My girlfriend and I decided to try to go to Costco this morning. I went along because she has thrown her back out and I was going to stay in the car, but help her unload the cart into the car. We saw the line was about 1000 people long so we headed out of the parking lot.
Just as we rolled out a cop pulled up with overheads flashing and siren going. Nicole and I exchanged looks, no idea why we were getting stopped. She pulled over, the cop pulled his car next to hers and said “why are there two of you in the car, madame, you live alone”. This meant his ALPR - automatic licence plate reader - had brought up her data on the fly and he had decided to act.
Nicole said to the effect that he (me) was her boyfriend and was staying in place at her house. The cop used his most officious asshole cop voice to say (in French) ‘Madame, everyone has known for 3 weeks that only people who live together can ride together in a car. He must change his address to yours or I will give you a $1000 ticket plus costs’. I spend way too much time consuming news every day, from TV to Twitter, and that requirement has never been mentioned.
I leaned forward and spoke to him in English, saying I speak no French and would like him to repeat everything for me. That apparently was too big a task for him so he announced that he would only issue a warning this time but put a mark on her record.
OK, I appreciate enforcing social distancing guidelines, indeed this was my first time off her property in a week, but threatening with an unknown regulation is a bit much. And I am discomfited by the fact a cop can pull up a full dossier on a driver on the fly, not just licence and registration, but domicile and other personal information.
At least they haven’t come to weld shut our front door, a la China.
At least, not yet.