Maybe it was a quota thing, maybe it’s because you’re a woman (not many blokes I know favour pink shoes), maybe it was because they were having fun putting you under pressure and seeing how you’d react. Like the rest of us, coppers get shit from above, so, being human, they like to shit on others. Punters make perfect targets for traffic cops.
“Whoo, let’s see how slow this one goes down to?”
“Yeah, shall we do the pussy for going too slow and causing an obstruction?”
“If she keeps checking the mirror like that, she’s gonna get a stiff neck.”
“Wouldn’t be the only stiff thing around here, Mac!!!”
I remember once, driving in the afternoon, I was going down the road, I was trying to make a right into a (movie theater) parking lot. Except the guy in front of me had stoped midway in between the parking lot I was trying to get to, and the road I was on. He had stoped because he had his window rolled down and was talking to a police officer in his cruiser with his window rolled down.
Since the guy blocking my way into the parking lot was a security gaurd in a security truck, I just figured these two guys must be friends just chatting each other up. I waited paitiently for a minute or two then I honked my horn to let them know I was behind them trying to get in.
After honking my horn, the guy in the security truck pulled off but the police officer stayed put, obviously, to let me have a piece of his mind. So I try to pull through but then he yells at me through his window:
Cop: “HEY! DON’T HONK YOUR HORN AT ME CAN’T YOU SEE I’M A COP?”
Me: “Yeah, can’t you see I’m trying to get through?”
Cop: “DON’T GET SMART WITH ME BOY! I WAS TALKING TO THAT GUY BECAUSE HE HAD ALMOST RAN INTO ME WITH HIS TRUCK!” (I didn’t see that part btw)
Me: “Well, OK, but I believe the proper proceedure is if you’re going to pull some one over is to turn your fashers on so people know what the heck it is you’re doing” (being very carefull to whatch my language at this point)
Cop: “PULL OVER!”
Me: *so tempted to say “WHAT THE FUCK FOR?” but alas cooler heads prevailed; so I didn’t.
The guy pulls me over puts me through the whole nine yards and what not. Comes back from his squad car hands me my license (no ticket) and proceeds to tell me I need to learn more respect for police officers.
It was at that point I told him I have LOADS of respect for my Uncles and Cousins who happen to be Dallas police officers. He then asks me their names, he didn’t know them but he knew (of) my Grandfather. He then at that point does a 180 and tries to chat me up like I’m his best friend all the sudden. To which I could only respond with :rolleyes: times infinity.
SHAKES, there’s like me and you, and you and me, and no other bugger in this whole damned wide world who’d not treat someone special just because they’re famous, or rich, or wearing a police uniform, or a bikini, or whatever. Ain’t no one else left who lives by the words of the good book not to be a respecter of persons, and not to judge by appearances. Damn well shouldn’t matter if she’s got firm, supple jugs or a great ass, or a face like Angelina Jolie. Or jugs like hers for that matter. Or an ass like Angie’s.
Some people are just shallow, and the rest is just hypocrites.
Epimetheus, the road where I got my ticket is one I travel routinely to work, church, and to visit the gentleman I’m seeing who lives at the end of the street. The routes I routinely take to the interstate to work have 4 or 5 stop signs on them, and I do stop at all of them. The morning I got my ticket, I thought I did stop at that stop sign, but I couldn’t specifically remember doing so and I had more important things in my life to deal with than fighting a traffic ticket, expecially since I was told I’d need knee surgery that afternoon. If I’d gone to court, it would have been my word against a policeman’s, and, as I said, I couldn’t swear absolutely that I stopped. I was on autopilot that morning, and autopilot does involve stopping at stop signs.
I’ve had one other traffic ticket in my life; that was for speeding, I was doing it, I admitted it, and I was apologetic about it. It was a fair call, and it taught me an important lesson.
In this case, I don’t think I did run the stop sign. I was still polite and pleasant, even telling the police officer I wouldn’t contest the ticket because he had a tough enough job. Neighbors have mine have also been given tickets for running that stop sign when they have stopped, contested it, and lost. It wasn’t worth contesting it, but I still think it was wrong. It was also a bit frustrating when I’d see other people running stop signs in that area. I’m now dead sure I do come to a complete stop at every stop sign in the area. What I can’t figure out is why they lowered the speed limit, yet left a more dangerous situation at the traffic light at the end of it alone.
He was supposed to merge because no one was there to wait for. I was a whole block away when he decided to wait for me. He had all the time in the world to go down that street. He just waited for me and the other car to go so he could run our license plates.
[I can’t get this vision of a Tennessee Williams’ style ‘gentleman caller’ out of my mind every time I see Siege’s name. At least it prevents any image of hanky-panky forming in my mind.]
Anyway, to the topic, my best escape from the old traffic ticket here was a couple of years ago when I was done for doing a U-turm across double lines in the middle of the road. The cop comes along, I look charming (not difficult) and rather foreign (also not difficult). He explains to me that I shouldn’t have done it because… and I’m nodding (not smiling)… and then when he finishes (quite a long lecture - a la style Chinoise), I ask him some dumb question, sort of like asking him to clarify the whole thing again. So he does. He’s looking pretty happy by now, so I seize my opportunity and say I was sorry to break the law, but I had only been in the country for 4 months. (Seemed enough time to have bought a car but not to have learned all the rules of the road.)
So I got let off. Unfortunately, I now have a problem when I try to tell my kid that honesty is the best policy.
I have to agree with the OP…many people get nervous when the cops are behind you while you are driving. All it takes is one stupid mistake and you could wind up with a heafty fine and a nice insurance increase. Some people just can’t afford to pay more than they are already. I lived that way for years before I had some career success and could afford a ticket and increased insurance. Not to mention that there are a fair share of “bad” cops out there who would just as soon give an innocent person a ticket as someone who deserved it. Its almost impossible to argue with a cop, he’s got all the power. In that situation why wouldn’t you worry?
3:00 a.m. , maybe not. It was 2:18 a.m. My 38 year old sister slowed but failed to stop at a stop sign in suburban area.
Drunk driver traveling at (calculated) 124 mph with lights off.
Two witnesses in a car behind the drunk driver said he was traveling in the opposing right hand travel lane and crossed five lanes (four traffic lanes and the center turn lane before striking my sisters car broadside mid way through her turn.
She never saw what killed her.
Nearly every law has a good reason to be on the books.
Pop quiz folks:
Which is more likely to get you pulled over and facing a reckless or driving to endanger citation?
A) Driving at or below the speed limit being careful to observe all traffic laws
or
B)
Not sure what you drive, it may be faster than Ford, it might out run a Chrysler, but I got 5 bucks says it won’t out corner Motorola.
Now about tickets you don’t deserve. I got one of those when I was 18ish. I had a drinking buddy who was a cop. I showed him the ticket and told him it was BS. I still recall his response
So when I get stopped, I am always very polite, and nice to the officer. I don’t lie to them, and don’t BS them. About 60% of the time I get let off. When I do get a cite, the cops usually winds up apologzing for giving me a ticket (yup it has happened) If they ask why I am so nice I tell them what my buddy told all those years ago. I then add that I am way ahead on points.
I hit submit too soon. Lucy I am sorry for your loss.
I always stop at stop signs or lights particulary at 3AM. The person most likely to run a stop sign at that time of the night is someone who has been drinking.
That’s an horrendous story, and I sympathise greatly.
However, in this case, a complete stop might have bought your sister a chance to avoid the accident, but it might not. What if she’d stopped, but the drunk driver had only been doing 120mph - perhaps she’d still have been midway through her turn when it happened…?
What I’m trying to say is that there’s an element of luck involved - coincidence perhaps. In fact, your story only goes to show that the real danger is the drunk flying out of control down the road - not the person who doesn’t come to a complete stop at a junction.
Sure, I break the law, often even. I speed, 5 mph over the speed limit, I probably even stop after the white line sometimes, I know I jaywalk on occasion, and I probably speed up too fast amid a host of other minor infraction.
The difference, however is that I take personal responsibility for it. I may even do it again, but I don’t whine like a little baby and blame other people. I recognize that I broke the law and I was due for a ticket.
Hey, if you need to have a compelling reason to stop at a stop sign, then I personally don’t think you should be on the street. It is a law for a reason. It may not seem like a big deal at 3 in the morning, but if you do it consistantly then, you may slip and do it during the day when my loved ones are driving around. (generic you of course) If you live in a city that doesn’t have that law, kudos for you. If you think you know how every cop feels about the issue, in an entire city and metropolitan area, great. But if you get a ticket for it, don’t act as if you had not done something wrong. You did, you broke the law and put other people in danger.
And yeah, there are bad cops out there, I know. Most of them are just doing their job though.
Oh, how so? I merely stated that I thought it was funny when dumbasses don’t take personal responsiblity. Do the deed, pay the price. You know the rules, or should, as I stated. How is that lacking in perspective? Oh, it is against your view, so I should get YOUR perspective huh? Ok, hows this:
That cop pulled you over for doing 20 mph over the speed limit, what a prick, him, pulling you over like that. I mean, it isn’t murder or anything.
Snobby? How can you tell from that post? Methinks you are inserting your own insecurities into my post. I made a general statement about people bitching about tickets they EARNED, and commented on how I get a certain amout of glee (from the irony of course) from hearing people complain about it as if it were the cops fault. No, its your fault dumbass. Yeah, I break the law too, so I am not “superior” to you, but if I break the law and get caught, I don’t act like a whiny little crybaby and blame everybody but myself.
Thank you and (Rick) for you sentiments. It is appreciated, even though it happened many, many years ago …
Now, not to belabor the point but to expand just a little …
At the speed that drunk driver was traveling, one extra second to make a full stop and take a look around would have made a difference. True, there is an element of luck in that type of situation (she could have just as easily been coming from another direction entirely and hit my sister from the rear). My point was only to illustrate the fact that there is a good reason to come to a full stop and take a look around even on a deserted road at 3:00 a.m.; further more, that there is usually a good reason to observe all traffic laws.
As a Professional Driver I observe so many people doing such stupid shit and taking so many unnecessary risks with their lives and the lives of others just to get somewhere 30 seconds sooner that there are days when I just want to park my big truck and transport the product in buckets … (and keep in mind that I do not normally drive in large metro areas – I’m out here in northern Nevada where there is, by comparison, almost no traffic at all!) …
One of the other posters in this thread (sorry, don’t have time to go look for it) said that “we all” *break * the laws. It kinda pissed me off when I read that, cause I don’t. (See NOTE below.) I never willfully ‘break’ any traffic laws. Like everyone else, I occasionally make mistakes, from time to time I might even be put into a situation where I can not obey the letter of the law, but I never neglectfully break the law or fail to comply with the law because of laziness.
For example: I never “speed” (speeding being defined as willfully traveling faster than the speed limit for the purpose of getting from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ quicker). At five or even ten over, ya gotta travel a whole lotta miles (think hundreds) for it to make any difference anyway. When I do get into a metro area like Salt Lake City or Reno there are times when it becomes necessary, in the interest of the safety of others, to travel at the prevailing speed of the traffic around me, but even then, as soon as it starts getting nutty (like rush hour traffic) I take the first exit I can safely get off at and wait it out till things calm down. My life, your life, and the lives of every one else around my truck may depend on my ability to recognize when things are getting to be too dangerous and making that decision to get out. My profession is driving, not taking risks. (I wish more of my fellow Drivers would learn this and observe it – alas, not everyone driving a semi is a Professional Driver.)
I drive for the sole purpose of making money. I don’t do it for the entertainment or the social life, I do it for the money. Even if I didn’t make my living behind the wheel of a semi, the same question would prevail: “Why would I risk my hard earned dollars on some silly assed violation and end up giving my money to the government when it is so much easier (and safer) to do it right in the first place?”
So to address your last statement Martiju:
NO! The real danger comes from anyone behind the wheel who is unable, unwilling, or just too damn lazy to pay attention or follow the rules. To paraphrase an old saying: “Sometimes you hit the Bear, sometimes the Bear hit you” (In other terms, sometimes that little thing you don’t do will cause an wreck, sometimes it will cause you to be the target. That is what the law enforcement officers are trying to prevent by pulling you over and shaking you up a little – they really would prefer not having to scrape your butt off the pavement.
In the hope that all this has not fallen on deaf ears (blind eyes?), please, observe the rules of the road. The life you save could be mine. Or a member of my family. Or a member of yours, for that matter.
So much for ‘not belaboring the point’, huh? (sighhhhh)
Sorry for the long (semi-hi-jack) post. No pun intended.
Lucy
[NOTE: 26 years without being cited (or even being pulled over) for a moving vioation. On or off the job. And I can prove that.]
See Delaware v. Prouse (1979) 440 U.S. 648, which held it is an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to stop an automobile being driven on a public highway, for the purpose of checking the drivers license of the operator and the registraiton of the car, where there is neither probable cuase to believe nor reasonable suspicion that the car is being driven contrary to the laws governing the operation of motor vehicles.
