Probably going about their business and had the bad luck to be the car in the middle of a pack that was doing the average speed on that highway. One can point to a variety of different reasons, depending on the jurisdiction. I don’t really have all that much experience with the rural cops, but I do have a hefty suspicion of the Metro Toronto cops.
I don’t want to be anywhere near those academy clones.
Declan
I know of at least four different persons who challenged their ‘speeding tickets’, all for going over 60mph in a 40 (45?) mph zone. Every single one was dismissed (ie cop lost the ‘case’).
The road is in Austin (Ben White Blvd where it crosses Congress Ave but is built differently now, iirc) and the cop (~immediate family-member, fwiw, now retired) had been told to generate tickets at that underpass as folks usually went over the limit there. A cash-cow basically - the road was built to handle ‘highway speeds’ but later speed-limit reduced as population grew, etc. It was a mile or two between any intersecting roads/drives, iirc.
Anyways, each person fighting the tickets said that since the road was built/designed for that speed and nothing else had changed to make the road less safe, why should they be held to the new limit when it was clearly not needed (or similar arguments)? I only heard the cop’s side of it all, in great detail, and he was kinda happy about it, too, as he did not like writing tickets that were not ‘deserved’; one of the few cops I totally respect for being ‘community’ not paramilitary-oriented. All tickets written at that location that day were dismissed even if they had sent in payment/plead guilty, per se. The judge said basically that since it was middle of the night and no traffic to speak of, the vehicle(s) ticketed (most for ~70 in a 40 or 45mph zone) presented no danger to anyone and a person should not be penalized for such. Austin is a whole 'nother world of ‘relaxed-attitude’, so it may not apply elsewhere (ymmv thing) 
At times, a judge will take in the whole of things rather than have blinders on. Not very common, though, I bet.
There are a few highwaysn like that around DC. There is one especially dangerous patch where the on ramp to one freeway requires you to get on another freeway and within about 100 yards cross 4 lanes to a left side exit ramp. Its like playing frogger.
I don’t think this thread is going the way the OP expected.
I’ll raise my hand and say that I have gotten more warnings than tickets in my time.
I drove 45 in a 30 zone (flow of traffic was 45), got pulled over, apologized and got a warning.
I made a rolling stop at a red light (the roads were deserted) before making a right turn, told the officer I was sorry and I would try to be more careful in the future. Got a warning.
I drove 30 in a 20 mph school zone, got my car impounded.
Even if you think cops are jerks, they don’t sit around all day dreaming about busting some guy going 10 miles over the speed limit, the ones I knew wanted to bust the real bad guys, but they’re human and if you piss them off, they’ll check and make sure your taillights are working.
One of the neighborhoods I grew up in was about half cops, teachers and firefighters. Even the cops know who the assholes are amongst them (see, supertroopers).
I was pulled over once in 35 years. It was by a woman cop in the Florida Keys , for a headlight that went out. I told her I did not know about the headlight. I also told her I was heading to Miami to catch a flight to Cancun. She just took time dicking around. I said if you bare going to give me a ticket, do it and I will be on my way to make the plane. She kept us until the last second. We got to the plane as they were taking down the ramp. They let us on as long as we sat with our luggage in our laps. She did not have to keep us so long. She was being a bitch.
Since then most cops I see at at the Racquetball club. I play racquetball with them and have gone to bars with them. Most are pretty good guys. Some are very defensive. Kinda like most groups of people. Except with guns and badges.
Not common at all. I’ve so rarely seen the “I did it but…” defense work that I can remember each time I’ve seen it.
Many (not all) of the judges I’ve observed in traffic court were crabby as hell. My theory is that this wasn’t the type of law they wanted to deal with when they sought to become judge. That’s just a theory, though.
I also saw some judges that seemed like they were inhaling N2O. Very friendly, happy go-lucky types. My theory was they thought traffic court was just silly. That’s just a theory though.
My main observation is that one has a better chance getting off of a criminal charge than a traffic charge. Most officers I know (including myself) have a 98-100% conviction rate in traffic court. Few have that kind of success in criminal cases.
I didn’t read thru the entire thread, just the parts linked by the OP. You were given pretty good advice.
It’s been almost 4 months now. I’m figuring some kind of court hearing has occurred.
So…? What happened?
Couldn’t agree more. Horrible bastards 
As I originally said in your GQ thread:
You offended the guy with your response, and refused to apologize when you found out it was offensive, thus indicating you wanted to offend. He has no reason to assume that you want to know for any other reason than to rub his face in it.
And, while we’re at it, he asked for advice, not what you gave for most of the post. He did not ask you to judge him, but to help him figure out a way to beat the ticket. And, as a cop, you found that offensive. If you were really wanting to help, you would have either made sure to speak in an unoffensive way, or have apologized for offending when you realized it happened. By doing neither, you gave tacit acknowledgement that you intended offense.
If I were him, I wouldn’t respond at all to what is obviously an attempt to gloat.
I guess you missed post 19 in this thread and this post in the original:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12820666&postcount=32
If I call someone niggardly and they take offense because they think I’m calling them [euphemism alert] the ‘N’ word [/euphemism alert]*, I will not apologize because they are ignorant. Additionally, if they take offense because I’m calling them cheap and they are cheap, I also won’t apologize.
He demanded a jury trial, and now he’s on Death Row.
No, I’m honestly interested.
When you learn to read all that is written and not just what you want to , you’ll also see that I posted that if his “guilty with an excuse” defense get’s him off I’ll be here to eat some much deserved crow.
You’ll also see that I gave him some thinly veiled advice on how to actually beat a ticket in court. Advice that even another cop on these boards said sounded pretty good. If I’m even half the dick you’re claiming why would I have done that?
I’m 23, almost 24, female, and I’ve been driving since I was 15. I’ve been pulled over once and it was because I was at a party as a designated driver and the officer followed us from the party and pulled me over shortly after. When he pulled me over, I told him exactly what was going on, and we ended up talking about Thanksgiving since it was the next day. If you have the idea that all cops are assholes, it will come across in your tone when you get pulled over. My son loves to see police officers because they’ve given him stickers in the past. I’m sure there are a lot of asshole cops out there, but that’s true with any group of people.
Your link doesn’t work.
Hopefully, I’ve edited the code for the correct post.
samclem Moderator
grazia
However, realizing that a great many people are ignorant and will likely misinterpret my use of the word; for communications sake, I might choose a better word. Certainly the word has several suitable substitutes. I mean, the big idea is relating your point, not absolutely using the word “niggardly” (or any particular word), right?
Correctomundo. I wouldn’t pull that out unless I was already very annoyed, could not escape, and wanted to get under someone’s skin.
But what if I’m typically hesitant to spend intellectual capital on thinking of a synonym? :smack: