That’s just wrong. Anyway, Bear, how do you determine who belongs in a funeral persession and who doesn’t?
Usually they have everyone turn on their headlights… Those without headlights on are not members. It is not a perfect system, but it works well.
**What are you “supposed” to do in a situation like mine?**Sounds like you did ok. You tried to explain it to him. I do not know what the hell his problem was. Sorry that had to happen to you at such a sad time.
Couldn’t he have, at the very least, apologized?
YES!! Most definitely. Unfortunately there is not much we can do with someone is an asshole, cop or not… If he oversteps his authority though, there is always his supervisors.
And are all cops harder/less open minded/more suspicious when it comes to “punk teenagers”?
Well if they act like “punks”, then yes. But the fact that you are a teenager does not mean he should be harder on you. People of all ages will lie to your face on the street. I distrust everyone equally luckie,
You are a physicist right? I am inclind to believe that you are not ignorant enough to believe the things you said. I will brush off the things you said about hiring a cop to block intersections and stalk people as purely sarcasm. Any inteligent person, which you must be, can see the difference and see that such things are stupid and ilegal!! No cop would do that for you unless of course you are the President of The United States.
One thing you said though
Luckie, have you ever been to a sporting event? A high school or even professional football game? Have you seen the mayham caused by everyone trying to get out of a parking lot at the same time? This is very dangerous to EVERYONE involved, and therefore is in the community’s best interest. Unless you think allowing many preventable accidents to occur is OK. This is a safety issue. It is much safer to have an officer stop traffice to let people out of the parking lot in an orderly fashion. He will not stop traffic and let all 500 cars out at once… he will do it in a reasonable manner.
And as far as traffic lights go. Traffic lights are not always timed to acomidate such a huge rush of cars.
If you called and said you were rich and you wanted a private escort so you would never have to stop at lights, they would laugh at you.
If you called and asked for an officer to come by your church on Sunday to direct traffic out of the lot so there are no accidents… they will say OK.
If I called, said I was rich, and asked for a private escort, what if the guy who answered the phone didn’t laugh at me? You seem mighty certain that he would - is this just because you’re counting on him to realize that this would be abusive, or would it really be violating a law or department policy to accept?
Dealing with more gray areas…who makes the decision? What do they base it on - their own personal feelings, or some written policy?
That’s my point entirely. I don’t have a problem with sporting events, Presidential visits, wrecks, generally uncommon or exceptionally huge events having police traffic guidance.
BUT… and here’s where I differ: I think that there should be a much more strict policy as to what sort of things this can be done for. In Houston & Dallas at least, I’ve personally been stopped in traffic for at least two grocery store entrances in each city, innumerable churches, private schools, business parking lot entrance/exits, etc…
I understand that there’s sometimes a need- for example, the business parking lot I have in mind is less than 100 yards from a very busy intersection where the traffic never thins out between 4:30 and 7.
But most of the time, it just seems like special favoritism to me, along the lines of “Well, you’re paying us, so we’ll bend the traffic controls & laws to fit”. That’s what bothers me so much about this. I mean, if there’s one car coming out of the parking lot, and one car drivng along on the street, the cop should NOT stop the car on the through street for that one car in the parking lot. The cop ought to only step in when there’s actually a need- people have been waiting a while, etc… not just because they’re there.
(Sorry about the rant… this is one of my personal pet peeves)
Sorry, Bump-but I’m with Bear_Nenno on this one. The police are providing a safe traffic flow in an abnormal environment. I cannot IMAGINE how you cannot see the inherent value in this. There is a clear-cut policy on the provision of off-duty officers for this kind of duty. If you have a problem with the policy, then take it up with your villiage/town/city board. Please don’t make veiled hints at bribery. It’s incredibly insulting. They’re not “bought”- they have been hired to provide a service.
Just like every other adult in the world who works for a living.
Have to pipe in here since I’m moving to NJ (land of idiot drivers)…
Let’s not forget that in some cases, a person directing traffic out of a supermarket exit could be very useful. For example, let’s say that the exit is about a 100 feet from a busy intersection. Normally, in NJ, you would have a bunch of idiot drivers blocking the exit (during the red light at the intersection) so that you can’t make a left turn out of the supermarket exit. A cop would be really useful to make sure that people don’t block that exit. Another use would be to make sure that it’s safe to actually make that left hand turn if you can’t see over the SUV’s to your right (i.e. you can’t see to the lane of the oncoming traffic)
Where in the world did you think I was smoking crack? It was simply weed. Or as some would like to put it, the Devils weed. I’ve never much strayed outside of the mainstream drug use thing.
I have to admidt, however, it was odd smoking a ‘j’ with a drug enforcement guy. It was years ago and I have no idea what ever happened to him. That’s not my opinion of all drug enforcement people. One bad apple won’t change my opinion, no matter how ridiculous I find the current drug laws.
Your obviously well versed on this subject. Cool. I’m all for cops, never can have too many, in my opinion, execpt when they have me pulled over.
What I’m curious about is at what point does being off-duty necessitate putting on the hat and whipping out the badge.
There has to be some point that you do it. Speeding? I doubt it. Fireworks? Only if your kids are out of them. Murder? obviously.
Thank you for the answers, Bear. Unfortunately, we had no idea about the whole “headlight” thing. No one told us and, IIRC a lot of people didn’t have theirs on. I wasn’t paying much attention anyway. As for his supervisors, this was back in April, so I doubt anything would come of it now. In fact, I doubt anything would have come of it had we mentioned it right away. Anyway, thanks again and good to see an officer who equally distrusts everyone. LoL.
CnoteChris
Did not mean to call you a crack head.
I was just saying that here weed is only a misdemeanor. Had you witnessed a FELONY, you could have performed a citizen’s arrest on the guy. DEA agent or not. The fact that he would have kicked your ass if you tried, or the fact that another officer or the someone else would possibly have let him off or failed to take him to jail because of his position is something else entirely… but technically* you could have arrested him. I was just answering your question.
BTW, I have nothing against someone smoking a little weed. Hell, I have the two biggest hippies for parents… but cops, and especially DEA agents need to be held to a different standard.
What do they base it on - their own personal feelings, or some written policy?
They base it on State Laws and Department Policy. It would be ilegal to use their vehicles to escort some rich guy through intersections. Unless, of course, the man was dead and riding in the back of a herse.
What I want to know, coming from a pretty law abiding guy myself, is this: 'At what point do you not let the law slide and not take an active role in an arresting a person while ‘off-duty’?
’At what point do you not let the law slide and not take an active role in an arresting a person while 'off-duty’
It would have to be something that ‘needed’ me to identify myself. Like a seeing some guy outside a club hitting a woman or seeing a child left in a car while the parent is inside… A general bar fight though… I would call the cops and leave it at that. I am not going to get my ass kicked by two dozen drunk bastards for no reason. Now if instead of them all fighting each other, there were two dozen drunk people beating up on 2 or three people or someone getting jumped, I would step in!! Then there would be reason to ruin my night with cuts and bruises Murders, Burglaries and other violent crimes are obviously ACT NOW situations. But it is really hard to say. It is a case by case thing. Pretty much any traffic violation would be left alone, I mean how would I stop the car anyway? If I witnessed an accident, I would stop and see if they needed any help. And see if they needed an officer or ambulance. But this I would do as a citizen. I would not go running up to the crash screaming “POLICE OFFICER!! I AM HERE TO HELP”. I wouldn’t even tell them who I was. No need to… If I was involved in the crash (knock on wood) I would not tell the other driver who I was. I would do everything as anyone else would.
If while I was entering the mall or something and I saw someone shop lift and jump into a car and take off, I am not going to go jump in my personal car and play Bruce Willis. That could cause an unecessary risk to the public, and if I wreck my car, whose paying for it. After all, we’re talking shoplifting not triple homicide.
Now had the same man run out of the mall with a gun and blood all over himself and took off in a car… then I would hop in my car and call dispatch with my cell phone. Same with kidnappings and any other serious situation…
If I saw some little girl screaming “This is not my father!” Then here I come!
Most things can be handled by just calling someone who is ON DUTY though. There is no reason to waste fun time at the beach because some other boater is littering or something. I might call the guy an asshole to his face or something, just like a non-cop would, but I would not threaten him with tickets or even let him know what I was.
Underage drinking or smoking… depending on my mood and what I was doing at the time. And what the kids were doing at the time. I am not going to hunt down every minor with a cig everytime I see one. More often then not, I would just ignore it.
If there was a line, I would put it at “Felonies”. If I witness a felony, then I will act as an officer. If it is not a felony, then why bother. If it was a traffic or parking thing or a misdemeanor, more often then not, I will just ignore it. If I even notice it at all…
I had to chime in because Law Enforcement is a very interesting area for me. On the subject of, say, an off-duty police officer directing traffic at a church exit, I would have to say that it would be wrong to go against his/her direction and cross the traffic being directed, but if you were given a ticket and went to court it would surely be thrown out because the road which your were driving in the normal manner of that road has now law restricting you access unless a permit has been secured. Similarly to having a block party. In this situation, the church, in recruiting the officer most likely signed papers and a permit was issued allowing easement of traffic at the discretion of the presiding officer.
Just a thought.
Oh, and Anthracite, I too live in JOCO. Nice to see some local people here.
Waneman
You’ve touched upon an interesting sidebar here, and I’m gonna perform a minor hijackectomy, ok?
Most if not all states in the USA have what are called Good Samaritan Laws. In addition to protecting private citizens from being sued by accident victims that they try to help out on the side of the road, etc, the laws also insure that any citizen who is acting in what is generally percieved to be the public good is covered. Let’s say Babbette Schmo and her dear hubby Joe are scooting along Rt.1 outside of Rockport Maine, for example and come upon a pickup truck that’s overturned. Babbette is fully within her rights to get out ( assuming she’s willing to take the personal risk ) and stop traffic. FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES for a law enforcement officer to arrive, and assume control.
We, in New York State, have something called Fire Police. Their task is to secure the flow of traffic at and around a fire or emergency scene. They are not even peace officers, but woe to the driver or pedestrian who interferes with their control of the safety of a scene. If they’re on the scene, then either State Police or local police are there. Fire Police can and will have you stopped and cited for violating instruction they’ve given. They are acting on behalf of both the fire department AND the police, and are accorded the same respect.
I’ve stopped traffic twice so far, both times using my green “courtesy” light to it’s full advantage ( both times were at night, once in Cape Cod, once near home ).
I’ve also been tailgates a few times while driving the ambulance at high speeds. I have ZERO tolerance for that. I slow down, let the offending pussmonkey go around me, catch the plate and make and model as best as I can, and call the State Police. They eat jerks like that for lunch, and lick the bones clean afterwards. You wanna play bumper tag, don’t do it with emergency vehicles.
