I've just had an interesting experience with Arizona Police in Yuma who were insistent that I could not travel on UK plates in America and that no foreign bike had ever done it before.
It took a very long time and a lot of him shouting and fingering his gun nervously before he agreed not to take my number plate off the bike.
He clearly had a big attitude for a tiny mind, but his superiors told him at the base that he was right and it was illegal to use any vehicle on the road in the USA if it didn't have US plates.
He'd been in the job 25 years and he knew all of the laws there were to know.
It was only when he accepted that I could never then leave the US with my bike if he took its identity away, that he let me keep it.
It was a while longer before he tore up the $600 fine.
My explaining the carnet system and the idea of just passing through the US led to him shouting
"Don't you feed bullshit to a bullshitter son".
I felt it best to not point out what he had just said.
Anyway, just though I'd let you all know, there are some nutters in uniform out there
Paddy

Shoot, Canadians do it all the time. So do Mexicans.

Whenever I get frustrated by petty, inefficient, corrupt, pigheaded or otherwise incomprehensible officialdom in the developing world, I think about what it's like to encounter American officialdom as an outsider. This calms me right down.

There are some genuine psychos as well as a great many developmental misfits in uniform in America (as elsewhere). Glad you got out of there with all your funds and your bike intact. Got a good story to tell in the bargain, too.

Mark

In the seventies I and three other longhaired friends, drove from Alabama to California in an old battered Rambler and was stopped by police in Arizona. they stopped in front of us and both got out with their guns, straight hats, toothpicks and big grins on their faces and started walking towards our car.
When I saw this, I took out a ( biggish) camera to keep this sight for posterity but when they saw the camera, they threw away the toothpicks, the grins dissapeared and only one walked up to the car and asked very politely where we came from etc. and finished asking if we were jounalists ))
Bearing Easyrider in mind, I still think that camera saved us a lot trouble that day.

In Egypt I was sitting with my big Canon camera, in a restaurant writing in my diary and the maitre d'Hotel came up and offered me cake and tea. I'm sure he thought I was an undercover foodjournalist.

Most people in authority have a healthy respect for the media, which could be used to our advantage.

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Poul
May you enjoy peace and good health !

In 2006 I was stopped in New York by a policeman insisting that I could not drive with foreign numbers. It took some time to let me go, and after he radio someone, he finally told me "technically I can take your motorcycle away but you look like a straight up guy so I would let you go this time". That was the only time I was stopped by police in USA in a two months trip and it was at the second day of the trip.

This Xenophobic and racist hatred of anyone foreign is despicable and I am ashamed of my fellow countrymen who carry out these illegal policies.

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

Did you happen to get the name of this "officer"? Which police dept. did he work for? City of Yuma, county sheriff's dept., or what? I'd like to know.
Incidentally, the "officer" must have been too brain-dead to notice that southern Arizona is over-run with Canadians driving Canadian registered vehicles every winter for the last several decades. Or perhaps he thinks Canada is part of the US?

Charlie

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Unimog U500 w/Unicat

People who are in the United States illegally are criminals, and should be treated as such. That said, I am sorry the original poster had this problem. I've talked to lots of travelers from Europe who've traveled with foriegn plates without a problem. I think you ran into one bad apple, and hopefully that was the worse thing that happened on your trip here.

Come on, people, this is Yuma! This has to be one of the most ignorant part of the US, but I have only lived here 4 years, and grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles, so don't have too much to compare it to (there was the 2 years I lived on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, but that ignorance was more to do with being isolated and distrustful of the "white way" but I guess there is the Arizona connection, too).

Yuma is full of Canadians and Mexicans who drive on their foreign plates through the year--the Canadians during the cooler months and the Mexicans flaunting theirs all year. And I know that many of the Mexicans live on this side of the border with foreign registered cars.

You should really and truly write a letter to the editor at the Yuma Sun newspaper detailing this incident. Track the blogs at the bottom of the article--the racists will go on and on about Mexicans, not speaking English, who drive without changing their plates, and how Yuma and the US will soon be taken over, blah, blah, blah, but will contain many grammatical and spelling errors. The igonorant local-yokels who were born and raised here will tell you to go home, and don't let the door hit you on the way out, again with many spelling and grammatical errors. The Mexicans will defend themselves in some way, but since English is their second language, will not make sense and not be responding to your letter directly, but will be fighting with the racists and the ignorants (who are also racists by nature). But, this is why you should write--the City really and truly wants itself to look good and perfect in every way, and will want to know the details and try to defend itself in any way possible. That in itself is quite comical! Please write your letter and write it soon!!

YumaSun

I can sum it up to the sun being too hot in this part of the US, and the collective brains get fried little by little--the cops seem to be most affected by this phenomenon!

Off the subject a little bit, but an effective strategy that works throughout the state of Arizona when it concerns getting pulled over is to carry a firearm (when one can do so legally)in your vehicle or on your person...the police seem to get distracted by this, and wonder why you are doing this ("because I want to protect myself"). They run the gun's serial numbers and such, and (provided it's) clear, they will let you go. It has worked for me 3 times in the last 4 years. [I would not recommend this if you have foreign plates, and are not a US citizen or (legal) resident. I must stress that part!]

At a slight tangent from a fascinating thread..
It depends where you are, and who you're dealing with.

In 2006 I was stopped at a checkpoint outside a closed city close to Murmansk. There'd been no indication whatsoever that non-Russians weren't allowed on the road. Indeed, it was marked on the crappy map supplied by the tourist board as being of special interest to tourists.

Most of the 26 (!!) men in uniform who were involved in questioning me, checking documents, faxing Moscow, admiring the bike and generally wanting to be seen to be concerned, were friendly in the end. Their time was being wasted as much as mine, as Sunday afternoon became Sunday evening, their dinners were being ruined and their vodka being drunk by someone else.

But one verrry scary man in a long black overcoat kept asking questions, and spent a long time looking at my helmet-cam attachment. Velcro isn't very James Bond, but he was deeply suspicious. If I'd had any paperwork that day indicating that I've worked as a journalist*, I'm convinced he would have had me arrested.

Instead, the remainder of the 26 eventually conceded that a) I wasn't going to pay a bribe to get away and b) I had done nothing wrong, so they let me go.. though they didn't let me take their photo as a souvenir. That was a shame. We'd become good friends.

--Mike
*Ex-football journalist. But try telling that to the KGB!

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www.BesideTheSeaside.eu
---I'm back. Now what?---

PaddyT, I am upset and deeply ashamed. The Yuma Officer was very very wrong to treat you the way he did. Maybe this will help you and others... Here are several personal observations regarding the police. This was posted long ago, but I believe relevant here and now.

My thoughts regarding the existence of bad, corrupt
police that not only instigate crime but commit crimes
themselves mirror my thoughts regarding
humanity in general.

Now, in order to understand the police one must
understand the main function of the police, which is
to prevent or stop things from happening. .
Therefore, after a while as a police officer who is
repetitively preventing or stopping things, surrounded
by other police officers who are stopping things too,
he or she if not already having been selected by the
police application procedures as a stopper, becomes a
stopper.

Society needs, as part of its control responsibily,
stoppers.

I have successfully avoided several speeding tickets
by simply sitting in the car, or on my bike, with bowed head and
saying to the police officer now standing beside me...,
"we really need to stop speeders, don't we"
Immediately their was such affinity and apparent
sharing of reality the officer would not or could
not give me a ticket. I have passed this on to many
others and all who have tried it, have confirmed my
results.

Unfortunately, some police, (cultures designated
stoppers) have also been involved in situations where
their very life depended on their ability of stopping
something from happening. This confirms the fact to
them that their very life depends on their ability to
stop things.

I believe, and this is validated by actual statistics
of police corruption, much goes unreported, that
between 5 and 6% of US police are corrupt and
committing crimes against society. This group of bad
police contaminate and recruit from the other 15% or
so of the police who do not fall into the 80% I
believe are good people doing a tough job to the best
of their ability.

Unfortunately, the best "stoppers" are the ones who
get promoted and assume the leadership over large
groups of other police. Now remember, police in
general are not starters nor changers, just look at
the stats on any activity started and run by police
like Project DARE which has, by carefully weighted
scientific statistics created more drug use than what
would have been expected if the program did not exist.
This is fact. Or the comical failures of almost every
police run community event, they can't even have their
own athletic leagues or police balls (social events)
picnics etc...because they are all trying to stop
these things from happening. I am not inventing this,
several reputable books have been written on this very
topic.

I am not sure we can even expect our police to be the
innovative starters and changers of societal behavior,
but if there is anything, even things beneficial
starting or even beneficial changings occuring in a
community you can expect the police to be right on
the scene to stop it. The court systems also operate as stoppers of behavior, not starters of good behavior nor changers of society for the better.

So to directly answer your question for both North
America and South America I believe about 5% of the police
are corrupt and committing crimes against society and
that about 15% are in some way involved by the crime
of omission (not reporting the bad police) or minimal
participation in the commission of crimes against
society, and 80% are good men and woman trying to do
what is right.

One might say 80% really want to help others survive.

I am, in the final analysis a starter of projects and
a changer and yes, if I have to I can stop things too,
so by nature I have very little in common with the
police, and represent a threat to them once they get
to know me.

This might be a good time to point out that I do agree
that every culture needs stoppers, This is an
unfortunate reality that has been created by a
relatively few really bad people. And, look what
happened to Senator Robert Kennedy because, as United
States Attorney General, he was prosecuting the
mafia/police connections in various cities throughout
North America. There is a wealth of documentation
about this existing corrupt connection available, I
have no need to be creative here.

__________________
Motorcycle Parking Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.xfiltrate.com
Discover how to legally Buy, Tour and Sell a motorcycle in Argentina

Contrary to what some have posted, events like the one you describe happen all over the world and it is just a part of traveling. I have had several similar experiences at some border crossings:

1. The Canadian border official that was sure that I had a weapon just because my birthplace was Texas in my passport. After hours of searching he finally admitted there were no weapons on the bike. Talk about xenophobic. (Pigeon River Border Crossing, Minnesota/Ontario)

2. The Canadian border official that made me empty my earplug container because I surely have mace hidden in there. After examining my earplugs and the container I was finally allowed to pass. (Tolstoi Border Crossing, Minnesota/Manitoba)

3. The German official that told me I must have a German driver's license to operate a bike in Germany. Then I was told that to receive a German license I must be angemeldet (registered as a resident) in Germany. A real Catch-22. (somewhere on the autobahn in Rhineland/Pfalz)

4. The British official that required I give them my entire professional resume (including colleges and degrees) so that the British government could make sure I did not seek employment while touring the country. (Harwich ferry port)

These are just the ones that stick out. There have been many others in my travels.

Folks that blame this kind of behavior on the US government, people, etc. have probably never traveled outside the country. Do what I do with my "officialdom stories". Relax, open a brew, and make the story a little more dramatic each time you tell it around a campfire.

__________________
Ride Safe!
Kurt Nugent

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