OT - The Columbus Police
Has anyone had any bad experiences with the Columbus police? I lived in Columbus briefly about a year or so ago before relocating back up north. I sported my UM gear in many places but nothing tops what happened to me following some games two years back. I have a Michigan license plate with UM frame. On game days, I would venture to sports bars near campus; wherever I could find the game. I started receiving these parking tickets. This happened three weeks in a row! After the first ticket I made sure I was parked in an appropriate spot. After the third ticket I called down to the police department. The SAME COP gave me all three tickets. The offense? Not having a front license plate. A front license plate is required in Ohio. Lame. At any rate, anyone else have any stories about the Columbus police in late November?
August 18th, 2009 at 8:51 AM ^
The officer should have noted your license plate and realized it was a car registered in the State of Michigan, which does not require front license plates.
I can't see a scenario where a police officer would be that stupid to write this ticket three times in a row - especially because it's easily defendable in court (and I'm not an attorney.)
Very weird, I would definitely challenge this hard.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:37 AM ^
i can see a scenario: he's an ohio state alum.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^
ohio state grads don't have jobs.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:23 PM ^
I thought they cant graduate without learning the phrase "You want to upgrade that popcorn to the big bucket for a quarter?"
August 18th, 2009 at 8:52 AM ^
For the 06 game, countless tOSU fans would come up to my friends and I and scream at the top of their lungs within inches of our faces. One of the buckeyes ripped off my friends hat and threw it in the street. And we couldn't do anything about it since we were surrounded by buckeye fans. But needless to say I saw at least 3 cops look and see what was going on and just turn the other way. I wasn't pissed at the cops though, I guess it was expected.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:56 AM ^
They probably tear-gassed them later on that night.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:42 PM ^
that buckeye fan would've lost at least his hat as well.
i've seen/heard of/done much, much worse.
at the cavs/magic game ECF game where Lebron hit the shot, my wife and i watched a cavs fan take a magic fan's hat off his head, throw it to the ground, stomp on it, pick it up, and throw it into the trash.
security watched the entire thing from 2 feet away, and when the magic fan looked at him for help, the guard put his arm around the cavs fan, and said to him: 'you can't be doing that, go back to your seat'.
when the magic fan asked 'wtf?', the guard turned and walked away.
even on the same side, i thought it was pretty BS, and even told my wife if he did that to me, we would've missed the rest of the game...
i can also remember some pretty evil things done to Akron fans when they came to Kent State the year they got to the elite 8..
August 18th, 2009 at 9:21 AM ^
I find it hard to believe that if your car is registered in Michigan and has a Michigan plate, that you would have to get another plate for the front. Did you have to pay the fine? I would have taken it to court, personally, and probably called one of the news stations to make sure the injustice is documented, haha.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:30 AM ^
I've now lived in Cols for two years after being born and raised in Michigan. You'd likely have very little luck with local news stations as they're all completely in the tank for OSU. Apparently, so are the police. The local court system should be more objective due to, you know, the whole 'justice is blind' thing. It truly is a completely different world down here - a whole town built around a college football team.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:38 AM ^
and the guy going before my friend was issued 5 parking tickets in the span of 1 hour. The judge heard this, laughed and threw out all of the tickets because it was nonsensical (that's obviously not a legal term).
This was in Newark, without rabid college football fans, but should hold true in Ohio.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:41 AM ^
Back in 1994 I was down for the game that year and with MMB. As if losing wasn't bad enough, on our way out of town all of the MMB buses were pulled over on the highway and received speeding tickets. The officer actually claimed the buses were going 66 in a 65 area (or whatever the speed limit was at the time, can't quite remember). Needless to say, being a naive freshman, and my first time in Columbus, the local police left quite an impression on me.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:43 AM ^
My Michigan plates expired about a month after I moved to Columbus. I drove with them for ~18 months down here and never had a problem. Shortly after I got Ohio plates, I banged the piece under my bumper on a parking block and snapped one of the bolts on my front plate. I've been driving for about two more years with Ohio plates and no front plate and still have never had a problem. I haven't been pulled over, questioned, nothing.
Obviously you are only required to have front plates in Ohio if your car is registered in Ohio. We are dealing with either A) the world's dumbest cop or B) the world's dumbest OP.
I'm leaning pretty strongly towards B right now.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:46 AM ^
Might be a little fabricated...
August 18th, 2009 at 10:19 AM ^
My family and I were pulled over doing 70+ in a construction zone on I80 deep in Ohio while driving back from the 2007 UM-PSU game in my grandparents' MGOalumnimobile... and the Ohio State trooper let us off with a warning. We weren't in Cbus, but still. The station wagon(!) is decked out with flags, stickers, magnets, et al, and we were still wearing our game stuff, so we were pleasantly surprised we didn't even get a ticket.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:16 PM ^
The Ohio Highway Patrol is a totally different animal. I remember watching one OHP officer clip a drunken OSU student as he ran past... just got this satisfied smirk on his face as the kid planted his face in the grass.
Kid was too drunk to care. Just a golden moment.
Things in June, 11 years later, seem to be going swimmingly down there