Jessie Vigil isn't a cop, but his ride could be.His black and white car sports a red / blue emergency bar across the top and the word "police" painted on the doors, but he's not an officer of the law. And there's nothing illegal about it...as long as he doesn't act like a police officer.
Last year he started decorating his Ford Mustang to look like the police cruiser in the Transformers movie because his seven year old son Thomas was fond of the film. You hear that Michael Bay - your target audience is clearly little boys.
"My intent was to re-create the movie car," said Vigil, a 35-year-old disabled veteran from the war in Iraq. "When I came back from Iraq, I tried to spoil him. I wasn't the best dad before." Yeah, time to make amends, babykiller.
The Chief Deputy District Attorney tried to discourage Vigil from the decorating scheme but couldn't find anything in the law that would stop him as long as he didn't impersonate an officer. A state law prevents people from mimicking state police cars, which are painted black and white, but he also said the state police sell their old cars to private citizens without changing the colors.
"Are we violating our own law by not repainting them?"
He called the state law vague, and noted that normal state police cars aren't Mustangs. A close look shows Vigil's car isn't a police cruiser. Instead of the familiar slogan "To protect and serve," it carries a motto: "To punish and enslave" on the side. Instead of telling people to dial 911 for emergencies, the Mustang advises them to "dial 411 for theater information." He originally marked his car, "Transformers police" but later changed it to just "police".
State police are "concerned for the safety of people who think he is an officer and think they may get help from him," since "people around town know who he is, but not those people on the interstate". Like towing help? Or to solve a roadside murder?
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