reply@grouponly.com wrote:

<polite snip>

I was in the area when the stinky woman with the dog situation
occurred. If you haven't read it, I'll write it up, but needless to
say, the Lincoln County Sheriff is not to be trusted.

 Could you, miso?
When you've time I'd enjoy the read.

              andrew

It's not much of a story. I was at the Little Aleinn with Bill W. and
either Chuck or Joerg. [I don't recall.] There was talk about this
woman wandering the ET Highway on foot with her dogs. The locals called
the Lincoln County Sheriff to get her to safety before she dies of
exposure. Aparently, the LC Sheriff wouldn't pick up this woman because
she smelled badly. [A few days in the desert, and just about anyone
will get a bit ripe. And pardon my grammar is it should be bad instead
of badly.] I saw a cooler and some gear left by the side of the road,
which probably belonged to this woman.

I was staying in Alamo, so this must predate the $3 a gallon gas. [I
just camp out now. It takes more planning, but doing a hundred miles a
day for no good reason doesn't make sense at those prices] It was
nighttime, so I drove slowly to avoid an encounter of the bovine kind.
Somewhere after Hancock summit, a police car coming in the opposite
direction turned on the red and blues. Since I was driving slowly due
to cattle, I figured this would be an interesting stop since there was
absolutely no reason to stop me. It turns out the car was from the NHP.
The NHP  got a call about a woman wandering by the highway and the
officer wanted to know if I knew anything about her. I described the
location of the cooler and gear as best I could. I didn't mention I
knew the Lincoln County Sheriff blew this woman off due to body odor,
and I suspect the call the NHP got was from the sheriff that it would
be OK if he wanted to stink up his car.

The NHP officer asked where I was coming from and where I was going.
[This was pre-vebal-judo, which is yet something else I have to
explain.] I said I was drinking at the Little Aleinn. He said "your
eyes are red...have you been drinking?" I had no clue if my eyes were
red or not, so that could have been a BS story to get me to talk. I
said I had one Pepsi. He decided to let me go.

I forget the technical name for verbal-judo, but post 9/11, the cops
are trying to find people who don't "belong", to put it simply. So they
ask you why you are here, where are you going, what do you do for a
living, blah blah blah. Unless they have a decent cover story, the
evil-doers will stumble on these questions, so the theory goes. You
probably have to live in an urban area to get this treatment, but it is
really annoying. A friend was heading to the pharmacy to get a
prescription, and she got caught up in a DUI checkpoint. [This is where
they stop cars without any probably cause. The Nazis on the Supreme
Court said this is legal because the checkpoints are posted in the
newspaper.] Nothing like needing your medication and being stuck in
traffic for no good reason. So OK, she was just a bit hot headed. Well,
then started the verbal judo. What do you do, where do you live, etc.
It's beyond a pain in the ass. I've said it many times: I rather take
my chances with a terrorist than live in a "safe" police state.