Are you driving a banana, or are you happy to see me?

There's always money in he banana car

Discussion yesterday (168 points, 92 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48601420

These cops using their authority to stop him is a bit of a slippery slope. If he's too tired to humour this monkey business, he can't just peel off.

What's a fruitful story for you can get berry triggering for a botanist.

That's a good looking car. I wish there were more of these on the roads.

> Often officers simply wanted photographs. Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.

Who knew that abuse of privilege could be fun! But then I think it's only natural that the LEOs of a banana republic would feel a magnetic attraction to a giant banana.

He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour." Sometimes it's ok to have fun. Nobody drives a big banana thinking they're not going to attract attention. It's part of the fun and whimsy.

You have a point, but stopping a car as a police officer is a much less consensual interaction than having a quick chat at a red light. It's a very forceful way to have a friendly conversation.

squints have you met any police?

Cops pulling someone over is never "fun and whimsy".

Not saying I enjoy it. Not saying that I’d drive a giant banana either. But if I saw a police car, pull over a giant banana, I would think it was hilarious. That’s the definition of whimsy.

So many comments in the previous thread and no one mentions the banana car from Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo video.

I wondered if it was the same but he says he built this car in 2008 which would have been three years after that video.

There are many of these “art cars” out there. See https://lesblank.com/films/automorphosis-by-harrod-blank/

> "For the first eight or nine years I was the most pulled-over man in America," he said. "It was constant."

> Often officers simply wanted photographs.

> Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.

> His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia.

> A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.

> A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him.

> A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.

> "'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"

Their job is to take advantage of their authority to have fun at the expense of the time of citizens?

I'll happily live in a world where this is the extent of police authority abuse.

If you tolerate small abuses, and let people get accustomed to abusing their power in small meaningless ways, the abuses will only grow.

I can assure you, pulling over the banana stand is not the road to death camps. The death camps are.

If only.

Sounds like a fun way to make a lot of friends in law enforcement :)

Right, there's definitely not a bunch of pressure from the fact that they can throw you in jail for basically anything and probably get away with shooting you if they really wanted that would get in the way of a real meaningful relationship...

More like 100s of cops have abused their authority to harass a middle aged artist.

At even just 10 minutes a stop, that is over 30 hours of this poor man's life he has spent staring at the berries and cherries just because some entitled cop thought he deserved a photo op.

The police are human too and often bored on shift. The world needs more whimsy!

I understand your perspective, but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.

> harass a middle aged artist

This man is driving a homemade banana car across the continent specifically because he wants the attention it garners. It's the whole point.

Wanting to attract attention and wanting to be constantly interrupted by law enforcement are not the same thing. This is the "well if she didn't want to be raped, she shouldn't have worn that skirt!" argument, and it doesn't look any better here.

He said that he enjoys it. Why not just let him have fun in his banana car if he wants to? HN commenters seem to be the only people upset about this. He specifically said that he enjoys the banter and photo-ops with the police.

Because no one is allowed to have fun, obviously.

Yea, he should be driving the state sponsored crossover suv like the rest of the country.

Yeah, the attention of armed people with the authority to order him around. See how ridiculous that sounds?

I would advise you not drive a homemade fruit car around your town if you are this terrified of the attention it will bring. He clearly said in the article that he enjoys the encounters. He is doing this on purpose.

I got a lot of attention on a trip of mine. People would walk up to me at gas stations to ask about mt my trip and it was super cool.

However we interacted as equals and I was free to refuse the conversation or end it when I wanted. I was free to set boundaries.

I would not feel the same if stopped by cops.

Him enjoying the attention doesn't make the actions of the police right or just. He enjoys the attention, they are abusing their authority, Both things are true.

> they are abusing their authority

It's perfectly reasonable to question whether that vehicle is street legal when it passes by on the road. It would be my first thought. It looks like it's mounted on a boat trailer chassis, and the windshield appears to have questionable effectiveness at high speeds. Pulling him over to ask about it seems like they are doing their jobs. Especially when I am also a driver on the same road.

You seem to have misunderstood the reason this country was founded in the first place.

That's not true at all. The police can stop a vehicle for any suspicion of unlawful activity. For instance, to question a driver about the street-legal-ness of their homemade banana car. You can, however, refuse questioning and refuse any inspection of the interior of the vehicle and just ask them to cite you for what they pulled you over for.

They are required to have reasonable suspicion that the banana car is unlawful in some way. (e.g. missing required equipment, etc) Simply wanting to question the driver or get a picture for funsies is not quite enough.

I'm speaking about a traffic stop specifically, I am aware other crimes exist.

your statement was "The police can only stop a driver". This is completely false. It is based off the belief of the officer, not fact or reality.

> It is based off the belief of the officer, not fact or reality.

A belief that they have violated some law. They cannot do it for these reasons, from the article:

> Often officers simply wanted photographs.

> Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.