I live with one, I see or hear about all the **** they have to deal with daily, I hate people that talk ****, or call them pigs, as they aren't bad or "out to get you", they're just trying to do their jobs, keeping you and I safe.
cops are regular people who were either beat up in highschool, did drugs n stole, or served in the military n didnt know anything else. It could be a combination of any or all of those. Once they feel accepted, they kinda go ******* manipulative fratboy like any other kid with power. Then factor in how they deal with a lot of **** and you get the mr. typical hardass cop who ****s with you cause he can. im privy to this information because of family, friends, and im a firefighter (firefighters are usually nerds and police) oh, and some are real stand up guys who will give the shirt off their back. most are as specified above.
Hey, thanks for your input to the thread, i am sure the OP will find it invaluable. Although i am not entirely sure what your refering to as my post was quite a long one. For your info, read post #26, and then you will realise that PCthug has NOTHING to do with police.
ok sorry to bother you mate. whats up did the little string come of the end of your tampon again? edit sorry again i should have kept up with all your posts from the first one to know about your nick
The lesson to learn with this is never focus on a cop no matter what or where they are. By you focusing on them not only does it make you look nervous but in this case did exactly what you're not supposed to do, shift your focus from driving. I'd just chulk this up as a learning experience, pay the fine and remember next time even if a cop is right on your ass, pretend they aren't even there and just focus on driving and not doing anything wrong.
I've spoken to police officers a couple of times in various circumstances - some do seem to be on a bit of a mission (i.e. making a massive deal of a Fear and Loathing T-shirt being offensive), but on the whole I've never had any bad experiences with them. They're usually very fair and if you act like a reasonable human being, they'll do the same to you. There are always exceptions, but I've not yet had the misfortune to deal with one lol
I worked for the police a few times when they were doing their riot training, even went drinking with some of them a couple of times, most are completely fine but there's always a few that are not, just like in every other walk of life I know a few horror stories about our local officers who are often a bit too heavy handed A relative was charged with breach of the peace, hogtied and thrown in the back of a police van, that throw broke both his clavicles, which have never properly healed, the original charge was quickly dropped The relative, from above, had an argument with the small time drug dealer across the street, after some back and forth there was one day where said relative lifted one of the kid's toy guns and took aim at those across the street... Street cordoned off, armed police officers tracking his movements, officers patrolling with police dogs and the local school turned into a makeshift HQ for police negotiators, I was at the police end and it was insane, slightly amusing but still insane The police got their knuckles rapped fairly hard for that one and no charges were ever brought forward There's a friend who reported another man for letting his pack of dogs chase the local wild deer (it was happening a lot), there was an argument, the guy started getting abusive so my friend gave him a push Police arrived and wanted to handcuff my friend and take him down to the station on assault charges, my friend asked if he could go without the cuffs and was quickly thrown to the ground by the officer, the officer then demanded he get to his knees, my friend replied that he could not due to a recent hip replacement (genuine) and the officer then took out his nightstick and proceeded to batter my friend on the hip and leg with it, all this in front of his wife The many bruises were around 6-8" long, 3" wide and close to black in colour The original complaint was ignored as the other party claimed my friend allowed his dogs to do the same thing, which was a complete lie but worked out well for the guy It's just a case of the few bad officers giving the rest a bad name and knowing some of the types of people the police have to deal with on a daily basis it's no surprise that some of them have bad attitudes
Officers around here ain't too bad. They've got too much gang violence and drug wars to deal with here to spend their time harassing civilians. Every once in a while I see like 3-4 cop cars set up at this one red light where everyone just loves to make this illegal turn. You see like 5 cars at a time on the shoulder getting tickets Probably trying to make some ticket quota. Serves them right, this city is full of terrible drivers.
^ What they said. I was a long-haul truck driver in the USA for 5 years and met plenty of State Troopers due to my heavy right foot, some were wankers but others were very friendly and laid-back. Many times I got away with a warning when a ticket should have been issued. One time in MD a cop wrote me 5 tickets after I started arguing with him. He pulled me over on I-70 for doing 70mph in a 55mph but had caught up to me (so was speeding himself). I took it to court and came away with just one ticket. Just depends on who you meet and your attitude...
To the OP, Ive been an officer in the northeast US for a few years now, and the best advice that I can give to you is just to be honest and clamly explain your version to the judge/magistrate when you go to your appeal. While Im not 'sticking up' for fellow officers, they could have been speeding and tailgaiting for any number of reasons. Were they enroute to a call and were not using lights or sirens as to avoid detection? Were they following another vehicle and you just happened to be in the way? Whatever the reason you ran a red light in front of a marked police cruiser....it happens. Just calmly explain to the judge that you saw the police car approaching fast behind you but they did not try to overtake you or activate their lights. However you felt nervous and began to worry about why they were driving at such a close interval behind you. You thought that they might be pulling you over at any time, and because of the aggresive nature of their driving, you felt it hard to take your eyes out of your rear view mirror. Any person in your situation would feel curious or even slightly intimidated when presented with the facts that you provided and I wish you luck at your hearing. As for the rest of you 'cop haters' on this post, (especially the one who wrote that he would ignore a cop in need of help) please understand that there are a few bad apples in every profession, whether you give back-alley hand jobs for crack or your a 3rd shift manager at Roscoes chicken and waffle house. I can honestly say that most are hard workers who have integrity and strong career and family values. Please do not paint us all with a broad brush of criticism because of bad individual experiences. Thank you.
Hi rsornbe, Thank you for your comments, In answer to some of your points.. 1. They were not on route to a call as they could have used the bus lane to slip pass me at anytime, Following another vehicle, I very much doubt because i know there wasn't another car in front of me for quite some distance. And i can assure you i wouldn't want to deliberately run a red light in front of an officer who would. My lawyer believes i have areal strong case to argue in court and they have rarely been wrong when it comes to supporting me over the years. I do how ever have an appointment at the local police station where to 2 officers are based this afternoon with my lawyer, Not 100% sure why but all will be explained to me when i meet with legal this coming lunchtime. I will post back on the events of today. Thanks for your comments.
This. People who crave authority will naturally be drawn towards policing. Every cop writing nonsense tickets should be working on real crimes that go unpunished or even uninvestigated. Over here they have a motto "protect and serve" which is a freaking joke I prefer "harass and fine." There are some cops who are not jerks tho. at least thats what i've heard
I was driving back to Michigan from Kentucky, a seven hour drive with speeds of 70-75mph all highway driving (5mph over posted limits). I take the exit off of the highway..home is about two miles on a two lane road with 45mph posted speed limits. Well, after driving 70-75mph for almost seven hours 55-60 looked pretty slow through the windshield...wasn't paying attention to the speedodemeter. All of a sudden the radar detector is screaming max warning and I can see the officer just off the side of the road over the crest of a hill. I pull off to the side of the road and the officer slowly approaches; Officer: "Good evening" Me: "Evening" as I flip out my license and regisrtation. Officer: "Did your radar detector go off?" Me: "Yes sir, it did" Officer: "Did it tell you that you were getting a speeding ticket?" he said with a dry sense of humor in his voice. Me: "Yes sir, it did" I said with a smile. He could have raped me for 15mph over the posted speed limit but gave me a $50 citation. I never thought a cop could make me laugh as he gave me a speeding ticket. True story.
You see i can see both sides of the story. I will try and explain how things work, but if i get any pointless remarks towards me i wil refrain from participating in this thread again. The police force (in the UK at least, and probably world wide) have to show that they are being productive and working. The way they do this is with figures. So, things like amount of arrests, charges, tickets, stop checks, fines etc are all measurable. If one force is found to be not issuing as many as the next force then that 'could' mean that the people who work there aren't pulling their weight or working as efficiently as the next one is. This isnt a direct result, as obvious things like crime (both low and serious) per 1,000 people (or so) will be taken into consideration too. This can reflect directly on the management and bosses, who in turn will punish those at lower ranks (sh!t rolls down hill, as they say). This then takes away discretion from those of lower ranks, as they are under pressure from their bosses. If a force is found to be under performing they will have budgets cut, and in this climate they cant afford to do this. I think this figure culture is wrong. Yes, we should be pulling our weight and working hard, but we should also not turn the public against us either. So some blame is towards the government (that you, the general public, voted in), as it is them who are putting pressure on forces to achieve more. I always hear 'you should be looking for real criminals instead of giving me a ticket' argument, and the truth is 'what is a real criminal'? I issue tickets for bald tyres or to people using the mobile phone whilst driving or to those who speed or drink/drug drive. I have dealt with people who have KILLED people whilst doing just these same offences that i have given tickets for. So are they not REAL criminals? They (decent members of the public) have KILLED someones loved one, someones son, daughter, parent, and yet they think i am the bad guy for trying to prevent this from happening, and they are NOT real criminals (but only an accident away from being one). As for 'you should be looking for murderers and rapists' argument. I work for the traffic department, as i wanted to deal with vehicles and crashes. If i wanted to look for murderers and rapists i would have joined CID. If i wanted to investigate burglaries or theft of washing, i would have joined street crime. If i wanted to investigate petty assualts i would have joined response policing. I do still attend all of these jobs if required, but i mainly deal with traffic offences as i cant give as much time as is required to investigate these offences, due to being required to respond when a car has been stolen, or someone has been knocked over, or a drink driver is zig zagging down the road trying to kill someone. Also dont forget that REAL criminals use vehicles to get around, and we do stop these REAL criminals too (sometimes for petty offences, like a light out). A while ago my shift stopped a guy who was wanted for the rape and murder of a teenage girl. If it wasnt for traffic he may still be at large. I myself have stopped drug dealers who have been ferrying large quantities of drugs around the country (my last one got sentenced 1 week ago to 3 years in jail). One thing i have noticed its that most people who say things like this about police are saying it because THEY have committed an offence. So its THEIR fault, yet they blame the police for it.
Once upon a time... I was running across Idaho on the interstate, was 75mph so had my cruise set at 80. Anyway so the speed limit drops to 55mph for a stretch, just as I realized this what comes the other way - yep state trooper. I was like oh man I'm seriously ****ed - doing 80mph in a 55 while driving a Kenworth is not a good look. So I hit the shoulder and just waited for him to turn around and catch up, which he did, as he jumped on the side of my cab: Me: "I'm in deep ****, aren't I", handing him my license with a wry grin.. Trooper: (starts laughing) "Yes sir - you are. Where you from?" Me: "South Bend, IN, I didn't see the 55mph sign and that's the best excuse I can do atm" still smiling Trooper: "Ok, hold on I'll be right back" 5mins later... Trooper: "I wrote you up for 65mph, that should help a bit, a lotta a drivers aren't aware this is 55mph zone".. Me: My friend, I shall name my firstborn son after you" Trooper: laughs "get home safe trucker - have a nice day" And they all lived happily ever after. The End
