{"id":2326,"date":"2023-10-18T01:53:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T01:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2326"},"modified":"2023-09-16T15:25:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T15:25:55","slug":"chap-27-busted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2326","title":{"rendered":"Chap. 27 – Busted!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 27<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Busted<\/em><\/strong>! (In 2 Parts)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRST PART<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     By nightfall that first day out of Santa Fe, we were just getting into Oklahoma.  We found a campground by the Wichita River, off I-40, but Sally said it gave her the creeps thinking about what happened to Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider<\/em> when they tried camping in a desolate spot, so \u201cLet\u2019s switch drivers and just keep going.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We arrived in Norman, Oklahoma, after mid-night and headed to the OU campus, the Caravan intact.  Then cop lights!  We\u2019re all pulled over.  A second squad showed up.  Then a third, each with cursive curly-Q lettering \u201cKeeping Norman Friendly & Safe.\u201d  Five cops in all.  They split us up the best they could.   Three in the squads, Peaches handcuffed to his Air Stream\u2019s doorhandle after wising off, the rest of us ordered to stand by the road.  They checked our stories and asked if they could search our vehicles.  Our lawyer Steve jumped in, \u201cSirs, we\u2019re totally legit.  You know you need a search warrant.  I\u2019m a lawyer.  You had no reason to stop us.  We should be on our way.  All we\u2019re doing is looking for a Walmart to park overnight and visit a professor friend tomorrow who\u2019s expecting us here in Norman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     That didn\u2019t work.  Those of us standing outside were freezing our butts off praying nobody had any weed, or LSD, or worse, packed away somewhere.  The cops had already patted us down and emptied our pockets, and were searching every backpack, every nook and cranny of all three vehicles, regardless of needing a warrant.  \u201cWhose initials are \u2018SJD\u2019?  Whose shaving kit is this?\u201d one of the cops asked.  Nobody said anything, but that would be Skip\u2019s.  Then two paddy<\/em> wagons<\/em> showed up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Nobody said much while we were all booked into the Norman jail, but Steve kept his tirade going, \u201cWhat are the charges pray tell!  You can\u2019t just deprive citizens of their liberty without a reason!  I know the law; you cops obviously don\u2019t.  There\u2019s a Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures.  Think you\u2019re above the law?  You\u2019ll pay for this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Sally started actually praying.  Eventually Steve got the phone call he was insisting on and called one of his NLG buddies back in the Twin Cities to get going on finding us a local lawyer.  We were in three cells, all within shouting distance, and Steve assured us that we would all be cut loose soon.  And we were, except Skip, who was booked for possession of cocaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Skip and cocaine!  We couldn\u2019t believe it.  He wouldn\u2019t do that, put us and the whole trip at risk.  \u201cBut yeah, I didn\u2019t know you and Skip were such LSD freaks either,\u201d Sally screamed at Rocky.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cShut the fuck up, Sally,\u201d Rocky retorted.  \u201cIt\u2019s not cocaine they found.  Skip always travels with a vial of baking soda to brush his teeth with.  You should try it \u2013 helps with bad breath.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     And sure enough when we showed up at Skip\u2019s arraignment the next morning (after waiting for the morning light in an all-night diner), the prosecutor apologized profusely and told the judge, \u201c. . . indeed the substance suspected to be a controlled substance tested out to be baking soda.  There\u2019s nothing to prosecute.\u201d  Steve stood up to speak, saying he was a lawyer licensed to practice in Minnesota.  The judge then recessed court and asked Skip, Steve and the prosecutor to join him in chambers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cI know what you\u2019re thinking,\u201d the judge said to Steve, \u201cthese cops had no right to search your vehicles or haul you guys in.  What are you doing here in town?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Skip started but Steve cut him off attempting to downplay the political aspect to our trip, \u201cWe\u2019re retired folk, met some other retired folks in California.  We\u2019re out taking the temperature of America post Donald Trump \u2013 we hope post Donald Trump.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell, you can take my temperature right here, right now!\u201d the judge exclaimed.  \u201cI\u2019m hot . . . mad as hell about how many cops have a disregard for civil liberties.  It started with Trump saying he never read the Constitution.  Never read the Constitution and he\u2019s the President of the United States!  The cops think they can get away with this because Trump\u2019s bullying, and disrespect for authority, sets the tone, providing permission for others to do the same.  It ends up screwing our basic values, our respect for the Constitution.   I wouldn\u2019t blame you guys one bit if you sued the pants off these coppers.  Maybe it\u2019d wake them up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Finally we got to the professor\u2019s place, a little before noon.  Robin was no longer teaching, but was now a Professor Emeritus.  He looked much different than any of us expected \u2013 not at all like a trust baby or a rich kid.  He was wearing beads, in a Nehru jacket, more the aging hippie than retired professor.  His pad, although nicely furnished, including some antiques, had a hippie feel too.  Robin greeted us, saying he was happy to see so many of us, and almost immediately announced his favorite thing these days was asking anybody new he met: \u201cHave you ever met someone famous or know someone who has met someone famous?\u201d (Claiming this is how he got his material for writing.)  And he started right in, \u201cRocky, I know you have, and I\u2019ve heard you have too, Skip, but what about you?\u201d pointing to Sunshine, still in the pajamas she had on when the bust went down the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Unbelievably, Sunshine claimed her grandmother knew Albert Hoffmann, the inventor of LSD \u2013 met him at some psychiatry conference in Oslo.  Patty turned her camera on and turned the table on Robin, \u201cHow \u2018bout you, Professor?  Ever met anybody famous?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cYeah,\u201d Robin said, \u201cthe author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/em>.  It was 1964, I was in Oklahoma working on the railroad when Ken Kesey rolled through town.\u201d      \u201cAnd he taught you how to play bridge, if I remember correctly,\u201d Rocky chuckled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 27 Busted! (In 2 Parts) FIRST PART      By nightfall that first day out of Santa Fe, we were just getting into Oklahoma.  We found a campground by the Wichita River, off I-40, but Sally said it gave her … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2779,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/2779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}