Just wanted to see what your thoughts were. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/04/22/cop.gets.ticket.kgw Here's another one: http://www.filecabi.net/video/Fire_Hydrant_cop.html
I think that asst chief, and the cop are in the wrong. They shouldnt get any kind of special treatment while ordering horrible take out food.
I can't watch the video from here, but I believe its the same one I saw on the news... in that case... The Officer pulled his marked unit into a loading zone (or similar), parked and went inside an establishment to order food. Here's my take(s): If he was on duty and just stopped to grab something to eat (eating and working), then I'm ok with it. REASON BEING: If you're a law enforcement officer, often times, when you're on duty/on call, you need to be able to respond rapidly to a call/situation and you MUST be available to respond. Should a law enforcement officer be given special privileges in such a circumstance? Let me pose this scenario/question before you answer... Your wife calls 911 because some asshat is breaking into your house and is armed. You are away at work. Do you want an officer there ASAP? What if the closest officer is the one that could have parked in a loading zone and been 20 feet from his car, but instead parked a block or so down the road (let's say a 2 minute run) from his car?!?! All too often, those who's lives aren't put in danger are the first to criticize those who stand between the wolves and the sheep. Not only that, but emergency vehicles (including police, fire/EMT) are often exceptions to vehicular codes for the reason/scenario I outlined above. And this story may be moot. Where this officer was parked did not pose an unjustified threat to public safety, but rather, at the most, an inconvenience to someone delivering a product to a nearby store. "We" automatically assume that the cop was being lazy and/or taking advantage of his position in law enforcement... when he very well could have been following his department's policy regarding response time (aka: keeping the rest of us safe). So considering all the above... no biggie.
Don't know about the first one. Depends if it was no parking for safety reasons or for access to the store or improve traffic flow or something like that. If it was for safety reasons then it was wrong. If it was no parking for other reasons then I agree with the asst. chief. First traffic control fire hydrant. Inexcusable. Reprimand in order there. Second traffic control fire hydrant. Looked like the officer was ticketing cars and right there to notice and move the car if necessary. I don't have a problem with that.
Gotta say I agree with Momo on this one. I would rather the officer park in a loading zone and be near his/her car then have to walk two or three blocks....
Cop in the loading zone, ever hear of a drive thru? Cop in front of the hydrant, she should know better and be ticketed!
So now, to be within a few seconds of the car, cops are required to eat at such fabulous places like mcdonalds?? I don't think so. And to the Hoff....not everyone has a gun at home, and even those of us that do, the wife is usually not in the frame of mind to be waving the thing around.... As far as parking in front of the hydrant (especially the one with the fire trucks in the background) to get some grub is totally in-excusable.
Little different scenario but ironically something along these lines happened to me tonight. I live in a small town that is well known for being over the top strict with the 30mph speed limit in this town. Tonight I was coming home from dinner with my wife and kids driving the speed limit. When one of our illustrious cops comes up behind me so fast I honestly thought he was either going to go around me or hit me. He was not in pursuit no lights, just driving what appeared to be 60mph or better in a 30. It got my wife and me talking about why the hell they can drive however the hell they want but we go 3 or 4 over and it is a guaranteed ticket. To me it is an absolute abuse of their position. I was going to follow him and let him know exactly how I felt and file a complaint but my wife was afraid of the harassment that may come out of doing that.
total laziness that is the thing here. its not about being close to respond to an emergency. you know it, i know it. its what they say when they get caught fucking up. cops dont think the law applies to them, its as simple as that. do i have an issue with it? nope, mainly because i dont get paid to get shot at. police and soldiers do so i give them quite a bit of a buffer when it comes to regular everyday law. now a judge, DA, etc that get caught should get the death penalty.
yeah, i wouldnt do that, especially in a small town. my uncle did the exact same thing and now hes pretty much black balled in corvallis, or.
I see both sides but if i was calling 911 i would want the officer as close to his car to respond as posible.
I guess we both have our own point of views and should probably just leave it at that. Perhaps one day if I ever have a good experience with a cop then maybe I'll change mine. Until then I will continue to give them the benefit of doubt, But from all my experiences have lead me to believe they all are just a bunch of morons with a badge that makes them think they don't have to obey the laws they're paid to uphold.
I have to drive over the speed limit CONSTANTLY for my job, and NOT using lights and sirens is a MUST at times. Especially if you're trying to conduct surveillance in an unmarked car, or if in a marked unit, you're trying to get someplace quick without the crooks hearing you coming. Think outside the box. How do you know what he was/was not going to do?!?! With all due respect, when a cop gets pulled over for speeding off duty, its a humiliating experience because we're supposed to know better... and to have another cop lecture/ticket you is ever worse. If you've ever worked with a good department, you'd know that the law applies to cops more so than other folks. More is expected of you, you are under CONSTANT scrutiny... its one of the positions in life where you're guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of the public. Imagine this: you as "Joe Citizen" get a DUI. You go to jail, bail out, pay a fine and get a conditional license. Now... As a cop you get a DUI: First thing, you lose your job (maybe not RIGHT then, but you will), you get placed in a special cell in jail away from the other inmates because they'll kill you if given the chance, then you bail out... then you go to court and the DA wants you in prison (not a fine), then your name, picture and family are in the newspaper, then you're on probation at work and every other cop thinks you're a total douche and you're singled out and ignored, then you lose your job... and God only knows if you'll end up in jail/prison plus pay a fine. Need I go on?!?! Cops are under way more pressure and scrutiny than other non-law enforcement citizens... and they should be... but don't say that they think the law doesn't apply to them! It is QUITE the opposite. Another example: You tap into and listen to your neighbor's conversations on the phone because you think they're criminals... you get caught. No big deal! Maybe you'll get a fine and spend $$$ on a lawyer... A cop does the same on the job without a warrant?!?! Holy shit. Can you say Federal Prison?!?! While the media portrays 'bad cops' all the time, that is so few and far between that I can't begin to try to calculate the minority.
Hmmm. Please don't take this wrong or personally Jason, but I know that unauthorized/unwarranted taps occur more often than we would like to think. This is not directed at you or any agency you may or may not be affiliated with. I can say that I just know it happens. I do however completely agree with you about LEO's being under more scrutiny than "Joe Citizen." It's unfortunate that a few bad apples in a department can ruin it for everyone, and the public has the perception that ALL LEO's are that way. In my opinion the first video is just stupid and unecessary. SO he parked in a yellow zone, everyone does it all the time, and when we get caught we complain about how petty the citation is, and yet we still attack the police and ask why they aren't out there getting the REAL criminals. We expect a pass, but are reluctant to give one to the cops. The last video, I believe the officers were in the wrong, especially the one with the sirens going off. She needs to get her fat ass walking a little more.
I never did watch eitehr video... but, it sounds like 'she' screwed up. As for the unwarranted wire tapping... IF you're speaking of overseas calls, you don't need a warrant to tap a foreign call coming into or leaving the USA... its the same standard of law as applied to crossing the border in a vehicle. This is known as a 'functional equivalent' to a border. No warrant needed to search, seize, etc. BUT... if you're talking unwarranted phone tapping between persons residing in the USA and their calls are made to one another within the USA, please give me some more information, as I could become a super star when I crack that case! As for domestic wire taps, if there is no pure law enforcement involvement and the evidence seized (yes, phone calls that are incriminating are seized, just like drugs) is of an intelligence-gathering nature only, and said evidence is not to be used in a criminal prosecution, then I BELIEVE a different legal standard applies; ergo: that wire tap is legal. *Don't get me wrong folks... cops can be pricks. Whenever I have an adversarial encounter, I go from "Momo to Prick" in 1/2 a second... and by adversarial, I mean even if someone is giving me a dirty look or not looking at me at all! When you encounter people on the street or wherever and you stop them, detain them, etc., you have ZERO idea what could happen. The first and best weapon a cop has is his brain and what is termed 'officer presence'... aka: command presence. To some, this means being a prick to let people know they mean business and are in charge of the encounter... to others, command presence means something different. Bottom line, even if a cop's a prick, its not personal. Way too many cops have been killed because of innocuous and/or 'normal and friendly' encounters. Everyone does what they feel they need to do at the time to go home to their families at night. Right or wrong, a good day is when you leave healthy. If a few people get pissed at you during the day, but you did your job and are alive... well... what can I say?!?! I just had an encounter with a fellow LEO who was a total dick. I don't assume everyone who works with him is a dick, just him. And we're all having a pow-wow next week to clear it up one way or another. So, all in all, don't paint with a broad brush. That's all!
Many cops have a chip on their shoulder. Was it put there by the criminal a-holes they encounter, yes. Does that make it okay for the cop to treat everyone like a criminal? I don't think so. If this is true, then you must wonder why every 7-11 or other convenience store employee is not an a-hole. They see many rude people and even get robbed at gun point. However, I have never dealt with an a-hole at 7-11. They might not be friendly but they don't treat everyone like they are about to rob them. If you think it's okay for cops to treat every Joe Citizen they encounter as if they are a criminal, then the same should be okay for a convenience store clerk but that is not tolerated. The difference is power and the abuse of it in the case of many cops. A clerk has no power and they are not in a position of authority so they can not behave improperly and get away with it. Cops get away with it because they can and far too many of them take advantage of that. At least 50% of the officers I see on the road are breaking the law the way they drive. The other 50% are lying in wait with radar or driving right at or under the speed limit in hopes that someone will fly by them so they can pull them over. Sorry to offend any cops but if you can't handle the truth I don't know what to say to you. If you think I'm wrong, start to pay attention to officers driving habits. They commit ticketable violations all the time unless thay are looking to pull someone over themselves.
I personally would love to just have ALL law enforcement and ALL military, uprooted and banished from the country. I wish ALL guns were outlawed. We could all just live here in peace and harmony. Us, the gang bangers, the drug dealers, and the Chinese!
