Good cop/Bad cop

[Ray Mooney]

 

BAD COP:
So, I was on my way home from work and had just exited the highway. I approached the stop light, splitting cars in the two left turn lanes. There's a cop at the front in the right lane and I motor up next to him and stop. After a few seconds I notice him lower his window, so I look to my right and see he's talking to me. I can't hear him, so I raise my visor and say, "Yes, officer?"

He say, "What lane are you in?"

OK, here we go. I look down at my feet and say, "It looks like I'm in the left lane, officer."

"You know, it's illegal to pass on the right."

And at this point I know he's f***ing with me just because he can. I figure he's already decided if he's going to light me up, so I decide to just give it back to him.

Loudly and firmly, I say, "Are you telling me that LANE SPLITTING is illegal, officer?"

"I'm just saying that any unsafe lange change is illegal, whether on the left or the right," he says.

"I didn't perform an unsafe lane change, officer." And at this point I'm being snotty and sarcastic. "I approached the intersection at less than 15 miles an hour. Are you telling me that was illegal?"

He says, now just as snotty as me, "So, you're saying, if there was a motorcycle in each of these lanes and my car could fit in between them, then I could just slide right in between them?"

Now I'm mad, so as loudly as I can without yelling, I say, "Yes, officer. It's technically called LANE SHARING. Are you telling me that is illegal, officer?"

Right then the light turned green and the officer pulled away without comment. Ordinarily I pull away quickly from an intersection to get from between the cars, but I didn't want to push my luck with this guy, so I let him get ahead before I took off. No lights, no siren, the guy just pulled away.

GOOD COP:
Two days later I'm exiting one highway and merging onto another. It's a bottleneck situation where three lanes merge into one, and it's rush hour. All the lanes are very wide, so splitting is easy until the lanes all come together. Just as the bottleneck happens, as I'm approaching the merge, I see a cop up ahead. It goes through my mind what happened the other day, but I'm not going to let that cloud my actions. I continue forward and as I approach the cop on her left, she moves far to the right in her lane to let me pass, smiles and waves at me as I go by.

Two completely different situations, one with an a55hole who was on a power trip (and believe me, I enjoyed taking him down a notch) and one with a cop who understands that motorcycles actually help alleviate traffic congestion. Both incidents, while distinctly different, ultimately served the same purpose. In both cases, cops were right there as I was safely splitting lanes, and the cagers all saw the cops let me proceed on my way, clearly demonstrating that splitting is not illegal if performed safely. The incident with the first cop really pissed me off and I was mad for quite awhile afterwards, but it served a good purpose and I'm glad it happened.

OK, rant over.
Peace.
Ray

[dhcolesj]

At times I wish lane splitting, or sharing, was legal here in TN, but its not.  I wanted to today real bad, 'cause there was this area in the lane next to me that was wide open, but it was part of the lane a car was in already.  If the State trooper hadn't been two cars behind me I would have done it anyway.

There are other times, due to the narrow lanes here, I'm glad its cagers get pretty close to each other. 

Nashville, TN has one particular interstate heading north west (I24) that needed more lanes.  What does our brilliant leadership do?  Narrow  the existing lanes so that another lane can be added without adding more pavement!  Wonderful, now instead of being just dangerously close, we're deadly close.  D'OH!

[andrewsw]

I learned to split lanes as a messenger in Wa DC. It's not technically legal in DC, but at the time was generally ignored. There's definitely an art to it. I first did it a lot with stopped traffic, and that's no big deal. But when I learned to do it in rolling traffic... shudder... the first time was scary. Of course subsequently, I got comfortable, even skilled, at it and did it all the time.

I'm not sure where it ranks on the safety meter, but it sure was fun and efficient.

Around these parts, though, it's definitely a no-no. I think a driver would likely have an actual heart-attack if they saw you coming up in their mirror. Of course, our idea of traffic is a joke.

[Red01]

Of course, our idea of traffic is a joke.

I don't know... I've heard Spokane has a "Rush 1/2 hour" now.  Used to be only 15 minutes. 

[andrewsw]

heh. When I first moved here (1999) people would start freaking out if there were more than 4 cars at a stoplight.

Now with construction on *all* (yes, *ALL* ) the major north-south arteries, it get pretty bad in the evenings.

[Red01]

When my wife's brother was living over there in the mid-90's (he worked in Spokane, lived in Rathdrum, ID), we used to go over and visit.  There was ~15 minute time period ~5:00 PM when I-90 would slow down to maybe 40 thru Spokane. We'd often joke about Spokane's Rush 15 minutes... sure would be nice if it was like that over here on I-5! 

[Sven]

Nashville, TN has one particular interstate heading north west (I24) that needed more lanes.  What does our brilliant leadership do?  Narrow  the existing lanes so that another lane can be added without adding more pavement!  Wonderful, now instead of being just dangerously close, we're deadly close.  D'OH!

Ya want narrow?  Try crossing the Huey P Long bridge in New Orleans.  Narrow and the whole thing shakes because the middle "lane" is a railroad track.  They are in the process of hanging additional lanes on the outside of the existing lanes, but my understanding is that they won't be any wider.  See http://www.backroombluegrassband.com/steamtripjournal/images/WHJonHPLong2.jpg

[tango59]

I get soooo tired of hearing people gripe about cops. Sign up, do the academy and If you can do better 

[Ray Mooney]

Did you read the post? I wasn't griping about cops in general. I was griping about one cop in particular who was an asshole. I have nothing but praise for most cops, but this guy was a penis. The female cop was great and I gave her props for it.

And I'm gonna go ahead and consider my 20+ years in the Navy as sufficient public service. You can go ahead and do the police academy.

[andrewsw]

I got popped the other day. I haven't had a ticket in years. I was being an idiot riding too fast in an area where I know cops hang out. (probably because it's wide open, divided highway... hence people drive a safe 65 in a 55). I must have had my stupid goggles on because I *totally* wasn't paying attention to the fact that I was riding into a known speedtrap.

I did my usual routine when dealing with the cops: *park* the bike properly (backed into a curb if you can), key visibly and obviously out of the ignition, gloves and helmet off and stowed on the handle bars, me off the bike, wallet out, all before the cop can get out of the car and over to me. Nothing like clearly cooperating to put them in a good mood. This behavior has gotten me out of a ticket in the past just because it's clear that your not going to be an ass and make them ask for things you know they're gonna ask for. (the one I got out of was popping a wheelie right in front of the man... I was young  )

Anyway, he was real nice, didn't mess with me *at all*. Gave me the briefest of lectures, literally "Watch the speed please," and sent me on my way. He claimed an indicated 74mph in a 55 zone... heh. He must have caught me slowing down. Ticketed me for 65 in a 55.

I consider myself lucky, I guess, though a little embarrassed because I definitely knew better.

oh well.

oh, and I think wearing all the gear, but not flashy "I'm teh racer dood!" gear helps a lot too.

so chalk that one up to a good cop doing his job in a professional manner.

[mademiriam]

I did my usual routine when dealing with the cops: *park* the bike properly (backed into a curb if you can), key visibly and obviously out of the ignition, gloves and helmet off and stowed on the handle bars, me off the bike, wallet out, all before the cop can get out of the car and over to me. Nothing like clearly cooperating to put them in a good mood.

oh, and I think wearing all the gear, but not flashy "I'm teh racer dood!" gear helps a lot too.

Good advice there, used this to my own advantage before. Tough job being a cop, last time I was pulled on a bike was some time ago. He let me off for a 160 in an 80km, first day of the season, little GPZ just wanted to hear her sing through the gears. Forgot to check the parking lot of the coffee shop down the road from the light...Let me go as clearly I cooperated, had everything in order and the industrial park road was deserted at 1 am. Lucky though, could have been my license for 5 years.
That said, met bad cop before too. Driving in just one of those speed trap areas, being stupid, saw him on the side he didn't even turn on his lights just waved me over. I parked right in front of him. He said "license and registration", I handed them to him, he came back threw the ticket in my car window and walked off without a word. And YES that one is going to court.

[tango59]

Like so many have said on so many different forums there are good and bad cops everywhere. A dickhead on my shift not only wrote a cop (on a sportbike) from another dept a ticket but towed his bike to an impound lot. I live in the area where this cop (the one that got screwed) patrols. Needless to say I expect to get screwed just the same way as retrebution. It's not about being a cop. It's about the person that's behind the badge period. Don't be an ass you won't get treated like an ass BUT you may have to deal with an ass. Don't judge all us cops the same. We would not be on these forums and ID ourselves if we did not have the same ideals and issues as the rest of you.