Are you known to the police?

I remember my glorious arrival in the United States two years ago. The plane landed at around 11PM at Chicago O'Hare, so we had to take the much hated Lex to get to campus (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Of course, once there, there was no way we could go into our designated residence hall because, well, there was no-freaking-body at the reception. It was me and a bunch of other Italian students. The only other people we saw on the street were some American guys who were so wasted they couldn't even remember where they were. Nice start.  As soon as we saw a student getting into the dorm, we trapped the door open so that we could actually wait for whoever had to give us the key to our rooms, inside. After a lot of calls and no luck, what do you think happened? Well, the police arrived! Yes, that door being kept open for 20 minutes or longer triggered an alarm somewhere on campus and a couple of policemen made their appearance and questioned us about what was going on. They couldn't identify us all (of course they identified me) because the person in charge of the reception desk that night eventually showed up and let us in, so the police could finally leave. He was saying stuff like:"My boss told me to periodically walk through every floor, you know, to check everything's all right". Whatever.  It turned out that the guy in question would be my roommate and would always take a one-hour nap at 2AM while at work.  Nice.

So what's my point here? Well, could I have made myself known to the US police and not the French one? Of course not! Here's what happened this time.

My means of transportation around the city is the velo bleu, namely the blue bike. These bikes are owned by the city council and upon payment of a weekly/monthly/annual rate, you can take one from any "velo bleu parking lot / station" (or whatever you might call it in English), use it for free for at most 30 minutes, and then leave it at the nearest spot. It's amazingly useful. Maybe not as efficient as in Paris, but whatever. Still the best way to get around town. So one afternoon I took one bike and rushed to Place Massena. I was running late, and since I had already noticed how carelessly people drive their cars and motorcycles in here, I took the liberty of passing some red lights, while still making sure nobody was coming. I think this is common sense everywhere. But hey, this must have looked really bad, because a huge car passed me way too quickly and pulled over right in front of me. It was pretty obvious that they wanted me to stop right there. At that point I didn't know what the hell was going on. Three men stepped out of the car, all in plain cloths. One shouted at me something like:"Stop, the police! You passed all the red lights! Stop right there!".  Now, why would any local policeman not wear a uniform and care so much about a cyclist? So the first thing I thought was that these were some impostors trying to rob me or something.  What you do in Italy when policemen aren't wearing a uniform is to ask them for their police ID, so as to make sure who you're really dealing with. It is your right to do so. My teatime conversation with them (A, B, C) went like this:

Me: Oh ok, can I please see your ID? I need to make sure you're the police.
A: We're the police. Did you steal the bike? Why were you running so fast?
Me: Well, I want to see your police identification before saying anything to you.
A: We ARE the police! Damn it, don't you see I have a police transmitter? So is this your bike? do you have a velo bleu card? Did you steal it?
Me: I asked for your police ID, sir. I could as well have a walkie talkie attached to my belt, you know.
B: what the hell, we TOLD you we are the police.
Me: I wanna see your IDs, sorry.
A: I've got a gun, is this enough for you?!?

Well, I guess it was. I gave him my velo bleu card and his partner started asking me questions like:

B: What were you doing in a such a hurry? Where did you get your bike from? Where were you going? And to do what?
A: Give me your identity card. Do you even have one?
B: Are you known to the police? Do you have a criminal record? Are you by any chance Romanian?
C: "No, he's Italian. You see? Italian driving licence. 
A: Should we let him go?
B,C: Yeah, ok. Let him go.

Me: Thanks...