Rant. Cops are ASSHOLES

[SURFnTURF]

Got pulled for not wearing my seatbelt,; my bad, I'm a bit claustrophobic and they make me wig out sometimes. Really.    Cop has me step out of my truck 'cause I didn't pull over fast enough.  Then he's all nice to me, we small talk, then his backup arrives.  He asks if he can search my truck.  I'm thinkin that If I cooperate, I might get a warning.   OK, so he doesn't find anything, must be disappointed so he gives me a ticket.  WTF!    I was as polite and cooperative as I could be.   This is why people hate the police. I relay this story to the guy I was on my way to work for that day when I finally get there, late,  he says that I was probably profiled as a surfer/pothead due to my blonde hair and paddleboard on my roof.  Why else would they search the vehicle of dangerous non-seat belt wearer
     I HATE COPS!   They smile and pretend to be your friend, go to schools to say they are not the enemy, then abuse their power (read the news, there are countless stories of this).   Meanwhile, Downtown,where we are miles away from, there is serious gang violence (the cop mentioned this to me as his reason for caution) yet they have the manpower to patrol for the real danger to the public, PEOPLE NOT WEARING THEIR SEAT BELTS (insert ominous laugh).   Mabey they need the funds to fight the real criminals?
     Yes, I was violating the law and earned a fine.   What got me was their politics, which is by definition, doing the nastiest thing in the nicest way.

[supgobes]

[surf4food]

I'm not a big fan either.  I couple guys I new in high school who later became cops and have since resigned or retired (that I recently reconnected with on FB) admitted they did all kinds of horrible things to perfectly good people for no other reason than because the could.  They admitted they had ticket quotas and set people up.  The find it commical that they got away with it.  Some even admitted confiscating weed, ticketing the person or even arresting them and then taking it home for their own use.  Needless to say I defriended them.

[teamalty]

  This is an interesting topic: over the years, I've had nothing good to say about the police, only bad. I've always felt if it requires effort, they're useless: once, I was knocked off my bike riding home from work when a guy from a car punched me driving by. The biggest problem was not that he hit me, it was that I was already recovering from a broken collar bone from a racing accident. Got the license number, and yes, nothing was done. Next, riding down the street, a station wagon full of kids drives by, and something comes out of the window. It's a gun; I tried to avoid whatever was coming. Fortunately, it was a pullet gun, and it hit me in the neck. Got the license, and yes, nothing was done.

  Every day I drive to work, it's down a crosstown road that connects to the freeway. I call it the raceway. You can't possibly drive the speed limit and not be accosted. Smile. Idiots suffer from heavy foot syndrome, Puppydog syndrome, and Nasty syndrome. A couple of intersections have turn-on or merge lanes, aggressive lanes, that idiots use as passing lanes. Oh, yeah they also use the center turn lane, that runs the entire length of the road, as a passing lane. If you're doing the speed limit and five more, you're tailgated, puppydog syndrome, the whole way, and it doesn't matter which lane you're in. There are two. While it's posted 40 mph, it's impossible to do, and the nasty idiots just go in and out through traffic like it's a raceway. Oh, and is there ever a turn-signal??? Now, instead of drinking coffee somewhere, or pulling over a broken tail light, or hiding in some park, try being on this road a couple hours a day, and you'll get your ticket quoted for the month in one day. Smile. Too much effort.

  My last example shows a real lack of effort: our State park entrance has one road in and one road out by the kiosk. No problem until you have someone who isn't prepare for the payment method. I've sat in line behind two cars or more for ten minutes while they figure it out. One day, I hadn't thought of it before, a park employee had us, a few cars behind me, if we had the year pass, to pull around the opposite side of the kiosk to enter the Park. Cool. From that day forward, it has happened to me several times, oh yeah, and since. Smile. However, one morning we came up behind a park employee who got out of his car to do whatever. I'm thinking he'll just wave us around. It was a cool, overcast day with a chance of rain. Let's just say we were the only paddlers in the park. He didn't wave; he pointed to the back of his car. WHAT. I'm already by the kiosk and heading into the park. Next thing is the bubble-gum machine's lights and, yes, siren coming up behind me. Yes, I got a ticket for crossing a double yellow line. He heard every name in the book before, during and after the ticket. I wouldn't let the knucklehead up for air. Not a soul in the parking lot, and he didn't expend any effort to write his ticket.

  Bullies come to mind: no effort, and wreck havoc because they can. One final note: it was in the same parking lot where my car window was bashed out two times in a year. While I have more rants on this subject, I must say that I've only been issued two tickets in my life.

[PonoBill]

If you change the rant to People are assholes I'd simply agree with you. Like everywhere else, including Team's example of the road he travels on, there are self centered jerks and there are people who are decent. Law enforcement undoubtedly attracts more of a certain type then say Fire Fighting. Still there's a spectrum.

Depending on where cops serve they either interact mostly with normal humans or they deal constantly with scum. That pushes the curve further toward miserable behavior.

So yeah, lots of cops are assholes. A reality worth remembering. But I don't want their job and I wouldn't want to live without them.

[SlatchJim]

Your story about the seatbelt is pure BS, "claustrophobic" ha!  Man up and take your ticket.  You knew the rules when you turned the key, don't pout about breaking them now.  Life is full of inequities, be glad you have the health to surf, drive, and argue with cops.

[PonoBill]

One last thing to ponder. If there were enough cops to patrol parking lots to deter window smashers and crosstown roads, then there would be a LOT more cops. Be careful what you wish for. You randomly cross the sights of a cop and get a ticket and that leads you to believe that they are not doing their job elsewhere. Might be true, but probably not.

[Celeste]

Lots of assholes everywhere.  The vast majority of my interactions with police have left me regretting my tax dollars pay their salaries.  I think a lot of it comes with the "control the situation" training they get in the academy, and the power trip they get out of it.   

[supdiscobay]

Your story about the seatbelt is pure BS, "claustrophobic" ha!  Man up and take your ticket.  You knew the rules when you turned the key, don't pout about breaking them now.  Life is full of inequities, be glad you have the health to surf, drive, and argue with cops.

Lighten up!!
He took ownership of his violation.
I agree with him, that being pulled over for a seat belt, does not give him the right to ask if he can search the vehicle.
Chock one up for bad cop, abusing his badge.

[SlatchJim]

Lighten up!!
He took ownership of his violation.
I agree with him, that being pulled over for a seat belt, does not give him the right to ask if he can search the vehicle.
Chock one up for bad cop, abusing his badge.

I need to lighten up?  I'm not the one generalizing an entire profession as a waste excretion orifice.  We're all friends here right? Friends call BS when BS is called for.  Boil this down to taking responsibility for following a known law and there really isn't a way out of getting pulled over.

SnT is well within his rights not to allow the search, but whether they find something or not doesn't negate the lack of a seat belt.  Love you all, and I'd want someone to pull me back to earth after a gross generalization like this if I were the source.

[Bean]

I agree SJ, a BS excuse is just deflection of responsibility and demonstrates total disrespect. 

"Why yes officer, I became claustrophobic while surfing Pipe at the North Shore."

[PDLSFR]

Here is a quick thought.... this site has 6,943 registered users and occasionally 50 or so guests online at any given time, out of all of these members, ever wonder who might be a cop? are they assholes? A Zoner asshole How dare you even think it !!

I think we've all have had negative run in's with cops, especially with speeding tickets and the unfortunate seatbelt ticket, hasn't anyone had a positive experience? Is there not one Zoner on this thread that has a good story to tell about the Police?

Trust me, I've had my share of negative one's (which outweigh the good one's) but as PonoBill mentioned "People are Assholes" and sure the cops are an easy target and have more often than not publically displayed poor judgment, but so have the asshole surfers, skateboarders, doctors, lawyers, and let's not forget Politicians !!

[JayInSoCal]

I have had mostly positive interactions with cops, not all great, but I honestly deserved to get pulled over every time. I've gotten a lot of warnings and a few tickets that were much lower than they should have been (and saved my license a few times).  I enjoy driving fast and the price for that enjoyment, is a ticket from time to time, it's part of my cost of driving.  Be friendly and non combative, these guys have to deal with a lot of assholes and pretty much everyone they interact with does not want to interact with them (imagine if that was job).  SnT had every right to deny a search without probable cause, however he broke the rules and knew he was doing it.  Not getting a ticket would have been gravy, but shouldn't have been expected.   

[SlatchJim]

SnT,
I really have more in common with you than you'll ever know.  I've gotten myself into such hot water with generalization statements, you'll never know how crappy I felt over just such an error in the past.  Some of my life's most regretable moments were a result of my own verbal ranting stupidity.  I'm not saying this to lessen the lesson, just to let you know that I'm saying it to snap you back to what I really think you meant. i.e. "This one cop jacked me for "nearly" no reason when he could have been so cool about it." 

Side bar useless trivia: When Italy passed a seatbelt law a few years back, sales of shirts with diagonal dark lines from shoulder to waste went through the roof.

[SURFnTURF]

Celeste hit the nail on the head, The police force attracts certain personality types and those types get off on a power trip.   Years ago I worked with a... lets say less than popular guy who left the job to join the local police force (coincidentally enough the same town, Marion,SC that a couple of famous black actors were pulled over and searched without cause).   On his last day of work he was quoted as saying that he was going to give everyone in the place a ticket, setting himself up to have a lot of tickets dismissed.   
     To those who scoff at my claustrophobia,  It's real; sometimes I just flip out, find it difficult to breath and have to get to an open space.   I have a small kitchen in my house and can't stand to have more than 2 people near me when I'm cooking, same goes for my work space.    It's one reason that I don't surf my kayak much any more, and  I REALLY can't wear pogies.   It's a shame too, they keep your hands super warm.
    I consider cops little more than a necessary evil, trained to protect themselves first, and the public second, unlike firefighters who run into buildings that everyone else is running out of.