Despicable Maryland State Troopers!!!

The BBQ Pit
1

Hey everyone! I have rejoined the boards just to write this post. Hopefully I’ll stick around for a while. :slight_smile:

Yesterday morning around 9:30 am I witnessed something that just about made me vomit. I was heading south on I-495 Capitol Beltway, just passing the I-95 Baltimore exit when I noticed a brokendown vehicle on the north side of the highway. It was a white Corolla or something, with an apparent flat tire. A young lady was attempting to fix the flat. At 70 miles an hour, and in the short glimpse I was able to get, I could tell she was having great difficluty with the whole process. I next noticed two Maryland State Trooper squad cars parked on either side of hers. Where were they? Twenty feet behind her, chatting and seemily unmoved to help this poor girl. I guess they didn’t want to get their hands dirty. Or maybe she refused their help, but I doubt it. Why? Well because two hours later on my way back down the road, she was still there fumbling with the damn tire! NO STATE TROOPERS IN SIGHT!!! First off, why stop if you’re not going to help. Second, how the hell could you just leave her there! Luckily for her it looked like she finally got some help. A commercial van stopped to help her out. I point out this was not a tow truck or one of those emergency roadside assistance vehicles. Just someone with a little decency.

In my experience, this is why people dislike cops so XXXXXXX much! A funny hat, a badge and a gun doesn’t make you a hero. Setting speed traps, giving tickets and directing traffic doesn’t make you a hero. Busting casual drug users and breaking up bar brawls doesn’t make you a hero. But all of us are suppossed to give them that respect right. At least most cops I’ve met demand that respect, even if they don’t deserve it. Why do people become cops? Not to be heros. But to massage their out of control egos. Heros today are the guys in the commercial vans stopping to actually help. On their own time and not even if it’s their duty.

2

So, uh, why didn’t you stop to help her?

3

That’s my whole point. With two Troppers there it should have never entered my mind. I felt bad two hours later when I saw her still there. And like I said, luckily somebody did stop. Plus, on the first go around I was on the wrong side of the highway.

4

In this modern, enlightened, gender-egalitarian society, there is always AAA or some such to be engaged in the fixing of your vehicle: Keep a cellphone and a AAA card with you in your car.

In my state, we have a hybrid of AAA and public safety called HERO: Highway Emergency Response Operators. They work for the state DOT and handle the people too idiotic to plan ahead and get AAA or some other emergency service.

5

Ah. I somehow misuderstood the situation. I thought you drove by the first time, saw the state troopers. Drove by the second time, just saw the girl, then drove by again, and saw the commercial van. My bad.

6

I’m not positive, but I believe that police in Maryland are not allowed to change people’s tires because of liability issues. If they screw up putting on the tire, or something else goes wrong with it shortly thereafter, the state is potentially liable for any damage or injuries that occur.

7

Either way they failed her. And I guess it’s the world that has failed us when liability is more important than accountablity.

8

Even if that’s the case, there’s no excuse for their not calling for help.

9

You’re assuming they didn’t offer. Tow trucks or having someone come out to fix your tire ain’t cheap and she might not have been able to afford it.

Alternately she could have told them that she had called for help and whoever she had called for help didn’t show up.

Seriously, he drove by doing 70 and we have to take Blackdragon’s word for what was being said on the shoulder? C’mon.

10

Neither AAA nor a cellphone plan is cheap, and not everyone can afford it. It’s not idiotic if you just can’t add another bill.

11

If it makes you feel any better I once saw a state trooper in Texas changing the tires on the vehicle of an older couple in the middle of August near El Paso. It was nice of you to play the hero though and stop to help.

Marc

12

Isn’t the entire point of the rant that there already WERE two troopers stopped there “helping”? He’s saying that he assumed she was in good hands, then drove back by and saw that she was still stuck there and was being aided by someone that was neither a cop nor an emergency service person. At some point, the cops got back in their cars and drove away and left her on the side of the road to fend for herself, which sucks rocks.

13

If one’s going to make assumptions about the whole incident, why not go for the nicest one? Let’s just assume the troopers offered their assistance, the woman politely declined and requested they remain there until her friend or relative arrived, said friend or relative did, in fact, arrive, and only then did the troopers depart the scene.

14

I agree. The OP’s anger is childish and he’s making up the interpretation of events that fit his pre-existing bias.

“In my experience” …? Exactly what experiences has the OP had? More witnessing of events from a distance and conclusion-jumping?

15

Here’s another assumption.

Lady has flat, stops and gets out. Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, hundreds of citizens drive by without stopping.

Lady starts the process of changing tyre.

Cop stops 20 feet behind, gets out of vehicle and approaches lady.

‘Ma’am, can I help?’

‘Why, thank you, officer.’

Screech, as second cop car stops.

‘Hey Brad!!!’

‘Yeah?’

Cop 1 walks over to cop 2 who has exited his vehicle.

‘JYYR @%# GNNNNNN YHTF 564 MNGRFF EEEEEGT %#&!!!’

‘Fer fucksakes, laddie, calm down, will ya? Start from the beginning…all I got was 56…’

(at which time OP drives by at 112 km/h)

‘Okay, …heeeeeeeeee…code 69 on Route 564, gawdawful pile up, we need all the vehicles we can get!’

(OP’s tail-lights disappear over the horizon).

‘Gawdang…okay, lemme just tell the lady we have to go.’

OP returns two hours later, lady still struggling.

NEWS HEADLINES: Two hero cops receive award for pulling injured pregnant mother from blazing wreck in massive 623 car pile-up!!!

16

AAA isn’t very expensive. I paid around $50 my last renewal. (For a year.)

17

Hmm. *Not * the quote I got when I asked. Perhaps I will harass them again. Especially with my car, which really likes to threaten to break down in the hills of the Adirondacks.

18

It may be different in your neck of the woods. Each AAA organization is autonomous. Or they may have been trying to push the super-duper membership instead of the basic, which is all most people need.

19

[Total Hijack] **Frank ** , you’re in Denver? I was just there in November! My aunt lives in Colorado Springs.

Wow, your landscape is so vastly different from Upstate NY it’s stunning. Giant fields with one lone tree, and that ring of mountains…wow.[/end hijack]

20

The only thing that would make me upset if I was the lady in question is losing the protection from traffic that the cops could provide. If they parked their cars to throw a block for her, that makes the job a whole lot easier. It isn’t their job to do the manual labor, but I think they have a bit of an obligation to either keep her as safe as they can or call in road service for her.

I