Hey, I was hoping this story involved Martin Sheen driving a '34 Ford with a flame paint job.
Or you don’t drive 2 mph like a giant douchebag.
I think I hate everyone involved in the OP. Anyone who tailgates is a jerkass, and a cop is doubly so for using his badge to bully people. I also wish all cars came with a device like in the movie “Speed” so that if they drop below a certain speed, they blow up.
Sorry. No desert cliffs around here. (And I never heard that the tail-gated driver had a brother who died, there.)
No, I don’t as a rule, unless I’m hauling the horse trailer. Actually I’m kind of a lead foot, and even with a cop behind me I’ve driven 3-5 miles over the limit (on the highway, not in town).
I have a feeling that the jerk asks drivers out there outnumber the jerk asks cops by quite a bit. I bet the cops get their fill of morons…
Well maybe by the total numbers, yeah but not when it comes to a percentage of the whole. 
There is? Yikes!
(does your trash have to actually be IN the bag?) 
I once owned a 1948 Ford pick up truck with a dropped front end. Water would form a pool at the lowest point; the best way of disposing of the pool was to lower the tailgate and drive uphill. I disposed of a large pool of water onto the cop who was following me. He didn’t think it was amusing.
I once had an asshole township cop follow me turn-for-turn down some very rural roads. There was no reason I could discern for the way he was following me, but the consensus at the office was that he was either following me for tailing practice, or that he was trying to intimidate me so he could ticket me for something. No matter what the reason, he scared the hell out of me and, had I had a cell phone at the time, I would have called 911 to report his ass.
I had something like that happen, sort of. I was approaching an intersection where I could go straight or turn right and make it home about the same way. As I got up to it, the light turned red so I flipped into the right hand lane and made the turn. An SUV immediately changed lanes as well and started following me. I made a few lane changes to see if he was following me or if it was a coincidence and he kept behind me. Finally, certain that I had some irate guy after me for some unknown reason, I made an abrupt turn without my signal into a gas station figuring “Well, if I’m going to get hit with a pipe wrench, at least it’ll be under lights and near a phone”.
As you can guess, it was a cop. He saw me change lanes at the intersection without signaling and then decided I was under the influence due to my erratic driving when he was following me. I said that, had he turned on his lights, I would have pulled over immediately but he was acting like someone chasing me and all my driving stunts were because of that. He let me go with a warning.
I was once on a country road going a couple MPH over the limit, tailed by two other cars. One car pulled out to pass me, whereupon the car behind it immediately put on its cop lights. Not sure if the cop was pulling them over for speeding, or passing incorrectly, or had just ran its tag, or what.
I usually just pull over at the first safe spot and let them pass. Sometimes I slow down below the speed limit if I can’t pull over. That way any accident that might happen will be at a lower speed.
This happened to me too. A cop car followed me a long way one late night and I knew he was there so I was extra careful. But I was so annoyed that when my turn came, I veered without signalling, thinking “now maybe he’ll get off my ass.” Lights went on. He said he’d been following me because I seemed to be having problems staying within my lane (right lane, for the record). Yeah right. Then he pointed out my sudden turn. Just got a warning though.
Ha. A good friend of mine did have a cop rear end her when he hit the lights and she pulled over on the shoulder. She did not get a ticket. I wonder if he did?
I remember one time I was driving through pitch black roads and a cop decided to tail gate me. He was obviously looking to harass as he had his high beams on and was maybe a foot from my bumper, and there was another lane he could have moved to to pass me. The high beams were so bright, and he was so close behind me that I was completely blinded on the sides of the car. When we got to a cross section where I had to make a left (and this street had a divider) I couldn’t see anything! I wasn’t sure where the divider was so I moved super slow so as not to blunder into it.
Of course, he pulled me over then and I got a lecture about unsafe driving. No ticket though (not that there was a reason for a ticket).
I’ve had 3 instances of cops tailgaiting me. Completely different cops, completely different circumstances. One makes me think the cop was a bit of an ass, and the other two make me think the officers are two of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.
One night while driving in the center lane of a major thoroughfare, a car follows me very closely, then HITS HIS HIGH BEAMS. I decide whoever it is, I’d rather they weren’t doing that, and give the brakes a press. Not a panic stop or anything, it would have been encouragement to pass if he had been more than 2 feet off my bumper. Since they’re following too closely, and it’s an Impala/Caprice, he locks up his brakes. Since it’s a cop, I get pulled over. His excuse for turning on his high beams is that my plate is dirty, and he was trying to read it. Surprisingly, I don’t get a ticket. Not a complete ass, but I don’t see why any of that was necessary.
A few years later I’m going 85 or so on the freeway that runs through the rural suburb I lived in at the time. Brilliant young man that I was, I am also smoking pot while driving a car that has plates and inspection that are 18 months out of date. I look up in the rear-view mirror, and notice that there’s the headlights of a Dodge pickup less than a car length from my rear bumper. Again, I’d rather they not do that, so this time I put it in fourth and floor it. Christmas breaks out behind me, and I pull over. I step out and meet the state trooper between our cars, and we have a talk about how fast I was going, and what he saw me do. He walks around the car, asks a few questions, and notices the inspection and plates. He asks if I don’t have the money to make the car legal, or if I don’t have the time. Figuring honesty is the best policy, I reply that I’ve actually got the money and the time, but am apparently too stupid to take care of it. He walks back over to me and makes small talk for a few mintues, then says:
“So, I’m actually supposed to take you to jail for driving a car with expired inspection and plates. What do you think I should do about this?”
“Tell me to get the damn thing off the road and don’t let you see it out again without current plates and inspection?”
“That sounds good to me.”
Needless to say, I drove straight home.
The third time, I was approaching a freeway interchange at about 2 am while going near the speed limit. I notice a set of Charger headlights are uncomfortably close. For a variety of reasons, including past experience with the problem, I put the car in 4th and floored it. I am older and wealthier, so the car is much faster than the old one. I exit the exchange, notice the Charger isn’t anywhere to be seen, and slow down to a speed that would normally be ignored by the police again. I am apparently not much wiser, as I’ve just pulled the same stunt 15 years later. The Charger comes flying up behind me, and we pull over. He asks me how fast I was going, I reply that I don’t know. He grumbles something about going 90 and not catching me, and takes my license and insurance back to his car. I sit back, relax, and think about the unpleasant conversation this incident will probably bring at home with my wife. Four years later, I am still astonished by the fact that he brings my license and insurance back, and hands them to me while saying: “Sir, you need to slow down. Have a good evening.” I almost think he didn’t give me a ticket just so he could see the look on my face.
And before anyone lectures me about my driving: consciously, I am well aware of the danger. I am probably more aware than anyone who would endeavor to lecture me. I don’t endorse driving like that; you could get tickets, lose your license, die, or worse. However, there’s some part of my id that finds driving that way far too appealing at times. I’ve also had loads of instances where I received a well-deserved ticket, and at least one instance where I talked my way into a ticket I wouldn’t otherwise have gotten. The system works!