Am I a jerk?
Offline So I had a long drive ahead of me this morning and was stressed about running late when a cop car approaches with its lights flashing. Being the the good law abiding citizen I am on occasion I pulled over and allowed the cop to pass me. Behind that cop, was another cop..... then another..... and another... and it must have been more than one hundred cop cars, all with their lights on. While staring in amazement at more cops than I have ever seen in one place I started wondering what was happening that had attracted so many cops. My guess started at bank robbery, moved to shootout and when I lost count at 40 I assumed it had to be some horrible terrorist attack. They were coming from all over the place. When I finally got going, I had to pull over a few minutes later as another group of cop cars passed. I turn on the radio and start flipping stations but no one is talking about why so many cops are on the road.
After several minutes the last of the cops drove past and I continued on my way, now running very late still unsure what was going on. Finally, the top of the hour news played on the radio and I found out all the cops were going to the funeral of a police deputy who was shot in the line of duty last week in Springfield. Now don't get me wrong, I am extremely thankful for the risk that police take for us on a daily basis especially considering the relatively low pay they receive. My heart goes out to her family and friends.
BUT WHY THE FUCK DID THEY HAVE THEIR LIGHTS ON??? I was half an hour late to a rather important meeting because I pulled over like your supposed to do when an emergency vehicle has its lights on and there was no emergency. There was no reason for them to force every car on the road to pull over while they drive to a funeral. When I go to a funeral, I don't get to speed, I don't get special treatment, I have to drive like a normal person and no one gets out of my way. What makes them so special? It is bad enough that they drove their squad cars being paid for by tax payer money but I am willing to forgive that. What I can't forgive is them thinking that they can just turn on their lights and enjoy a traffic free drive just because they are police officers. BTW This wasn't a procession from the local station to the funeral. At the time the first police passed me I was a good ten miles from town. I am still rather pissed off about it, does that make me a jerk?
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
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No, lights are for use in emergencies only. You could probably sue the district. Maybe start a class action suit. It's unacceptable to abuse that power, which is needed for emergencies. They put everybody's lives at risk by using it frivolously. F*cking boy who cried wolf.
Actually, it was more than one district. There were cops from at least four different towns (probably more) plus Sheriffs.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Because they can. They are cops, and few will actually call them on their behavior without a price.
And no, this doesn't make you a jerk. You are right. There was no emergency beyond assuaging each and every one of their egos.
From one Jerk to another... Yes.
(but not because of this)
www.RichWoodsBlog.com
I imagine it would not be a pleasant experience if they found out you'd been complaining about it. Which, incidentally, is my main concern with police in general.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if it was legal based on statutes about police funerals. Cops make a very big deal about funerals because there is a huge us' and 'them' idea, with 'them' being everyone who isn't a cop.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
The police will tell you that they don't necessarily want you to pull over when they're doing code, just give them room to get past you safely.
The early opinion is that you probably are worse than a jerk. I am checking with my brother who is on the job to see if he knows about this.
But yah, it is called respect for the dead. Even a tiny local funeral often merits police officers messing up traffic to make sure that the funeral parade is not broken up by annoying things like traffic lights.
This is done for regular people as a routine matter and the fact that it was a cop only makes for a certain amount of extra drama.
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Signature ? How ?
No, you're not a jerk. I would have been pissed, too.
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
Yah, go ahead and sue them.
what are you suing them for exactly?
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And this is wrong because?
Seriously, tell me...
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From what I'm reading, the cops were using their lights to get to a funeral - not to escort the departed.
Not a big fan of off duty cops using their lights to get to a voluntary function.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
Signature ? How ?
To clear things up, this was NOT the funeral procession. The dead body was nowhere in the line of cars. As I said, if it was a procession from the funeral home to the graveyard, no problem, even a procession from the local police station to the church as a show of respect I have no problem. These cops were coming from towns 40-50 miles away, I heard reports on the radio they were coming from as far as Louisville which is over 100 miles away but I don't know if the Louisville cops used their lights too, I didn't see them.
Since my time is extremely valuable to me I consider it a loss. Fortunately, the person I was meeting was not on a tight schedule because he is a government worker. I know some people who if you are 1/2 hour late to a meeting they will not see you because every minute of their day is scheduled. But since I hate lawyers as a rule I will pass on the lawsuit, especially since I get pulled over often enough for speeding that I don't need to have a bad reputation with all the police officers in those small towns. A cop with an attitude can really make a routine traffic stop hell.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Cops using their lights to make other traffic get out of their way simply because they are going somewhere they feel is important - yet has nothing to do with their official on-the-job duties - is a gross abuse of authority.
Pulling a stunt like this on a crowded interstate highway has the potential to cause all kinds of mishaps.
Unfortunately, because they have the authority to make your life a living hell when they are on duty, there is nothing that can be done about it.
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
You know, most doctors charge for the full visit if you miss it. If this had been the case for you, I'll bet you could have at least sued the police for the cost of the missed visit. Or, what if someone had missed an important job interview that cost them a job - big law suit then, imo. Or, in your case, what if the other person had not waited for you and you lost out on a big investment opportunity?
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
If it had happened to me I would've simply been glad the lights weren't on because of something I did.
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Well, let me respond collectively to all of this.
First up is the idea of a hundred cop cars making the OP pull over for a couple of minutes. This somehow made him half an hour late. Sorry but I think that he lost far more of his valuable time at red lights than he did for the cops.
Should he sue the relevant police forces for this? Sure, he can try. He only has to know which of a few dozen police forces were represented and use those. Got useful data on that? Who you gonna sue? If he sues even one single police force that was not involved, then they all get an automatic pass because the suit was not properly prepared.
Even then, he has to sue each police force in proportion to the time that he was delayed. Now say which police force was responsible for which part of the delay. If the OP cannot document who was responsible for what, then the suit is an automatic fail.
So his time is valuable. What is his time worth?
Just for shits and giggles, let's sat that his time is worth $100.00/hour. He was made two minutes late. So he is suing 25 different police departments collectively for a grand total of $3.33. Remember that he has to sue in proportion for each department. One sent five cars, another sent three cars and so on.
This is worth the time and trouble because of what exactly?
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So was this an abuse of power?
Honestly, I don't have a problem with that. However, I fail to see how it is all that important. So what do we actually have at hand?
In my job, it is common that I have to help people who have important meetings with government workers. Sometimes over matters such as will they receive the monthly benefit check or not.
Now that department has a rule that if you are more than five minutes late, your case will not be heard.
Well, a few years ago, we had a strike running by some people who felt that they had the right to block traffic to force whatever the agenda was.
I got stuck behind those idiots on the way to such a meeting. I used my cell phone to call the person we had to meet and said “we are stuck in traffic behind the idiots, we will be there shortly”. I made that call five minutes before the actual appointment time. We arrived ten minutes after the scheduled appointment time.
So what came of this?
Well, we were told that this person was forbidden to talk with us because “the book says...”
As it happens, I had the janitorial contract for that office several years earlier. I have seen the book. It actually exists. It is dozens of volumes that take up almost four meters of shelf space. I highly doubt that anyone have ever even looked in the book, let alone read the damn thing in it's entirety.
Appeals to “the book” are really stupid govt. officials saying that they don't feel like doing stuff, so the book says that they don't have to.
Now, the subject of this rant is that the book prevented some govt. worker from dealing with a claim that was in reference to a disabled person and whether they would receive the $800.00 or so that they should get as cash for the month.
Should the worker take the matter to hand and make sure that the person can pay the rent?
Should the worker refuse to do the job because a bunch of idiots are blocking traffic and get some person evicted over a five minute wait?
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“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
As I stated I was already running late. The cops probably accounted for 5- 10 minutes or so, they weren't all in one big group so I had to pull over, wait and get going again. Plus, I then had to do the speed limit (55mph) instead of cranking it up to 70mph as I was intending to do to make up the time. Yeah, I know the legal defense "Well judge, they actually made me really late because I couldn't speed." Isn't going to help. Yeah a lawsuit is a waste of time.
They are using government vehicles being paid for by tax payer money to get to a funeral for a person that most of them probably never met. While doing that they are breaking traffic laws (speed limit- I was breaking it they caught up with me) while having their lights on which are intended to warn people to get out of the way so they can respond to an emergency. There was no emergency. When I go to a funeral, traffic doesn't get out of my way. Why should cops get special treatment?
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
The worker shouldn't have a government job and the government shouldn't be handing out checks. But thanks for pointing out how wonderfully efficient our "kind" and "caring" government is.
edit: Ah there it is. Now I am a jerk. Oh well.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Does anyone know why the police would be after Sapient? I don't.