Dealing with the po-po

It's cool to have a different opinion, that's what makes the world go around.

What I find insulting is the LEO's posting here automatically asume Joe Public doesn't understand their job. I can't speak for anyone else, but I DO understand your job & have ridden along & performed LE duties once or twice in my USAF career. In all actuality, how hard is it to understand what a police officer does?

Looking back thru all this, I have nothing wrong at all with Detectives, Drug Agents, Imigration Enforcement, etc... I don't have a problem with Traffic Police, I simply hate the way they do business, & yes I DO understand how they do it.

Yep, much like the HD thread, I'd say this one has run it's course.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

Now this is a SQUID!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjnIZGDQiP8&feature=related

GGGGGGIIIIIIIIXXXXXXAAAAAAAA!

 

When anybody asks me why I don't have children, my usual reply is, "Because I pay attention to the people who do"...

I have always thought that there should be different categories of a Driver's License. If one demonstrates the ability to have exceptional control of the vehicle, use good judgment, and actually enjoys operating a motor vehicle, special privileges should be available. If one shows no vested interest in becoming a better operator and just wants to get from point A to point B, they get the minimum classification. There should be another category somewhere in the middle.

And for all the half-witted, slack-jawed, cell-phone-chattering, self-absorbed twits that cannot be bothered to pay attention to anything other than their immediate wants, no license for them. If they are caught driving some predetermined number of times, perhaps shock therapy. If they are caught driving some predetermined number of times because they are endangering those around them, they get to be used for medical experiments, or something equally as disturbing.

Probably not the best solution, and not without it's problems.

 

I agree too and I have an idea with a different approach. You know how the Allstate insurance company rewards you for being accident free for over a year? That would be great if there was something like that for licenses as well. For example, when you get your first license you only have minimum privileges and after a year if you've had no accidents then you can get promoted to more privileges. For example, after a year you can legally go 15 mph over the speed limit. Then after 2 years with no accident you can go 30 mph over, and so on...

I wish there was something like that because with my accident-free 12 years of driving I'd be entitled to driving as fast as I want!

But like KC-10 FE pointed out the speed limit system is really a revenue system and doing things differently would cause them to lose money. Oh well. I wish there was a more legit way for the LEO to raise funds. If there was some kind of road fund I'd chip in!

I'm getting a little ahead of myself but it would totally rock if the roads were set up like a business. "Preferred customers" who pay extra can go as fast as they want while the "Basic customers" have to follow the speed limit. The cars/bikes can have computer chips on them like how they do at toll booths. A buddy's wife has a SpeedPass chip on her car which allows her to drive through a toll booth without having to stop and drop 2 quarters.

Ok, time to get out of the clouds....

 

I'm not quite sure what 911s does, in my area 911 are dispatchers but based on your post I'm taking for granted that you work in rescue/ems/fire. If that is true, you are 100% correct that you have to deal with the blood and battered bodies. You have a difficult job and I will take nothing away from that. However, that's about the most presumptuous statement I've heard (I've seen everything you've seen). You most likely have never made an official death notification to a wife with 3 small kids. You probably have never stared down the barrell of a shotgun or been shot at. (But then again, you said you work in LA so maybe you have, I don't want to be the presumptuous one). The fact is you don't know what I or anyone else here has seen or been through and vice versa. If there is a riff between the police and your department maybe you should look in the mirror, you may hold a little responsibility for that youself based on your statements.

KC, you surprise me most here. I've never met you, don't know you, probably never will, but being in the military at wartime I would think you would understand about people making derogatory statements about something they know nothing about. To say you know what a police officer does on a daily bases because you have done "law enforcement duties" a time or two on an Air Force base is ridiculous. Hey, I flown on a plane once or twice so should I start telling how to do you job as if I know something about it. You statement about "how hard is it to understand?" proves that you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about police work other than your personal encounters that we've already heard about.

I told myself to let this go after my last post. There is obviously three different groups here: those who support the police, those who dislike the police and those who are indifferent. To those who have posted in support of the police, THANK YOU. That's something we don't hear a whole lot outside the law enforcement community. To those who hate the police, nothing I can say will change that.
When I entered law enforcement almost 17years ago, I had great illusions of changing the world. Reality set in a long time ago and I know that will not ever happen but I also know in that time I have impacted lives for the better and maybe even saved a few lives by stopping that speeder or arresting that drunk driver. I'm proud of that fact and proud of the brotherhood I'm part of.
This post has became to personal to me and I won't read it again. If you have something you need to say you can PM me. I joined this site to talk about VFR's and I'm gonna try to do only that.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_officer

Thank you for proving my point whether you know it or not. Now that I know for a fact (because you've come right out & said it twice), that you think I'm too stupid to understand what you do for a living, I could care less what you say, when you say it or how you say it.

It strikes me as remarkably arogant for anyone to say that ONLY a police officer could possibly understand what a police officer does. It doesn't take a "Rocket Scientist" to understand what a police officer does, it only takes a small amount of research. To say no one other than yourself or other officers can possibly understand is insulting at best. It would also go a long way explaining why people don't like the police. If I know for certain that the officer talking to me automatically thinks I'm too stupid to understand his job, then what the hell do I care what he thinks or what he does? Give me the ticket & I'll see you in court. I've been issued 3 citations in my entire life & beat all 3 in court. All 3 were BS from the start so it was no problem to beat them & with the 3d, the officer didn't even bother showing up. On two of the occasions, the officer said they are REQUIRED to issue citations for EVERY traffic stop. It didn't matter that I didn't do anything wrong, they were REQUIRED to issue a citation. So much for innocent until proven guilty.

Yes, I work in a highly specialized career field. Thing is, anyone with access to a computer can Wikipedia or Google Flight Engineer to discover what I do on a daily basis. Obviously, this is not 100% of what I do but anyone with any amount of brains in their head can have a clear understanding of it after reading this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_engineer

I'm not a soldier. I KNOW & UNDERSTAND what a soldier does. They are a member of a nations military, mostly associated with a ground infantry fighting force.
I'm not a doctor. I KNOW & UNDERSTAND what a doctor does. They identify, diagnose & treat ailments of all sorts.
I'm not a personal trainer. I KNOW & UNDERSTAND what a personal trainer does. They assist people in fitness/health activities.
I'm not a garbage collector. I KNOW & UNDERSTAND what a garbage collector does. They collect refuse from various areas.
I'm not a school teacher. I KNOW & UNDERSTAND what a school teacher does. They educate people on various things.

I KNEW I should have never replied to this in the first place.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

my history:
4 years with a major Sheriff's Ofc
8 years as a nurse
2 years fire fighter
6 years+ in EMS
36 years as a citizen

In each of these roles I have mundane duties and extreme duties. The mundane duties become irritating when others outside of that role at the time interfere or impede. The extreme duties are made even worse when disrupted or caused by stupidity. I regularly encounter others performing duties in these roles as well. I do my best to cooperate because I do not want to be part of the problem. When these others are not doing these things the way I would, I have found that it is just easiest to say 'thanks for your help' and go on my way to do my own thing away from them. Even in life and death situations. It only wastes my time and theirs when I stand around arguing about how I think it should be done-even when I am the expert in the field.
If I spend my time arguing with the cop about traffic rules, what am I gaining. Is he gonna rip up the ticket? Probably not. Court is the place for the discussion. Does it interfere with my life, yes.
So, the solution is avoid having to deal with these people in a professional role. Let someone else have to deal with them. There are plenty of people out there who have nothing better to do than cause problems with professionals. Wheter it be LEOs or managers at the BK.

 

I'm a firm believer in giving credit when credit is due, so here it is.

I was in the vicinity of Phillipsburg, NJ. I don't know the name of the road, it was an artery of US RT 22. I was riding along minding my own business, following several cars & I know for 100% certain I wasn't speeding. Imagine my surprise when the marked unit rolls by in the opposite direction & the officer looks me right in the eye & then slams on the brakes. A quick check of the mirror reveals he whipped a u-turn & put the lights on. I pulled all the way to the white line & slowed down to let him go by since I naturally assumed he wasn't after me. He gets like 2 feet from my back tire & starts pointing to the side of the road. I originally thought WTF, over but hey, I'm NEVER, EVER, EVER running from the cops.

The officer didn't really say much & never told me why he pulled me over. When I asked, he just asked for my documents. After I gave them to him, he told me to wait & he'd be right back after he ran my record. After he returns, he asks if I knew why he pulled me over. I told him I have no clue. He tells me to turn the ignition on & look at my lights. Turns out, both my headlights were out, hi & lo and I never noticed. It was broad daylight out so I honestly didn't notice. I guess my hi-lo selector is going bad since they both came back after several flips back & forth.

Now, the credit part. This officer could have very well given me a ticket & I would have deserved it. I was not in compliance with Federal & State law, no question. He didn't. He let me off, no written warning or anything. He complimented me on the bike & said it was a refreshing change seeing someone wearing PPE from head to toe. He told me to ride safe & to get my hi-lo switch fixed as soon as possible. Phillipsburg PD (at least that officer) gets a :thumb:

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

I would think one would do a preflight check ..... with all the training and all ...:lever:

 

I did do a preflight check & they were working before I departed. I forgot to add that in the original post.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

:jaw: I had to read this one twice. I mean WTF KC I think you are starting to get a little warm and fuzzy. I'm going to bed and will look at this again in the morning to see if it is real.:suspicious:

 

Like I said, I do give credit when it's due. I only wish the guy would have acted like a human being. When I asked why I'd been pulled over, he just snapped at me & told me to wait why he ran my record. I wasn't aware of the requirement to not have a personality to be a police officer.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

KC, you need to find a copy of Arlo Guthrie's "The pause of Mr. Claus" The monolog at the beginning is priceless.

 

What is that, a book or movie?

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

It's a song. But like many of his songs, there is a political monolog at the start. This thread reminds me of the monolog.

The Pause of Mr. Claus
words and music by Arlo Guthrie

This next song we're going to dedicate to a great American
organization. Tonight I'd like to dedicate this to our boys
in the FBI.

Well, wait a minute. It's hard to be an FBI man. I mean, first
of all, being an FBI man, you have to be over 40 years old.
And the reason is that it takes at least 25 years with the
organization to be that much of a bastard. It's true. You just
can't join, you know. It needs an atmosphere where your
natural bastardness can grow and develop and take a
meaningful shape in today's complex society.

But that's not why I want to dedicate the song to the FBI. I
mean, the job that they have to do is a drag. I mean, they have
to follow people around, you know. That's part of their job.
Follow me around.

I'm out on the highway and I'm drivin' down the road and I
run out of gasoline. I pull over to the side of the road. They
gotta pull over too - make believe that they ran out, you
know.

I go to get some gasoline. They have to figure out whether
they should stick with the car or follow me. Suppose I don't
come back and they're stayin' with the car.

Or if I fly on the airplanes, I could fly half fare because I'm 12
to 22. And they gotta pay the full fare. But the thing is that
when you pay the full fare, you have to get on the airplane
first, so that they know how many seats are left over for the
half fare kids. Right? And sometimes there aren't any seats
left over, and sometimes there are, but that doesn't mean that
you have to go.

Suppose that he gets on and fills up the last seat, so you can't
get on. Then he gets off then you can get on. What's he gonna
do?

Well, it's a drag for him. But that's not why I want to dedicate
the song to the FBI.

During these hard days and hard weeks, everybody always
has it bad once in a while. You know, you have a bad time of
it, and you always have a friend who says "Hey man, you
ain't got it that bad. Look at that guy." And you at that
guy, and he's got it worse than you. And it makes you feel
better that there's somebody that's got it worse than you.

But think of the last guy. For one minute, think of the last
guy. Nobody's got it worse than that guy. Nobody in the
whole world. That guy...he's so alone in the world that he
doesn't even have a street to lay in for a truck to run him over.
He's out there with nothin'. Nothin's happenin' for that cat.

And all that he has to do to create a little excitement in his
own life is to bum a dime from somewhere, call up the FBI.
Say "FBl?", they say "Yes", say "I think Uncle Ho and Chair-
man Mao and their friends are comin' over for dinner" (click)
Hang up the phone.

And within two minutes, and not two minutes from when he
hangs up the phone, but two minutes from when he first put
the dime in, they got 30,000 feet of tape rollin'; files on tape;
pictures, movies, dramas, actions on tape. But then they send
out a half a million people all over the entire world, the globe,
they find out all they can about this guy.

'Cause there's a number of questions involved in the guy. I
mean, if he was the last guy in the world, how'd he get a dime
to call the FBI? There are plenty of people that aren't the last
guys that can't get dimes. He comes along and he gets a dime.

I mean, if he had to bum a dime to call the FBI, how was he
gonna serve dinner for all of those people? How could the
last guy make dinner for all those people. And if he could
make dinner, and was gonna make dinner, then why did he
call the FBI?

They find out all of those questions within two minutes. And
that's a great thing about America. I mean, this is the only
country in the world...l mean, well, it's not the only country
in the world that could find stuff out in two minutes, but it's
the only country in the world that would take two minutes
for that guy.

Other countries would say "Hey, he's the last guy...screw
him", you know? But in America, there is no discrimination,
and there is no hypocrisy,'cause they'll get anybody. And that's
a wonderful thing about America.

And that's why tonight I'd like to dedicate it to every FBI
man in the audience. I know you can't say nothin', you know,
you can't get up and say "Hi!" cause then everybody knows
that you're an FBI man and that's a drag for you and your
friends.

They're not really your friends, are they? I mean, so you can't
get up and say nothin' 'cause other wise, you gotta get sent
back to the factory and that's a drag for you and it's an
expense for the government, and that's a drag for you.

We're gonna sing you this Christmas carol. It's for all you
bastards out there in the audience tonight. It's called "The
Pause of Mr. Claus".

Why do you sit there so strange?
Is it because you are beautiful?
You must think you are deranged
Why do police guys beat on peace guys?

You must think Santa Clause weird
He has long hair and a beard
Giving his presents for free
Why do police guys mess with peace guys?

Let's get Santa Clause 'cause;
Santa Clause has a red suit
He's a communist
And a beard, and long hair
Must be a pacifist
What's in the pipe that he's smoking?

Mister Clause sneaks in your home at night.
He must be a dope fiend, to put you up tight
Why do police guys beat on peace guys?

©1968,1969 Appleseed Music Inc. (ASCAP)

 

That is pretty good. It about sums it up nicely.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

My dumb ass

I have my own stupid story on the subject.When I was 18 I would run from the police every time......really quite stupid but I did mention I was 18 and dumb as a sack of hammers.The last time I did it things got a little out of hand (very long story) and I was in cuffs and did a bit of time in jail.I was lucky to have been taught the lesson I sooooo badly deserved and am not street pizza. Not a story I am proud of .That was twenty three years ago and the laws are much more brutal to those that would run. It is just a ticket, take it on the chin.

 

Alice's Restaurant was the A side. I listened to this when I was a mere youth. :thumbsup:

 

Damit I wish the kids would start dealing with their own problems. Sometimes it sucks being a dad. hey randy thats what dads do i know i do