A Little LNP Action

If you ever read any colleagues blog's you'll see that our run-ins with the Liberian National Police (LNP) are frequent and often result in a disagreement about some "traffic violation" that requires a little payment to get out of the situation. I ran into my own little LNP incident the other day, and it reminded me of an earlier incident that I had with them that I never blogged about till now.

This previous time, I was heading home from a grocery store near our office, and I happened to be in a colleague's personal truck. I was coming near the executive mansion and suddenly was pulled over at one of the checkpoints. There was no reason to it, but I pulled my vehicle over to the side of the road. I was asked to produce my license, and when the officer saw that it was valid till 2010, he was happy with that. He then asked for the papers for the truck and as I reached over to an empty glove compartment,I knew this was where my luck was going to change.

I explained to him that I was driving a co-workers vehicle, and that if I could call him I would be able to resolve the situation. While on the call, the officer insisted that I pull the truck over on to the sidewalk, which I did, and then also came to the passenger side of the vehicle. Not thinking and rather focused on my phone call, I unlocked the door and he slide into the passenger seat. I finished my call with my coworker only to find out that he was in the process of getting his papers, but that he was on his way to relieve me of this situation. In the meantime, I asked the gentleman to please step outside the vehicle while I waited for my co-worker. He refused, stating that if he did that, I would simple drive away (yes, I did contemplate it as an option). Secondly, he started wondering why I was suddenly insisting that he get out of the vehicle, and I explained that in my culture it wasn't proper for the police officer to climb into the vehicle, and that I would prefer he wait outside. He said he would not unless I gave him my license.

We discussed this back and forth before I finally caved and gave him my license. Stupid me!! Rule #1 with LNP is never give over your license. Now I was in a bind. My colleague came and I politely asked the gentleman for my license back. At this point, he began to explain Liberian traffic rules, and explained, "No traffic violation is transferable!". I asked him what the violation was, he said, "the vehicle papers are not with the vehicle". To which I replied, "Well then your issue is with this man here as he is the owner. I have a valid license which you have attested to, and I would like to continue on my way". Yeah right! Back and forth we battled and the more we insisted, the more he stated, "Traffic violations are not transferable!!". I'm not sure what finally convinced him to let me go, but after much deliberation and after having made me pay penance for kicking him out of the vehicle, I was allowed to leave.

The other day as I was pulled over to drop off coworkers at one of the junctions, I saw out of the corner of my eye an LNP officer standing there with his hands up to halt me. Again there was no reason, no violation that I had committed, and flashbacks of this previous experience flooded into my mind. While I'm not proud to say it, I revisted my previous experience in my mind, and I took off leaving the officer with his hand in the air and continued on my way home.