Don’t get out of your car if you get pulledover by police.

绝对不要在被警察勒令停车后下车，乖乖待在车内不要动！

I was pulledover by a police officer while driving in Iowa. It was one week after I hadarrived in the USA for the first time. I had accidentally made a minor mistakedisobeying a traffic sign.

我在爱荷华州开车时被警察拦下了。那是我第一次去美国，刚到一周左右，在路上不当心，没有看到交通标志所以违章了。

Back home inAustralia it’s considered polite to get out of your car and walk over to thepolice officer’s car and hand him your license so he doesn’t have to getout of his seat. I wanted to be extra polite so I immediately jumped out of mycar and walked towards his car while reaching into my back pocket.

在澳大利亚，遇到这种情况我们一般都会从自己的车上下来，然后走到警车前递上自己的驾照，以便警官不需费力下车。当时，我迫切想要把澳洲人最尊敬有礼的一面展现给这位美国警官，所以立刻就从车上跳下来，一边朝警车走，一边掏屁股后面的口袋。

I’m lucky to bealive.

我能活下来简直是祖坟冒了青烟了。

If you come froma gun-free country like the UK or Australia you don’t have any natural instinctfor gun culture. You don’t realize that police assume that everyone is armed.

如果你来自像英国、澳洲这种禁枪的国家，那你对枪的文化根本就一点都不敏感。你意识不到在警察眼里，每个人都是携带武器的。

Things gotimmediately serious. The police officer’s hand went to his weapon and Iresponded by dropping to my knees with my hands up. He yelled a bunch of thingsat me but my memory is vague because my heartbeat was suddenly pulsing in myears blotting out all sound.

说时迟那时快，气氛一瞬间就变了味。这位警官立刻摸向了自己的配枪，而我的反应速度也不输他，举手、跪地，一气呵成！（译者注：咳咳不好意思这里有点演绎了。。）他冲我叽里咕噜喊了好几句，但我大脑一片空白，因为我的耳朵除了自己的心跳，已经什么也听不到了。

I don’t know ifhe drew his weapon or not. I was staring intently at the ground, shaking andtrying to project non-threatening vibes. My next memory is that there werethree police cars around me and a bunch of cops who’d been called for backup.They were all keeping their hands close to their guns.

我不知道他是否拔出了配枪。我专注地盯着地面，浑身颤抖，尽可能地表现出自己没有任何威胁。我能想起来的下一个画面就是围着我有三辆警车，以及被呼叫增援而赶来的一批警察，他们的手都扶在自己的配枪上。

After some timepassed (a minute? 30 minutes? I have no idea) the tensions de-escalated andthey told me to get up. I gave the officer my license and tried to explain whyI’d approached him. It was completely incomprehensible to him that there was aplace where people don’t fear cops and vice versa at traffic stops. It was asthough I was trying to tell him that I came from Narnia and our cops were alltalking animals.

过了一段时间（一分钟？还是三十分钟？我根本一点意识都没有），紧张的气氛有所缓解，然后他们让我站起来。我把自己的驾照递过去，并尝试对他解释我为什么下车走向他。他表示完全无法理解，世界上竟然存在一个地方在这种情况下，人们完全不怕警察，警察也不怕人！他感觉的感觉就是，我声称来自于纳尼亚（译者注：魔幻故事中的大陆），而我们那里的警察全都是会开口说话的动物！

I’ve spoken toseveral British people, New Zealanders, and Australians who have shared almostidentical stories. They really need to put signs up in all major US airports.

我认识几位有几乎相同经历的英国人、新西兰人和澳大利亚人。我觉得美国人真该在每个大型机场都设置警示牌才对！

Don’t get out ofyour car if stopped by police. They will assume you are armed and they mightshoot you.

所以，如果被警察拦停，千万不要下车！他们会误以为你有武器，可能因此向你开枪！