Just a little rant

[Bantan]

Originally posted by Heraclid
Sorry Bantan, meant to reply earlier...

Green is fine in FL. My neighbor has tons of green neon on a lime green Eclipse. The statutes only pertain to solid blues, reds, and amber lights, which are restricted to use with only certain vehicles.

Thanks

[Heraclid]

No prob. Oh, Joe_Black has a Dragon, so he has green "horn" lights on his VX, too.

[Moncha]

Originally posted by Heraclid
I just wish they'd catch the real menaces on the road and leave the small stuff alone, because I see them miss a lot.

I can't help but chime in on this one...
I'm cruising down one of our local thoroughfares in my patrol car the other day and in my rear view mirror I see a white Eclipse on my rear quarter. What attracted me was that he failed to have the required front license plate.. So I say to myself, "No biggie" I'll just watch and see if every thing else is in line.. I drop my speed to allow him to pass but, he stays on my rear. I drop my speed more and he passes. As we approach a traffic light he applies his brakes and I see the driver side bulb is out. Now, I say to myself, "I can just let it go because I'm looking for bigger fish to fry" but no, I follow my instincts and perform a traffic stop. The little guy that is in the car is very polite and all but, after performing a wants and warrants check (Standard policy with all contacts) he shows he has a $10k outstanding warrant for burglary. Needless to say, he got a free trip to the pokey. Now, the point of this is, I can just keep looking for "real menaces" or I can do my job and enforce the statutes as written in between my calls for service and see what turns up. In fact, I could just be a hard *** and inconvience "appearent innocent people" by enforcing the traffic laws but, then I would never get anything else done. To protect myself from hipocracy, I never pull over for something that I'm guilty of doing myself.

I appreciate the fact that there are folks out there that do resect the majority of the law enforcement professionals but, as with any profession, there are some bad seeds and even though I'm not realated to them in any fashion, please accept my apologies.

[Heraclid]

Everyone who gets pulled over - make sure the officer can see your hands. I always keep my hands on top of the wheel. It would be even better to put your hands out the window. Don't get out of the car though (unless asked, of course). Wait before you go rummaging through the glove box for anything the officer may want to see, because for all they know, you could be going for a gun.

I'm glad that Florida is a rear plate-only state. It's purely an aesthetics thing for me, although from a law enforcement perspective it would probably be best if everyone everywhere had to have one on the front too.

Kudos on nabbing the burglar! I wouldn't mind being advised of something like a brake light being out - I would appreciate being given a heads-up on something like that. I'm certainly glad that you folks do run the checks, no matter how benign things seem. Doesn't bother me since I've got nothing to worry about from it and it helps catch the bad guys.

I really don't mind so much if I get nailed for something I do wrong if I in fact did it and I knew better. Can't be mad at anyone but myself for something like that. I just hate to see other people get away with more all the time while I get stopped for lesser infractions or imaginary ones. I know you can't expect officers to catch everything all the time, but I have seen some things let go that I feel should not have been. However, a lot of it is probably just flawed perception on my part too. For the most part they probably get pulled over a whole lot more than I do - I just don't get to be there to see them get what's coming to them as much as I'd like. Seen a few though. Had a very impaired driver in front of me on a long local bridge once, and I called in to report it. Literally by the time I was coming off the other side of the bridge, he was being pulled over.

Oh, I set up an annoying driver in an Eclipse once. I had been through the same area minutes earlier and knew there was a police car lying in wait for speeders. This guy was being obnoxious so at the right time I gunned it just a bit, really just to get the noise of it and I didn't break the speed limit. As I'd hoped, as we came over the hill he floored it to try to do me one better and got nailed. :-)

[Raque Thomas]

Originally posted by Moncha
I can't help but chime in on this one...
As we approach a traffic light he applies his brakes and I see the driver side bulb is out. Now, I say to myself, "I can just let it go because I'm looking for bigger fish to fry" but no, I follow my instincts and perform a traffic stop.

Moncha, I'm sure that you would not have given him a ticket for just a bulb out had there not been other "issues". those of us who are (generally) law-abiding citizens would not object to being pulled over and given a warning for such an issue. I've had more than one experience though with the "tough guy" cop out to write any ticket he could and show me who was boss.

I think in any profession you have the good and the bad - and believe me, I think the good officers FAR outweigh the bad, it's just more "newsworthy" to talk about the jerks. Anyway - keep up the good work!

BTW, I have several police friends and had one tell me the other day that when you deal with people all day who obviously lie to you, do illegal things, spit at you, call you names, etc. you become a little jaded and start to have a different attitude towards everyone you pull over/come in contact with. I can see how that would happen - maybe we all need to be a little more understanding of where people are coming from???? You think I am a criminal and liar when you pull me over - I think you are a jerk and power junkie - neither of the above may be true, let's find out before we jump to conclusions!