ARGGGG, I hate the police!!! OT

[Caj]

Before I knew what was happening the cops were on me sirens howling behind me.I pulled over and ...in the UK you must turn your engine off and get out of the car...wrong move!

Never, EVER do this in the United States.

The protocol here is to stay in your vehicle when pulled over, and if you step out of it you could get shot.

I'm surprised they don't tell you this when you rent a car, if you are a visitor from across the pond. The difference in customs in this particular case is a recipe for disaster, and enough to warrant at least a mention.

Caj

[jim stone]

The one thing one can ask of the police is
that they be professional. Often the hope
is dashed.

Unfortunately, that can be said of the folks in many walks of life.

All the Best, Tom

True! I can tell you stories about the medical profession.

Let me put the matter succinctly: police work is
difficult and dangerous and necessary--it attracts some very good
people and also a good number of racists,
bullies, and criminals. There are enough of the
latter category that it is wise to keep in mind
that one may well be dealing with one of them,
no matter what the appearance.

Once when I was pulled over by a cop in New Orleans for
speeding, he lectured me about my immorality,
etc, and I almost said, but had the sense not to:
"Officer, which of us is more likely to be
dealing cocaine?'

Having been harassed by police on many occasion
for the fun of it, without giving any provocation, I neither
fear nor loathe police--I'm polite and
very careful. I have on some occasions
gone out of my way to be cooperative
and regretted it.

[MurphyStout]

Murphy...I know that you really do not wish to get into it, but I am curious what has given rise to your opinion of Law Enforcement Officers?

Well, I used to live in an area that was very laid back and low key and the cops never bothered me. Then I moved to Alameda county and more specifically San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is a zero crime suburb filled with Asains and Old people. It is a township so it doesn't have a police force so it is patroled by CHP and Alameda county Sheriffs. In fact it's a turf war between the two. I can sit on my front yard on any given day and count over 50 cop cars that drive by. Oakland is in Alameda county and a scant 10 minutes away. There is serious crime over there and an actual need for cops. But are they there? No, they aren't cause they're scared of Oakland so they'd rather sit back on there arses in a zero crime neighborhood and get paid $100000 to write traffic tickets.

Teachers get paid around $50000 around here. Cops make twice that and that to me is Very wrong.

But besides that, I'm a long hair who is drug and alcohol free but I get pulled over in this neighborhood on a weekly basis. The last two times were at 1:00am coming back from a session I attend in SF. They haven't had a actual good reason to pull me over as I follow the traffic laws to a T around here cause there are so many cops. I've been pulled over twice simply so he could see my license and registration. I've been given a $300 ticket for running a red light which I didn't when I was driving some of my drunk friends around (I had to get out of the car for a sobriety test that night.) I've been given a ticket for doing a California roll at an interestion 50 yards from my house at 2:00am when there was zero traffic by a cop who was hiding in all black on a motorcycle behind bushes. I've had my car broken into with everything in it stolen and had to wait in freezing temperatures for 2 hours for the cop to show up to make a report. (this was in tahoe) And when the cop did show up he arrested my buddy on a warrant that was cleared 2 weeks prior but somebody hadn't done the paperwork on so he got arrested again and had to pay $1600. Then just yesterday, my car got towed in SF when I was at my sister's house feeding her cats and giving one of them it's siesure medicition which only took 25 minutes. I was parked legally but they said I wasn't within the legal limit of my curb which cost me $250.

This is freaking ridiculous. I was planning to go to Ireland in December but I've blown about 1000 just on tickets and unfair taxation. Cause Alameda county needs a $30000 dollar harley to "patrol" the streets at night.

I've never been in an accident, I've never been an unsafe driver, I have long hair, I've never smoked pot, never gotten drunk, and I've never ever been rude to a police officer. Is this right?

I mean I'm a real outlawed at age 21 working and going to school and just trying to live.

[TomB]

[quote="MurphyStoutI mean I'm a real outlawed at age 21 working and going to school and just trying to live.[/quote]


Hippie Rebel


It really sucks to be treated that way, just because of your "look", I suppose.

Tom

[mujo]

1) Around the corner from my house there is a blind spot right across from a stop sign. From the 25th of every month the cops use that spot to pull over people every 20 minutes,like clockwork, the rest of the month- nothing. No quotas?

2) 2 houses away lives an officer who Iv'e witnessed driving intoxicated with his infant son in the back of his open topped Jeep. And is still to this day blowing off the fireworks he confiscated around July 4th.

That being said I know a couple of hard working officers who consider themselves public servants and won't hesitate to stop and change a stranded motorists tire.

[Guest]

Don't know when Mr Hardy got the treatment in LA, but I can tell him he was lucky!

Touring in the 80's I was almost killed for being what the thugs thought to be Oirish. I was lucky to get out of there unmarked. BTW most of these thugs at that time were exUK criminals who pretty much controlled the LA crime world.

Perhaps you should read the news before travelling to CA? I know I WISH I did!

About the cops. Face it, they are people just like the rest of us and they too have bad days, so give em a break by being nice no matter what they say or do.

[emmline]

About the cops. Face it, they are people just like the rest of us and they too have bad days, so give em a break by being nice no matter what they say or do.

Toasty! You're making perfect sense!

[Joseph E. Smith]

I've never been in an accident, I've never been an unsafe driver, I have long hair, I've never smoked pot, never gotten drunk, and I've never ever been rude to a police officer. Is this right?....I mean I'm a real outlawed at age 21 working and going to school and just trying to live.

Yeah, it sounds like they have singled out the 'stereotypes' in your part of the world. I have seen it happen here in steamy hot Central Florida...and most of the folks I have witnessed being pulled over by the police aren't exactly friendly about it...which gets them the 'extra special' treatment from Sgt. Bubba and Co.

Since, you don't drink or do drugs but you still get targeted, perhaps you should consider a life of drug abuse and alcoholism and extreme risk taking from behind the wheel of your vehicle...I mean, maybe that's the solution. I hate to say it, but Murphy's Law (sorry) would seem to indicate that those who do good get screwed.....anything bad that can happen, will.

Whatever you do, don't lose the hair just because they're a--holes.

[DCrom]

A few observations:

1) Police departments vary. LAPD has a reputation (among other PDs) of being one of the more rough-edged forces. CHP has a reputation of being one of the more professional forces out there. The bulk of any police force will be officers doing the best they can. The percentage of bad apples tolerated may be higher in some forces than others, but (in general) cops are, by their own lights, trying to enforce the law.

I've colllected few (only a few) tickets since I started driving, but the one that still rankles was the one that I didn't do - in my case it was a young Arizona Highway Patrol officer that was terrified of bikers - when he pulled over a college student on a Honda he thought that he had a Big Bad Outlaw Biker. Since I was leaving the state, it was easier to just pay the $50 fine. The few times I've been ticket since it cost a bit more - but I'd *earned* those tickets and I don't harbor any resentment at the officers (in a couple of cases, if they'd wanted, they could have written a much more costly ticket).

2) Traffic enforcement intensity is usually driven from the top, not the bottom. And very often by the local politicos, not the cops themselves. FWIW, now that the state of Califonia takes the lion's share of ticket revenue (instead of the local government) local enforcement is probably driven more by resident's safety complaints than an effort to fill the city's coffers. (One of the few good consequences of Prop 13, in my opinion)

3) Cops are usually somewhat on edge when they pull someone - anyone! - over. Believe it or not, this is, statistically, dangerous for the officers, even in low-crime areas. I know - I live in one of the safest areas of one of our safest major cities. A couple of years ago, a policeman pulled someone over for a fairly routine late-night traffic stop on a neighborhood street less than a mile from my home. The man being pulled over had just left a party, and didn't want to face a breathalizer (I guess) - and the driver was a petty criminal who'd had several brushes with the law in the past, and had (illegal on several counts) a stolen gun in the car. He shot and killed the officer (a young man with less than a year on the force). In this case, the killer was caught - but all cops have one or two stories about cases that *almost* went this way. This is not an excuse for acting like a little tin god - but even the best-intentioned cop may be a little abrupt.

4) No matter how unfair it may be to be pulled over, it usually pays to be polite. Don't volunteer information than required, and don't admit to anything. If you get a ticket, argue about it in court, not with the cop. If nothing else, it gives him motivation to ticket everything he can (and according to a traffic-school instructer I talked to, most of us do at least one thing that COULD be ticketed every time we drive.) Unfair as it is, "everyone else is going faster" is NOT a defense if you're going over the speed limit.

5) This may be part of 4) - when the policeman pulls you over, look as non-threatening as possible. A CHP-officer cousin told me that one of the best ways to do this is to have your window rolled down, your wallet on the dashboard, and both hands visible on the steering wheel when the officer walks up to your car. It may not prevent a ticket, but it will help lower their tension level - almost certainly a good thing.

I believe that everything happened as Jack said it did - and those that have met him know that, long hair aside, he's about as squeaky clean as they come. The likelihood of Jack driving drunk is about as high as seeing a flock of airborn Poland-Chinas. Was it fair? Quite likely not. Was the cop harassing Jack for being a young guy with long hair? Possibly - but he may have been there because his boss told him to go there and enforce a no-tolerance policy because the department had a lot of complaints of speeding, late-night noise, etc, and Jack was just unlucky.

Didn't mean to write a long screed - sorry!

[Jeferson]

My friend became a cop last year at the age of 38. He'd been working with his hands for years, gradually sinking into boredom, and wishing he had followed his dreams of becoming a cop. So, when the business he worked for went under, he started thinking about applying to become a cop. Talked to friends who were cops, rode along as a volunteer, took some night classes, started seriously working out. And finally, last year, he finished up his training and entered the force.

He hates it. Can't stand it. The work? No, not so much the work. It's a bit more challenging than he anticipated, but he enjoys the work. Unfortunately, the police detachment he works for is run by a group of idiots. I won't detail their sins, but lets just say they are very set in their ways and he made the mistake of questioning some nasty things he discovered to be going on. They've basically decided to cruelly force him out. They've set him up to be denied a transfer to another city, so now they're making him suffer with a paperwork load that's humanly impossible to do without staying an extra three or four hours a night, unpaid of course. They filed bizarre, untrue stuff in his employment file, but his superiors corroborate that yes indeed it happened, and the fact that he's sticking up for himself has been used to show that he's a man of poor character. It's horrible. He's now under "performance review" and will be pushed out within the next two months.

If ever there was a guy who could make a good difference, this is the chap. The two of us have other friends who are cops with other agencies or in other detachments, and their experiences have been pretty good, for the most part. In this case, however, he's sought and followed their advice and has pretty much run out to the end of his rope.

My point, Jack, is that I feel for you. I respect most cops, and wouldn't want their job, but it's obvious that a few idiots can make life miserable for others, the public included.

Jef
PS You'd look good in a buzz cut.

[spittin_in_the_wind]

The cops in our town are great. The cops in the next town over are from another planet. Maybe you need to relocate, Murph.

Robin

[Walden]

I for one don't see much freedom in having police out running around hiding in bushes trying to catch people at stuff, and trying to force people to strap themselves in and stuff. If somebody calls in and presses charges against somebody that's one thing, but just scouring the place trying to catch any old joe at it is not much sense, as far as how I see it.

[Walden]

Before I knew what was happening the cops were on me sirens howling behind me.I pulled over and ...in the UK you must turn your engine off and get out of the car...wrong move!

Never, EVER do this in the United States.

The protocol here is to stay in your vehicle when pulled over, and if you step out of it you could get shot.

I'm surprised they don't tell you this when you rent a car, if you are a visitor from across the pond. The difference in customs in this particular case is a recipe for disaster, and enough to warrant at least a mention.

Caj

They used to tell us, in Oklahoma, to get out of the car, when pulled over, which is what my dad always did. They told us, in driver's ed, to pull over take our wallet out before getting out, to get our insurance verification from the glove compartment, and walk back to the highway patrol car.

[rodfish]

They are a freaking organized gang, they have too much power, they are an expensive and unnecesary form of taxing, they are overpaid, and dammit I'm tired of living in such a FECKING Police state!! ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!! For those of you who can't relate, visit California.

So below, feel free to share your own feelings and stories regarding cops so I don't have to feel like the only one.

Well, my feelings and stories about cops are quite different. I have also been pulled over, more than once, and have been ticketed, (even arrested once when I was younger, but please don't tell anyone.) Yet I have never ever been treated badly. The police I have encountered have always been respectful, courteous and polite.
I have to wonder if it's because that's the way I've always treated them. With respect and dignity. I don't snarl, or cuss or get angry with them because I realize they're just people like me, trying to do an incredibly difficult job.

Policemen and policewomen have to face the rotten element of our great society every day of their lives. They have to stand in the gap to keep us safe; so we can drive through our "spotless" neighborhoods at 2:00am without worrying that there will be some gang waiting in our driveway to rob us, or worse. They leave their homes and families on a daily basis knowing that they might have to put their life on the line for someone who just thinks their a "fecking cop" and would rather that they didn't exist; but they do it anyway, because that's their job.

And what to they get in return?
A huge salary? Love and admiration from those they protect?
Not hardly. They're treated pretty badly by the very ones they protect. It's no wonder that some of them become angry and abusive.

But who do you call, when your little girl is missing?
Or when it sounds like someone is breaking into your home at night and you're all alone?
Who do you call when your car is stolen, or your house broken into?
Who do you call..... I could go on all day.
Do you really believe they are "unnecessary"?
Maybe if we all tried to treat them with a bit more respect, we'd get some of the same in return.

And maybe I just feel this way because the only reason I'm even alive today is because of a "fecking cop." Bless his heart!

Rod

[Joseph E. Smith]

My one and only moving violation was a DUI in Minnesota. Though I wasn't in a state where I I was all over the road, I was without a doubt beyond the legal limit. The MHP officer who pulled me over put me through the 'stupid human tricks' and everything, but from the word go I was compliant and highly cooperative. I made it a point to be cordial and polite. As a result, the arresting officer was kind enough to allow me to smoke in the back of his cruiser which is something I understand is not done.

Back then, I had long hair (down to my butt), wore mostly denim and tie dye tshirts, but I don't think my physical appearnce made as much of an impression on the policeman as did my demeanor. I was guilty, I knew it, and the guy was doing his job....so I made it easy on him and myself and was treated with respect and kindness. Of course, that was in Minnesota, I have a hunch that where I live now, it may be a different story.