Cops On The Way?

so the moral of the story here kids is dont be an idoit. remember we are there for the music and good times.

I think no matter what I would rather wait to have a smoke. I know I would kick myself for the rest of my life if I missed roo because I spent my weekend in jail for having a puff.

this year will be my third roo. ive been 04 and 05, i have never had a problem on the way down, i usually stash the bulk of it as best i can. we are all smokers and burn the whole way down, we always go the speed limit and havent had any problems, in 04 we started drinkin and smokin in line, walkin around and partying, but we were on some country road, in 05 we were on the side of the highway and the mood was not the same, still a party but not like on the country road, we didnt drink, just smoked inside the car, there are pigs all over manchester but they seemed more interested in keeping the traffic flowin and avoiding accidents, and prolly avoiding unrest of 80000 people gettin pissed at them, when ya get to the front gate a volunterr (aka. some hippie kid) will give yer vehicle a halfass search, basically just keep it out of view, bottles too as glass is not allowed, they will open yer trunk or the rear of your van/suv, i have never had them do anything more to me or anyone with us, once yer in let the good times roll, you can walk around smokin a j, they may tell yer not allowed to carry your beer around but it dosent happen very often, if it does ya just chug it down and go get another one, im always polite and usuallly they dont say anything anyways, in 04 they would find my party supplies at the centerroo checkpoint, which is once againhippie volunteers, and they would comment on how good it looked and say have fun, but in 05 one of the yuppie lookin security loosers actually patted me down, had me empty my pockets, he took my pipe and bag, and stuck both in his pocket, i called him every name in the book and went on my way, so now i always hide my stuff when going in, i found that sticking it in my bag of chex mix worked well... your not allowed to bring food to centerroo but they never once said anything about it or looked init, if they had asked to look in it, i woulda i bitched about them messin with my food, they would say its not allowed, and id say its all i got ill take it back to my tent, you can just walk away... if you pull a bag out of yer pocket and he says hes gotta take it, just turn around and leave,, they will not follow you and you can quickly mix into the crowd. even if they do catch ya they still take it but let ya go anyway. also in 05 late at night the real pigs rolled in on 4 wheelers and went to shakedown street, they rounded up a bunch pf people there, they searched all of their bags and pockets, if they had dirty pipes or durgs they would take them and send ya on yer way, they also busted vendors who were selling drugs, 1 dude had a sign for one hit wonder, they took all of his weed and money and all of his dirty pipes, so if yer a vendor i recommend not keeping all of your money on yourself, lock it in a car or sumthin, the good thing baout al of this is they let everyone continue on their weekend, no arrests were madee, but it still sucked, the pigs and security are just rippin people off for money, oh well in the real world youd be dealin with court and jail, so i would recommend that you only carry what ya need and leave the rest in the car, also buy a cheap pipe (5 to 10 buckst on shakedown street) and take that with ya so if it gets taken or lost no big deal, i accidently left three bowls at centerroo in o4..... all in all this makes it sound like its a big thing and its not,,, this is all that i have witnessed in 2 years and im not a sleeper i walk around partying constantly, if your smart the worst that can happen is ya lose maybe 2o 3o bucks, but the likelyhood of even that happening is pretty small

i gotta second the DO NOT drive home sunday night theory, you wont regret it

There are safeguards you can make to prevent a search in the event that you get oulled over. In most states, there are specific reasons why an officer can have probable cause to search you vehicle: 1. The odor of drugs or alcohol coming from the car or your person, 2. the presence of baggies in plain sight in the passenger compartment, 3. roaches or cigarette butts in the ash tray that look suspicious, 4. red eyes don't nessecarily mean impairment, but keep visine in case, 5. pipes, bongs, bowls, etc, in the passenger compartment or in plain sight, 6. the admission of guilt i.e. "yes officer i had a few beers" or "yes i was smoking weed, or 7. they have a drug sniffing dog that alerts the officer to the presence of drugs in a vehicle. The last one is the only one that will really screw you even if you take the afformentioned safeguards. In any case, no matter how badly you are screwed, i.e. a joint burning when the officer rolls up to the car, ALWAYS REFUSE A SEARCH, never allow them to search your car. If you submit to a search in most cases, IT CANNOT BE THROWN OUT OF COURT. Be safe and smart!

Yea, the checks aren't too bad. When you come through the gate, usually no actual cops will touch your stuff at all...just a Bonnaroo employee who will ask you to open your trunk. They shift around in there looking for tanks, obvious drug stuff, and glass bottles. The don't allow glass, only cans.
However, one year me and my buddy got randomly selected on the way through the gates by real cops and they took a tidbit of pot from us.
Lesson learned...don't carry anything in, believe me....u can find some later.

Last year at bonnaroo I heard plenty of horror stories of people getting arrested on the way there. Some guys camping beside us were following their friends in another car, and the guys leading the way got pulled over, searched, and then arrested for major felony charges. They set up a stand trying to collect money to bail their friends out by the end of the weekend - how horrible to almost be at bonnaroo then you spend that time in jail! Just be extra careful on the way down there and I don't recommend writing "On the way to BONNAROO" all over your car.

Some cops may say that refusal = probable cause, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. They may force a search based on that, but if you said no to the search, you have the chance that the search will be thrown out. If you agree to the search, you have pretty much no chance of the search getting thrown out.

don't think it has been said but it's worth mentioning. When you get to the gates they will mark your vehicle with a smiley face in blue or a frowning face in red. Our car was one of the ones radomly searched. we had "stuff" on us, but well hidden BUT we had a sixer of sierra sitting on top of all our stuff in the backseat tha we forgot to hide before we got into line and decided not to bother with it. If they take it, fine. we had more beer. So they search us and see it.

"You know you can't bring in glass bottles."
"oh yeah, just slipped our minds, you can keep it."
"nah that's alright just make sure you don't break them."
"thanks, man" (hands him a beer)

this was at like 5am thursday morning so they just wanted to get everyone moving as fast as possible before the big waves. They mark us with a frowing face and we were on our way. Anywho, they mark the suspicious cars coming in and i guess it's a way for the authorities on the inside to quickly establish who might be a problem when patroling by, though we didn't have aproblem the rest of the weekend...

i'm assuming is good, and you may be more of a target for whome ever. the majority of vehiles there i saw had a smiliey face or nothing at all on their front or back windshield

i thought this thread, and some of the links therein, was pretty relevant. take a gander.

bonnaroo.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=logistics&action=display&thread=1144834944

two years in a row, never been stopped or searched. I did get COMPLETELY sketched out by the gas station attendant on the way up though....but I was spun and paranoid. she asked "how many people actually goto bonnaroo?" I was like, "bonnaroo? whats that?" and shes like, "ain't yall goin to bonnaroo" and I was like "no, where going camping, uh in tennasee, and what is bonnaroo" and then i went to the pisser to calm down, came out and my stoned as buddy is all blazed like, laying on the counter talkin to this chick about how she should quit her job and goto bonnaroo! I just about died....I was sure she was gonna calll a cop up the road......but seriously, don't give them a reason and they wont give you a hassle. as for the locked trunk and glove box, I have heard all this before. In the event of givnig consent for and being searched and the cops encounter a locked trunk, glove box, or safe of some sort, they have to ask your consent to unlock the item. you can refuse consent to the said item, BUT if youve already given consent to a search, its gonna look suspicious....if the cop wants, he can call in a k9 unit to sniff for substances, if the dog alerts, you will be asked again, if you refuse, you will be detained (not arrested or charged) and they will acquire a warrant for the forementioned item(s) and remember, if your blazin a bowl and a cop sees you from outside the car, you have just abandoned all rights to any belongings on your person and in your car. don't consent to a search, say your already in a hurry and running late and if he insists, then you have just met "the asshole cop".

also, what about cops on the way back?

is it best just to not bring anything back with you after roo? are cops on the look out for folks travelling home who might have stocked up at the fest? or is there more potential for trouble on the way there than on the way back?