An experiment in homelessness

[Inquisitive Lurker]

For reasons that are too complicated to go in to, I have had to depart from my cottage in rural Wisconsin. Another warrant for questioning (my name gets mentioned in investigations). I got a tip off from Milwaukee's only leftist sheriff deputy. I can't fly to Oregon because my name would be flagged.

So I have to vanish for 10 business days or until the warrant expires. So I'm living in my car, drifting from place to place, killing time. Have to use cash not credit. It has given me some insight into what it is to be homeless. The hardest part is finding somewhere to be. At least I have my car.

[Bitter Ashes]

I was homeless for several months last year. Had friends let me sofa surf through it until I could get a council flat. Biggest issue I had was storage for my stuff that I'd been keeping at my last place. The landlord threw it all out into the street and most of my friends don't drive. Took a collective effort, but we got it sorted. Was hard moving it from storage to my new place though without the car. Again, friends helped me out with that one by taking boxes and bags on the bus with me.

I do need to point out too that if the local government wants to find you, they will. Anything from your IP address, to your car's plates being flagged up by ANPR, to just plain bad luck of having an old style "wanted" poster up with your name on. You're also putting your friends, family and comrades at risk of unwanted police attention too if they're looking for you. Mentioning the deputy will probably spur an internal investigation too. I'm not deleting this stuff because the damage is already done, but please think about what you're posting here and how it not only puts yourself at risk, but others who trust you.

[Pretty Flaco]

wtf did you do?

[Johnny Kerosene]

wtf did you do?

Security culture my friend. Also, it's a warrant for questioning, meaning they probably think he know's something about something else, not that he did it himself.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

As someone else pointed out, it's a warrant for questioning, not arrest. I get one or two of these a year. In the time I'm going to have to keep my head down I could have easily driven to Oregon and back, but for reasons I'm not going into, I'd rather stay in Wisconsin. I'm fairly invisible. I'm using a non-GPS ghost phone, have tinted lenses over my plates, and sleep somewhere different every night. Tonight's a great place, I'll get to watch a magnificent sunrise over the lake.

Cheers from the early hours of day 5.

P.S. I know who mentioned my name and they will be set aright. When you try to organize as many people as I do, you always get a few that don't know how to shut up.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

I just got to watch a deal go down!

It's 3am, and a car pull up to where I'm stashed. In about 15 minutes a truck came, the men got out, and a large package was exchanged. Then they drove off, never even seeing me (my car is covered in camo burlap, which you can pick up at most hunting stores).

Cool experience though.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

Day 6 of being a fugitive.

You know, a more rational course of action would have been to let them take me in on the warrant for questioning, suffered a few hours of being yelled at, and then gone home. Except I'm kind of enjoying playing the fugitive, even though technically I'm not one.

The police have been to my house, my neighbors, my parents' house in a different town, and even to my bar! I stopped in for a drink and the bartender / owner told me the police had been around looking for me, and had asked him to call them if I came in. We both had a good laugh about this, we've known each other for 10 years.

So I'm doing good, having fun, and should be back home in a few days. Once they stop holding the person responsible for this, they won't need me.

[Revolutionair]

You have got to be fucking trolling me.

[Bitter Ashes]

Day 6 of being a fugitive.

You know, a more rational course of action would have been to let them take me in on the warrant for questioning, suffered a few hours of being yelled at, and then gone home. Except I'm kind of enjoying playing the fugitive, even though technically I'm not one.

The police have been to my house, my neighbors, my parents' house in a different town, and even to my bar! I stopped in for a drink and the bartender / owner told me the police had been around looking for me, and had asked him to call them if I came in. We both had a good laugh about this, we've known each other for 10 years.

So I'm doing good, having fun, and should be back home in a few days. Once they stop holding the person responsible for this, they won't need me.
edit: actually, no. You know what? Assuming that anything you've posted up here isn't a load of crap, then I seriously hope you learn from this! Is it any wonder you're wanted by the police when you're posting threads like you have been? And guess what? Rather than accept you're wrong and that you've put people at risk, you've decieded to do a runner and leave all your friends and family to take the flak for your own actions. Do you begin to see how stupid you've been acting? I'm not even sure that a single thing you've typed up here is even real either, or whether it's just some kind of 14 year old hormal fantasy. Either way, I really don't think I like you.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

I've put no one at risk through my actions. Just my having some fun with the police. Since I'm not wanted for arrest, people can tell the cops whatever they want without repercussions.

And like I've said, I've been through this before. The warrants that is, not the sleeping on the streets. You may have noticed that my posts were single paragraphs, because they were sent from my phone. Then when I get to a hot-spot I edit them for formatting and spelling.

And by the way, I post with impunity because I know there is no link between the real me and the online me.

[Zealot]

Haha, sounds like you're having a good time with this

[Bitter Ashes]

there is no link between the real me and the online me.
Yeah. I'm getting that feeling...

Anyway, how do you think it looks when coppers turn up on somebody's doorstep? At the very least it makes you look like a fucking grass, but it can esculate to all sorts of accusations. These people are not responsible for your actions. YOU are.

It's been pointed out several times that you've left a lengthy paper trail straight to you, on this forum alone, let alone whatever else you're posting wherever. You continue to ignore this fact and it's not you who's suffering most for it, but your friends and family who have not been posting dumb shit on numerous states' most watched forum.

This is not paranoia. You're being a dick, for no purpose, but to boost your e-penis and other people are getting the flak for your actions.

Wake up for crying out loud.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

I'm chronicling my experiences dodging the police, a skill that others might have a use for. Finding places to kill time, which is the major part of my days. Just letting time pass in non public places, like obscure parks, college campuses, certain neighborhoods of the city. But most importantly, in places I've never been before (except for stopping at the bar, I happened to be driving by).

What I've learned is that the best place to hide is the country, with occasional forays into the city. But never the places you've been before, and never the same place each night.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

The beauty of the game is this: it's a war game.

The rules for executing a warrant for questioning are the same for a warrant for arrest. Thus, in this little game I am able to throw the dice the same as I would if I were a real fugitive. And for 6 full days I have eluded the police, while remaining in the same location.

It's excellent training. If I win, I win as if it were real. If I lose, my only penalty is a few hours of interrogation with the same questions as the last time.

So really, this is a game I can't lose!

[Bitter Ashes]

You're missing the point entirely. You say you're fine with the situation. Your parents and neighbours haven't had a say in whether they want to be involved in your "game" too. These are peoples' lives you're messing with and the timing of them putting this warrant on you and you posting the stuff you've been posting on here seems a bit too much of a co-incidence too.

THIS IS NOT A GAME!

If you like games and you've got some kind of fetish for guns then I suggest paintball, or airsoft, or something. Not screwing with real innocent people's lives for you own entertainment.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

It is a game.

And how have I inconvenienced anyone? "Have you seen IL? Do you know where he is? Will you call us if he contacts you? Good day." That's it.

And you are paranoid. My posting on RevLeft has nothing to do with it. I've been getting pulled in for questioning once or twice a year for the past five years. When you are an organizer of my variety it is inevitable that your name gets mentioned.

So greetings from the gray morning of day seven of the game.

[Dr Mindbender]

If the police wanted you bad enough, I'm sure they'd go out of their way much more than they have done to find you (putting a bounty on your head for example).

So i'm not sure how scientific this 'experiment' is.

[Bitter Ashes]

I'm not paranoid. There's a fellow volunteer at HAL who had two coppers make a 400 mile round trip to challenge him about stuff he was falsely alledged to have posted on Revleft. A 19 year old kid was lifted in the UK this afternoon for internet activities he'd been involved in only a few hours beforehand.

It's not normal for anyone to get pulled in for questioning for no reason. Capitalism's a fucked up system that leads to desperate and mentally ill people, which means that coppers have got far more people to be chasing than just you. Is it because of you saying publicly about being ready to shoot coppers, or your signature which says the same, or something else? I don't know. It's not normal anyway.

As for the inconvenience, people can be very judgemental about seeing police cars sat outside their neighbours' homes. It makes you look either like you've called them (a grass), or you're under investigation (which can spur rumours ranging from anything from family abuse to a drug addiction, or worse). Rail all you like about how they shouldn't care, but at the end of the day, it's not up to you to decide for them if they are to take that flak. You've also almost certainly spawned an internal investigation in that sherriff's department to find the guy who warned you and for their kindness and your loud mouth, there's a reasonable chance of them losing his job or facing criminal charges.

I'll give you the honour of being the LEAST prepared person I've ever met for any kind of political action, because all you've demonstrated is a total lack of awareness, or even interest in security, other than to fill your home with incriminating evidence to be used against you. I wouldn't be surprised if the pigs decided that your arsenal was too big for one person and started lifting other, more responsible, people in the area too accusing you all of plotting and tooling up for a terrorist campaign.

I am by no means a pacifist. Look at this from a tactical perspective. You're isolated, unable to do anything productive for the movement, pissing resources away left right and centre and turning your allies on your own doorstep against you. In short, you're trying to be Che in Bolivia.

Just admit you're wrong and learn from this, please.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

There's no wrong to admit. There's no harm being done. Just the police spinning their wheels.

I know exactly what they want to talk to me about and it has nothing to do with anything online. I organize people in a certain way for a certain purpose, often one of them gets arrested on some minor charge. Of those few arrested, one occasionally mentions my first name, if he was lucky enough to learn it. They show him a photo array, pick me out, now they have my last name. I'm used to it.

The police think I know something bigger than what they've got. And I'm used to these interrogations. Just ask for a lawyer, remain silent, and usually you'll be released in a few hours. If they are feeling very vindictive, they'll change your status to "under investigation" and then can hold you for up to 3 days.

And I'll know when the warrant has been vacated. They'll give up, and I'll have a good laugh.

Although if this goes on to long, I'm going to do what I should have done in the beginning, leave the state.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

Stupid things to do.

I am a chronic speeder. For me, 80 is slow. But I have a good radar detector and I've yet to get a ticket. But there are special circumstances where they can fail: hills.

I driving on a country road doing 60 in a 45. I drive over a hill and the BAM! My radar detector starts screaming. There was a cop in the ditch with a radar gun. I'm screwed.

I slam on the breaks, slow to 45 and keep on driving. I watch my rear-view mirror, nothing. I drive, I watch. Nothing. A few miles pass, and nothing. The lazy bastard must have been asleep!!!

I really dodged the bullet! I thought it was Game Over. Yet I remain free. Day 7, the game continues.

[Property Is Robbery]

I got a tip off from Milwaukee's only leftist sheriff deputy
That's really surprising to me. Do you think he/she was more sympathetic because of Wisconsin's current governor?

[Inquisitive Lurker]

That's really surprising to me. Do you think he/she was more sympathetic because of Wisconsin's current governor?

Police and Fire unions were exempt from the union busting laws because they backed Walker at the elections. Tit for tat, they played ball.

[Summerspeaker]

This doesn't sound like fun at all. I've also recently become semi-homeless, though only as a transitional stage and just to save money. I'll probably be living out of a suitcase and backpack through July. Best wishes to you.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

Update

Day 9

Well, the individual who mentioned my name has been charged with a minor felony and is being held on bail. So the warrant for my questioning is likely to stay active for a while.

I've exhausted the entertainment value of being on the run, so I'm leaving the state. I thought about not saying where I am going, but anyone can guess it's to my place in Oregon, where I am unknown.

So I checked my cottage for anyone watching, popped inside and packed up in the middle of the night. Now I'm on my way west.

Road Trip!

I was getting bored with the Wisconsin weather anyway. Need to see mountains and the ocean. Think I'll spend a few days at Yellowstone while I'm on the way.

Again, I post with impunity because I know there is no link between my online and offline self.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

I am now out of Wisconsin and out of reach of the warrant (they don't extradite for questioning).

So my 9 day experiment is over. It ended kind of neutrally. I didn't win, I didn't lose. I just stopped playing the game. Now I've got some serious driving ahead of me, and some beautiful sightseeing (Yellowstone) to look forward to. Then over the Rocky Mountains (always breathtaking), a long drive along a river, and then home sweet home.

[bcbm]

Police and Fire unions were exempt from the union busting laws because they backed Walker at the elections. Tit for tat, they played ball.

they are looking at going after them in the near future though

[ellipsis]

edit: actually, no. You know what? Assuming that anything you've posted up here isn't a load of crap, then I seriously hope you learn from this! Is it any wonder you're wanted by the police when you're posting threads like you have been? And guess what? Rather than accept you're wrong and that you've put people at risk, you've decieded to do a runner and leave all your friends and family to take the flak for your own actions. Do you begin to see how stupid you've been acting? I'm not even sure that a single thing you've typed up here is even real either, or whether it's just some kind of 14 year old hormal fantasy. Either way, I really don't think I like you.
This.

OP is a mall ninja.

[MarxSchmarx]

This sounds a little a strange.

In America cops do not generally issuing an official warrant for questioning that is distinct from a warrant of arrest. In most English speaking countries, the only time you can be dragged in to answer questions if you aren't under arrest is when a judge issues a subpoena pursuant to a trial. In all other cases you are free to go about your business. Although in Australia they do in fact issue warrants for just questioning, I've never heard of this happening anywhere else. If you're not under arrest you have no obligation to interact with the police - period. So you aren't doing anything remotely subversive and they can't expect to stop you based on your license plate or anything.

Although I'm not an expert on Wisconsin law by any means, all of the aboveleads me to believe that something about this story is either apocryphal abou tthe OP's sotry or that they are needlessly exaggerating their situation for trolling purposes.

[Inquisitive Lurker]

When you are wanted for questioning, the police can detain you, take you to a place of questioning, and keep you there for up to 24 hours under Miranda, not Terry. They then can, even without evidence, change your status to Under Investigation, and hold you for a total of 3 days, including the first day. Then they must either release you or file charges and put you in front of a judge.

If a subpoena is issued, that can reach you in any state and you will be extradited. But being wanted for questioning has no power outside of the original state. (If you have every have been stopped by police, you may hear them on their radio asking dispatch to check for wants and warrants.)

Greetings from the Black Hills

Inquisitive Lurker

[Inquisitive Lurker]

they are looking at going after them in the near future though

I haven't heard anything about that. The unofficial reason for their exemption was for supporting him in the election. The official reason was they didn't want to risk a strike by the Police or Fire. That issue remains if they go after them.

[Ele'ill]

Inquisitive Lurker, I'm sorry you're allegedly in a bad spot out there in the real world, I really am however within this space here (the forum) open talk of evading warrants/arrest/knowingly engaging law enforcement in your home with extreme malice is making myself and others uncomfortable- especially with the level of detail you're providing. I consider what you're doing to be careless conversationally and absent of even the slightest hint of security culture. Unfortunately when you enter a relatively safe space with the type of carelessness you've demonstrated you can put many others at risk of harassment by law enforcement. In the future please do not do this. Thanks.

[bcbm]

I haven't heard anything about that. The unofficial reason for their exemption was for supporting him in the election. The official reason was they didn't want to risk a strike by the Police or Fire. That issue remains if they go after them.

they've already started in (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jm8H62iJXFdfKnFSD9cCuuZxh5Fg?docId=077972d22 da1463baef5a2799419a9f9) on some of their benefits, i couldn't find the article i was looking for about it but it was in the state journal a few weeks ago

[bcbm]

And by the way, I post with impunity because I know there is no link between the real me and the online me.

not true

[Sasha]

since the OP is banned for being an sock and his supposed accounts here where fictional anyway (for all his bragging OP should really be more carefully online, facebook & google are an ***** huh) thread clozed.....