Frickin Cops, Man!

Off Topic
41

[quote]SWR-1222D wrote:
slimjim wrote:
I once got pulled over for going 12 over while I was driving from Texas to California. I’m polite, ready to get my ticket and go on. The cop looks in the back of my truck and sees all my bags and boxes and asks where I’m going. I tell him I’m be reassigned to Korea and I’m driving my truck to California so I can leave it with my brother for the year.

He then tells me I have to drive with him 20 miles in the direction I had just come from in order to get a money order and head to the courthouse in order to pay my fine right then and there.

I still have the receipt for that ticket posted on my fridge and that transaction pretty much sealed my distaste for law enforcement individuals.

That sucks! I got pulled over in Pennsylvania on my way to my next duty station, and told the officer “There’s no way for me to come back here to dispute the ticket, so I guess I’ll just have to pay it.” He asked me for my address and said that he’d mail the ticket, but never did.

I also had my Military ID in front of my licence so I’d have to pull my licence out from under it. I think he gave me a break for being in the Military.

He was in an undercover car, going the speed limit in the left lane, so I passed him in the right lane and threw my hand up and shook my head, pissed that he’s blocking the left lane. He was pretty cool, given the situation. [/quote]

I’ve been let out of two tix on my way to reserve drill early in the morning. In both cases, I wasn’t intentionally speeding, just wasn’t paying attention to my speed. I told both officers exactly that. Each one told me to be careful and watch my speed. I thanked them and went on my way.

DB

42

I have no use for cops. it seems to me that when I see some one pulled over 9 times out of 10 it is an old beat up car. That tells me that pigs are selective in who they pull over and it seems they are always sticking it to the little guy. Most of the cops I have ever known are arrogant. Screw’em I have no use for them.

43

  1. Depending on your state and your insurance company, points may not actually affect your rates. My insurance company, for example, swears that moving violations do not increase rates at all.

  2. In MD, I have been told that if the cop doesn’t show up to the first court appearance, your ticket is waived and they don’t reschedule. I have also been told that if you reschedule your court date it is more likely the officer won’t show, as it will be a time that isn’t as convenient for him.

  3. I knew someone who got pulled over for doing 65 or so on the beltway… basically the minimum safe speed you can go. When the he argued that in front of the judge, the judge ACTUALLY told him that he was over the speed limit and would be getting the ticket, but if he had been going SLOWER, he should’ve gotten a ticket for unsafe driving. Yeah, it’s a scam.

44

I got one for all of you. I live in Pomona, In November 2003 on my way to church Sunday morning I borrowed my sister’s black Trans Am. A cop driving the opposite direction eyes me and mad dogs me, I was like, WTF. I was on my way to church so I kept on driving. I look into the rearview mirror and he’s making a U-turn, pulls me over. As he approaches the car with his gun the first thing he asks is “Is this car stolen?” I told him NO. He next asks"Am I in a gang, am I on paroled and have I ever been arrested?" I was like what kind of questions are these. i just said no. He asks for my I.D I told him it’s in my back pocket, can I reach back to get it, he says yeah. I hand him my I.D and he asks what nationality are you? I told him I’m Vietnamese, he says “You look like a Mexican, is this really you’re I.D.?, it doesn’t look like you” Then he asks for my registration and proof of insurance. I told him it’s in the glove compartment and can I take off my seatbelt to reach for it he says yeah. I hand him the registration and insurance. He takes it, comes back in about 5 minutes and gives me a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt. I was so F-N pissed.I told him I was wearing my seatbelt. He says"You’re not wearing it now.“Then he looks at me and says"Is there a problem?” I said no. He went back to his car and smiled at me as he drove off. I still remeber his face, I see him pass by my house once in awhile whenever I’m outside in the mornings.

45

[quote]nanjingldv wrote:
He says"You’re not wearing it now.“Then he looks at me and says"Is there a problem?” I said no. He went back to his car and smiled at me as he drove off.[/quote]

So you filed a complaint, right? This isn’t 1950… if you make noise about being racially targetted and unfairly treated, you will at the very least have your ticket expunged.

46

[quote]nephorm wrote:
nanjingldv wrote:
He says"You’re not wearing it now.“Then he looks at me and says"Is there a problem?” I said no. He went back to his car and smiled at me as he drove off.

So you filed a complaint, right? This isn’t 1950… if you make noise about being racially targetted and unfairly treated, you will at the very least have your ticket expunged. [/quote]

The ticket was only 25 bucks, I wanted to fight it, but did I really want to waste a bunch of time over 25 bucks? Would you want to spend countless hours in court fighting a 25 dollar ticket or go to work and make up that money in no time. Plus it would be my word against his.
The no seat belt fine in California is now 186 bucks for first offense and 389 for second I think, if any passenger is under 18 years old the first offense is something like 800 bucks, it’s really strict in California now. But luckily this happened in 2003 and only cost me 25 bucks

47

[quote]nanjingldv wrote:
The ticket was only 25 bucks, I wanted to fight it, but did I really want to waste a bunch of time over 25 bucks? Would you want to spend countless hours in court fighting a 25 dollar ticket or go to work and make up that money in no time. Plus it would be my word against his.[/quote]

I wouldn’t go to court, but I would file a complaint with the department and contact my local paper and newcasters. Assholes like that should be punished.

48

[quote]Magma299 wrote:
lol I am a cop out in Denver. I am not a traffic cop so I do not have quotas for tickets.

I pull people over all kinds of things so I can see if they are wanted, if the car is stolen, if there are drugs inside the car, anything that well let me see if I can get a asshole off the streets. I could give a rats ass if you have a headlight out or if your going over the speed limit by 15 or so.

There was a poster that stated he got a ticket for a air freshner hanging off the rear view mirror…thats classic but I would never write on that but that does give me a reason to stop the car and contact the parties inside.

When I pull someone over about 90% of the time I have already decided to give them a warning on the traffic violation…but sometimes that changes when the person I pulled over opens their big fat mouths. As soon as I hear an excuse the ticket pad comes out unless its a really funny one.

And most of the cops I know are the same way…except the ones that love traffic, for some reason they get their nut writing tickets. Dont get me wrong they are good guys I am sure but there focus is the traffic violations mine is getting a bad guy from the traffic violations.

If you get a ticket and you were breaking the law…then you deserve the ticket bottom line.

I hate people that I meet off duty and start telling me about how they shouldnt have gotten a ticket because everyone around them was going faster…All I say is “were you speeding” they say “yes” then I say whats the problem?

Or district did some neighborhood surveys about the what we could do to make the communities safer. You know what the overwhelming response was TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT not burgleries or murders, or assualts. Traffic but as soon as I pull someone over I hear this…“how come your not out busting drug dealers, or catching rapiests, why are you just picking on me”. It really makes my blood boil…I would really like to say…“well shithead I am stuck doing traffic enforcement because the community called and complained that were are not doing enough to stop the people from running stop signs…thats why I am pulling your dumbass over and I am not out having fun catching crackheads and doing attempt pickups on real bad guys that need to be put in jail…so shut up and pay your fucking ticket and dont run stop signs.”

Hmm now I am all pissed off before I go to work, my luck is ill go in and they will want me to traffic enforcement tonight…aarrrgghhh

Mag[/quote]

You stop everyone on traffic violations in the hopes that they are a criminal? Wouldn’t this be like walking down the sidewalk checking everyone’s license to make sure they weren’t wanted? Maybe there’s a lot more stolen cars and criminals out there than I suspect, but this sounds like a pretty lame ass excuse to stop people for hanging an air freshener.

At least JD was honest about what he’s doing, your reasons are pretty hard to buy. Maybe it helps you justify it in your own mind, who knows.

49

[quote]BIGERIC wrote:
I have no use for cops. it seems to me that when I see some one pulled over 9 times out of 10 it is an old beat up car. That tells me that pigs are selective in who they pull over and it seems they are always sticking it to the little guy. Most of the cops I have ever known are arrogant. Screw’em I have no use for them.[/quote]

That’s good. When somebody breaks into your house at 2:00AM, do us a favor…call a fireman!

50

I’m a Police Sergeant in Jersey, 16 years. Everybody hates cops. We show up at the worst times of your lives: when you are a victim of a crime, you are speeding, we notify you of the death of a family member, a family member has a heart attack…you name it! That all changed after 9/11…for about 2 months. Yes, most of the American public has gone back to hating us. Most cops have come to accept this fact and live with it.

Try to remember, we’re just regular guys…whose jobs require the wearing of bullet resistant body armour to protect all of you, whether you hate us or not. Yeah, some cops are assholes. SOme CPA’s, doctors, teachers…you name it, are assholes. We have good days and bad days just like everybody else.

To those who support us…Thank you!

To those who hate us…don’t worry, we’ll save your ass too…it’s our job!

51

Every profession has their assholes and their nice guys.

I have experienced both with cops. I find (in general) that the issue with the asshole ones are that they are a bit too quick to jump into enforement mode.

I have been slammed repeatedly against the hood of my car for an issue in which my friend was shooting a paintball gun off. The cop (nicknamed Zip) felt that I was a threat (dressed in shorts and a polo shirt from golfing that afternoon) and repeatedly slammed me against the hood of the car to the point that I was bruised across my entire mid section. He even was seconds from pepper spraying me. Now, granted this is my story, I was defended by another cop at the scene. That is a big deal too because part of a brotherhood in that field is to defend your co-workers. As biased as I feel that is, it has some reason for being there.

Needless to say, we had to have a statement. My statement was as close to actuality as I could try. I gave them exactly how many times the gun was fired yada yada. The cop who took down the statement used it against my friend and misquoted what I was saying to hte point that my friend was stamped with 6 years of probation for illegal discharge of a firearm. In the state where this was filed a CO2 fired paintball gun does not qualify as a firearm, but because of the financial situation of my friend he was stuck with accepting the claim and going with probation.

Now, on that same exact call there was a very nice cop who came to my defense as I was slammed against the hood. The slamming started when I came to the defense of my friend whom the cop was accusing of attempting to shoot and injure “civilians”. I stated that he was out firing a paintball gun at inanimate objects, not even animals with no intent of doing otherwise. Apparently, this didn’t go over well.

Back home in Palm Beach County we have issues where cops repeated speed WELL ABOVE the speed limit with no purpose. This has been openly admitted by people on the force that many of these officers have no reason to be speeding.

Recently in Old Lyme CT I almost witnessed a resident state trooper side swipe a car on a side road. The cop was going well over the speedlimit without even headlights on at 8:00PM. The civilian attempted to make a right hand turn on what appeared to be a clear road. Upon attempting the right turn out of knowhere were screatching tires and a cop car came flying by nearly hitting the guy (if he had not stopped his turn). The guy pulled into the ice cream shop and the cop pulled a donut wrecklessly into the ice cream shop and harassed the guy. This was blatantly the cops fault and guilt was admitted when the cop just got in his car and drove off when he normally would have gone back to run a liscence. Go figure.

Now… there are PLENTY of nice cops out there. I know this as my cousin is a cop in Manchester, CT. He has agreed with me on the above stories as well. But beyond him, there are encounters I have had where cops are more than helpful and reasonable when it comes to traffic enforcement. There was a cop who voluntarily patrolled our neighborhood off-duty because of reported vandalism that had occured from a few of the teenagers in the neighborhood. This was something he did out of his own time. Very honorable.

So not all cops are assholes there are a select few who get their rocks off a bit too fast.

52

Beyond those stories… I must pay my respects to anyone who serves their country. It is a long standing tradition in my family to do the same (FF/Police/Military/Teaching)

Even the cops who are assholes are heros at one point, maybe not for you but someone else.

Also forgot to add, I went back in person after the paintballing incident and apologized directly to the cops involved. Even the cop who slammed me on the hood recieved an apology, because hell we wasted their time.

53

I wasn’t trying to say that all police officers are bad. It’s just that a few bad apples can ruin the bunch. Why do police use racial profiling in certain communities? Don’t tell me the police don’t do it, cuz I have been a victim of that many many times. Here in California it happens alot. I have been harassed in Pomona, Garden Grove, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel, Rowland Heights just to name a few cities. I own a motorcycle(Crotch Rocket) and a Honda Accord, don’t worry it’s not a Rice Rocket, it’s just clean. If I’m with my friends we get pulled over for no reason. We have been pulled over, sat on the curb in handcuffs and checked for tattos, scars and cigarette burns.If we’re in a gang.We get photgraphed. Sometimes we are let go and sometimes we get a ticket for unsafe lane change or some lame ass excuse. It’s usually sorry we got a report on blah blah blah and you guys fit the description.WTF!!!
There are good cops out there I’m sure, it’s just that I have never met any befor in my life.

54

[quote]boingogirl1 wrote:
I got nabbed a few months back for speeding. 60 in a 45…pissed me off.
[/quote]

Er, with all due respect… 60 in a 45? I hate to say it, but you kinda deserved it!

JD240 put it much better than I ever will. I used to work in law enforcement, and I’ve heard all the excuses.

To be honest, we are human, too. If a driver treats us like shit when we pull them over, what do you think we’re going to do? Smile and say, “Have a nice day?” Remember that the reason a driver has been stopped is generally because they’ve broken the law. Try to remember the saying that a lot of cops live by: “Most people write their own tickets.”

I know, I know. Everybody speeds. I speed. Your mom speeds. We all speed. Last time I did 73 in a 55 I got busted. I didn’t whip out my badge, I took it like a T-Man. After all, I did the crime, right?

That being said, I cut most drivers a break. I had several reasons for traffic enforcement:

  1. It’s my job.
  2. The driver needed to be advised to slow down/don’t run the stop sign/signal the turn, etc. Everyone goes to driver’s ed. Everyone knows you’re supposed to obey the law.

This is the most important:

  1. Snooping for illegal activity.

I cannot tell you how many people with warrants, stolen vehicles, etc, go to jail because they’re speeding.

THAT is why I got into law enforcement – chasing after bad guys. I never enjoyed writing tickets, unless the driver was a jerk. If, however, I caught someone doing 20 or 30 over, did I write them? Unless they were on a highway, hell yeah. Nobody should be doing 60 in a 30 in a residential area!

55

[quote]BIGERIC wrote:
I have no use for cops. it seems to me that when I see some one pulled over 9 times out of 10 it is an old beat up car. That tells me that pigs are selective in who they pull over and it seems they are always sticking it to the little guy. Most of the cops I have ever known are arrogant. Screw’em I have no use for them.[/quote]

Then don’t ever call 911.

56

[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:
You stop everyone on traffic violations in the hopes that they are a criminal? Wouldn’t this be like walking down the sidewalk checking everyone’s license to make sure they weren’t wanted? Maybe there’s a lot more stolen cars and criminals out there than I suspect, but this sounds like a pretty lame ass excuse to stop people for hanging an air freshener.

At least JD was honest about what he’s doing, your reasons are pretty hard to buy. Maybe it helps you justify it in your own mind, who knows.[/quote]

Actually, cap, a lot of bad guys are taken off the streets for driving like idiots.

I think the proof is in the fact that he doesn’t tag most people.

Also, it’s against the law for us to stop everyone on the street and ask for ID. We need to have, at the very least, reasonable suspicion that suspicious activity is taking place.

On the other hand, generally (and I readily acknowledge that our profession has its share of assholes who racially profile, etc) speaking, if you’re pulled over, you’re breaking the law.

To put it bluntly, every time you evade a ticket, you’re lucky.

Ok all, flame on…

57

[quote]perfectlycrazy wrote:
Being a female helps in these situations. I’d better go knock on wood now!![/quote]

Years ago, my training officer told me: “I only give the pretty girls tickets…the ugly ones have enough problems”.

58

you know what i do?

(1) postpone the court date by rescheduling
(2) then, write a letter saying that you can not make the 2nd court date AND explaining your case.

this has worked for me on two occasions and saved me some serious cash. now some are easier to weasel out of than others. honestly, i can’t believe that the last one i wrote worked, but somehow it did. PM me if you want my letter for a template, as i think i have it at home.

ultimately, i would get too pissed off in person and would say something stupid. this eliminates that possibility. plus, people are really impressed by well written letters, since approximately nobody knows how to.

show up in that dumbass hat and spout off … or write a nice letter … just a thought.

Bastard

59

[quote]PSlave wrote:
Also, it’s against the law for us to stop everyone on the street and ask for ID. We need to have, at the very least, reasonable suspicion that suspicious activity is taking place.
[/quote]

Hmm. I’ve seen those kinds of blocks set up all the time… in fact, aren’t they legal precisely because they’re stopping every single driver?

60

[quote]nephorm wrote:
Hmm. I’ve seen those kinds of blocks set up all the time… in fact, aren’t they legal precisely because they’re stopping every single driver?[/quote]

No, a court ruled that checkpoints for sobriety, etc are unconstitutional.

Now, checkpoints near the border CAN be used.

I don’t remember the case law off the top of my head, but I can post it relatively easily if you’re curious.