying it's bad, just that this is all happening.
- eddieroger 12y ago
  As much as I cringe a little when I use the word, Uber is disruptive to an industry, and the spirit of what we're all doing here is to find ways of disrupting industries. This reminds us of that. Plus, it was an interesting, well written story.
- sharth 12y ago
  When you get to the end of the article, the police officer is presented as being extremely creepy. From the article: After the officer gave the citation, he opened the back door again and offered me a “free” ride to the airport. I told him that I had learned while he was gone that the state had just enacted a law allowing Uber. In fact, I referenced that the Governor was proud of it. I then asked point blank if what I was doing was illegal. The officer didn’t answer my question, said there was some sort of disagreement being discussed about the law and then he told me that the driver had no commercial insurance and that if he got in a wreck and I got injured that there would be no insurance. He asked again: Do you want the “free” ride or not? I asked him one more time if what I was doing was illegal. He said he didn’t want to debate the law. Again, he asked: Do you want the ride or not?
gklitt 12y ago
It appears that this HN post links to itself instead of the article (as of 11:12pm ET). What's going on here? Perhaps a server bug, or a mod mistake..?
- dang 12y ago
  The submitter didn't include a url. We'll add it. But this is not a good HN story: high controversy, low information.
  - robinson-wall 12y ago
    It also just dropped from 2nd or 3rd position to 31st, pushing it off the front page, in a matter of minutes with little or no change to the ranking of anything else.
    - dang 12y ago
      Sure; users are flagging it and we just penalized it. The story is not a good fit for HN, as anyone who has read the HN guidelines should know. It is deplorable that a police officer handled an Uber situation inappropriately, and stories with a high indignation-to-information ratio are not appropriate here.
      - arielm 12y ago
        I didn't submit this story because of the way the police office handled this person but rather because I (and most likely a good number of other readers) take uber x and should know that this could happen to them as well. I was talking about the "legality" of uber x with a friend yesterday and figured other reader may have a similar question.
  - arielm 12y ago
    I'm pretty sure the URL disappeared after I updated the title. Thanks for correcting it.
jemfinch 12y ago
The story would have been a lot shorter if the author knew not to answer police questions. "The officer then opened the backseat door where I was sitting and asked if I was paying for the ride." Just don't answer. You don't have to. Even if you knew the law had passed in Denver, why would you answer? It cannot help you.
- blazespin 12y ago
  Right. Piss off a cop. Brilliant! The balanced and calculated reactions of these individuals was very impressive, I only wish I had their fortitude and thoughtfulness in such situations.
  - bra-ket 12y ago
    never talk to cops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc The right way to handle a police stop (in the US): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJrQBwJpqk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJrQBwJpqk
    - rahimnathwani 12y ago
      And the wrong way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_HUNQIAAR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_HUNQIAAR0 Starts at 1:10
  - jemfinch 12y ago
    There's no need to be an rude about it. "Sorry, officer, I don't understand your question." "Are you paying to be a passenger in this vehicle?" "I'm sorry, officer, I want to help you, but I just don't understand how this involves me. I'm just a passenger here." Most cops will just give up asking the question there. If the officer pushes the issue, he's being an asshole, but you can still very politely invoke your fifth amendment rights: "Sorry, officer, I should have an attorney present to help me with these questions." At that point, answers to any further questions (if any: standard police policy everywhere is to cease questioning immediately) are completely inadmissable (Edwards v. Arizona, 1981). You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride: that's true. With that said, the cops who will bring you downtown for asserting your rights are exactly the cops that you really shouldn't be talking to. (IANAL, FWIW; I'm just an occasionally rude anti-authoritarian citizen who has to mentally practice polite assertion of my rights so I don't accidentally piss off cops who, in their view, are just doing their jobs.)
mullingitover 12y ago
This brings up an interesting point about what exactly the law is and how everyone's supposed to be aware of it. It's 2014. Why can't officers carry a tablet that stores the entirety of the law, and show you exactly to the letter which law you're violating? Likewise, every citizen should have trivial access to the extant laws, with notes explaining them in a way that's comprehensible to anyone with a high school education. If ignorance of the law isn't a valid excuse for breaking it, everyone should have simple access to it.
- anko 12y ago
  This is really a brilliant idea, thanks.
- M2Ys4U 12y ago
  The law isn't just what's on the statute book, it has to be read in the context of case law (at least in jurisdictions that use a common law system), which evolves over time and can vary based on the individual facts of the case. That said, things like that do exist - the UK's entire statute book (well, almost) is available online,[0] free of charge and via a RESFTful API in machine-readable formats.[1] Likewise, the German federal government publishes the law in XML, and there's even a markdown representation available on github.[2] [0] http://legisltion.gov.uk/ http://legisltion.gov.uk/ [1] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/developer/formats http://www.legislation.gov.uk/developer/formats [2] https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze

85 points by arielm 12y ago

yuubi 12y ago

Link should probably be http://www.geekwire.com/2014/hey-denver-police-harrass-riding-uber/ http://www.geekwire.com/2014/hey-denver-police-harrass-ridin...

droopyEyelids 12y ago

A confused police officer made a bad call. Do we have to up vote every single article about Uber?

themartorana 12y ago
Good thing he didn't admit he was wrong. That would have shifted the entire balance of power in the nation, and anarchy would have ensued. Edit: gonna leave my initial snark for context, but this isn't about Uber to me. It's further information about how completely out of bounds the power structure is in the US, and how accountability for police action is continuously declining. "Uber" gives the article some sex appeal, admittedly, but I prefer to have articles about abuses of power up-voted. The more you know, and whatnot. Apologies for the snark, but I'd rather read this article than not. You give the officer an out - he was "confused" and whatnot - but when you hold power over the general population, "bad calls" aren't as easily forgivable, because they cause real world harm - and every time they aren't held to account, police feel a bit more invincible.
- blazespin 12y ago
  No it's about the accelerating evolution of technology and disruption and the social chaos it's generating. Not saying it's bad, just that this is all happening.
eddieroger 12y ago
As much as I cringe a little when I use the word, Uber is disruptive to an industry, and the spirit of what we're all doing here is to find ways of disrupting industries. This reminds us of that. Plus, it was an interesting, well written story.
sharth 12y ago
When you get to the end of the article, the police officer is presented as being extremely creepy. From the article: After the officer gave the citation, he opened the back door again and offered me a “free” ride to the airport. I told him that I had learned while he was gone that the state had just enacted a law allowing Uber. In fact, I referenced that the Governor was proud of it. I then asked point blank if what I was doing was illegal. The officer didn’t answer my question, said there was some sort of disagreement being discussed about the law and then he told me that the driver had no commercial insurance and that if he got in a wreck and I got injured that there would be no insurance. He asked again: Do you want the “free” ride or not? I asked him one more time if what I was doing was illegal. He said he didn’t want to debate the law. Again, he asked: Do you want the ride or not?

gklitt 12y ago

It appears that this HN post links to itself instead of the article (as of 11:12pm ET). What's going on here? Perhaps a server bug, or a mod mistake..?

dang 12y ago
The submitter didn't include a url. We'll add it. But this is not a good HN story: high controversy, low information.
- robinson-wall 12y ago
  It also just dropped from 2nd or 3rd position to 31st, pushing it off the front page, in a matter of minutes with little or no change to the ranking of anything else.
  - dang 12y ago
    Sure; users are flagging it and we just penalized it. The story is not a good fit for HN, as anyone who has read the HN guidelines should know. It is deplorable that a police officer handled an Uber situation inappropriately, and stories with a high indignation-to-information ratio are not appropriate here.
    - arielm 12y ago
      I didn't submit this story because of the way the police office handled this person but rather because I (and most likely a good number of other readers) take uber x and should know that this could happen to them as well. I was talking about the "legality" of uber x with a friend yesterday and figured other reader may have a similar question.
- arielm 12y ago
  I'm pretty sure the URL disappeared after I updated the title. Thanks for correcting it.

jemfinch 12y ago

The story would have been a lot shorter if the author knew not to answer police questions. "The officer then opened the backseat door where I was sitting and asked if I was paying for the ride." Just don't answer. You don't have to. Even if you knew the law had passed in Denver, why would you answer? It cannot help you.

blazespin 12y ago
Right. Piss off a cop. Brilliant! The balanced and calculated reactions of these individuals was very impressive, I only wish I had their fortitude and thoughtfulness in such situations.
- bra-ket 12y ago
  never talk to cops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc The right way to handle a police stop (in the US): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJrQBwJpqk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJrQBwJpqk
  - rahimnathwani 12y ago
    And the wrong way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_HUNQIAAR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_HUNQIAAR0 Starts at 1:10
- jemfinch 12y ago
  There's no need to be an rude about it. "Sorry, officer, I don't understand your question." "Are you paying to be a passenger in this vehicle?" "I'm sorry, officer, I want to help you, but I just don't understand how this involves me. I'm just a passenger here." Most cops will just give up asking the question there. If the officer pushes the issue, he's being an asshole, but you can still very politely invoke your fifth amendment rights: "Sorry, officer, I should have an attorney present to help me with these questions." At that point, answers to any further questions (if any: standard police policy everywhere is to cease questioning immediately) are completely inadmissable (Edwards v. Arizona, 1981). You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride: that's true. With that said, the cops who will bring you downtown for asserting your rights are exactly the cops that you really shouldn't be talking to. (IANAL, FWIW; I'm just an occasionally rude anti-authoritarian citizen who has to mentally practice polite assertion of my rights so I don't accidentally piss off cops who, in their view, are just doing their jobs.)

mullingitover 12y ago

This brings up an interesting point about what exactly the law is and how everyone's supposed to be aware of it. It's 2014. Why can't officers carry a tablet that stores the entirety of the law, and show you exactly to the letter which law you're violating? Likewise, every citizen should have trivial access to the extant laws, with notes explaining them in a way that's comprehensible to anyone with a high school education. If ignorance of the law isn't a valid excuse for breaking it, everyone should have simple access to it.

anko 12y ago
This is really a brilliant idea, thanks.
M2Ys4U 12y ago
The law isn't just what's on the statute book, it has to be read in the context of case law (at least in jurisdictions that use a common law system), which evolves over time and can vary based on the individual facts of the case. That said, things like that do exist - the UK's entire statute book (well, almost) is available online,[0] free of charge and via a RESFTful API in machine-readable formats.[1] Likewise, the German federal government publishes the law in XML, and there's even a markdown representation available on github.[2] [0] http://legisltion.gov.uk/ http://legisltion.gov.uk/ [1] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/developer/formats http://www.legislation.gov.uk/developer/formats [2] https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze