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Re: Cops: Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them



In article <JamieYanak-2704951801540001@database-mac.oai.org>,
Jamie Yanak <JamieYanak@oai.org> wrote:
>In article <3nghhm$o5n@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>,
>adr5@sawasdee.cc.columbia.edu (Alex D Rodriguez) wrote:
> 
>> If an emergency vehicle is not responding to an emergency, lights on, then 
>> they have to obey the same rules everyone else does.  That's how an emergency
>> vehicle can do all thoes illegal things.  Your response explains why we see
>> so many cops breaking the law.  You either don't know, or don'twant to know,
>> the law.  The law only applies when it is convenient for you.
>
>First of all it just doesn't seem to be sinking in for you: These things are 
>NOT ILLEGAL for an emergency vehicle. Second of all: Your spelling is starting 
>to deteriorate again:)

It's not my spelling, it's my typing.  Really. :)  


>
>There are plenty of reasons cops have for exceeding speed limits, and short-
>cutting traffic regulations w/out having lights & sirens on, for example:
>
>-Responding to Burglary Alarms & Bank Alarms: Lest the bad guys hear you
> coming (which can create a situation which not only endangers the officer, 
> but also the public, in a bank situation.)

In this scenario run with lights only.  Shut your sirens off.  I rather have
someone run off with my property than have a cop hurt someone.  When you are
a block away, after you have gone through all intersections, shut the lights
off.  No one is going to bitch about that.  

>
>-Responding to just about any other type of call where stealth is of 
> importance (As in most things, the element of surprise is important in police
> work)

Stealth is important.  Especially at night trying to catch the guy going 10mph
over the limit on an empty highway.  Causing a pileup because you didn't
have your lights on doens't get you there any faster or help your stealthness.


>
>-Trying to catch up to vehicles that may be kinda far away, w/out alerting
>them    
> (if you think they might run, which can be even more dangerous if you give them
> the opportunity)

I think the big light bar on the roof does a good job of giving you away.
Anyone who misses the light bar during the day is not going to see the lights
flashing either.

>
>In short: I stick w/my original statement; You can't be sure what the
>police are actually doing when they *appear* to you to be screwing around,
>and driving unsafely. The vast majority of the time, they are responding
>to an incident . 

I still don't take your word for it.  It comes down to either believing
what I have seen, or what you say.  I'm sure there have been a couple of times
when I did misinterpret a cops actions, but most of the time I have seen 
that the cops were just on routine patrol.  If they had been in a hurry they
would not have waited for the pedestrians to all cross the street before they
ran the light.  In the city, that is what I see them do most of the time.


>
>> I think "dumbshits" on a power trip compromise an even larger percentage of
>> the police population than you want to admit to.  And that percentage is 
>> a couple of order  of amgnitude larger than the general population.
>
>Well, I think this is YOUR basic problem to begin with. You just have an 
>animus against cops.


I generally have no problem with cops.  It's a dirty job I wouldn't want to
do.  I respect them for that.  I just don't like the attitude alot of them
carry.  This past weekend I got another example of a cop with an attitude.
I was in Atlantic City and they had some event on the boardwalk that cause
a huge crowd where you had to squeeze through to get by.  A young man is 
slipping through with his box in the air playing fairly loud.  Along comes
a cop and from 3 feet away yells an obscenity at him and tells him to "shut
that piece of shit off".  That was completely uncalled for and unecessary.
I have no animus against cops in general, it is the many specific instances
I have seen that lead me to dislike some of them.  Also the "dumshit" is
your phrase not mine.  I don't make it a practice to use such language.


-----------------                                                             
Alex     __O    '86 Dodge Omni GLH Turbo                                    
       _-\<,_   '87 Alfa Romeo Milano                                       
      (_)/ (_)  '88 Vitus/Dura-Ace                                          


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