An American Life in Istanbul

Current Mood: Angry

So I had another little run in with the police. You can read about my first run in with the police by clicking here. This time, it was completely retarded. Two weekends ago, was the first time I had the car for the whole weekend, all to myself. It was great! It felt so liberating to be able to drive where I wanted to when i wanted to without having to wait for anyone. Izzy and I went rock climbing, I drove, Tahsin, Leyla and I went to Kemer country, I drove. It was also nice not having to listen to Murat’s music choice for a change. Overall the whole weekend was fantastic except for one little run in I had with the police.

To get to Tahsin’s house, you take the highway east until the last exit before the bridge. I managed to miss the exit since it is not very well labeled and it sneaks up on you. Being my frist time driving this way to Tahsin’s it slipped past me. I only realized I had missed the exit when I arrived at the toll booths for the bridge at which point I stopped and pulled off to the right. A bit unsure of what to do, I decided to backup into a coned off area where two police cars were. I figured I could call Tahsin and he could ask the police for me how to get to Etiler and ultimately Tahsin’s place. Below is a picture showing how things went:

Following the image, the area enclosed by the yellow dots is the coned off area, the red dots are my path, and the blue is where the two police were. As I was entering the coned off area to ask the police for help, the police came running over yelling. I called Tahsin and had him translate between me and the cops. First things first was that I couldn’t drive there. Then they said my US driver’s license wasn’t good for Turkey (it is). After some discussion they wrote on a piece of paper 200 Lira (150 dollars) and held their hand out. I said no that I wouldn’t pay that I didn’t have money. Then they wrote 108 on a piece of paper and again held their hand out for money. Finally, after Tahsin argued more with them, they said they would send the ticket to the residence listed on the vehicle insurance. The ticket came last week.

I was talking about this with Alper and apparently the way things work is like this. If you are not Turkish and/or you are driving a nice car (both of which were true in this case), the police will try to find something wrong so they can get a bribe from you. This is just the way things work in Turkey. Thus, it is quite a disadvantage to have a nice car. Infact, even when parking in lots, they will charge you more if you have a nice car. I suppose it is a way of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, but I don’t like their methods. I am all for a romanticised story portraying some Turks as modern day Robin Hoods, but it is not the case here. The police here are a corrupt brotherhood that watch out for each other, and collectively try to wring as much under the table money out of the people’s pockets as they can. Shame on you police.

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