Why do people insist on driving in the wrong lane?

A 70 year old friend got a ticket, not long ago, for going 5kmph (3mph) over the speed limit by the RCMP, the Mounties.

Heard one policeman say that he would rather have a sister in a whorehouse that a brother in the highway patrol.

In Canada the RCMP are the federal police that are also the provincial police in 8 provinces and contract police services to most smaller communities in these provinces.

Tourist question - Where can I find a Mountie?
Response of local - Drive fast.

 

Drug Question: Why do our cities have major drug problems?
Answer: The Mounties are too busy chasing speeders!

 

CHP = AAA with guns.

That said, I've frequently taken to driving a constant 100-120+ to Los Angeles from San Francisco and back. Never received a ticket in my life, despite driving an attention-getting exotic car, as wisdom and experience has taught me:

If you see a two-tone car on the horizon, it's a little piggy, as there are no car manufacturers currently producing two-tone cars.

If you've been driving along and there is suddenly a group of cars bunched together, there's a little piggy hidden in the bunch.

Use a bait car, meaning there is always someone driving faster than you, so let that person get a half mile ahead of you and then match speed. He'll attract any piggies hiding out front of you while you keep going.

Slow down as you approach and cross county lines, and once clear of the little piggies trying to welcome you with tickets, you can get back to speeding.

Always scan bridges and overpasses. Little piggies like parking there so they can see you coming.

Don't speed at night, as you can't see the little piggies hiding and waiting to write you their ticket quota.

If you just totally missed seeing a piggy on the side of the road, then do not hit your brakes, but take your foot off the gas and let the car slow itself down. You don't want your brake lights attracting the attention of the piggy and telling him that you know you were speeding.

Hope it helps,

Christian
CGEN, USQ 2002
SCMP, Stanford 2003
JD, Concord (in progress)

 

I drive like someone's grandmother. I've received one speeding ticket in my life. It was at the bottom of a steep hill and I think I was going a max of 8 kph (5 mph) over the speed limit.

The cop was parked facing the other way and several cars were passing her in the other lane so I managed to get around a couple corners and out of her sight but she caught up. I really didn't know, for certain, that she was after me but I did suspect. The first thing she said to me was that I was driving fast for the bad conditions, no mention of driving faster than the posted limit.

Went to trial because I believe it a citizen's duty to fight injustice, especially trivial injustice.

Her story was that I was going 18 km over the speed limit, there was no other traffic, road conditions were perfect, and she never lost sight of me.

My observations will save me from jury duty because, if a cop will lie (or forget) on a $75 conviction, I could not convict anyone on a policeman's word alone.

And whitie (including me) wonders why OJ was found not guilty.

 

Have you guys ever driven on Highway 826 (palmetto) in Miami? Its insane. Speed limit is 55MPH and everybody including cops make more than 70MPH no matter what line it is !
For a newbie its like a firefight. Nobody use blinkers to change lanes.

 

Gee, a wanna-be lawyer with an attitude problem & disrespect towards the police. Why doesn't that surprise me?

Hey Christian....be a man of principle. Next time you see a police officer somewhere, go up and call him a "little piggy".

Of course you won't, since it's always safe (but cowardly) to say things anonymously.


Bruce

 

Probably true of any major highway. It's like this on NJ and Pennsy Turnpike, but with difference that when you cross from NJ into PA, all the NJ cars slow down and PA cars speed up. And when you go back from PA to NJ, the NJ cars speed up and PA cars slow down.

 

I've driven on the NJ Turnpike. Reminds me of Yonge Street in Toronto after the bars close down at 2:00am.

 

The first city I drove in was Atlanta. I think I almost died about 20 times. I was given the finger, tailgated, and anything else you can think of. Since then, I have driven in many cities, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. None of them have ever been as hard as Atlanta.
I don't know if it really is bad or if it is in my mind.

clint

 

No, it's not your imagination. Atlanta is really bad.

In my first visit to Atlanta about 10 or 15 years ago, I was on the beltway. The posted speed limit was 55 mph, but the average speed was about 87 to 92 mph, with some cars going much faster if they could squeeze past the bumper to bumper traffic. Have you ever traveled in bumper-to-bumper traffic at 90 mph? It is like taking your life into your own hands because one mishap would spell disaster. Additionally, they had abolished all the side-stop-lanes (for disabled cars), so if your engine died, you'd have no place to pull over. I will never move there.

 

If thats the case Palmetto is really good. Side stop lanes are not abolished.

 

Well, at least i am not the only one who thinks so...


clint

 

When you grow up in an ultra-violent Los Angeles neighborhood as a kid like I did, and you see half the crimes are committed by the police, then you can judge my attitude. I didn't grow up in a fantasy happyland surburban neighborhood playing hopscotch. I doubt my environment would have left you fond of police.

San Francisco is no different when it comes to police committing crimes- our eight highest-ranking police officers, including the chief, were all recently arrested.

I did so last week, to her face, while she was five feet from me, looking directly at me, and she heard me. Her partner was asleep in the passenger seat. This is San Francisco, where cops are verbally abused so much by the everyday citizenry they don't react to it.

See above.

Christian

 

Hate crimes. Right. BTW, check my location, I work in Boston, hardly a "fantasy happyland suburban neighborhood".

Well, there have been occasions when weeks went by where I arrested no one but members of a certain minority group. Shall I paint all members of that group with the same broad brush you use? I don't think so.

Sure you did. I wish I had $1 for everytime it's gotten back to me that someone I arrested allegedly told me off, when in fact they said nothing.

Word of advice....don't try it in Massachusetts.


Bruce

 

You know, I can completely understand how folks growing up in certain circumstances could have a negative impression of police officers. This is a particularly widespread issue in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; I was flipping the channels earlier tonight and saw a few minutes of a freakishly satirical anti-police movie set in modern-day Germany (the scene I watched actually included a line subtitled as something like "if any liberal whiners complain about 'human rights,' arrest them").

What I can't understand is what forces would compel anyone to walk up to a total stranger and insult that person because he or she wears a badge. What sort of alternative world would you like to see, kaji? A world with no police officers? How long do you think any of us would last under those circumstances?

I reserve the right and the duty to criticize any police policies or behavior I object to, but it will be a cold day in hell when I walk up to a cop and say "little piggy." I can sit here and write my little books because there are people who have chosen to work in law enforcement. They have my respect and gratitude.


Cheers,

 

Tom Head: "I reserve the right and the duty to criticize any police policies or behavior I object to, but it will be a cold day in hell when I walk up to a cop and say "little piggy." I can sit here and write my little books because there are people who have chosen to work in law enforcement. They have my respect and gratitude."

DG1: A refreshing attitude. Thanks, Tom. It amazes me when I hear immature people (of all ages, not just teenagers) snigger and say things like, "Do you smell bacon? I smell bacon." They have no perspective on the work being done for them or the conditions it is done under.

 

Hi Tom,
You are right. Most Blacks and Latinos understand that majority of the police officers (probably 90%) are good cops but the fact remains that police officers are not trusted by majority of the minority population. The reason for this is not far-fetched. Recent events clearly justify this negative image. Some examples are:
1. The beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police
2. The fabrication of records and subsequent forced confessions in New York's Central Park jogger’s case.
3. The shooting of a black undercover police officer by another officer in New York sub-way in 1993.
4. The torture of Abner Louima by New York police officers
5. The killing of Ahmadu Dialo who was unarmed.
6. The killing of unarmed security guard in New York in 1998.
7. The fabrication of records in Boston and forced confession in 1989 (or 1990) that resulted in the arrest of a black man for the murder of a woman who was actually murdered by her husband for insurance money.
8. The killing of an unarmed black motorist in Detroit in 1996.
9. Countless conviction of black men that were based on fabricated evidence and these people have since been freed because of DNA tests that proved they are innocent.
10. The use of law enforcement to silence civil rights activists
11. And so on and so forth.......

 

I don't believe that police in LA commit half the crimes, and I don't equate police and criminals.

I'm a native San Franciscan, Kajidoro.

In San Francisco, police don't commit half the crimes and they can't be equated with the criminals.

The recent events you are referring to concerned three drunken off-duty cops who stumbled out of a bar at closing time and assaulted a couple of pedestrians, beating them up.

The thing escalated because one of them was connected, the son of the deputy chief of police. So efforts were made to sweep everything under the rug and to derail the internal police investigation of the matter.

But it didn't work. Indictments came down, not only for the three officers involved (felony assault and battery), but for the whole police command structure (felony obstruction of justice). The latter charges were later dropped, largely because they would have been hard to prove in court, but the police chief resigned over it.

The perpetrators still face felony charges, which is unusual in street fights.

My point is that this is a very unusual event around here. It's not something that happens every day. There are too many activist groups, too many checks and balances, and too many rival politicians with their knives out.

Which really suggests that you are bullshitting us.

If the cops are as dangerous and as out of control as you suggest, then you wouldn't be so quick to play the asshole, would you? The only way you would possibly go up to cops and fuck with them like that, is if you believed that they were harmless, benign and would not retaliate.

In those foreign countries where cops really can be dangerous, people fear them and try to avoid confronting them.

In point of fact, San Francisco has some of the world's most laid-back cops. They give the city the kind of law enforcement that they think it wants (and that the political activists demand). San Francisco cops just want to avoid hassles and make it to retirement.

 

I agree with plumdog concerning forign police compared to those in America.

When I was stationed in Germany I saw how rough the police were there. One man was being questioned by two officers and he decided it was prudent to whip out his penis and take a leak on their van. Dumb mistake! They zapped him and proceeded to beat him down with their billy clubs, and I mean beat him down!! These guys were rough. Even as soldiers, we knew not to mess with them. Even after the man went down they still kept beating him. They did this in full public view without any seeming concern for the passerbys noticing them.




Kevin

 

You can't fool me, Bill. I've seen Nash Bridges.