The police no longer fight crime. (Roma: taxes, lawsuit, safety)

[Huckleberry3911948]

you are a very aware person good post. yes a citizen with a job will pay a traffic ticket. a gangbanger will shoot you or if you fight back the department will fire you and put you in jail which is much easier than the department having to fight a law suit that they probably will loss. the police and government are not here to protect you, they are here to control you. worse thing that can happen to a cop is run into a criminal and have to draw his weapon--- his pension is on the line.

[deek102]

i hate to pile on but...

the daughter of a buddy of mine was hit by a police officer in his POV as he was speeding through the parking lot to get to work (he was already late). he told her that it was her fault and there was no speed limit in the parking lot.

uhhh.... what?

my wife was ticketed for exiting the highway without using her blinker. it was midnight, on a completely empty highway. she was in college and coming back from a study group -- totally sober. it was obviously just a drunk check... but he gave her a ticket anyway. 100+ bux for something that is totally rediculous. if cops would be consistent with this type of ticket SA would NEVER have a budget crisis!!

[An0nym0us88]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Yeah, if not everybody and their dog drove through a small town like a bat-out-of-hell, then the police would not sit there. I have some friends in small towns, and if I asked them what their number one worry was, it would probably be their parents or kids driving on/crossing over the main street in town.

Exactly... Try Wells, TX. One Police Officers and he hides all the time. That is a very bad speed trap there. The speed limit goes from 50 to 40 less than 25 yards (what it seems like for a car) and you have to slam on brakes, seriously. Has anyone been through there?

Don't you think they should be visible instead of hiding so they can hand out speeding tickets instead of pulling stupid drivers that are going like 20+? For example, he pulls over a person that was going 3-4 mph that was not on cell phone, texting or anything. The person that was maybe a minute later was going 20+ and he should have pulled him over for driving stupid but he had to pull over the person who was only going 3-4 mph. It's not about the number, it's about how they drive like on the phone, texting, driving reckless or something like that.

I have a lot of respect for cops but I think it's a shame to see bad ones give a bad reputation to the department.

Diboll, Corrighan, and Brownsboro are really bad speedtraps.

I can't find this statistics but something like 7 or 8% of accidents come from speeding. The statistics you see are probably included with drunk driving, cell phone users, texting, reckless driving, maintenance failure. If you can pay attention and drive then you are safe but don't drive in the triple digits on the highway unless you have no cars around that you are not going to endanger them along with your lives. Yeah, it's possible that you will get pulled over anyway but just saying.

[deek102]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

Have you guys heard about this one:

www.mysanantonio.com >> Pets - Officer's actions as dog was dying anger driver

wow. i will say that he was going too fast. 95 is too fast. he's not going to arrive THAT much quicker if he was going 85 vs 95.. but the officer still have been more considerate.

when cops give out meaningless tickets it just serves to destroy the good faith and trust we have in them. we've come to view the police as the enemy and that's got a lot to do with how they act. 99% of us are good citizens, yet we get treated like we aren't.

i understand that cops always have a target on their chest and everyone lies to them. i get that. but when the two incidents i posted above occur it doesn't make me want to assist them. they've stopped being "one of us" and started being their own, untouchable, group of individuals. they're not criminals but they aren't citizens either. they're responsible for creating the majority of 'the wall' that exists between them and the community.

i had a criminal justice professor that once said air conditioners in police cars was the worst thing that ever happened. he felt that was when police officers stopped interacting with their citizens and instead stayed in their a/c'd patrol vehicles.

I think we should bring back more bike patrols for areas outside of downtown. I think an officer's windows should be rolled down the majority of the time and I think we should get them back out there on foot patrol to build a stronger a relationship with the community. they should have a vested interest in their community.

But hey, these are just my thoughts :-)

[TexasTheKid]

Originally Posted by texdav

The courts that can't try the criminals they catch and the prisons that can't hold all the criminals they convict says otherwise. But then the number of highway deaths tells the tale there.

So.... because a handful of people can't handle the speed everybody must suffer? Do we really need our government to hold our hand? So many people in Texas are concerned about socializing our government, but no one worries about socializing incompetance. Why is it necessary to base our laws on the lowest common denominators in society? I personally can handle high speeds, so I should be able to drive fast. If you can't drive fast, then get in the right lane.

Originally Posted by lonestar2007

I will add one more thing here. About a year ago, I witnessed a young patrolman who had pulled over behind a disabled car on the side of a very busy I35. He was busy changing the rear tire on the car and an elderly man (presumably the driver) was standing there by him. The patrolman looked young, in his early twenties or so. It was an emotional sight, one you will seldom see, I'd guess. First time in my life that I have ever seen it. It almost brought tears to my eyes. I could not pull over due to traffic or I would have to thank him. I did tell people I knew about it and how great I thought it was that the young patrolman had helped the elderly gentleman. Yes, there are some good ones and it a shame the bad overshadows the good, but it often does. The problem I think we have here, is that there are just too many bad ones and I believe it's hard for the good ones to stay enthused with the situations they are exposed to day in and day out.

I've also witnessed a cop giving an elderly gent a ticket for obstructing traffic while he was waiting for AAA to come out and change his tire. The cop didn't offer to help. He didn't even help push the car out of the way after writing the ticket. He just drove off with the man still on the side of the road!

Some cops may be good people, but I've encountered very few of those cops. I tend to only meet the other kind, the ones who realize their jobs are to generate revenue, and they tend to be a**hats about it. Here's a recent conversation I had with a cop in Northeast Texas (a state trooper, btw):

Cop: Do you realize why I pulled you over?
Me: Frankly, I do not.
Cop: Sir, I pulled you over because you were speeding. Speeding is dangerous, sir.
Me: Was I? How fast was I going?
Cop: Sir, you were exceeding the limit by fifteen miles per hour. I need to see you license and insurance.

I handed the cop my license and registration.

Me: I wasn't driving that fast. I'd like to see your radar.
Cop: I don't have to show you the radar.
Me: Well, I wasn't going that fast. I'm going to contest it if you write me a ticket.
Cop: That's your right, sir. I'm going to run you license and registration. I'll be right back.

He returns after making me wait for a good fifteen minutes.

Cop: Sir, I'm just going to write you a warning for your speed.
Me: I wasn't speeding. I know I wasn't speeding.
Cop: Sir, I clocked you exceeding the limit by fifteen miles per hour.
Me: No you didn't. I had my cruise control set to just under the limit. I know you didn't clock me speeding. I know how these East Texas towns are, and I was driving slow to make sure I didn't get a ticket. Where I'm from, the big city, we can drive ten over with a cop tailing us without getting a ticket, but I know better than to do there around here. Have you been to the big city? Have you ever driven in Houston?
Cop: Sir, I'm only giving you a warning. You should be grateful.
Me: Grateful?! I did nothing wrong, yet you're harassing me and pulling me over? And I should be grateful you've just added thirty minutes to my trip? What's your badge number?
My wife: TTK, just shut-up!

Let me assure you, that conversation wasn't embellished with bravado on my part. Just writing this is making me angry. Had I not been confrontational and insistant that I'd done nothing wrong, I'd probably have gotten a ticket. Let me point out, I'm a clean-cut white guy, and my car is an 09. Based simply off appearances and profiling, I'm not your typical criminal. Was that cop pulling me over because my speed was dangerous? No. It was well within the limits. Did he pull me over because I fit the profile of a drug smuggler? No. How many drug smugglers have their pregnant wives riding shotgun? What was his purpose for pulling me over? Pure and simple, it was to make money for the state. That's it. A former friend of mine, a cop, admitted there are such things as quotas. Sometimes those quotas are unwritten, but there is an expectation for performance. Promotions are based on it. Raises are based on it. A cop's entire career is based on the number of tickets he writes. And, in the absence of actual lawbreakers, that cop will create his own opportunities for advancement.

All of you out there who say that you have nothing to fear if you're not breaking the law are just plain wrong! An unchecked police force that feels they're above the very laws they are in place to protect is dangerous to society as a whole. When tax dollars aren't sufficient to cover government's cost, then it's time to raise taxes or cut costs, not to empower the police to do whatever is necessary to generate revenue, especially if that means lying to the public.

[Rocket Power]

Well, they're really gonna be out to get us this weekend. They're already saying so on the local news.

Too many cops seem to mistake that badge they're wearing for a crown.

[TexasTheKid]

I'd also like to point out I've have similar conversations to the one I had above three times in my life.

That means three times cops have pulled me over for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

It's easy to form low opinions about the profession when they continually harass you. And white people wonder why black and hispanic people distrust the police so much... If I, as a clean-cut white guy who drives a new mid-size family sedan, get unnecessarily pulled over with this regularity, imagine how many times minorities, who are profiled, get harassed. These unchecked cops are complicit in their creation of the criminal mindset. Cops have earned their bad reputations. They aren't misinterpreted. You have to wonder about the mindset of a person who's willing to trade a healthy income for a gun and authority over their peers. When we were kids, we called those people bullies.

[jluke65780]

Speeding isn't what causes the wrecks though.

[An0nym0us88]

Originally Posted by jluke65780

Speeding isn't what causes the wrecks though.

I agree with you 100%. The speeding itself does not cause wrecks unless your going like 120 mph on the highway with all these cars all the road. It's the stupid drivers that are cell phone or texting. The statistics will fit these under speeding even drunk drivers will fit in.

Why do you think they have seatbelt laws? So, the government can make extra money from it. Some people may not care about their lives as long as they're not interfering with others on the road. Seatbelt has no effect on endangering others on the road. I even learned that in Political Science class. It should be up to us whether we can have seatbelt on or not.

[jluke65780]

Originally Posted by An0nym0us88

I agree with you 100%. The speeding itself does not cause wrecks unless your going like 120 mph on the highway with all these cars all the road. It's the stupid drivers that are cell phone or texting. The statistics will fit these under speeding even drunk drivers will fit in.

Why do you think they have seatbelt laws? So, the government can make extra money from it. Some people may not care about their lives as long as they're not interfering with others on the road. Seatbelt has no effect on endangering others on the road. I even learned that in Political Science class. It should be up to us whether we can have seatbelt on or not.

Exactly! The police are too busy worrying about speeding when they should be watching people on cellphones. It's annoying when your trying to get somewhere and do like 5 miles over the speed limit and get pulled over. I also believe another cause for wrecks is slow drivers. With too many of them on the road; it can cause lots of chaos.