Last night on our way to Kunstpark Ost we ran into a bunch of cops. It was a drug check. Somehow, out of the four of us, one of them voted me "Most Likely To Be Carrying An Illegal Substance," and I got the full pat-down treatment. Actually, I got the pat-down plus the I'm-going-to-stick-my-hands-in-all-your-pockets-myself-and-see-what-turns-up treatment, and it was weird. (Any time a third party, and especially a German police officer, rummages through your pockets, its going to be pretty strange.) My instinct was to tell this guy in my best Charleton Heston voice of outrage, "Get your hands off me you damn dirty ape." But this isn't my country and for all I know refusing to submit to a search could land me in jail, which would be bad for me since the bits of paper that allow me to stay here could be torn up in a moment, and my tenuous hold on this place lost.
They have different laws here. As an example, the other day I learned that it is completely legit to pick and eat apples from someone's tree as long as you don't set foot on their property. So if you can reach the tree from a sidewalk, say, the law allows you to pick as much as you can carry in your arms. Another example: you're responsible for keeping the sidewalk in front of your residence well-lit and free from snow or ice or you'll have to pay for any accidents people may have on it. In fact, they even go so far as to mark some sidewalks as private, with signs that say "Use at your own risk," in order to avoid this sort of liability.
What would you think if a sidewalk in the States was marked "Use at your own risk?" I personally would expect it to suddenly terminate on the edge of a cliff, Shel Silverstein-style.
Posted by Alan at September 8, 2002 12:09 AM