Fuck the Po-lice

This is something that's gotten my goat for some time... Police who speed. I'm tempted to make the broad, sweeping statement that all cops do it which may not be true, but I'm consistently frustrated by the fact that cops use their position as an excuse to ignore the rules of the road... rolling through stop-signs, speeding excessively, and the like. It is unfair and inappropriate, and at no point is it justification to say that, well, they're the cops and they're taking care of us, or any other similar nonsense. They ARE cops. They are ALSO citizens, driving cars. The rules are there for a reason. Follow them. If you're chasing someone or answering an emergency call, and you need to speed or go through a red light, put on your lights and siren. And only in that case. Otherwise, get off your high horse.

I have a personal story related to this. A year or two ago, I was driving home from college to see my family. I occasionally used to speed up to the speed that cops were doing when they'd fly by me on the highway. On this particular drive, I'd already done it two or three times. I sped up to about 80 in a 65, which is what one particular cop flew past me at. I followed him for a while, closer than I ought to have. We were coming up on another cop having pulled someone over. The guy I was following started to slow down, so I did too in order for him to get over to the side of the road.

Every time I slowed down, he slowed down. Then he came up behind me, and we passed the pulled-over vehicles. He was still following me, and his lights came on. I knew that I was also being pulled over.

The long story short is that I told him, when he said, "I couldn't help but notice when I passed you doing about 80 that you caught up to me," that, "yeah, I just didn't think it was fair of you." We made small talk about my car and the like, and he took my license for quite some time. I resigned myself to the fact that I'd get a speeding ticket, which sucked because I was in New Jersey already, so I'd probably also get points on my license.

When he came back to my window, he said, "There are a lot of things in life that I think you'll find are unfair. But I hope this isn't one of them." He handed me a non-moving violation for an obstructed license plate, and a warning for speeding.

That's what you get for being honest.