you'd definitely not be impersonating an officer, but you'd probably be arrested for assault or hijacking, i think. Replace "ELECTRO" with Fashion or Culinary and think about it.

you'd definitely not be impersonating an officer, but you'd probably be arrested for assault or hijacking, i think.

Even if he voluntarily lets me into his vehicle and says "glad to be of assistance officer, which hut did you want to go to"? It's false pretenses sure, but I didn't threaten violence or force my way into the vehicle. The only weapon I'm wielding is presumed authority.

seems a buyer beware thing
if they buy it, i'd beware

Amber is OTM. Carjacking is the likely charge if you were arrested. Or panhandling, if it's illegal in your town. I'd probably give you a dollar if I encountered you--two if you put little wings on your boots.

Even if he voluntarily lets me into his vehicle and says "glad to be of assistance officer, which hut did you want to go to"?

Who would do that? What kind of badge would you show? You'd just be standing on a street and flag down a car?

Who would do that?

An extremely gullible/credulous individual. Again, for the purpose of this question he genuinely believes I'm a government official.

What kind of badge would you show?

My laminated picture glued to a yellow plastic lightning bolt.

You'd just be standing on a street and flag down a car?

As often happens in crappy action movies. The mark driving the car has seen movies, and thinks this is something that law enforcement people are actually wont to do.

Let me try a less whimsical version: I put on a dark suit, I flag down a car, I flash my driver's license and tell the guy I'm from the "Federal Investigation Department" or the "Bureau of Homeland Investigations" or something else that sounds real but doesn't actually exist. I tell him he needs to let me into the car and follow my instructions. He voluntarily does so, genuinely believing I'm from the government. Have I just impersonated a federal officer if the organization I'm claiming to be from isn't a real federal agency? Is it still carjacking if I don't force my way into the vehicle or threaten the driver? Is entering the vehicle under false pretenses enough to count as carjacking?

Is entering the vehicle under false pretenses enough to count as carjacking?

Welll.... I know that if someone shows me a fake badge (even from a fake agency) to try and gain access to my home, its a crime. So the question here becomes in what legal was are my home and my car different.

in none, i don't think.

Is entering the vehicle under false pretenses enough to count as carjacking?

Following answer applies to NYS as state laws vary on such matters:

No. "Carjacking" (not the actual name of the Penal law entry; the actual section of the law would be robbery) involves the "use (or threatened use) of force."

For it to be "carjacking" you would have to say to the motorist when he/she rolled down the window "let me in, I need a ride. If you make a scene or drive away I will shoot you."

A robbery of a vehicle in a "carjacking" scenario that involves the victim being killed is a federal crime and you could be prosecuted in federal court depending on a number of factors.

You could be charged with Impersonating an Officer, section 190.25 of the Penal Law.

As for your claim the agency does not exist, IANAL, but I do not think you would get anywhere w/that defense. The point is you obtained a benefit fraudently.

Reference the costume: You could also be held involuntarily and brought to a public health facility for a psych exam.

Back to your suit example: not in NYS, necessarily, but in other parts of the US where there are concealed carry firearm laws, you might get shot.

Finally, consider, hypothetically, that you or whoever does this, scares a driver, and the driver speeds off and kills a pedestrian.

You would be looking at some kind of manslaughter charge.

so...bad idea then? ; >

Well, it was all theoretical anyway.

On a completely different subject, does anyone know the best place to sell a pair of slightly used size 11 red and white striped go-go boots?

Prediction: you'd be charged under the Patriot Act.

If the driver sincerely believes that I am part of the USEP, even though no such organization exsists, have I just commited the felony of impersonating a federal officer, or was this a lesser kind of fraud?

Please try this and find out. What kind of bastard would actually prosecute you? This is like some of the odd urges I get but somehow barely restrain myself from acting on (okay, most of mine don't involve such elaborate costumes, just acting like a total nut and speaking in an ethnically indeterminate accent to complete strangers...)

just acting like a total nut and speaking in an ethnically indeterminate accent to complete strangers...)

I do this to telemarketers. My favorite was one who was trying to explain the concept of identity theft to me (he was selling "credit insurance") as I blustered along in an outrageously fake Australian accent. "You mean they dress up as me, sport? Strewth! You'd better ask for some ID then, just to be sure!"

Replace "ELECTRO" with Fashion or Culinary and think about it.

Actually, in that outfit, don't be surprised if another citizen shows up claiming to be with the fashion police, and insists on issuing a fine.

: >

actually there was just a guy arrested for wearing a Grinch mask on the street in W. Va.---too weird.

I think maybe if you changed the concept and language from Electro Police or Whatever Foo Bar AuthorityFigure and "I need to commandeer your vehicle!"

to

"Hi, I'm a superhero and my name is Fan Man, will you please take me to the giant fan store over yonder?" and they say "Radical! I'm barely holding my fudge with excitement! Get thy fan-bladed John Bigbooty into the hoopty mobile pronto for exciting and adventuresome aero-screw recon mission! Far out!"

You'd have a totally different ballgame going on - a ball game involving a wide assortment of nuts and a few dozen different kinds of balls - because you're not issuing a call to action, and you're asking permission in a manner that infers silliness, and the "mark" is responding in kind, and at that point it's just two random weirdos that have met and are now wandering off to do random weirdo things.

I could totally see that happening in SF or Austin, and maybe a few other places. Not to mention Burning Man, but I hear there's less of that kind of insanity these days. I'm pretty sure if someone that was obviously at least mostly bathed and groomed and visibly not murderously insane approached me in a silly costume and requested something silly to do, I'd let them in the car and we'd go off and do silly things.

Or, if you get in trouble, you could claim to be Ashton Kutcher and point halfway down the block to where you claim to have a hidden camera, then when everybody looks for the hidden camera you run like hell in the other direction.

Actually, about 28 years ago I worked for a L.A. radio personality who did things like that (he even had a superhero suit one of his fans made for him), and he was never arrested. (Of course, he was holding a microphone and a suitcase-sized piece of mobile radio equipment... except for the times when he had a long cord on the mic and I was holding the suitcase-sized mobile radio... ah, good times.)

If you wear an outfit like that you should be arrested for looking like one of the Village People. It's just wrong. Wrong, I say.

(like the guy from Cameo wore in the "Candy" video)

You should also be arrested for having remembered this sad bit of information!

Anyway, as long as we're hypothesizing, may I suggest this for your studly superhero undergarment? (It'll look great when you strip down to just hat and boots!)

/me points taz to that "party dude" character on MTV's jackass or Camp Kill Yourself.

Anyways, what the hell? What's so skin-soothing about a fun fur posing pouch and an elastic band? That shit looks like it chafes like a mofo, yo. Fun fur is itchy.

Jesus, that makes me sound like a plushie.

laws aren't silly logical games, or computer programs. they're part of society - enacted and enforced by real people with real emotions and real opinions about what is important and what not.

so you can't make up stupid situations and ask "what would happen if" and expect an answer that makes any kind of sense - if the situation was exceptional then the response could be exceptional too. so, in this case, people wouldn't believe you, or the police would laugh, or whatever.

to say "but imagine they did believe me" is like saying "if everyone spoke a language i've just invented what would 'burble' mean?". there's no way to know because the whole thing only exists in your imagination.

Nonsense. In a country where people buy that this is food, someone would be gullible enough to genuinely believe in the USEP. If I found them there has to be some name for my crime and I wanted to know what it might be.

Or how about this article about mosquito caused zombism? You're telling me that a world that contains people who had to stop and wonder about that one doesn't make it possible that someone would bow to my pleather beclad authority in a crunch?

to say "but imagine they did believe me" is like saying "if everyone spoke a language i've just invented what would 'burble' mean?".

This reminds me of something Bush I (God, never thought I would miss him) once said when a reporter asked him a hypothetical:

"If a frog had wings, they would flap against his tail as he soared through the air. Don't talk to me about 'if'. "

Something to that effect, too tired to get the cite.

If you promised to sing 'Jingle Bell Rock" while en route, I'd take you to get a pizza for sure.

This would be a clear case of false imprisonment.

I had a dream about the USEP last night. Thanks for the brain fodder PST!

PST, you went and did it, didn't you?

(mcd! Joy of man's desiring!)

I can't get that link to open, unfortunately.

It's only this

he's cute!

I don't know the answer to the question, but while you're out, could you get me a medium sausage and onion? Thanks, officer!