I’m not really sure whether this is really cool or really, well, dirty. Police in Mobile, Alabama are pulling over suspected drug dealers in their pimped-out rides, and, if they find the trunks loaded with cocaine and C-notes and the like, they seize the drug money and use it to buy the car off the impoundment lot. Officers then take the slab to the hood—scraping tail, flashing rims, thumping Mike Jones, or whatever—as if to say, “This is what happens when you cross the law, suckers!” Their current ride is a canary yellow 2006 Dodge Charger with a 5.7 liter 8-cylinder HEMI. The cops are known as the Ridin’ Dirty team, a slangism popularized by the rapper Chamillionaire meaning driving with contraband. Here’s the best quote from today’s Moblie Press-Register story:
“We wanted to send a message that police have nice things, too,” Battiste said, “Sometimes courtesy of the drug dealers.”
Fair enough, I guess. But the money they seize is actually the property of taxpayers, so the question is really whether it’s worth it to the public to be setting them up to be pimpin’.
