The officer's first question was: "You're pretty drunk, aren't you?" Like a fool, I responded truthfully: "I've had two beers all evening, officer. What makes you think I am drunk?" (I was poor and two beers was the minimum I was expected to buy, one for each set. I had nursed them along.) He then responded: "You were weaving down the street." To which I responded truthfully, "I was following the lane markers exactly. I saw you behind me." (The street was curvy as it approached the freeway.)
He then ordered us all out of the vehicle. During our exit the glove box fell open due to a bad ketch and a 12" knife in a leather scabbard that I had found beside the road in Jalisco, Mexico the previous summer was visable. The officer's partner reached in and grabbed the knife and scabbard and placed them on the top of the passenger compartment. I protested: "That is not a dangerous weapon! It is an anthropological curio I picked up beside the road in Mexico last summer. It is in the car because I took my 8th grade students camping last weekend and I brought it along because it is functional." (I had previously given him the name of my up-scale private school employer and my occupation.)
At this point one of my passengers decided to be helpful. Pointing at the officer at the vehicle he said "He can't do that! Tell him he can't do that!" So I said to the officer: "I'm new to California, but I wouldn't think you could just pull someone over and search their vehicle without cause." The officer responded: "Step over to the curb here and I will explain the situation." I did and he said: "I am within a hair's breath of arresting you on the charge of drunken driving. If you want me to make that decision real fast, just object to the search."
I didn't have any reason for him not to search the vehicle, other than principle, and I didn't want the hassle of a night in jail and a day's missed work, etc. so I let him search. Fortunately, none of my passengers had left anything or had anything on them. Later, someone explained that, had he arrested me, even if the charges were dropped, they would have impounded the car and searched it as a part of their inventory process and that the officer knew this.
My first real encounter with LAPD. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
Re: the search of your car. I would guess he may have just wanted to get the incident over with, but granting permission for him to search made it a legal one and opened you up to charges had he found anything incriminating. I doubt you could absolutely vouch for the innocence of anyone in the car other than yourself. My strategy would been the same as yours, trying to avoid the search and arrest by being nice and respectful from the beginning. Sounds like it worked. Unfortunately, youthful drivers probably gather more than what may seem to be their fair share of police attention. I can sympathize because I've been on both sides of the equation. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
On reflection I decided that the cop wanted it for his own collection. I may well have been unaware of trading it for being let go. I did not know what the law was on knives in cars in those days in L.A. Still don't. The knife seemed somehow familiar to me in that I had (and have) one of similar size my father had got from a Hindu, reportedly in exchange for a haircut, (of what sort I don't know, as he was both a barber and a gambler on the side while in the army,) while his unit was in India prior to going in the first convoy over the Ledo Road through Burma into China during WW II. That knife was undoubtedly of the sort that was used with such lethal effect in the communal violence that followed partition. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
