Cops Should Not Be Allowed to Give Puny Ass Speeding Tickets on Major Holidays!

[lavender]

 

[KillerMuffin]

You already paid it? Shoulda contested it.

 

[lavender]

 

[nasty]

At least you don't live in NY. My bro got pulled over for speeding 1 MILE,!!!!!!!!!! yes, you read right, 1 MILE,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! over the limit.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Well poop. That's too bad. Next time, make Never drive.

 

[xzchief]

Cops say they don't have quotas but they have quotas.

 

[lovetoread]

Cops say they don't have quotas but they have quotas.

No actually they dont.

They have contests to see who gets the most in a month. Also the higher ups tend to be upset when certain cops are not giving out enough tickets.

At least in small towns that is what happens.

 

[xzchief]

No actually they dont.

They have contests to see who gets the most in a month. Also the higher ups tend to be upset when certain cops are not giving out enough tickets.

At least in small towns that is what happens.

Fine, the "quotas" are unofficial and nobody ever uses the word. Semantics aside, the practice is alive and well. You described two examples.

It happens in larger towns also. Around here, police departments keep large portions of the money paid through citations. In an era of budget cuts, police chiefs like getting as much as cash as possible.

 

[LadyDarkFire]

Try driving a beat up old car because your normal one is in the shop and looking like a High School Student. In August I had to take my car into the shop for a window wiper repair (the passenger's side one decided to quit working) and was out after midnight on a Friday night because I had to get cat food. I drove legally, completely safe, and the car is in ok but not great shape. I got pulled over by a cop who gave me a hassle for 45 minutes because I was "obviously trying to avoid the police by making random turns down a series of surface streets" and because I looked young enough to not really have the guts to do anything about it. After being given a field sobriety test, and a breathalizer, he then told me that he would not have to write me up for anything (probably because the only thing he could write up was "Legal driver who was stone cold sober" and drove off. Sad ending of this story is that I called the station, got put on the phone with a Lt. and then told that they would deal with it. Friend of mine who was interveiwing one of the officers at the same station later told me that the guy was still on the same route and had a rep at the 2 High Schools in the area for pulling over anything that looked to be a person he could harrass. I will never trust the cops in that small town again, because they never do anything excet harrass people they can get away with harrassing, and frankly, it makes you wonder what else goes on with the police dept. in most small towns.

 

[Jean Val Jean]

You should know that on holidays there is always an increased police presence so that the elderly [who vote] will get to see thier tax dollars at work and be comforted. An incumbent perk so-to-speak.

 

[Chuckus]

I have had 2 tickets in my life. Once when I was 16 and once yesterday! Yes, on Thanksgiving night I received a speeding ticket. Just earlier in the day I was telling Never that cops have to feel pretty shitty giving tickets out on Thanksgiving day, and then whamo bamo presto chango lavy has a fucking ticket in hand.

I had been massively speeding the whole trip. But when he pulled me over I was a bit weirded out. I was NOT speeding. How are they certain that it was your car they got with those long range radar things. He said he clocked me over a mile away, and under a hill. This means he NEVER saw my car going that fast, just the radar. The car in front of us was going so much faster than I was. I'm pissed. What a dicklick.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. I'm a speed demon but I'm awesome about not getting caught. But I was driving on unfamiliar roads. Asshole!!! The speed limit had just changed from 70 to 60 and he clocked me at 73. But what was strange is that he clocked me coming down a hill RIGHT before the speed change.

I should have contested the mother fucker.

Lavendar, contest it. Get a decent lawyer and contest it. I did.

Look on the web for some useful info on radar guns and how inaccurate they are...........I would.

 

[Amused]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.............

 

[Vinny]

Check this out. I was a cop for 5 years and never gave tickets on holidays or birthdays etc. Now on Sept 11th my family was missing in the WTC. Some died and some lived. I drove from Tyler Texas to NYC to help with the relief effort at Ground Zero. After 2 weeks there I drove home and was in Pennsylvania. It was my birthday. I was pulled over on the highway for going 9 miles over the speed limit. On my car was a pass to get into the ground zero area. The Officer asked if I just came back from Ground zero and I said yes and on my way home to Texas. He even asked if I lost anyone and I told him many of my friends and family were killed and missing. Guess what " He told me to wait and came back with a speeding ticket. Now in no way did I feel like I should have special treatment for going to Ground Zero. That was from my heart, I guess he did not have any heart.

 

[Todd]

Let me get this right???

You admitted to all of us you were speeding.

Your pissed that you got a ticket for doing what you knew was against the law.

I am sorry but that sounds typical leftist. You want all the priviledges but don't want to face the consequences for them.

 

[morninggirl5]

No, Todd, we're all being hard-core conservatives and want the police to be out fighting REAL crime, not giving us speeding tickets.

 

[Amused]

Speeding is a real crime.



Live with it.

 

[xzchief]

Real crime = things I don't usually do

Police crack down hard on traffic infractions because they can. It's easy to catch a speeder. It's hard to bust a drug dealer, murderer or serial robber.

 

[modest mouse]

Lavender,

I have to call you out on this one. I habitually speed and know if I get busted (I have once, 5 years ago), then I got caught, oh well.

If you were speeding, as you admit, then just pay the fine. Holiday or not. If anything the law should be more stringently enforced with the heavy traffic load on this extended weekend.

Is speeding a capital offense in kill-happy Texas?

 

[lavender]

 

[JazzManJim]

From the Desk of a Dispatcher

First off, I'm sorry you got popped. It seems that you were in a definite grey area and your officer did what many do. He erred on the side of the ticket. After all, there's the good chacne you'll pay it anyhow. If you come to court, well, he has to be there anyhow, and it's no real skin off his nose if he loses the case. It's not something on which he's evaluated.

I'm a bit cynical about traffic law enforcement, having spent ten years as a dispatcher for a very traffic-intensive police department. First off, quotas do indeed exist. They're not called quotas. Generally, there are names like "minimum performance standards" or some such. The reason they exist is pretty simple. Police officers, like employees of every other municipal employer, have to be evaluated on a routine basis. Unfortunately, the job of a police officer is such that there's a lot that can't be quantified - you get the calls you get, you respond to everything you can, you handle the complaints and crimes you're given. The reponse was to find things in the job that *could* be quantified. The easy answer is traffic tickets and warnings. Thus, you have these standards. Most agencies have such standards, and officers who don't meet them usually face some level of disciplinary action - from not being able to work part-time, to losing their ability to use their cars off-duty, to more formal things.

I think that stinks, and I've said so, loudly. Unfortunately, being a civilian, I don't hae a lot of pull. :-(

So what happens in a lot of cases is officers write whatever they can, and let the court cases fall where they may.

Mind you, there are a whole lot of really good and fair officers out there, but they are getting fewer and fewer, in my observation.

 

[Comshaw]

posted by Vinny
Check this out. I was a cop for 5 years and never gave tickets on holidays or birthdays etc. Now on Sept 11th my family was missing in the WTC. Some died and some lived. I drove from Tyler Texas to NYC to help with the relief effort at Ground Zero. After 2 weeks there I drove home and was in Pennsylvania. It was my birthday. I was pulled over on the highway for going 9 miles over the speed limit. On my car was a pass to get into the ground zero area. The Officer asked if I just came back from Ground zero and I said yes and on my way home to Texas. He even asked if I lost anyone and I told him many of my friends and family were
killed and missing. Guess what " He told me to wait and came back with a speeding ticket. Now in no way did I feel like I should have special treatment for going to Ground Zero. That was from my heart, I guess he did not have any heart.

Vinny, I'm sorry for your lose and I hate to disagree with you, but the way your post is written you did expect special treatment. You expected that officer to not give you a ticket because you were returning from ground zero. From that you conclude the man has no heart. Perhaps he has a different set of values, a different view of the situation then you do? Perhaps he expected you to obey the speed laws because you were under duress and could endanger yourself as well as others by speeding? I'm just speculating as to the reason he wrote you that ticket. He could have had any number of valid reasons for doing so, other than just being an asshole.

posted by xzchief:
Real crime = things I don't usually do

Police crack down hard on traffic infractions because they can. It's easy to catch a speeder. It's hard to bust a drug dealer, murderer or serial robber.

So I take it you should be the official arbiter and maker of laws? What ever you don't usually do should be a crime? So if you decide smoking crack, robbing banks or general mayhem isn't wrong, it shouldn't be a crime? Just because you do those things? In a pigs ass too!
The cops give speeding tickets because that's their job. Yes some are assholes and do have ticket contests. And yes they are human and make mistakes, or worst(and very infrequent) try to make someone innocent appear guilty. But the point is if your breaking the law, shut the fuck up and take your medicine, or get your ass out there and change it if you don't think it should be a crime. I've had a few tickets in my time and I never argued with a cop when I knew I was wrong and got caught. On the other hand there's been a time or two when I was sure I was innocent and I fought like hell to prove it, or times I have broken the law to make a point, because I didn't agree with it. If it's a law, if you break it, intentionally or not, take what's coming and either; 1. Try to change it or 2. accept it and go on. There isn't any place for the, 'My I don't like that law so it shouldn't apply to me, so the cops should just let me go when I break it', mentality.
Deal with it.

Comshaw

 

[freakygirl]

I got a speeding ticket once.. well more than once... but this one time.. i was doing 90 in a 55.. The damn radar detector went off AFTER the cop pulled up behind me.. Damn thing

Anyway, I gave him this sob story about my mom being taken to the hospital.. I didn't know if she was going to be alive when I got there.. blah blah blah.. (it was the truth, but I was trying to play on his sympathy as well). Know what he told me? If I continued to speed.. there was a good chance I to would be at the hospital with everyone wondering if I was going to make it.

After my brother died in an alcohol/speed related death.. it woke me up. There are speed limits for a reason.


Now don't get me wrong.. I do speed.. Just not as fast as I used to. I refuse to go more than 5 miles an hour over.

We have laws for a reason.. If you choose to obey them.. You won't have any worries.. if you choose to not obey them.. well then.. worry away. (i choose to TRY to obey MOST of them )

I would contest this ticket also. I have contested a few tickets and always lost.. in a way.. They were reduced to about half.. but they still went on my driving record. Which can be a bitch on your insurance.

 

[Jean Val Jean]

The three times in the last decade that I have been nailed for speeding, I pulled over immediately, had my driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance ready as soon as the officer approached the vehicle.

Twice I received warnings and once the officer's radio went off and he abruptly told me that I was lucky that he had somewhere he had to go.

Incidently, I saw a television show just this week which basically said the same thing.

And be polite. Don't argue, beg or be contrite. Treat it like any other business deal or social encounter. That's my strategy.

 

[IA951]

fuck yeah

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.............

I always wanted to be a cop...
get to beat motherfuckers down
and if anyone ask what happened to them..I would just say.."he fell down the stairs"

 

[xzchief]

So I take it you should be the official arbiter and maker of laws? What ever you don't usually do should be a crime? So if you decide smoking crack, robbing banks or general mayhem isn't wrong, it shouldn't be a crime? Just because you do those things? In a pigs ass too![/B]

You unfortunately didn't understand the sarcasm of my post. I don't think I could explain it to you since I don't generally engage in vulgarity as a debate tactic.

Thanks for your opinion though.