Monday, February 18, 2013

Tennessee Cops Thought Couple in Their 60s Were Druggies Because of Ohio State Buckeye Decal

Guido Boggioni, 66, and Bonnie Jonas Boggioni, 65, were driving through Tennessee recently, returning to their Plano, Texas home from a trip to Ohio.
Just for review, to avoid confusion.
This is a buckeye leaf......
Suddenly, the cops pulled them over, and with body armor on and guns drawn, pretty much asked them what the hell they were doing.

What they were doing was driving close to the speed limit along the highway. But, those coppers weren't going to take that as an excuse. They were drug runners! You could tell, they had a sticker depicting a pot plant on their car. Or so they thought.

The sticker was of an Ohio State Buckeye, which looks nothing like a pot plant, and the couple are big Ohio State fans, so they were understandably confused by the drug questioning, reports the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.

Apparently, there was a drug sweep of some sort going on in that part of Tennessee and the couple drove into the area.

The police let the couple go, but told them to remove the sticker because it promoted pot, or at least looked like pot, Bonnie Jonas Boggioni told the paper. At last report, the sticker was still on the couple's car, and she's not taking it off.

She points out that a Buckeye doesn't really even resemble pot that much, and drug law enforcement should at least know what it looks like.
.....and this is a pot leaf. Any questions?  
And why was the couple stopped in the first place? Even a spokeswoman for the West Tennessee Drug Task Force was quoted as saying a sticker, whether it depicted pot or not, isn't sufficient reason on its own to stop a vehicle on the highway.

There is this little thing called the First Amendment, so if somebody wants to extol the virtues of pot, or Ohio State Buckeyes via a bumper sticker, that's A-OK.

Let's hope the traffic stop was just prompted by an officer having a bad or inattentive day. It happens to the best of us. Because since when is a bumper sticker a criminal offense? Or a buckeye leaf.

Because if this suspicion continues, will I be arrested because some of the perennials in my garden look vaguely like pot, if you really, really, really use your imagination?

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