This should be a Fail tag.

Epic Fail.

Then what would you suggest, Subby? Do you have a better idea?

How do you tell the gender of a car?

He was probably just being courteous, and waving the car ahead of him-- as hand gestures alone were not enough, he improvised a baton with the only reasonable thing at hand-- his hand gun.

What's so hard to believe about that?

It annoys me to no end when people around me refer to unmarked police cars as "undercover cop cars", as though undercover agents show up to drug deals and the like with Crown Victoria Police Interceptors and expect no one to notice.

/end threadjack

Well, to be fair, he didn't know it was a cop, so that's got to reduce the overall idiocy of this event by 25% or so.

what was the crime?

vudukungfu: what was the crime?

Impersonating a police officer?

Kirby Muxloe: vudukungfu: what was the crime?

Impersonating a police officer?

ZING!

Even if it's a real gun and it's loaded and you're ready to throw down?

buckler: How do you tell the gender of a car?

ricodued: It annoys me to no end when people around me refer to unmarked police cars as "undercover cop cars", as though undercover agents show up to drug deals and the like with Crown Victoria Police Interceptors and expect no one to notice.

/end threadjack

You've never been to Florduh, eh? The FHP and local police departments here have unmarked Mustangs, F-150's, F-350's, Crown Vics, and Ford Five Hundreds working Traffic. they are undercover Revenue collectors. If you had one marked car for every one un-marked traffic cop than there would be way less speeding going on. I slow down when I see a cop car. A red Mustang? Not so much...

Well, I do now anyway. Whenever I see a Ford with tinted windows I slow down now...

Let this be a lesson to you all: Never wave a gun at anybody you don't intend to shoot.

Sounds like someone is gonna miss his daddy's funeral.

Contents of a Space Wasp's stomach: You've never been to Florduh, eh? The FHP and local police departments here have unmarked Mustangs, F-150's, F-350's, Crown Vics, and Ford Five Hundreds working Traffic. they are undercover Revenue collectors.

They take half those cars from evidence seizures. I saw one PBSO vehicle, except it was a huge ass truck with tires as big as my car.

The fool waving the guy was trying to say don't mess wit me cuz I'm a bad-azz mo-fo!

/maybe not so much when he's doing the jail time
//isn't that called come uppance?

Article isn't really clear why he was charged. "Aggravated assault" - if it's for waving the gun that's fine with me. But if it's all the "threatening a police officer"... If you want them "to ruh-spect mah au-thor-a-tee" then at least dress up like a cop.

Of course in New Jersey it's easy. Any car with a million antenna's sticking out and windows so black that you'd be pulled over immediately if you were a tax-payer - that has to be a cop-car.

"aggravated assault"?

Why are the charges always worse than the actual action?

submitter: When an unmarked police car cuts you off in traffic, waving your gun at him is probably a bad idea


TFA doesn't say anything about anyone cutting anyone off.

Oh, and 'an unmarked police car' = car.

That depends, GungFu. The ones my local department operates are unmarked for only the most mysterious of reasons. You're not going to mistake a Crown Victoria with mounted spotlight for anything else.

Diego Jose Feliciano?


Feliz Navidad...butthole

bmihura: "aggravated assault"?

Why are the charges always worse than the actual action?

Plea Bargain?

bmihura: "aggravated assault"?

Why are the charges always worse than the actual action?

FSS 784.021 is Florida's Aggravated Assault statute

784.021 Aggravated assault.

(1) An "aggravated assault" is an assault:

(a) With a deadly weapon without intent to kill; or
(b) With an intent to commit a felony.

(2) Whoever commits an aggravated assault shall be guilty of a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

To properly understand this statute, you must know the legal definition of an "assault." That statutory definition is provided at FSS 784.011:

784.011 Assault.

(1) An "assault" is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent.

So the assault is the unlawful threat by word or act, and the aggravated part is that he did it with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

Where in the article did anyone say anything about the cop cutting him off? If the cop cut him off, how did he end up driving next to him?

buckler: How do you tell the gender of a car?

(snipped image of Truck Nuts)

Well, that establishes the males. What, pray tell, do the female vehicles display on their hindsides?

I'm gonna giggle when this happens to GaryPDX.

CruiserTwelve quotes Florida law:

An "assault" is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence

So legally, in Florida, a "threat" is an "assault". Anytime you call an "apple" an "orange", that's a slippery slope.

So in Florida, anything anybody says that is interpreted as a "threat" can be prosecuted as a crime!

thats actually pretty much how every state defines assault

assault is the threat of violence

battery is the execution of said violence, hence assault and battery

http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/a-z/assault_battery.html

so in this case, its more of a dumbass tag, not a florida tag

A guy did that in my town and got shot. Now he is paralyzed.

mikec2003writes:

thats actually pretty much how every state defines assault

I'm no lawyer here, luckily; I didn't know that pretty much every state defines "assault" as merely a "threat". Next law: 2 + 2 = 5. I seem to recall that Alabama once had a law that pi was equal to exactly 3.

No wonder there are so many "assaults"!

/APPROVES

DiddlBiker: Article isn't really clear why he was charged. "Aggravated assault" - if it's for waving the gun that's fine with me. But if it's all the "threatening a police officer"... If you want them "to ruh-spect mah au-thor-a-tee" then at least dress up like a cop.

Of course in New Jersey it's easy. Any car with a million antenna's sticking out and windows so black that you'd be pulled over immediately if you were a tax-payer - that has to be a cop-car.

Ditto.

We have all sorts of "unmarked" cars up here. Well, unmarked except for all of those antennas, which are pretty impossible to hide.

Now of course to actually *see* those antennas you have to be pretty close. So that doesn't work for long range scanning.

/doesn't speed.
//not worth it for me.

Proud2B_American: Diego Jose Feliciano?


Feliz Navidad...butthole


Police stop my car
Police stop my car
The police made me stop
Walk a straight line and blow a balloon up

They wanna wish me a sober Christmas
That's why they always pull me over Christmas
They say they're just making sure
That there's no open bottles in my car

Day_Old_Dutchie: Proud2B_American: Diego Jose Feliciano?


Feliz Navidad...butthole


Police stop my car
Police stop my car
The police made me stop
Walk a straight line and blow a balloon up

They wanna wish me a sober Christmas
That's why they always pull me over Christmas
They say they're just making sure
That there's no open bottles in my car

/Thanks...couldn't think of anything I lol'd

hovsm: A guy did that in my town and got shot. Now he is paralyzed.

If you are going to threaten to shoot someone you gotta expect every once and a while someone will believe you and shoot first.

Dumbass tag would apply whether it was a cop or not. With the number of cellphones out there I'm surprised there isn't 16 pictures of this guys license plate with the gun clearly visible sticking out the window.

Phone calls travel faster than your pickemup truck.

bmihura: mikec2003writes:

thats actually pretty much how every state defines assault

I'm no lawyer here, luckily; I didn't know that pretty much every state defines "assault" as merely a "threat". Next law: 2 + 2 = 5. I seem to recall that Alabama once had a law that pi was equal to exactly 3.

No wonder there are so many "assaults"!

It's people like you that make us have so many lawyers.

Callous: If you are going to threaten to shoot someone you gotta expect every once and a while someone will believe you and shoot first.

Not to be rude, but that phrase actually goes "once in a while." Have a nice day!

Contents of a Space Wasp's stomach: Whenever I see a Ford with tinted windows I slow down now...

I usually look for the dual exhaust (doesn't work with the pickup trucks) or the lid of a Panasonic Toughbook sticking up above the dashboard, or as you mention, the tint that's illegally dark on any other vehicle. In the daytime, unmarked cars usually stick out like a sore thumb regardless of the make/model. Nighttime gets a little more challenging.

Interestingly, for police vehicles, Florida law only exempts "vehicles used in undercover or canine operations" from the prohibition on excessive tinting, but they seem to take that to mean "everything that might possibly have a cop behind the wheel". Of course, what the law actually says is irrelevant if you can't get anyone to enforce it.

bmihura: CruiserTwelve quotes Florida law:

An "assault" is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence

So legally, in Florida, a "threat" is an "assault". Anytime you call an "apple" an "orange", that's a slippery slope.

So in Florida, anything anybody says that is interpreted as a "threat" can be prosecuted as a crime!

Well yeah, you're right but only if you ignore the rest of the statute that says "coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent."

So if I say I'm going to hit you with this orange, but you don't have an orange, it's not an assault. If you hold an orange in a throwing position and then say "I'm going to hit you with this orange," then it's an assault.