| As a proud owner of a custom hot rod truck, I have | | | | I do not know the answer, but what I do know is that |
| noticed two things: One, it attracts a lot of good | | | | custom auto enthusiasts, who actually take to the |
| attention and two, it attracts a lot of bad attention. I like | | | | streets once in a while in their rides, are taking a |
| to refer to this as "custom profiling." I bring this up | | | | certain risk and that risk doesn't end at our boys in blue |
| because not too long ago I was a victim of "custom | | | | either! There are those enemies of fun out there, that |
| profiling."It was a nice sunny day and I was minding my | | | | prowl upon our metal artwork and attempt to destroy |
| own business, as well as all of the traffic laws, driving | | | | all of our long hours spent in the garage busting our |
| through a small town when a police officer, I will refer | | | | knuckles. Maybe you will get off easy and only have a |
| to him as Barney Fife, came flying over a hill running | | | | cop or two harass you a little bit or give you a silly |
| Code 3 (meaning sirens and lights on) and pulled me | | | | citation on some ludicrous noise ordinance. On the flip |
| over. Officer Fife told me he pulled me over because I | | | | side, you may come outside one bright shiny morning, |
| was violating some local noise ordinance. Yeah, right. I | | | | only to find your newly painted $50,000 custom hauler |
| don't even have a ground shaking audio system in my | | | | keyed, broken into, or worse yet... gone!Luckily for us, in |
| truck! So, now I am on my way to being a millionaire | | | | my case anyway, the good tends to outweigh the |
| because I am the only one who knows where you | | | | bad. For instance, I can't count how many times I have |
| can find the tweeters that dispense the massive bass | | | | cruised down some road in my hometown and get |
| that ole' Barney Fife claimed he heard coming from the | | | | that well-known symbol of "good-to-go"... the thumbs |
| cab of my truck. My opinion and observation on this | | | | up. In the custom world, the golden rule is to stand out |
| incident, is this: the officer saw my truck and I was | | | | and be different, but there comes responsibility with |
| stopped on the pretense of a noise ordinance, but it | | | | standing out... especially when you are more-or-less a |
| was actually because of the appearance of my | | | | rolling billboard for all custom auto enthusiasts.For those |
| truck.In this day and age of modern profiling, I want | | | | of you that are new to the custom auto world I leave |
| other fellow custom auto enthusiasts to realize we are | | | | you with this warning: If you think it will always be fun |
| being profiled, not by race, but by what we drive and | | | | and games, you are in for a few surprises. Watch |
| how we drive it. It seems that just a certain "profile" of | | | | what you do while in public with your ride, because |
| police officer, not all officers though, tend to believe | | | | people are watching you and they will remember you. |
| every person who has a ride with big wheels and a | | | | Most of all, pay attention to what is going on around |
| lowered stance must be a thug of some sort. So, | | | | you, because one minute you have a nice custom ride |
| instantly we get the privilege and humiliation of a "blue | | | | and the next minute you will find yourself at the body |
| light special" on the off ramp or on some city street | | | | shop shelling out the Ben Franklin's trying to fix what |
| corner.Well, the fact of the matter is this, I know | | | | road rage caused.My point is this, people just need to |
| several police officers that are also custom auto | | | | leave people the alone and we as custom auto |
| enthusiasts and drive the very vehicles certain police | | | | enthusiast should police up our own and set the |
| officers like to profile as a bad guy. I am one of these | | | | example, because we are being profiled like you |
| guys they like to profile, but I am not a bad guy! I | | | | wouldn't believe. The Barney Fife police officers need |
| served as a Military Police Officer at Camp Pendleton | | | | to stop pulling us over for lame noise ordinances, |
| in the United States Marine Corps for 2.5 years out of | | | | especially when we are not hurting or bothering |
| my four years of honorable service, so I am | | | | anyone. In the end, I guess we will just have to accept |
| knowledgeable on traffic stops! Go figure.So, I ask the | | | | the bad along with the good and hope that there is |
| question, how do we avoid bad attention? Short of | | | | more good than bad. Get your pleasures when you |
| putting the ride up for sale or even worse, returning it | | | | can and ignore bad cops and those devious |
| back to stock condition, how do we stay out of the | | | | vandals.Until next time... keep it legal and keep it |
| courtroom? Do we form organizations and then tar | | | | safe.J.R. Janicek is a former U.S. Marine and editor of |
| and feather our local political figures with our letters of | | | | a FREE online custom auto enthusiast magazine. |
| dismay until they do something about it? To be honest, | | | | |