# Can one be a complete and total jerk to a cop without breaking any laws? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2007, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226 "2007-07-18T04:37:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/41 "2007-07-20T15:18:45Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] Yeah, but none of us has assaulted a cop with a rectal thermometer. [/QUOTE] Can you state that with absolute certainty? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/42 "2007-07-20T15:36:20Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Can you state that with absolute certainty? [/QUOTE] I think **panache45** left off the “and lived to tell the tale” at the end of the sentence. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/43 "2007-07-20T15:39:23Z")
Reminds of some other email-circulated witticisms which might very well be unappreciated by the uniformed, badge-wearing recipient: “Bad cop! No doughnut!” “Your radar said I was going 70? Man, you’d better recalibrate it. I was going a _lot_ faster than that.” “I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a cop.” “You can look in the trunk, sure, but don’t open that leaking duffel bag, OK? And it’s not blood, trust me.” “I wasn’t speeding. I was qualifying.” “A ticket? I’m not surprised. When your wife was blowing me this morning, she _said_ you were in crappy mood.” ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/44 "2007-07-20T16:04:54Z")
My brother told me his own first words to a cop was “You got to be eff-ing kidding me!” when pulled over for running a red light. (Used poor judgement when “pushing” a yellow light.) Predictably, the cop decided to be a hard ass. ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/45 "2007-07-20T18:56:32Z")
[QUOTE=Asimovian] There’s a video out there that I’m sure someone else will be kind enough to post for the benefit of the thread readers. A highway patrol officer somewhere here in the states (Tennessee, maybe?) pulls over a speeder in a truck. The officer’s car has a camera with sound, so the whole scene is recorded. [/QUOTE] Maine State Police. Back in 1992. Local stations rerun it quite often. One of the network film clips shows ran an interview with the guy who flipped out. Even 5 or 10 years later he still came across as a complete putz. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/46 "2007-07-20T19:37:11Z")
[QUOTE=Fir na tine] Maine State Police. Back in 1992. Local stations rerun it quite often. One of the network film clips shows ran an interview with the guy who flipped out. Even 5 or 10 years later he still came across as a complete putz. [/QUOTE] Yep… **pravnik** linked to it in post #21 – you can’t script that, I tell ya. And why am I not surprised to hear the guy is still a putz? Hey **Loach** – how would you have reacted to that guy? ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/47 "2007-07-20T19:51:01Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I went with a copy for ten years, and there’s a lot of laws with “suspicion” in them–suspicion of drug use, etc. etc. etc. These days you can add “suspicion” of terrorism. And resisting an officer is breaking the law. [/QUOTE] I don’t think those are laws you can break, they are reasons you can be searched. Also, I do not believe disobeying (not sure exactly what you mean by “resisting”) is illegal unless his order was one he has the legal authority to make. Resisting arrest is of course illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/48 "2007-07-21T14:20:08Z")
English police always share a merry chuckle with you if you address them as CUNTstable,but I digress,one time I asked two cops on foot in central L.A. for directions and I seriously thought one of them was going to lay into me as I guess he thought I was taking the piss out of him but the good cop realised I was a foreigner and calmed him down,still didnt give me directions though. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226/49 "2007-07-21T16:31:13Z")
I’d say to the American cops, “your under the influence… of being a jerk!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-one-be-a-complete-and-total-jerk-to-a-cop-without-breaking-any-laws/412226.md?page=2)