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