Captain America turns head I understood that reference
dieselgate 36 minutes ago [-]
Super cool article, love how the driver got bored of car shows and wanted to do something different. Article doesn't appear to mention any of the engine or chassis specifics?!
Reminds me of Dumb and Dumber when the cops say they're following a "1985 Sheepdog, sir"
NoSalt 1 hours ago [-]
Are you driving a banana, or are you happy to see me?
I missed that, which is a pity as it's a fruitful story and I must have slipped up as it looks quite a-peeling. Certainly I clicked on this story as it stood out from the bunch.
actionfromafar 5 hours ago [-]
What's a fruitful story for you can get berry triggering for a botanist.
nicbou 1 hours ago [-]
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.
micromacrofoot 44 minutes ago [-]
I'm glad the owner takes it lightly, but isn't this actually an abuse of power? If I can't pull someone over because I want a photo with their car... cops shouldn't be able to either, right?
dwa3592 2 hours ago [-]
That's a good looking car. I wish there were more of these on the roads.
verst 52 minutes ago [-]
I saw this very banana car while I was having brunch Sunday morning in Ballard Seattle!
So many comments in the previous thread and no one mentions the banana car from Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo video.
miah_ 2 hours ago [-]
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.
classified 2 hours ago [-]
> 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.
eagerpace 2 hours ago [-]
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.
gacgacgac 1 hours ago [-]
Cops pulling someone over is never "fun and whimsy".
eagerpace 1 hours ago [-]
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.
delecti 15 minutes ago [-]
Being pulled over is a command under threat of violence, by an agent of the state empowered to use deadly force, who is mostly insulated from the consequences of poor judgement or abuses of power. Being pulled over by cops cannot be whimsical.
wat10000 31 minutes ago [-]
Whimsy should be consensual and not involve the threat of violence.
nicbou 2 hours ago [-]
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.
lazide 1 hours ago [-]
squints have you met any police?
skinfaxi 39 minutes ago [-]
Yeah have you? They carry guns and are prone to violence in the US at rates disproportionate to the rest of the population, and that's just against their own loved ones.
> Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, (1, 2) in
contrast to 10% of families in the general population.(3) A third study of older and more experienced officers
found a rate of 24% (4), indicating that domestic violence is 24 times more common among police families than
American families in general.
She's obviously following the publication's style guidelines. Look at other articles. There's absolutely no need to attack people in a discussion about an article about a fricken banana car.
autogn0me 4 hours ago [-]
Response dangerously lacks whimsy
dapperdrake 3 hours ago [-]
Most of the whimsy vitamins are between the skin and the banana.
kube-system 3 hours ago [-]
Newspapers are invariably written to a grade school reading level for accessibility.
2OEH8eoCRo0 3 hours ago [-]
So 100s of cops have done their jobs?
saghm 3 hours ago [-]
> "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?
williamdclt 2 hours ago [-]
I'll happily live in a world where this is the extent of police authority abuse.
teraflop 2 hours ago [-]
If you tolerate small abuses, and let people get accustomed to abusing their power in small meaningless ways, the abuses will only grow.
lazide 1 hours ago [-]
I can assure you, pulling over the banana stand is not the road to death camps. The death camps are.
wat10000 30 minutes ago [-]
Maybe not death camps, but it is inextricably tied to real abuses. I don't see how you ban "driving while black" stops without also banning these.
zmgsabst 40 minutes ago [-]
Roads don’t start at their end.
And it didn’t start there in Germany, either banana cars or death camps.
38 minutes ago [-]
tomalbrc 2 hours ago [-]
If only.
pak9rabid 2 hours ago [-]
Sounds like a fun way to make a lot of friends in law enforcement :)
saghm 57 minutes ago [-]
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...
4chandaily 3 hours ago [-]
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.
aardvark92 1 hours ago [-]
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.
loloquwowndueo 36 minutes ago [-]
> but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.
What a privileged point of view. For a lot of people police are indeed nothing but a potential threat.
petcat 2 hours ago [-]
> 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.
4chandaily 2 hours ago [-]
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.
petcat 2 hours ago [-]
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.
lazide 1 hours ago [-]
Because no one is allowed to have fun, obviously.
cindyllm 2 hours ago [-]
[dead]
rozap 2 hours ago [-]
Yea, he should be driving the state sponsored crossover suv like the rest of the country.
Arodex 2 hours ago [-]
Yeah, the attention of armed people with the authority to order him around. See how ridiculous that sounds?
petcat 2 hours ago [-]
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.
nicbou 1 hours ago [-]
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.
4chandaily 2 hours ago [-]
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.
petcat 2 hours ago [-]
> 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.
wat10000 28 minutes ago [-]
Is it legally reasonable? Does the local law make "that looks funny, might not be street legal" a primary traffic offense?
sixothree 2 hours ago [-]
You seem to have misunderstood the reason this country was founded in the first place.
kube-system 3 hours ago [-]
The police can only stop a driver if they believe they have committed a primary traffic offense.
petcat 2 hours ago [-]
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.
kube-system 2 hours ago [-]
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.
wyclif 47 minutes ago [-]
IANAL, and would like to believe that what you say is true, but I think in most jurisdictions "reasonable suspicion" that the vehicle was not street legal would float as justification for a stop.
sidewndr46 2 hours ago [-]
No? Not even close. If the police "smell weed" they can stop you. If the police believe you have active warrants they can stop you. If the police believe you have committed a criminal act of any kind, they may stop you
kube-system 2 hours ago [-]
I'm speaking about a traffic stop specifically, I am aware other crimes exist.
sidewndr46 2 hours ago [-]
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.
kube-system 2 hours ago [-]
> 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.
2 hours ago [-]
2 hours ago [-]
Rendered at 16:18:59 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Reminds me of Dumb and Dumber when the cops say they're following a "1985 Sheepdog, sir"
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.
> Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, (1, 2) in contrast to 10% of families in the general population.(3) A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24% (4), indicating that domestic violence is 24 times more common among police families than American families in general.
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2017R1/Downloads/Comm...
> 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?
And it didn’t start there in Germany, either banana cars or death camps.
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.
I understand your perspective, but viewing police as solely as a potential threat is not spreading whimsy.
What a privileged point of view. For a lot of people police are indeed nothing but a potential threat.
This man is driving a homemade banana car across the continent specifically because he wants the attention it garners. It's the whole point.
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.
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.
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.