I just saw them tonight and asked. The cop asked which one of them was driving. Friend 1 (passenger) translated the question for Friend 2 (driver), then translated her answer for the cop. That was it - end of conversation. He interviewed the other two drivers at length.
Right before the cop got in his car and left, he came over and asked Friend 1 for Friend 2’s birthdate. :rolleyes:
I’m not trying to be a smartass, but maybe that’s all the officer needed to know. If car A is already stopped, and car B rear-ends it, there’s not really much question about who is at fault. If the officer talks to car B’s driver, and they admit that the car in front of them was stopped, and they hit it, what other information would he need, other than the name and identifying information of the drivers of both cars? Was the other driver found to be at fault?
As someone who has worked with local, state, and national-level cops (the FBI and the Secret Service) I would like to say that in my experience, 100% of this post is correct.
The worst cops though are the ones in rural areas. They usually have minimal training because of a miniscule departmental budget, and an overinflated sense of importance. Big fish in little pond syndrome, basically. But the Feds are some of the most professioanl people you’ll ever meet, anywhere.
Thats a legitimate question. Perhaps he could have asked if they were hurt? (They were.) Do they need to go to the hospital? (They did.) Also, the gas switches off automatically if you’re rear-ended - they couldn’t figure out how to start the car. He didn’t help them at all.
I’ve been in a few accidents that were not my fault - the other driver admitted running the red light and hitting me, for instance, or following me too closely then sliding into me when the car in front of me stopped abruptly. Not once has the cop only asked me who was driving and my birthdate. My side of the story was always necessary to complete the paperwork, even when the other driver admitted fault.
In addition, the cop spoke at length with the driver in front of them, who was not involved in the accident. That driver was turning into her own driveway, and is the reason my friends were stopped. However, her car was not involved - she was just a witness. Why would the cop get her side of the story (witness) and not my friends’ (actually involved in the accident)?
My theory? He freaked out. Didn’t know what to do, how to act. So he avoided them. It happens often - wait staff in restaurants, for example. You ought to hang out with some deaf people sometime. You’ll get a feel for what I’m talking about. Conversing in sign language freaks people out. However, you’d think that cops would be better trained and wouldn’t freak out like the average person.
Thank you for not being a smartass. Didn’t mean to hijack the thread into a deaf/hearing issue. 
No, I understand you perfectly. I was just trying to give the officer the benefit of the doubt. But now that you gave more details, I would agree that it sounds like he was uncomfortable and avoided the situation.
Yeah, you’d think - but it’s been my experience that cops’ behavior is all over the map. Some can be the nicest, most polite people you’d ever want to meet, and others can be the most arrogant, swaggering jackasses on the planet. I guess they’re just human beings like the rest of us.
Well, not exactly like the rest of us. They have billy clubs and sap gloves and…you know…guns. They’re supposed to live up to a higher standard.
That said, departments like Los Angeles really do try to weed out the assholes before they send a recruit to the academy. My best buddy in high school joined the LAPD in 1965. As part of the application process, I was interviewed by a lieutenant who asked a great many questions intended to weed out the cowboys and thugs. I gave my friend a glowing review, enhanced by my wife’s comments (she wasn’t the reference he had given, but the lieutenant considered her responses a plus because she was so impressed by my bud). As the lieutenant was leaving he walked a few steps, turned and said, “I hope I can come back to you the first time he kills someone.” Hey, my friend was a good guy, but that made me think. 
The last time I talked with him, he’d been on the force more than twenty years and had never unholstered his gun on the job. Almost like the rest of us.
You’re talking about how they’re supposed to be, whereas I was talking about how they are.
The thing with the dog searching, searching your car, getting pulled over…they’re supposed to have justification for all of that. But do they really need to? Nope. All a cop EVER has to say is he:
a) Smells pot
b) You are acting “suspiciously”
That’s it. And who is there to make sure the cop really does have a good reason to do these things? Well, the cop him/her self of course. How convienent. So while there are laws in place that are ment to protect citizens they are so poorly written that in effect the cop can search whoever and for whatever reason they choose. This needs to change. I say each and every stop needs to be well documented and recorded with a camera including audio. Now the cop can’t really do anything that will get him in trouble and he will actually have to follow the letter of the law…just like he expects you to do.
This is the incident I am talking about
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/08/police.kill.dog/
And to World Eater:
You seem to be the one who has a problem with stating your mind and keeping personal feelings out of it. I don’t see how I insulted you at all, unless you are a cop. If so you may be the exception to the rule and I really hope you are. However to throw insults at me in the manner you did gives the impression that YOU are the one who is asinine and boneheaded - I believe those are the words you used to describe me.
If all you wish to do is troll, well you’re not gonna catch this fish.
You didn’t see it. You were mistaken about what state it happened in. You are relying totally on someone else’s 3rd person account of it. And you swear to Buddah it happened just as you say it did?
I’m sorry, but that just aint enough.
I’ll ask my roommate about that. He’s ex-military. Served in the gulf war. And is one of the nicest, most caring people on the face of the planet.
On second thought, I’ll just tell you to go fuck yourself for being an idiot.