# With All Due Respect, "Asshole" Applies to the Person Blocking Traffic **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 6, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976 "2003-09-06T19:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/41 "2003-09-08T14:53:06Z")
Parking Lots: You do realize that the poor bastard that you’re tormenting for wanting “your” spot (Cite the paid tax bill & deed please) was just You an hour before. And maybe you’re teaching him/her that this is the new mall etiquette…so that next time it’ll be you screaming ‘C’mon, I gotta go Pee…Move Your Ass’ over the steering wheel. Karma’s a Bitch when it bites you like that, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/42 "2003-09-08T15:26:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mearl Dox \* > \*\*_reads **lezlers** 2nd post above_ Ah, well, that explains that. > > Anybody who sits waiting for 10 minutes has nobody to blame but themselves, in my opinion. After a certain point you just shrug it off and move on. And what else could she have done? Gotten out of the car to talk to a stranger and explain that she was too young to move the vehicle? > > And I didn’t see **Diogenes the Cynic** as doing anything wrong. If I go back to my car to drop something off, I’m not obliged to exit the space and find another. My impression was that the guy was blocking traffic in that case, so **DtC** considered this asshole behavior and ‘punished’ him. Maybe not helpful, but also not a strike against an innocent guy. > > “What makes these idiots think that I have some obligation to move my car.” is exactly my view. You might wait if nobody’s behind you, in the hope that the space will be vacated, but nobody’s obliged to vacate because you sit there. You only have a right to the space if you’re parked there pulling into it. \*\* Exactly. My problem is not with people simply waiting but people who feel entitled to _hold up traffic_ while they’re waiting. I hat e getting stuck behind these self-absorbed assholes and I take every opportunity to provoke them when I’ve got the power. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/43 "2003-09-08T15:32:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by county \* > \*\*Where did that come from? Have I offended you? If so, when? how? \*\* You’re offending _everybody_ by being a fucking cockbiter. You seem to derive some sort of gratification from launching smug, judgemental attacks on other people. You’re a passive aggressive little shit. Fuck you. :wally :wally :wally ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/44 "2003-09-08T15:50:27Z")
**Morigoon** , I don’t ever honk or yell stuff at cars I’m waiting for either. Frankly, before reading this thread, I didn’t know there were people who actually _did_ do that. I’ve never had it happen to me (of course, I’m courteous enough to let the person following me know if I’m leaving or not to avoid pissing someone off for no reason). That would be why I said if someone engaged in any of those behaviors, then all bets are off. I can’t help but think though that if people showed common courtesy and let people following them know (there’s no need for a prolonged conversation, like some people are trying to justify not communicating with) with a wave or gesture, then you could avoid pissing people off in the first place. Then maybe they _wouldn’t_ act like jerks when they’re waiting. ---
**Author:** ![township](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@township](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/township)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/45 "2003-09-08T15:56:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*You’re offending _everybody_ by being a fucking cockbiter. You seem to derive some sort of gratification from launching smug, judgemental attacks on other people. You’re a passive aggressive little shit. Fuck you. :wally :wally :wally \*\* Color me all upset…you shit for brains idiot ---
**Author:** ![township](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@township](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/township)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/46 "2003-09-08T15:59:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*Exactly. My problem is not with people simply waiting but people who feel entitled to _hold up traffic_ while they’re waiting. I hat e getting stuck behind these self-absorbed assholes and I take every opportunity to provoke them when I’ve got the power. \*\* And you are the judge, you know what’s going on and how they should be punished, using your little bit of power. Shit-head ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/47 "2003-09-08T16:22:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by township \* > \*\*Color me all upset…you shit for brains idiot \*\* Who the fuck are you? I was talking to **County**. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/48 "2003-09-08T16:26:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by township \* > \*\*And you are the judge, you know what’s going on and how they should be punished, using your little bit of power. Shit-head \*\* That’s right, dipshit. I’m the fucking judge, fucking jury and fucking executioner. What are you gonna do about it, beeyatch? ---
**Author:** ![Mearl\_Dox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@Mearl\_Dox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mearl_Dox)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/49 "2003-09-08T20:49:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by quietman1920 \* > \*\*Parking Lots: > > You do realize that the poor bastard that you’re tormenting for wanting “your” spot (Cite the paid tax bill & deed please) was just You an hour before. And maybe you’re teaching him/her that this is the new mall etiquette…so that next time it’ll be you screaming ‘C’mon, I gotta go Pee…Move Your Ass’ over the steering wheel. > > Karma’s a Bitch when it bites you like that, huh? \*\* Um… I never do that. Even when I have to pee really, really badly, it’s not that guy’s fault and he doesn’t need screaming or fist-waving or whatever. I move on and try to find another spot, when it becomes clear he isn’t going to move soon. That’s life. And it’s my spot because my car is there, covering it, at that moment. As soon as I move, it’s not my spot. That’s, uh, that’s generally how it works. If I see somebody go to their car, and I’m searching for a spot, I may (IF there’s nobody behind me) hover nearby to see if they’ll leave. If they get something out of their car and go back to the store, or if they sit in the car eating lunch or something, I feel mildly disappointed and move on. I don’t freak out about it. They aren’t obliged to move just because my sacred vehicle is in the vicinity. Ignoring the whole nastiness up there… ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/50 "2003-09-08T22:45:14Z")
**Diogenes the Cynic** I admire your usual posting, what is up? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/51 "2003-09-08T23:43:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bippy the Beardless \* > \*\ ***Diogenes the Cynic** I admire your usual posting, what is up? \*\* Aside from **County’s** posts to **Siege** in this thread, look at some of his remarks in [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=209440) (I wonder why **Township** got so upset about my post to **County** , btw. It’s almost like Township thought I was talking to \*him[/]. May be it’s because they have such similar usernames…) ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/52 "2003-09-09T00:34:20Z")
I’ve since seen some of **Country** posting elsewhere, and understand more. In this thread without knowing about the other you were looking almost as bad as he/she. I now apologize for thinking you were being unreasonable without good reason 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/53 "2003-09-09T02:24:08Z")
\ Here in Minneapolis, we have recently had a somewhat similar traffic situation become rather controversial. A police woman in a patrol car was on a medical call, driving a disoriented person home. While going along on a medium-traffic thru street, she came upon a car stopped in the middle of the traffic lane, with the driver (a black woman) talking to a pedestrian who was standing in the middle of the street. After waiting a bit, the police woman got out, went up to the car and told the driver she was blocking traffic on the street, and that if she wanted to talk to this person, she should pull into the open parking lot just down at the end of the block. The driver of the car got extremly angry, asked the police woman “do you know who I am?”, called her various names, told her to just pull into the other lane and drive around her, etc. The officer said again that she was blocking traffic, and that it was not safe for other traffic to have to cross the center line into the oncoming traffic lane to get around her, and that she was breaking the law by blocking traffic. The driver yelled that she was a City Councilmember, that she was talking to a constitutent, and that she wasn’t going to move. And she said “you just go ahead and write me a ticket. You do that. It’ll be your job on the line.” So the officer did just that, wrote her a traffic ticket, and then continued on her medical call. Now this has become a controversy in town, with claims such as: - the police woman was being overly aggressive in issuing a ticket for this, she should have just gone around the stopped car. - the police woman was racist in issuing the ticket; she would not have done so it had been a white woman in the stopped car. - that the police dept. is out to ‘get’ this councilmember, and that’s really why the officer wrote the ticket. - that the local Democratic party is out to ‘get’ this council member, because she defeated the democratic candidate (by 70-some votes) back in 2001. - that the newspaper is racist because it published a story about this incident on the front page of the B section. - that the whole incident just shows how racist the whole state of Minnesota is. Personally, it seems to me that this whole issue is a big deal being made over pretty much nothing at all. But I wonder what other people think of the whole thing. Comments, anyone? \ ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/54 "2003-09-09T03:17:46Z")
The officer should have poleaxed the bitch with a nightstick…but that’s just mho. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/55 "2003-09-09T03:49:09Z")
Has someone sneaked onto **Diogenes** ’s computer again while he was away? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/56 "2003-09-09T04:05:36Z")
No, that was me. 😉 A little over the top maybe, but me. Seriously, I think the councilwoman was totally in the wrong and totally deserved the ticket. The “racism” charge is bullshit and trivializes _actual_ racism. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/57 "2003-09-09T04:59:53Z")
I think the Councilwoman was completely at fault as well. I work in politics and the egos can be _astounding_. These people really do feel as though they’re above the law. The fact that a _Citycouncilmember_ (who is at the bottom rung of the political ladder, pretty much) has that kind of ego is pretty funny, actually. Saw the same thing happen once outside of a diner in San Francisco. Unfortunately there was no police officer there. In the middle of 19th Avenue (a very busy street in San Francisco) a car just _stopped_ in the middle of the lane, put on his hazards while his girlfriend got out and nonchalently wandered over to the sidewalk to get a newspaper from the stand. All the while, cars are honking madly behind him. The absolute _nerve_ of some people. He was blocking an entire lane of a BUSY ass street so his girlfriend could get a newspaper. And it wasn’t like she was hurrying. She was taking her sweet ass time. Luckily I saw this whole thing while inside the diner, my friends and I just sat there with our mouths wide open in shock, watching the whole thing go down. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/58 "2003-09-09T15:06:02Z")
If anyone refused to move twice, especially if on the second request they say “you just go ahead and write me a ticket. You do that. It’ll be your job on the line.” that person should and will get a ticket. Good on the law officer doing her job and not succumbing to threats from civilians who break the law. ---
**Author:** ![7\_up\_yours](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/919ad9/32.png) [@7\_up\_yours](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/7_up_yours)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/59 "2003-09-09T19:41:10Z")
Leaving the racism stuff alone for a minute… > [@](#): > > - that the police dept. is out to ‘get’ this councilmember, and that’s really why the officer wrote the ticket. If the officer didn’t write this councilmember a ticket, there’s bound to be someone saying “She gets special treatment because she’s a councilmember!! The outrage!!! Let’s burn her at the stake.” Either way, the officer is screwed. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976/60 "2003-09-09T20:23:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*The officer should have poleaxed the bitch with a nightstick…but that’s just mho. \*\* Please, no! We have a few members of our police force here who seem to enjoy reacting in that manner, and we’re all paying higher taxes to cover the costs of various lawsuits the city has lost over this kind of conduct. Please don’t encourage the ‘thumpers’ – us taxpayers can’t afford it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-all-due-respect-asshole-applies-to-the-person-blocking-traffic/199976.md?page=2)