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| Just about the most adrenaline-inducing thing a driver can see in his rearview--flashing lights behind you, chasing after you, ahead of an impending traffic stop. |
Often, however, there are takeaways from such experiences as traffic stops. I may have had six or so non-accident traffic stops in my adult life-- over the last 40 years or so driving. And I've had a mixed bag of outcomes.
The police in Missouri gave me a warning in 2010. As did the Highway Patrol officer in the middle of nowhere Texas (just West of Ft. Stockton on the I-10) in 2007 and as did a Pensacola Police Officer when I was pulled over by him about five years ago on an early Friday morning on 12th Avenue.
The Parish Policeman in Louisiana, however, wrote me a ticket in 2013. As did the San Diego PD officer when I got pulled over there in 1992 and as did the San Diego Sheriff's Officer when I got pulled over there in 2003.
So you never know which way one of these will go. I didn't know how last night's stop would go, either. Lucky number 7--the wrong kind of luck though.
So, what happened at my traffic stop last night?
After getting to the center divide of a four lane road, I pulled out making a left in what I thought was enough room so as not to cut off traffic quickly coming up on my rear. I went all the way over to the slow lane, the right lane, and I stepped on the gas in an attempt to match the speed of the traffic coming up behind me. In my rearview, I saw what looked like a truck speeding up in my lane then quckly moving into the fast lane to pass me. But by this time I was up to speed so I thought that was odd. And there's where the mistake happened. I saw this, and thought to myself--"Wait---I'm not slowing this guy down, he's not even going to catch up to me--what was that abrupt lane-change about?" A glance back, and he was gaining on me and I sped up a bit more to out pace him. Dumb mistake.
Because, at that moment, he pulled back into my lane and flashed his lights. It wasn't a truck, it was a police cruiser. And I was being pulled over.
"Dangit!" I said loudly in my truck cab as I waited for the officer to come to the window. (well, that's not the word I actually used.... but similar, LOL😜) I shut off the ignition, engaged my flashers, rolled down the driver's side window, and put both hands on the wheel....
"I think it is 45, officer" I offered in response.
"I clocked you at XX!" his response came immediately. "Why are you driving so fast out here?" was his question.
I attempted to awkwardly explain where I was coming from and headed and that I sped up only to avoid cutting him off, didn't realize how fast I was going, and that perhaps I misjudged the speed I was going and maybe I .."should have waited to pull out?"
He didn't seem convinced.
And he then asked for my driver's license.
"Okay, I am going to reach into my pocket to get my wallet, okay," I said.
"That's fine"--he stated. "Is this car registered in your name", he asked as I retrieved the license and handed it to him?"
"Yes sir" I replied. As he started to walk back to his cruiser, I asked "Do you need my insurance information?"
"Nope, I've got it on the computer." he said as he walked back to the cruiser.
A few minutes later, he came back to my car. At that point, the story could go one of two directions, and therefore I am not saying how it went. I deserved a ticket, and whether or not I received one is of no matter, no consequence. There was an outcome that was justifiable and prudent, I will leave it at that.
And no. I didn't say what I do for a living or where I work. Nothing, and no name dropping. That wasn't important.
The important thing, what I actully thought about during the whole incident (which may have been about 10 minutes tops) was how my interaction with the officer was so cordial, polite, and professional.
Both ways.
I didn't argue, didn't curse, didn't try to run, didn't complain. I did as I was told, period.
I've heard many variations of "The Talk" that parents give their kids when they begin to drive. The "Talk" is purportedly about how to safely interact with police if you are pulled over.
To my kids, I simply said something like this. "If you're pulled over for any reason follow the officer's commands, do as you are told, do not fight with nor struggle with them, and even if you feel that the officer has done something wrong, there are plenty of opportunities to address that at a later time---off the road and through administrative processes after the fact."
I know there are different variations of "the Talk" that other parents might give based upon their own realities and life experiences. I don't necessarily know all about those versions--but I've heard some of the talking points and know some of them start with a broad assumption that the police are not to be trusted, are nefarious, and will "target" some people and treat them "harsher" than others or pull them over for reasons that are not justified. Maybe that is the perception of some--heck--maybe that has hppened some places in RARE instances---but I happen to have more faith in police than that.
The bad rap police get nationwide and from the press and others concerns me. In fact, it sometimes makes me wonder who we will get to be our police if they are constantly vilified unjustly?
No, I believe that no matter who you are--if you're not a wanted criminal, not driving drunk, not engaged in criminal activities, not carrying illegal narcotics, and are following the law and get stopped for a minor traffic infraction--------if you simply follow the officers commands and provide the information requested--you won't leave the stop with anything more onerous than potentially a traffic ticket. Call me naive, call me a pollyanna--that's always been what I encountered. And I have always complied, been polite, and cooperative in the now 7 times I have been pulled over over the last 40 years.
But we all should know this: If you fight with the police during a traffic stop, run from them, resist them, etc.---all bets are off. And we have all seen examples of that in the media and all over YouTube. It doesn't end well.
For anybody.
16 comments:
What a heartwarming tale.
We should all bookmark it to give us some comfort the next time an innocent man pulled over for an vaguely defined traffic stop is savagely beaten to death within 3 minutes of the first blow, and then ignored by everyone at the scene for a half hour as he lies slumped over in the street.
It's so comforting to have this story to turn back to now, the story of a man who admits he was speeding getting pulled over, kissing major butt to avoid a ticket, and then toddling along on his merry way, insignificant and irrelevant ticket in his pocket or not.
And here I thought we might have had a problem with elected officials excusing away unprovoked murder in this country. Such a relief.
What an ignorant post!
Yes, that how you act when pulled over by law enforcement.
I lied my way out of a speeding ticked in a well known speed trap in a little municipality a couple of counties to the east once when I had on a lab coat going to work midnight, said I was heading to an emergency at the hospital. It worked. Once I admitted I had been drinking ( only one which was true) but the reason I was swerving was because I was trying to get my lighter off the floorboard and to please not give me a ticket. He didn't.
Once I told the LEO the radar detector was my husband's, it didn't work.
I'm glad I'm much older and wiser and not riding around with a beer between my legs nor in a hurry to get anywhere.
My ex husband's first cousin was a LEO, he harassed people, stole their Marijuana and paraphelnalia, had girls perform sexual favors to get out of tickets. He traded the stolen dope for the same favors and beat his informant. He let my ex ride with them as they staked some people and he totaled his car chasing them and reenacted it on the radio after the fact when the car was upside down on the railroad track because he didn't radio it in ahead of time. He had no,probable cause. He eventually was fired, then murdered. He was gross and the epitome of a gross big fat Pig. He would sneak up on parked cars to shine the light in for jollies to catch teens making out in parked cars. He enjoyed that most of all. His house was decorated with bongs.
They aren't all good.
Best to avoid them as well as lawbreakers.
Lumon and Lu Timothy will never live down the way they acted during a traffic stop.
You are teaching your children well.
Off topic, also don't aim a gun at LEO. They will rightfully return fire and end it.
I think I've lived a pretty low key normal life but the repot in PNJ about the Navy Point incident reminded me of a similar scenario. Neighbors ran to our house exclaiming her husband had a gun and was drunk threatening to kill them. We sheltered them -- hid them in the woods and armed ourselves, eyes on the house across the street 0and called LEO. I was only about 20 yrs old but that moment I decided I don't plan to ever be a victim.
The LEO arrived in force, the husband came out with loaded gun but never lowered it.
They told me if he had, they would have ended it. They took him in to sleep it off.
I guess after that, they lived happily ever after. IDK because after that I told them to move. They were renting my parents' house.
Don't need that kind of BS around me.
A nephew tried it. He's dead. Suicide by cop.
Don't play with fire, you might get burned.
Only time ever Pino has made a post that I agree with. Bergosh, you aren’t a stupid man but your willful ignorance about this community and our nation is on full display with this ridiculous post
Commissioner Bergosh no doubt will not agree with how I understand this, but I call it like I see it. As with him, I see a LOT of truly good people twisting themselves into absurd narratives as they try to figure out the following: how do I square my guts, brains, heart, and eyes with the truly heinous elements of the platform my political party is cramming down the throats of its base.
The problem is, there is no way to do square being an inherently decent person with some of the darker fantasies the GOP is pushing. The two things can and never will mesh comfortably, in a way that makes any sense. If Commissioner Bergosh is guilty of making bad work of trying, it at least gives me hope that at some point a majority of republicans will get tired of putting themselves through these paces and return to reason.
Sarcasm of my original comment aside, Commissioner Bergosh, the simple truth is that (1) your traffic stop and (2) murderous men using the badge to quench their thirst for violence while they beat or choke someone to death have (3) absolutely nothing to do with each other. And there isn't any stretch of imagination that can logically and realistically connect them.
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"Fired Memphis police officer texted photo of Tyre Nichols to 5 people after brutal beating, documents say"
Demetrius Haley took two photographs on his cellphone “while standing in front of the obviously injured subject after he was handcuffed,” records show.
"A fired Memphis police officer involved in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols took photos of the 29-year-old after he was pepper-sprayed, kicked and hit by police, and texted at least one image to at least five people, new records show.
That revelation was contained in documents released Tuesday as part of a Memphis Police Department request to decertify the five officers charged in the brutal Jan. 7 assault on Nichols. Decertification means the former officers can no longer serve as police anywhere in the state.
Demetrius Haley, one of the five officers fired on Jan. 20, sent the photo, according to the documents.
He was also the officer who physically forced Nichols out of his vehicle during the initial traffic stop and deployed his chemical irritant spray “directly close up to the subject’s eyes,” documents from Memphis Police’s Inspectional Services Bureau said.
He used profanity, laughed and “bragged” after Nichols was beat, according to the documents.
On his personal cellphone, he took two photographs “while standing in front of the obviously injured subject,” meaning Nichols, “after he was handcuffed,” the documents said.
Haley “admitted” to sharing at least one photo in a text message with five people: a civilian employee, two Memphis police officers and a female acquaintance, the documents said.
During the administrative investigation, a sixth person was identified as also having received the same photograph, the documents said.
Haley violated police policies including personal conduct, truthfulness, neglect of duty and excessive force/unnecessary force, according to police.
The dissemination of the photograph violated the department’s “Information Concerning Police Business” policy, which states “a member shall not communicate information relating to official police matters without prior approval or subpoena, except to authorized persons. A member shall treat the official business of the department as confidential,” according to the documents.
Haley joined the force in August 2020 and was previously accused of beating an inmate in Shelby County in a 2016 lawsuit.
con.
In that case, he was accused of being one of three corrections officers who allegedly beat inmate Cordarlrius Sledge. The suit, which Sledge filed without a lawyer, was dismissed in 2018 after a judge found he had not properly served one of the defendants with a summons.
Haley was also found to be untruthful in his narrative of Nichols' arrest, the documents said.
“In your incident summary, you wrote that you heard your partner tell the individual, ‘Let my gun go!’ before he was taken to the ground,” the statement said. “You were also heard making the same statement on body-worn camera to your partners in the presence of witness officers. However, video evidence did not support your oral or written statement and your information was deemed untruthful.”
The statement further said: “You never told the driver the purpose of the vehicle stop or that he was under arrest. Audio from a body worn camera did not capture the driver using profanity or displaying any violent threats.”
“Your on-duty conduct was unjustly, blatantly unprofessional and unbecoming for a sworn public servant,” the document said.
According to decertification documents for all the officers charged with second-degree murder — Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Tadarrius Bean, Desmond Mills Jr and Justin Smith — none of their body cameras captured the entire incident, despite policies requiring them to activate it during all police encounters.
Haley failed to activate his body camera during the first encounter with Nichols, though it was functioning properly, his documents said.
Martin took off his body camera at some point and placed it in his unmarked vehicle; Mills and Bean both at one point removed their body cameras and placed them on the trunk of a car; and Smith’s camera was not activated during his initial interaction with Nichols, the documents said."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-memphis-police-officer-texted-photo-tyre-nichols-5-people-brutal-be-rcna69632
Honestly when I read the blog, I didn't even think of the incident that's been on the national news lately. I didn't make the connection.
But I did familiarize myself after the other commentary made the connection.
The thing about life is often, to make sense of it people categorize and think in terms of all or nothing and put people in a box and label them. It's a servival instinct yet base way of seeing the world.
The truth is we need law enforcement and depending on which side of the incident one seems to be on color's their first reaction and train of thought.
The nature of a person drawn to enforcing the law can really be a complex personality and like in any occupation, there are all kinds and they are human.
I have my life stories to understand things and another time my exhusband was on the wrong end of neighorhood bully cops who clearly conspired and set him up for false arrest, no need to go all into that. It was well known fact the ring leader, a female was a bully over reacting -- slamming people to the ground.
A person in LEO has lot of raw power, courage and strength but can be abusive and group bullies and subject to violate behavior.
We want them when we need to be protected. Those can be useful traits at the right time.
My husband's brother was cop too.
One rule of thumb. Don't POP. Piss Off the Police.
They often place people in 2 categories-- dirtbags and them.
I also think it is documented, people do have a bias often and young black males are often perceived to be up to no good. However, look at all the incidents in Pensacola, often the ones joy riding and shooting are young black males. They've earned that reputation.
And police can be authoritative and reactionary and cruel.
Rise above.
Way to double down on your ignorance Jeff. With you in “leadership “ there is little doubt Escambia county will continue to be one of the poorest counties in FL and lag behind our neighboring counties
https://www.kcra.com/article/tyre-nichols-arrest-officer-drew-gun-as-he-approached-report-finds/42821010
Commissioner Bergosh, it's not lost on people that it's not uncommon for you to try to draw some equivalence like this after one of these police murder tragedies happen. Whether it's in a blog or on the dais, it always pains me to see you try to squish your ethics into conforming with the idea that somehow this police violence is excusable. It heartens me however that it clearly bothers you...it's a speck in your grey matter for sure, and one you can't get resolved, or you wouldn't keep putting yourself through these exercises. Whether you got a ticket is a pointless red herring per the messaging that you put out cyclically that either state outright or imply that, if you get hurt by a cop's hand, you someone brought it on yourself. And of course your blog post is dialoguing with that national context. As for butt kissing, your own post makes it clear you were doing it. Who doesn't? On the three times I've been pulled over over the decades of having a license, you can bet I was kissing ass. Only fools do anything other.
Somebody get an industrial size container of Chapstick for Melissa Pino. Her lips must be sore from all the butt smooching. One problem we have in this nation is main stream media and black activist and representatives stooking fear into the black and brown communities that law enforcement is evil. Segments of that community now believe any interaction with the law is now a life or death situation triggering a fight or flight response. Look at our D3 commissioner.
Seems the Tyre incident is a fallout of the BLM assine defund the police racial communist democrat agenda. Consequently it was harder to get LEO hired as the qualifications were lowered. They have put together elite strike forces in high crime areas that serve as a unit. Memphis is a high crime area particularly in the poor black neighborhoods.
The gang of bully police reacted when Tyre ran and resisted arrest. He was scared. They approached him with guns pulled. Probably escalated it, they obviously were in the wrong. Glad they were all black though, so people can concentrate on proper behavior and policy.
True, I think the Chris Rock video, "How not to get your ass kicked by the police" addressed this way back when we were still allowed to laugh about 16 yrs ago.
Common Sense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8
You are so out of touch living in your perfect little white world. Get out in the community and find out what is really happening before you post such narrow minded, white washed privileged hogwash.
753, Why did the Memphis police beat their own community member to death? Enlighten us.
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