This spring I left my mother’s house after dark, and after about a mile a cop pulls me over in an area with so many lights it’s like daylight.
Cop “I sould hit you.”
Me “Why?” in a quisical tone.
Cop “Did you know your tail light is burnt out?”
Me “No.”
Cop “Turn on your hazards.”
Me “I live only five minutes away and will fix it tomorrow morning.”
Cop “The hazards work so you can drive home with them on.”
I’m thinking for Christ it’s just one light bulb to myself. The brake, side marker, turn signals head lights, and one tail light all worked. Side note I check all the lights monthly and the day before was one of those checks. Lights do burn out while in transit, and one burned out tail light doesn’t make the car impossible to see.
I can see him stoping me to tell me about the tail light, but my jaw hit the floor with those first words from his mouth. I drove all the way home with the hazards flashing.
cops can, and will be asses.
they think they are supreme, and show them a video of the Rodney King accident, and they will sit there with a chiseled jaw.
in their minds they do no wrong.
I sicken at the sight of bad cops.
In Texas it’s a (potential) $200 fine to drive with the 4-way hazard lights on. Oh well, I don’t know where you are or what the cop was thinking.
A virtue of my single lifestyle (that is one word these days?) is that I can check both the front and rear lights in the reflections from the pane glass on the front of the grocery store I frequent every night on the way home from work.
The last time I had a cop tail me home he already knew who I was from checking me out on his dashboard computer. He’d picked me up for a burnt-out taillight; he knew: 1) I was on my home street, 2) I knew he was on my bumper, 3) I was driving very correctly, 4) I had no warrants or even tickets that he could pull up easily (5, 7 year?). So, when I pulled in my driveway he stopped and rolled down his window to say, “I was following you because you have a burned out taillight, will you fix it for me tomorrow, pal?”
I said, “Man, thanks, I saw you and didn’t know why I’d caught your attention - I’ve got some bulbs in the glovebox.”
What an asshole. It is illegal in Florida to drive with your flashers on. In fact, I can’t stand it when you bastard tourist come through here and turn your hazards on because it starts raining to hard. Your flashers do NOT make you easier to see. They just make you look like an idiot.