
CHP Arrests Driver Impersonating Chinese Paramilitary Police - tomcam
https://www.thedrive.com/news/29927/highway-patrol-arrests-driver-impersonating-chinese-paramilitary-police-with-audi-a4
======
ilamont
Lots of drivers in the U.S. have military seals or decals on their vehicles,
often to show support for a particular service branch that they or a relative
is associated with.

I've also heard of journalists and PIs using vehicles that _look_ like
undercover/unmarked police cars to get access to areas that might otherwise be
off-limits to civilians - they sometimes get waved through perimeters or won't
be ticketed/towed if they park in restricted areas.

Could this be someone showing support for Chinese police with over-the-top
decals? Or was the driver actively pretending to be a Chinese police officer
or _is_ a police officer claiming some right to operate outside of China? The
article didn't make the circumstances clear, other than the car obviously has
the markings and seals.

ETA: Just remembered another odd situation/use case for fake police cars - as
art or performance props. The UK band/art collective I used to work for, The
KLF, featured a 1968 Ford Galaxy police cruiser in many of their videos, with
the lights and paint intact but modifications to the seal and motto (using "To
Serve and Protect" and the band's Pyramid Blaster logo). You can see a picture
of it on the back of some of their 45s (see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorin%27_the_Tardis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorin%27_the_Tardis))
and I know they drove it around London for the 3 A.M. Eternal video.

And in the Boston area there are owners of old Ford LTDs with Boston Police
logos from the 1980s and 1990s which are used as movie props (see
[https://www.universalhub.com/2018/old-boston-police-
cruisers...](https://www.universalhub.com/2018/old-boston-police-cruisers-
never-die)).

~~~
ceejayoz
> They recalled an incident earlier this summer wherein another Asian driver
> with Chinese markings on his car was arrested following an attempt to pull
> over an off-duty police officer.

That's beyond just having decals.

~~~
_bxg1
Is this some kind of weird role-playing fantasy? Who in their right mind would
expect not to be identified as a fraud, impersonating an officer _in the wrong
country_?

~~~
peterwwillis
Hanlon's razor

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Could you be a bit more specific?

~~~
peterwwillis
An eponymous law, probably named after a Robert J. Hanlon, it is a
philosophical razor which suggests a way of eliminating unlikely explanations
for human behavior.

Inspired by Occam's razor, the aphorism became known in this form and under
this name by the Jargon File, a glossary of computer programmer slang. Later
that same year, the Jargon File editors noted lack of knowledge about the
term's derivation and the existence of a similar epigram by William James. In
1996, the Jargon File entry on Hanlon's Razor noted the existence of a similar
quotation in Robert A. Heinlein's novella Logic of Empire (1941), with
speculation that Hanlon's Razor might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor".

In 2001, Quentin Stafford-Fraser published two blog entries citing e-mails
from Joseph E. Bigler explaining that the quotation originally came from
Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a submission (credited in
print) for a book compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law
published in Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go
Wrong! (1980). Subsequently, in 2002, the Jargon File entry noted the same.

Earlier attributions to the idea go back to at least the 18th century. A more
concise expression of the idea comes from Jane West, in her novel The
Loyalists (1812). A similar quote is also misattributed to Napoleon.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
That is both very thorough and totally useless - so much so that it looks like
you were deliberately trying to misunderstand.

Could you explain how you think Hanlon's Razor has any relevance to brundolf's
post?

------
gpm
Note that these vehicles are apparently not just driving around, but actually
trying to pull people over!?

> They recalled an incident earlier this summer wherein another Asian driver
> with Chinese markings on his car was arrested following an attempt to pull
> over an off-duty police officer.

~~~
m463
Maybe he shouldn't have been ignoring those chinese-language phone calls about
some trouble with his green card application.

More seriously, I wish there was a simple as star-69 service for phishing
phone calls, maybe call it star-86

------
ibarrajo
I would love to see a news article where Fremont's brewery "Beer Patrol" Crown
Victoria is mistaken for an actual official cop car.

[https://pasteboard.co/IykxzXT.png](https://pasteboard.co/IykxzXT.png)

~~~
reaperducer
I remember that happening to a pizza joint in the 90's. It was called
something like "Pizza 911" and delivered in a vehicle made to resemble a
patrol vehicle.

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loser777
I’d be really surprised if the Chinese “secret police” drive around with an
array of plushies on the passenger side dash. However neglecting motor vehicle
law is very typical in Irvine in my experience.

------
koolba
Does this have any connection to those Chinese scam calls where the scammer
claims to have kidnapped your family?

------
ceejayoz
What sort of idiot impersonates Chinese police _in the United States_? To the
point of trying to actually pull people over?

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Yeah. I mean, impersonating US police might actually get you somewhere. But
Chinese police? I get pulled over by someone pretending to be Chinese police,
and I'm going to tell them to get lost.

Unless (as tomcam says) these are _actual_ Chinese police, blatantly here in
the US, trying to tell dissidents "even here we can get to you".

~~~
corodra
Without a USA liaison, they can't do that and it's illegal for them to do so.

No one should ever take someone seriously acting on behalf of a foreign
country trying to arrest you in America. Even Interpol needs a USA liaison.

------
seanmcdirmid
Doesn’t the CHP know a real black Audi police car in China would have no
markings at all? This is the car of choice for the higher end CPC police, who
are neither in uniform (well, the typical MIB uniform) nor would their car be
so easily identified.

Heck, one way to avoid getting pulled over by the police in Beijing is to
drive around in a black Audi. They’ll automatically think you are some kind of
big wig who they shouldn’t mess with (unless by other black Audi driving
police).

~~~
reaperducer
_Doesn’t the CHP know a real black Audi police car in China would have no
markings at all?_

Why should they? Is it common for police officers in California to study the
customs of police departments around the world?

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Sure, I didn’t mean that in serious way, just that this wouldn’t have been
mistaken for a real cop car in China. How would the CHP know that, surely they
wouldn’t.

It’s just so obviously fake in a tuhao way, like seeing POLICE printed on a
Porsche or something.

------
trhway
i wonder what that guy's (at least it was a guy behind the wheel when i saw
the car on the road once, and the car had the police style color scheme and
that text from rear bumper repeated on the sides too) experience has been
[https://uptownalmanac.com/2010/01/meanwhile-mountain-
view](https://uptownalmanac.com/2010/01/meanwhile-mountain-view)

------
Leary
Clearly this is one of those mainlanders with more money than sense who did
this as a "joke".

~~~
mieseratte
What makes you say "Clearly?" According to TFA this isn't the first, recent
incident.

~~~
Leary
Because nobody who can read Chinese would think this car is real, it looks
entirely like a joke.

------
bitwize
A scary thought I had was of the actual Chinese police coordinating with CHP
and California DAs to crack down on this sort of thing, under threat of
Tencent pulling its money out of Hollywood or something.

~~~
eznoonze
You don't need Hollywood for that. It's exactly what is happening in Hong
Kong.

------
youeseh
No mention of Alex Roy anywhere.

~~~
ficklepickle
Except in the comments

~~~
youeseh
Comment. Juuust one :(

------
booboolayla
Was that Diane Feinstein's driver?

------
jkdksdj
How is this related to tech news?

~~~
sneak
It’s a failed attempt at hacking. The name of this site is not Tech News.

------
tomcam
This tactic is also being used in Australia. These men are Chinese secret
police here on tourist visas, harassing the families of prominent Hong Kong
demonstrators.

EDIT: that was incendiary and almost certainly incorrect. As others have
pointed out, the Chinese police are much smarter about this kind of thing.
It’s much more likely to be dumb teenagers.

~~~
ttul
If this is true, it's pretty egregious of the Chinese state to be so blatantly
interfering in the affairs of American residents. I mean, if you're going to
harass HK supporters, do so ... clandestinely?

~~~
mc32
Yah I mean, as if they quickly took over the southland and imposed Chinese law
anon and started going after dissidents in this new land of theirs.

------
HeavenFox
I'll bet $50 it's a Chinese student / new immigrant who put this on as a joke.
It's like some American drivers got fake European plates for their Mercedes.
Yeah, it's stupid, but hardly something one goes to jail for.

And some guy tried to pull over a police officer? Either he's dumb beyond
belief, or more likely the officer mistook him for actual police.

~~~
algaeontoast
I walked by Harvard on my way to work every day last year (didn't work at
Harvard but nearby). I'd commonly see expensive german cars with Chinese
symbols spray painted on them in gold spray paint.

It turned out this was a common "joke" international students from China would
play on each other. Sometimes between couples who were dating according to a
friend who was able to translate the spray painted language. It's disgusting.

------
algaeontoast
I'm curious how "armed" police that "protect" Hasidic jewish neighborhoods in
New York haven't attracted similar negative attention?

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/nyregion/brooklyns-
privat...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/nyregion/brooklyns-private-
jewish-patrols-wield-power-some-call-them-bullies.html)

~~~
xxpor
They're semi-offical. NY State has given them money in the past:

[http://matzav.com/boro-park-shomrim-to-receive-bullet-
proof-...](http://matzav.com/boro-park-shomrim-to-receive-bullet-proof-vests-
following-shooting)

