Serious Thread: Nothing to see here officer

Right, I get it, I just think that shouldn’t be the case. Especially since people are taught to call police in an emergency and expect some sort of help. But with things like stalking and domestic violence in particular, there are so many times that, even if police follow protocol, which frequently they don’t, it still fails to mitigate the threat perpetrators pose to the people they are stalking/harassing/abusing because those offenses are so escalatory.

 

Yup. And the oft-repeated “solution” to victims of stalking is to get a restraining order, which in reality only pisses off that stalker even more and pushes them closer to the violence threshold. Except the police can’t do anything about stalking without a restraining order (and even then their options are limited both in type and scope). So in essence your hands are tied if you’re a victim: Either you get police help and maybe hopefully someday get the piece of shit into arrested and into judicial system — which will only do something to him if he’s harmed you anyway. Or you cross your fingers and hope he pinkie promises to stop for realsies this time.

And that’s just for stalkers. I’m sure someone like Dixie would love to chime in on the enforcement of non-violent drug offenses.

This thread is reminding me why I quit law school.

 

Too many people lead sheltered lives and watch too much TV. They’ve never had to directly deal with cops, and most just assume they are white glove-wearing Good Guys. They don’t realize the so-called myth known as “entrapment” doesn’t actually exist and cops will try to trick you into doing or saying ANYTHING to get an advantage on you.

My favourite thing about cops in Canada is that outside of Ontario they are not profit-driven like the United States. They are not ordered to go out and make money by taking it from people.

 

A lot of them really don't care though. The cops who refused to investigate my robbery, even after the case was all but solved for them weren't hamstrung by any legal bureaucracy. It was because they're lazy as shit, and it wasn't their problem. The cops who didn't bother to investigate my friend's uncle's murder straight up don't give a fuck. The cops who told sisterkathlouise's friend to call when she was chained to a radiator couldn't give less of a shit if a father is beating his teenage daughter. They're probably jaded, and see this stuff all the time, but that's hardly an excuse. Sorry, I just can't by the idea that really they're good people trying their best, and it's only forces outside their control that hampers them. Given the choice between doing hard work and breaking a difficult case, and handing out a few parking tickets and then spending the afternoon at the donut shop a lot of them are choosing the latter. We have a criminal justice system in dire need of reform, but part of the problem is the cops themselves. Clearly, a lot of them don't have supervisors pushing them to do any meaningful work whatsoever, and the street cops themselves are totally disconnected from the much more important reasons they're there in the first place.

The fact that so many of them are such terrible people, and so neglecting of the worst crimes in society makes the frat boy defend each other no matter what mentality really aggravating. I feel kind of bad saying this, because in total truth I have nothing against cops in general, but job performance is definitely a problem. Again, I think that goes for a lot of them, not just a few exceptions.

 

I have never had to deal with anything other than a traffic ticket, so I can't say that I have any real horror stories with cops, but it is interesting that all the times that I have been pulled over I would say that it has been about a 50/50 split between the cop being friendly and just doing his job and coming off as a total asshole.

In the 17.5 years that I have been driving I have been pulled over four times for speeding and have been let off with a warning twice, and even one of the cops who gave me a speeding ticket (for going 19 over) was friendly. Five years ago I had a motorcycle cop pull me over and give me a ticket for following too close when I was on my way to work one morning. There was no accident but he told me that if the car in front of me had slammed on its breaks then I would have "crashed right into him," or some such junk. Whatever, I went to court, paid the $154 fine, and it didn't go on my driving record.

In April 2013 I was rear-ended while driving on the interstate. There was a cop a few cars back who saw us pull over to the side of the road and came to investigate, and I am pretty sure that he said that he didn't see the actual crash. When I went to file the claim with the insurance of the girl who hit me they said that they had no record of her having a policy with them. I called the cop about it a few days later and he just said something like "oh she must have been passing off phony insurance information." That is a thing that people do, really? And how do you not catch that when you investigate the accident? You can pull up behind cars on the road and run their tags just to make sure that they have insurance, but you can't catch someone with phony insurance information after they have (most likely) caused a wreck? The cop also gave me his email address and I tried to email him a few days later, but the email bounced and said that the recipient didn't exist or something. It was like he was trying to cover up for this girl. I also took my car to a shop and they said that there was no damage to it that was even worth repairing, and the guy who looked at it advised me just to let it go since I didn't have any injuries. I also told him the story about the girl's insurance and his response was basically the same as the cop's: "she was passing off phony insurance information," like it's not surprise at all. Before I took the car to the shop I also had a tag trace on her car done and it came back with the correct information, so that part was at least recorded correctly, but I didn't pursue anything further.

A story about my dad: for most of my life growing up he bar-tended at a strip club in downtown Atlanta. We lived in the suburbs about 30 minutes away. One morning around my junior year of high school when he left the club (around 4:30) he noticed a car that had gotten on to the interstate behind him and it followed him the whole way. My dad ended up pulling into a gas station that was about 3 miles down the street from our house and went inside and talked to the guy who was working behind the counter for awhile. The car stayed outside and waited for him. My dad got back into his car, drove away, and the car followed him again. This time my dad pulled into the Waffle House that was across the street, and there were cop cars out there. He went in and told the cops what had happened and they were not at all interested and told him something like "it's not our jurisdiction." I guess in that situation there really isn't anything that they can do, but I think it still sums up their general attitude pretty well. And the car drove away and we never heard anything about it again. I am still really curious as to who the hell would do that. My dad didn't recognize the car and I don't think he got a good look at who was in it. I have since found out that my dad was into drugs back in those days, so who knows what he may have gotten himself into that would lead to that.

My dad probably couldn't complain too much though, because up until he had to stop drinking in '97 he would drive home from work hammered every morning. He never once got a ticket or got into an accident. He even told me a story of getting stopped at a routine traffic stop when he was drunk and being polite to the cop, and they just let him on through. I am thinking that cops weren't as aggressive with DUIs back in those days, though.

It's also interesting to hear the story of getting a speeding ticket for going 6 over the speed limit. My freshman year at FSU, my roommate had gone to Gainesville for the weekend to see some friends and he got a speeding ticket over there for going 5 over. He had (or chose) to drive to Gainesville on a school day for his court appearance. I thought that was crazy, but I guess that it happens.

 

I'm curious as to the attitudes toward police or the equivalent in other countries. Can anyone chime in about the RCMP or from across the pond?

 

The RCMP are a sort-of cross between what would be both your FBI and state police. They rarely wear those red uniforms, usually they wear a cop’s style of uniform that is consists of a garrison hat and the uniform dark brown with gold trim/stripes. They often serve as provincial police in places like the Maritimes where they don’t have provincial police.

In Ontario, we have city police in large municipalities and the provincial police (OPP) anywhere else. Most OPP officers make over $70 an hour and they’re the biggest police force in the country. I’ve never had an issue in any encounter with them.

 

In Australia and New Zealand I haven't had too much to do with police here. There are traffic cops shows from both countries if you want to YouTube them and although possibly a bit scripted in the few times I've been pulled over for either speeding or random breath testing I've not had any issues. I've been let off doing 36km over the limit and done twice for being around 20km over, one guy was a wanker but most have been decent.

There are a lot of speed cameras and red light cameras in Australia that do most of the work for revenue raising but the worst one I've seen was someone I was in the car with get pulled over for being 3km over the speed limit while going down a hill.

 

Cops

A good friend became a highway patrolman. Literally the day he got his badge, it was like a light switched was flipped. We're sitting in the restaurant celebrating his graduation from the academy and car pulls up, parks with its headlights facing into the restaurant. Friend waits about 15 seconds, goes out there, flashes his badge and tells them to turn them off. That was a pretty good indicator of his attitude from then on out. We're no longer friends.

I've had lots of customized vehicles in my life and they seem to attract a lot of negative attention so that might cause some of these stories.

Was leaving a restaurant about 10pm driving my Chevy Silverado that had been lowered, shaved handles, tailgate, tail lights moved to the roll pan etc etc. Cop sees me leave, drives the wrong way down the exit ramp to catch me, pulls me over, keeps me on the side of the road for over 45 mins for a "no front plate" fix it ticket.

Another time I was in my Lexus IS300 that was bright yellow, lowered, rims etc and he got me for speeding. I was the 3rd car from the front and they were going faster than I was. 51 in a 45. Another 30 mins on the side of the road.

Same car; Got rear ended 3 weeks after buying it and it was in the body shop for so long that the plates came in so I dropped them off to the shop and they put them on when the car was done. But, they didn't have the registration stickers for the plates so on my way home from the shop, a cop going the other way flips a u-turn, full lights & siren to catch up to me and pulls me over. 20 seconds later another cop pulls up *right* in front of my car. I tried explaining why there wasn't reg stickers on my car and the cop keeps trying to trip me up with my story. "Wait, if you rear ended someone, why is the body shop putting the plates on the back of your car?" "No, I was the one rear ended" Shit like that. He said he thought the car was stolen and that I was going to run from them.

In my twin turbo Supra, a motorcycle cop was a car back from me at a red light. Light turns green, he hits the sirens to get the guy in front of him out of the way to pull me over for a "modified exhaust" The muffler was perfectly legal and I showed him the paperwork. He said, and I quote "I don't care" I tried to fight that one, went to court, showed the judge my paperwork, explained that I showed the cop that it was legal. He replied with "What did the officer say?" "That he doesn't care" "ok, then here is your fine."

Came home from dinner and there were some cop cars a few houses down from my house. I lived on a court and everyone knew each other so I walked down there to see what was going on. Cops confront me and want to know what I'm doing. I say that I live right there and I'm just seeing what's going on in my neighborhood. They handcuff me TIGHT and stuff me in the back of the cop car for 30-45 mins. They release me, so I watch from my driveway, same cop comes back and tells me I can't stand there. I say this is my property. They tell me that I need to go inside or I'll be handcuffed and detained again. Now I'm pissed so I open the garage door, stand in the garage and watch. That cop turned red, told my buddy that I'm *this close* to being arrested for disturbing the peace.


Maybe it's just CA, but I feel that cops also make way too much money. First year CHP officers make mid $80k's before OT which they can get a ton of. The Chief of Police made $254,650 last year. Quarter million dollars a year? Get outta here with that.


Also being arrested a few times and doing 61 days in jail will also alter your opinion of LEO.

 

Nah, I still have my hair.

I get the comment, but I wasn't doing anything illegal in any of the scenarios. (yes, 6 mph over the limit but come on) Everything else was just a young guy in a nice vehicle. I've been pulled over several other times and it is more your usual "Do you know why I pulled you over?" deals. Ticketed and on my way in 5-10 mins. Or let off with a warning. These examples were cops just being dick cops just because.

And I'm not a (complete) idiot. I know better than to be an asshole to a cop. I always roll my windows down, turn my dome light on if it's dark, put both hands on the wheel etc

 

My mom was constantly on me about having anything hanging from my rear view mirror. I guess she must've read something stupid somewhere that a cop said they watch cars like that. I could only laugh at her when she'd bring it up to me....I have a feeling the two big Holley carbs coming out my hood were of much more concern to the cops then the garter around my rear view mirror...

Like GTE said, if you have a nice car, you're going to get stopped. A lot. I guess they figure if you have a performance vehicle you're bound to be a menace. (In my case, they were right....they just never caught me at it.) But I did get pulled over a lot. "You're exhaust is to short", "You accelerated from that light faster then anyone else."(The vehicle next to me at the time was a fucking motor home.) I got pulled over within half an hour of getting my license for not having a front plate on my '68 Chevelle SS396, the cop flipped a u-turn and chased me down in heavy traffic for that horrible infraction. I can't remember all the times I've been pulled over simply because I had a fast vehicle and they were sure I must be guilty of something.

 

And that, kids, is why you do all of your domestic drug smuggling in a Mercury Mariner. Always use a vehicle no human being would WANT to drive, but more or less got stuck with.

 

Just don't hang an air freshener from your rear view. I hear cops really watch dangerous drivers like that.

 

If you’re smuggling anything you better make sure the vehicle isn’t even low on windshield washer fluid.

When you get pulled over:

- roll all windows down.
- turn the dome light on even if it’s day.
- turn the car off and throw the keys up on to the dashboard. Show them you have nothing to hide, and you’re going nowhere.
- finally, scream at the officer how you are a sovereign citizen who has no obligation to follow American laws, berate him for “impeding your right to travel” and accuse him of being a rapist Nazi pig.

 

Sweet, merciful crap, this is one of the main reasons why I avoid talking to cops for any reason these days. Even if you've done nothing wrong, they have this mindset that you've done SOMETHING.
Even times when I called THEM because I was robbed (car or shop broken into; I've never been mugged.), I get questions like:
"Why did you have that?"
"Why were you storing it here?"

Uh, geez, I don't know, I guess because it's the United States of America, not Nazi Germany?

When Li'l Bandit started driving, I told him that if he ever gets pulled over, to get his story straight immediately: Where he's going, and where he's coming from.

I've found out the hard way that cops REALLY don't like it if you say that you're just out cruising.

 

When I was in nursing school, our minivan was stolen from our driveway. When we contacted the insurance company to report it to them, we learned that our coverage had lapsed the week before due to a clerical error and we were on the hook to the bank.

About two months later the cops showed up and told us they had found the van but it was missing tires and rims and was pretty beat up. After a few minutes the lead investigator said, "Something doesn't add up. We expect to see certain things when a car is stolen and we didn't see any of those indicators. And minivans are not usually the kinds of cars criminals go for." They started questioning us and asked to look in our shed. They tried to separate my wife and I and it got pretty intense. Insurance fraud was mentioned. We even had an eye witness who saw someone in our driveway the night it was stolen that matched the description of the person we thought it was. They didn't seem to care.

The only reason they let up is because we finally told them about our lapsed coverage. I said to them, "We called the insurance company after it was stolen and found out we weren't covered." The obvious disappointment that crossed his face was almost comical. "Yeah, after." he said. Things de-escalated from that point and they left. We never heard from them again.

I've never been so glad to owe money to a bank. I can't imagine what would have happened if they had continued to pursue it.