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livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
Hmm... well, I almost got run over last night while on my bike by a cop that decided to run a red light. He just rolled on through it, and thankfully stopped in the middle of the intersection before he hit me. I wonder who would have ended up getting blamed for that :cool: .

So yeah, it bugs me when I see cops do illegal things, but I keep in mind that if it was me behind the wheel of that cruiser, *I* wouldn't sit there for a minute waiting for the light to turn green at 1 am when no ones around. After all, who's gonna pull me over? Me?
 

stonyc

macrumors 65816
Feb 15, 2005
1,259
1
Michigan
Just this morning, cop turns his lights on at a red to speed through an intersection, then turns them off after. I get up to the next intersection, which has three lanes (one left turn, one straight, one right turn), and he's in the straight lane... there's a long line of cars waiting to make the left turn, almost none waiting in the straight lane that he's in. Light turns green, he flips his lights on, and cuts off the cars waiting to make their left turn... no turn signal beforehand or anything. The first few cars in the left turn lane that were ready to go slam on their brakes (I was shocked that there wasn't an accident)... and the cop once again flips his lights off after the turn.

I can understand not wanting to wait at a red, but when he cut off a whole long line of cars waiting to make their turn and almost caused an accident in the process.. sheesh. :mad:
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
i would still have to say the worst drivers i have seen are people who are not driving their own vehicles

plumbers, electricians, some taxi drivers, delivery people, etc
 

3rdpath

macrumors 68000
hate to break up the catfight...;)

i once witnessed a police cruiser attempt a 180 "bat-turn" on laurel canyon...only he hadn't checked his side mirror so he got t-boned by the car in his blind spot.

i pulled over to give my name and # to the civilians -figured the city would try to screw them and say it was their fault. sure enough, about 3 weeks later their attorney called to help build their case.

btw, the cops in the car were nice, apologetic and pretty damn embarrassed.
 

mactastic

macrumors 68040
Apr 24, 2003
3,681
665
Colly-fornia
jelloshotsrule said:
and if you're the rest of the people on the road the drunk is putting at risk, then it's another mark in the scumbag column.
I'm not saying it was right, just that not every action he took was driven by hatred towards 'ordinary people', which it seemed like is some people's opinion of cops.

Cops are people too was my point.
 

savar

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2003
1,950
0
District of Columbia
AhmedFaisal said:
Anyone else have stories like that?
Cheers

About a dozen. Cops always take advantage of out-of-state drivers; in some notorious counties they take advantage of people from nearby counties who commute through. I read recently that in the DC area they make over 3 million dollars a year on traffic fines.
 
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CompUser

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Original poster
savar said:
About a dozen. Cops always take advantage of out-of-state drivers; in some notorious counties they take advantage of people from nearby counties who commute through. I read recently that in the DC area they make over 3 million dollars a year on traffic fines.

My town is on the boarder of massachusetts so the cops in our town hang out right on the boarder and wait for speeding massachusettarians.

Also, last time I checked driving down the middle of the road when there is snow, forcing cars off the road is probably illegal (no lights, no sirens). That has happened to us before.

The cops in my town simply put are stupid.

For example, at a lacrosse tournament last weekend my mom was unloading food and ice out of her car next to the food tent. A police car comes roaring though, lights and sirens and the cop slows down and yells at her to move her "F***ing" car because an ambulance is coming through. Ok, fine, minus the language though. Then he floors his car (still looking at my mom), and nearly hits a little kid on a bike, he would have if he had no slammed on his brakes. Then the ambulance comes through, no lights, no sirens, driving 5mph.

One time, they tried to take my dog by pushing him into a cop car. They saw him walking around in my front yard, thus thought he was "wandering". My ever so smart doggy bit the cop (who is a total jerk- I saw him flirting with a lady at a gas station).
 
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CompUser

Guest
Original poster
jefhatfield said:
i would still have to say the worst drivers i have seen are people who are not driving their own vehicles

plumbers, electricians, some taxi drivers, delivery people, etc

....my dad with a rental car paid with by his company....
 

cantthinkofone

macrumors 65816
Jul 25, 2004
1,285
0
Missouri, USA
The cops here in the town i live in are pretty bad. Half of the force was fired not to long ago after it was discovered they helped a tractor-trailer get through town with about 20-30 kilos of cocaine in the back.

I have seen a highway patrol run a red light. He stopped, waited a few seconds, then just went when no one was coming. Didn't turn his lights on or any thing. he didn't speed through the intersection either.

A former cop quit a while back because "of all the bull sh*t" that was going on in the force. He was the one causing the BS. He stole many personal items from people when he arrested them. Knifes, money etc. The week after he quit he was in a local bar and some guys asked him if he wanted to go out side for a drink. When he got out side the guys jumped him and beat the piss out of him. Haven't seen him around for a while. No one on the force liked him either.

And lastly, another former cop from here is in a mental hospital for molesting his step-daughter from when she was 12 until about 14 years old, and beating her up when she was a kid. She told me that he would throw her down the stairs, and slap her for the most ridiculous reasons. I think he is going to prison after the mental hospital, but its only for 15 years. He is lucky...until the other prisoners find out who he was and what he did.
I only met him once. A friend of mine and my self were hanging out at a guys house and he showed up looking for the guy's father. He said he stole a ring that belonged to him. He threaten to kick the sh*t out of all of us if he didn't get it back. The cops did get called and while my self and two other people that were over there were questioned by one cop, my friend and the guy's father were questioned by another. The cop told us that we should have called the police rather than try to resolve the problem by our-selfs.

"There are a lot of bad cops in this world" he said, "i could take my gun out right now and shoot one of you"
I didn't really get why he said that. I asked why he would do that when we were all just standing there against a car with head lights from a cop car shinning at us. He didn't really give me a straight answer. I wish i could have gotten at least the audio of that incident, would have been very interesting.
 

neocell

macrumors 65816
May 23, 2005
1,073
2
Great White North
Well basically everyone's a bad driver here, cop or not. Stopping at red a light is just a suggestion (I accidentally blew through a red right next to a cop and no response from him). Always seeing cops flicking lights on just so they don't have to stop at intersections, and once they're through, just merrily going on their slow plodding way.


jefhatfield said:
i would still have to say the worst drivers i have seen are people who are not driving their own vehicles

plumbers, electricians, some taxi drivers, delivery people, etc

Man, this post brought back some memories. I've had a few opportunities to drive with some of these upstanding citizens and holly crap do they rat-bag their vehicles. Smoking down the highway in a suburban, traffic jam ahead, no problem, we'll just jump into the elevated concrete medium, being sure to slow down to ~90 km before gunning it back up to 130 while two wheels are on the road and two on the medium and the truck listing heavily as we're ripping by basically parked cars. Another time, kind of was freaking me out. We were doing ~180 maybe more, in a snow storm, and then once we got to the city just the way they were hard on the brakes, then gunning it, as you hear the tranny moaning with displeasure.
But I have to give them credit. The lights were always on :)

If you ever get a chance to buy an old "used" cop car. DO NOT
 

macEfan

macrumors 65816
Apr 7, 2005
1,210
7
yeah around here, tons of cops dont signal when they turn, or they change lanes randomly. I think they think they are better than others, becuase they have the power to send people to jai...:D
 

w_parietti22

macrumors 68020
Apr 16, 2005
2,497
4
Seattle, WA
My friends dad is a cop and we were giving this other kid a ride home (In a normal car) and one of the seat belts wouldn't buckle and the cop said "Oh well, its a short ride home."

:rolleyes:
 

jlewis2k1

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2005
718
0
in your closet
there are times that i would see officers just turn their lights on just so they can run a red light or they would speed down the street like there is no tomorrow... i hate 'em.
 

jdechko

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2004
4,230
325
Frequently. I see a lot of cops speeding, but at the same time, a lot of these cops will probably be more lenient with you going ~10 over (unless it's a speed trap). But the speeding cops don't really bother me as much as the ones that run red lights or cut people off or just drive recklessly in general.
 

MongoTheGeek

macrumors 68040
jlewis2k1 said:
there are times that i would see officers just turn their lights on just so they can run a red light or they would speed down the street like there is no tomorrow... i hate 'em.

It could be that they are in a legitimate rush to get there but not in so much of a rush they want to shut down the road entirely by going the whole distance with lights and sirens.
 

d wade

macrumors 65816
Jun 27, 2006
1,046
2
Boca Raton, FL
i was in heavy traffic but cruising along in the HOV lane (i was driving my sister to school) and a cop comes from middle lane in the traffic flashing his lights and pulls up behind me. i slow down to pull over and he flies right by me.

i knew i wasnt doing anything wrong, he just wanted to dip outta there.

other than that, i see cops turn their lights on to go through lights all the time. whatever, i would if i was a cop
 
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CompUser

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Original poster
The cops in Rhode Island where my parents have a house...

They always turn on their lights and sirens on right before ntersections (if they have a red light), drive 1/4 mile up the road, and shut them off. Lazy SOBs. I suppose thats not breaking a law, but its taking advantage of their authority.


Oh yea. My sister was driving home one day. there was a cop at a house right before the turn onto my road. My sister slows down, and goes around the corner. The policeman follows her to our house. My sister parks in the garage and the cop stays in the driveway for 15 min. He then knocks on the door- tells her to open the garage and to show her licence and registration. He followed her home, basically stalked her, and ticketed her like 20min after the event. She was ticketed $147 for going 47 in a 35. I don't think it is possible to make a 90 degree turn going 47mph though, especially in a Jeep.
 

sobolobo

macrumors member
Jul 17, 2006
40
0
Sydney, Australia
1. In May, I was riding with my bf on his Yamaha YZF-R1 over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Cops pulled us over. We weren't speeding, or doing anything illegal, and this is what happened:
Me: "Is there a problem, officer?"
Cop: "No, just wondering if we could have a look at the bike!"

2. Again, over the Harbour Bridge, I get pulled by cops during peak hour. They make me cross through 5 lanes to get to the left hand side. They issue me with a ticket saying: "Not give way (moving from one lane to another)". Wtf? $225 and 3 demerit points.

3. Wood Royal Commission - established in NSW to investigate corruption in the NSW Police. Cop corruption has received news coverage for allegations of paedophilia, drug possession, drink driving, and recently a top crown prosecuter was charged with possession of child pornography.

4. A con artist was recently caught in Sydney with her boyfriend who is allegedly a cop and last I heard he is under investigation for aiding her or something like that.

I honestly think that cops target provisional license holders deliberately and will pull anybody over if they're bored.

Perhaps not really breaking the law, but annoying as all hell!

Having said all that, I still have undue respect for them.
 
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CompUser

Guest
Original poster
I would estimate 85% of cops are complete jerks that were losers when they were little and are seeking authority. Also 70% of cops are complete idiots.

One time a cop tried to put my old god (now dead) into his car because he thought it was wandering. Infact, it was just walking around my front yard and its not like we lived in a city or in a neighborhood where the houses are ontop of eachother.

So the stupid cop grabbed my dog and was forcing into the car. My dog, hating cars, bit the cop.
 

Mord

macrumors G4
Aug 24, 2003
10,091
23
UK
i once saw a beer truck crash into a sign post, and a police man came to investigae, then walked away with a case of 40 cans of guinness.
 
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