Motorist is following cop at a reasonable distance going 20-27 MPH in a 25 mph zone (as per the motorists dash cam).
Maaaybee the motorist was a litttllle close, it’s hard to tell. But he stopped in time when the cop slammed on his brakes for no reason.
Cop claims he stopped because he thought the motorist following him was ‘gonna run into him’.
Uh huh. Just how does THAT work. What an idiot (the cop that is). Cop doesn’t turn on emergency lights or anything while he and the targeted motorist are stopped blocking one lane of a two lane street.
The cop braked suddenly in an unsafe manner. If he wanted to make a traffic stop, he should have pulled to the curb, waited for the guy to pass by and then gone after him.
At least that’s what it looks like without knowing what might have happened before the dash cam video starts.
The driver was too close - not outrageously so, but it warranted a ticket. If somebody drives this carelessly behind a cop car, it does not speak well of their regular driving habits.
However, the cop should surely be severely reprimanded if not reassigned for the obvious and admitted brake check. What on earth was he thinking? Deliberately risking a collision to prove a point? Untrained idiots with road rage might be expected to react this way, not trained police officers.
The dash cam starts 44 seconds before the cop made the unsafe stop. Nothing unusual at all.
The cop could have simply turned on his emergency lights, slowed down and directed the motorist to the curb. He slammed on his brakes when there was a car parked on the right, and a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Looks deliberate to me, leaving the motorist no where to swerve.
From what happens to me, I would hardly call the motorist tail gaiting at any point.
The motorist does get a little closer to the cop before the cop slammed on the breaks for no reason. I’d call it more than unsafe, and perhaps a deliberate attempt to have the motorist rear end him.
Officer: How close are you going to drive behind me?
Omar: I was a car length away.
That’s too close.
Other thoughts: Familiarity with the term “brake check” (which I’d never heard before) suggests someone who has that done to them on a frequent basis, which in turn suggests tailgating behavior.
The “victim” (according to this story) is planning on suing the city, which makes him sound less like a victim and more like an entitled ass-pain.
I’m familiar with the term brake check, and it has never happened to me nor have I ever done it. Look at the video, it looks like he was at least 2 car lengths away, not one. Doesn’t matter what Omar said when confronted by the cop. It seems like there was a bit of communication problem between the Officer and Omar anyway.
And Omar did not hit him when the cop slammed on his brakes for no reason. Still had 4 feet of room.
Driver is too close but not outrageously so. Count the seconds not the car lengths (it works regardless of speed), he should be around 2 seconds in dry conditions from the car in front but he is 1 second at most. However that is pretty normal behaviour, lots of people follow a little too close without it being true “tailgating”.
Cop had a bee in his bonnet abut something.
Edit: You have to be either ignorant or stupid to follow a cop too close. Giving the driver the benefit of the doubt you’d have to assume he’s ignorant of what a safe following distance is. The cops gone about it in a bad way but the driver needed a bit of educating.
I’m sorry what now?
First off all, brake checking is pretty common. Look it up, I’ll bet that phrase has been around for at least 20 years. But even so, it was the person that didn’t use the term that did it, so being familiar with the word doesn’t have anything to do with it.
By your logic I can put something in someones drink as long as I’m clueless when they say ‘hey, you slipped me a mickey’. Right? If you’re not familiar with the slang the victim uses, you didn’t do it.
But here’s the thing. Why did the cop have to do it? He could have just given the guy the ticket without brake checking him. Then he doesn’t run the risk of someone accidentally witnessing him being an asshole. Omar got lucky the he had a dashcam, but even if he didn’t, what if afterwards a jogger came up to him and said ‘hey, I saw the whole thing, I’ll come to court with you’. If he had just (as others said), given him the tailgating ticket he wouldn’t be able to fight it and the cop wouldn’t be risking his job and wouldn’t be risking accidents all over the city.
Or, if he really likes risking accidents, maybe he should at least pull this crap at the last second before stop signs or in other situations where he can actually slam on his brakes.
I have no problem with cops, but this cop is truly a danger to the public. Honestly. If an officer feels someone is driving too close to him, then he needs to pull the driver over and give him a ticket. Deliberately trying to cause an accident should get him removed from the force. You have to wonder what else this officer has done during his time on the force.
It’s cops like these that give cops a bad name.
To be fair, he did successfully not hit someone that went from 29 to 0 as fast as he could, with no warning and for no reason. He may have been following too close, but in his defense, he wasn’t too too close and he was obviously paying attention.
I’ll bet that if after slamming on his brakes, the officer saw the dashcam, he would have just kept going like it never happened.
Gee, have things changed? When I got my license over three decades ago I was told it was my responsibility to leave sufficient distance between myself and the vehicle ahead of me that I could stop safety regardless of why the vehicle ahead of me stopped, or how quickly.
Was the cop a dick for doing this? Yes. If the following car did manage to stop safely then in my opinion the driver in the following car was driving safely for conditions.
Fact is there are a LOT of dick drivers out there, along with careless, stupid, drunk, and texting.
Omar was driving too close, and was missing a front plate. He knew full-well that the cop in front of him was going to take exception. He was trolling the cops for trouble.
ETA: But the cop shouldn’t have brake checked him (new term for me too). There were more acceptable ways to pull Omar over.
I believe if the vehicle slams on their brakes for no reason, he would be entitled to a reckless driving ticket. He sure should be, and so should the cop.
What is the difference between an idiot with road rage and a police officer? The former is untrained and the latter is trained. Sadly, far too true in too many instances. One is better off assuming an officer will react this way and be pleasantly surprised if the officer doesn’t.
Problem is, you can’t always know that the guy ahead of you is stopping “for no reason”. Cars are not transparent and you’re not a mind reader. I can imagine situation where, for example, a small child darts in front of a car but the cars behind that car can’t see the kid, so they would have no reason to know why the car slams on the brakes.
And that’s why you need to be able to stop safely regardless of whether or not the guy in front of you is crazy, stupid, road-raging, or actually has a damn good reason.
People randomly slamming on the brakes is one thing (and I agree can be reckless) but that doesn’t absolve you of the responsibility to protect your own hide, that of any passengers you have on board, and be a safe driver yourself.