So Im driving down I-35 going 70 (speed limit is 65) and I see an APD officer whiz by me going at least 80 with no emergency lights on. What gives? Im driving to work on Airport Blvd. and I see a cop turn on his lights to run a red light, only to see him turn them back off and keep driving at normal speeds down the road. WTF? What the hell gives cops the right to break the law? Arent they supposed to obey traffic laws just like Joe Citizen has to? I cant take it anymore....... Is there anything we can do?
Sometimes cops run "code one silent" which means that they are trying to catch someone in the act of a crime.
He's right. You don't know what that cop may or may not be doing. In any event, I'll give the guy the right to speed since he puts his life on the line everyday. If you do the same, I'll look the other way when you speed.
C'mon refman, thats the type of thinking that justifies punching suspects while they are in handcuffs. They DON'T have the right to speed. They DON't have the right to assault people. They DON'T have any rights that you or I don't have.
Different classification. If someone is breaking into your house, do you want they burgular to leave when they hear the siren and cop coming? If there is a suspicious person in your neighborhood, do you want them to be warned that they are about to be checked out? Assults notwithstanding, if somebody has made an oath to give his or her life for mine, I will give them a little slack.
I'm not talking about when they are running "code one silent" or whatever. I'm talking about that cop that is hitting close to 90mph trying to get home after his shift. I'm talking about that cop who hits his lights to avoid that pesky red light. You telling me that these guys don't exist?
They do exist, since we don't know what their reason is, my inclination is to give most the benefit of the doubt. Great argument.
Where does the benefit of the doubt end? Speeding, sure I can live with that too. Little speeding doesn't hurt me one way or the other, ticks me off but doesn't hurt me. Is that where we draw the line?
You're going to equate violence with being a little heavy on the pedal? If that logic were applied everywhere then we'd all be in prison. I think you need a better example.
You never know. AB could have it nailed, or the cop could just be thinking... "I'm on top of the world! I am me, and I can do anything I want!" Thank goodness Herman Short isn't chief of police in H-town any longer. It was alleged that he wouldn't hire anyone who wasn't a member of the KKK, or got recommended by someone who was. (I heard that so many times that I believe it) He was like a little J. Edgar Hoover in his own way. The Mayor and the Council were afraid of him. I'm sure there were some decent cops in his era who finessed their way onto the force, and managed to stick around, but it was brutal back then.
I wasn't trying to equate violence to speeding. I was trying to illustrate that if you start excusing this eventually you get to that. A police officer should be someone you respect and trust. Minor law bends here or there only deteriorate that repect and trust to the point that when we see a cop popping a kid in the face we say...ehhh maybe the kid had it coming. IMO it's a slippery slope.
There are different rules for different jurisdictions in regard to things like this. Some cities do not allow officers to break the speed limit or violate traffic laws without their lights going. Some jurisdictions have different rules. I don't know what the rules are in Austin, but it's entirely possible that this officer was not breaking any rule, and I, like AB, am willing to give the officer the benefit of the doubt since I can't know what the officer was responding to (or whether he was simply trying to get to Krispy Kreme before they threw out the last donuts). On a different note about the police breaking the law, a suspect was killed in Amarillo today by a police officer. Now, the police officer apparently had to shoot the suspect. The question comes, though, when we find out what the suspect had been arrested for. He was arrested for "Failure to ID", something that is specifically not against the law. The officer was investigating an apparent vandalism. He came across a man and a woman and began speaking to them. They were not placed under arrest for the vandalism or detained in any way. The officer asked to see ID. At this point, the man and woman had every right to refuse to provide ID. Instead of finding a real reason to arrest or detain the suspects (or let them go, I suppose), the officer decided to arrest them for failure to ID. The man fights with officers (attempting to grab one's sidearm, according to the report) and then runs away. He later returns to the police car and apparently gets hold of the officer's shotgun. The police were apparently then forced to shoot the suspect. He later died at the hospital. So here's a man who is dead because the officer broke the law. The man is completely complicit in his own death, and by the time it reached the point where the officer had to shoot the suspect, the officer did the only thing he could do. But the officer initiated the situation by breaking the law and making a phony arrest. I'mn sure the Potter County Grand Jury will no bill the officer in the shooting (the shooting itself was justified, at least looking at the facts as they've been presented thus far), but shouldn't the officer be legally responsible for the death since it was his illegal act that started everybody down the road toward the death?
After spending the final 2 years of my teenage life in jail and prison, I tend to be biased on this subject. You develop a kind of macabre perception of the law and its enforcers. But I know if it weren't for these people, I would have still been out there at 21 today breaking the law in much more serious ways than traffic offenses...if I wasn't dead already. We are all flawed, and I am WWWWWAAAAAAYYYYY too flawed to judge others, especially when they are the foundation of our legal system and in turn, society. As long as they aren't out there doing any of the stupid sh*t I was doing 3 years ago, I don't mind whatever it is.
MP, that's a terrible story and DT bravo to you for turning everything around. Before I did what I do, I was a cop for 5 years here in Houston, and though rewarding, I would never do it again. You are constantly under the microscope of a public that you protect, and even though paid, it is never enough to make up for the chill you get when a grade school kid aims a watergun at you and instinctively you reach for your gun. Though Htown and DD's concerns are valid, I've never heard of a citizen dying for a cop, although they are citizens as well.
That's a tough question. I lean to giving the police some slack with regards to things such as this. With ALL the crap they have to put up with (poor pay, high stress, undermanned, outgunned, risking life and limb, etc.) I'm willing to let them have these "fringe benefits". These violations seem very small in comparison to what they have to face day in and day out. There are, of course, corrupt cops that take advantage of their position of authority, BUT I believe the majority are really trying to help. Why else would they do this important job if they really didn't give a damn? I may be overly optimistic, but I'd rather have them around than not.........jmo
People don't react to emergency vehicles well, therefore sometimes the lights are more of a distraction than help. In addition once you have cleared the traffic lights, there is no need for them.
