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."
