TheAgitator.com
Petey Justice
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008My friend Pete Eyre gets all Jimmy Justice on an Arlington County police officer. Pete’s quite a bit more polite than Jimmy, though. Which I think makes this kind of thing much more effective.
I’ve also noticed that Arlington and Alexandria officers are also particularly bad about turning on their lights, zipping through a red light, then turning off the lights and continuing on their way.
I know some people think this is petty stuff. It isn’t. The police aren’t above the law. And it’s dangerous to let them think they are.
gutsey
Why is it gutsy? They must abide by the same laws you and I do. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask an officer questions. If you are afraid of being beaten/arrested/threatened, then you have to ask yourself what kind of world you are living in where you know that is not tolerated behavior. Standing up for what is right requires courage, but if no one does then the tanks will roll over us that much faster.
You have to ask “Who are these people that think they are above the law? What kind of system is permitting this mentality?”
gutsy
My gripe is when I get passed on the NYS Thruway by a Trooper doing 90 in a Tahoe, no lights on, just gotta go somewhere fast. I’m driving 65 to save gas in my Civic, since I’m paying $4.05 a gallon, and some cop blasts past me in his less than 8 mpg truck that my already ridiculously high taxes have to buy the gas for! Gimme a break!
Although I am generally with Radley on no-knocks and other police abuses, this strikes me as being at least arguably-justified. The officer seemed to be getting food, which he presumably was consuming while on duty. If he had gotten a call while at the restaurant, he would have had to move quickly to his vehicle. By parking close to the restaurant, he cuts down on his response time.
I do agree that cops should obey traffic signals, unless actually on a call.
Cheerful,
I agree with everything you wrote. Those are seriously good public policy arguments as to why officers on duty should be permitted a lot of freedom to park where they need to.
But I don’t think it speaks to the issue raised in the video; was it legal for the officer to park where he did? It might be a good idea for it to be legal, but was it legal?
If it wasn’t, I’d put forward the suggestion that the cop can’t break that law, no matter how wise. Maybe this would mean cops would have to brown bag lunches in order to do their job, or find places to pee that have super convenient parking, but the law is the law, right?
- Gavin
Gutsy would have been issuing him a citation for illegal parking. Or perhaps that would have been suicidal.
Cops are so cocky about this shit.
One cop, parked in the same lot as me and enjoying a snack, actually tossed his apple core out the cruiser’s window not ten feet from where I was standing. Then he blew through the four-way stop without even slowing down. He saw me looking at him and didn’t give a damn.
So…what, I should be grateful that he’s…eating healthy?
Zero,
It’s been done up near here, recently actually… I even think Radley posted a link at some point too..
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=753233&category=22101
The police, of course, responded to the citations with the same cheerful hypocrisy that Cheerful Iconoclast did above… must be in the official script.
Here in Beijing the police, as well as ambulances, government officials, and anyone else who has lights on their car, routinely drive around with them on. You almost never, ever, see a police car without its lights on. You also see black Audi A6’s, the official staff car of the Chinese Communist Party, with lights blinking in the front grill.
The net result of this is that other cars pay no attention whatsoever to any vehicle with lights on. I’ve had taxi drivers pull right out into traffic and cut off a police car with its lights flashing. If there’s traffic and an ambulance is trying to get through, nobody will make the slightest effort to get out of its way. (Not that you’d really want to get into a Chinese ambulance anyway, it’s basically a van with a bed in it. If you really need to get to a hospital, a taxi driver will get you there faster than an ambulance.)
So the net result of police abusing their lights is that people stop paying attention to them at all. I’m originally from Texas, and I’ve seen police do this at lights all the time. The police here are, of course, an extreme example, but it shows how abuse of a power inspires apathy in the public.
could you find a more petty critique of police power??
I hate police unilateralism and militarization as much as the next man, but parking in a signed area to buy a bottled water does not count.
Is it possible to let cops think they are above the laws concerning illegal parking without letting them think they are above the law generally? And if so, is it dangerous to let the cops think they are above the parking laws? Finally, can I say I thoroughly enjoy seeing cops confronted this way and still think it’s petty stuff?
That brave officer is simply more equal than you or me.
If Petey didn’t write down the car number and report the incident to the Police, then he’s only fighting half of the battle.
If we want to curb this sort of behavior by police officers, we citizens need to report this sort of illegal stuff to the Police Departments and ALL of us need to do it. If only a few people are calling and complaining, they can be ignored. If a large number of people call in and report things, then the Police Department will be forced to take action because they’ll have a PR nightmare on their hands.
You’re all a bunch of despicable ingrates. The cops are constantly risking life an limb every single day, throwing themselves into the line of fire to shield preschoolers on their treacherous walk through the American body-strewn, drug-riddled no-man’s land between daycare and home. They’re ridiculed for their donut habit, but no one notices that, between donuts, they are are the ones out there clearing a path through the hordes of rapists so our wifes can get safely to the market and beauty salon. You women should be especially thankful. After all, who do you call when the hubby comes home all shit-faced and needs a taste of Mr. Taser? Do you people have nothing better to do than criticize a class of people who are known for their total selflessness and superhuman tolerance of verbal abuse? Hell, if you doubt my word, just visit Arlington Cemetery sometime. Those thousands of grave markers are all cops who died in the line of duty making the world a better place for your families and pets. Without these fierce crime-fighting kamikazes, we’d all be working 12 hours days naked in drug labs for Columbian drug lords and Russian Mafia bosses who’s only pleasure in life is watching you suffer under the crushing rhythmic pressure wave of subwoofer driven rap music.
You should all be ashamed.
hexag1
Could you find a more petty critique of police power??
I hate police unilateralism and militarization as much as the next man, but parking in a signed area to buy a bottled water does not count
Wrong, it counts. This is exactly like the argument for “Broken Windows” policing. If you tolerate minor infractions of the law, you create an environment where the large ones are also not unexpected. The second order effect is that the other honorable police long used to tolerating minor lawbreaking by the majority, now have to decide where and when to draw the line and report their peers for the big stuff.
Whew thank god we caught this rougue cop who parked in a no standing zone. In some places it is allowed so that, while he getting water and a job comes over, he does not have to walk four blocks to his car.
Of course most people understand that.
#15, Brilliant.
Police officers should obey the laws.
Seems pretty simple to me.
How many times have they written tickets for the same behavior and shrugged, saying “I have to ticket you. It’s the law. You broke it by parking here.”
Why have the law in the first place if it doesn’t apply to certain classes of people?
Just last week I was a car-length away from being t-boned by a PO blowing a very red red light (my light had been green for a good amount of time). The cop didn’t even bother with the siren blip, though.
No, he just braked a tad, enough to see I was *just* far enough back from the intersection, then blew right through.
Ass hole.
Bronwyn-
Chances were that if he had collided with another vehicle at the intersection and died, the other driver would be facing manslaughter charges at minimum.
If he had a trace of anything in the bloodstream, or Dr. Hayne does the officer’s autopsy, instant capital murder.
What lines of questioning are allowed when trying to discredit a witness? If a particular witness (be it a cop or someone else) has little respect for the law, I would think a jury should take that into account when judging his credibility. Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if one is only allowed to question the credibility of non-cop witnesses.
Dissenting opinion:
Police have to be ready to respond quickly to 911 calls. The officer’s decision to leave his cruiser immediately accessible in front of the store seems reasonable to me.
//Police have to be ready to respond quickly to 911 calls. The officer’s decision to leave his cruiser immediately accessible in front of the store seems reasonable to me.//
It would not be unreasonable for the legislature to explicitly allow such conduct. Indeed, it’s possible that they already did so even though the cop didn’t have the statute number handy (why would he?) If that’s the case, I think the cop should have offered the photographer the phone number for the department where someone might have more information.
I don’t know whether what the cop did was allowed by law or not. If it was, there’s no problem (other than that the cop should ideally have been more helpful). If it was not, the fact that it would be ‘a good idea’ isn’t an excuse. If people who are supposed to uphold the law won’t obey it themselves, a slide into totalitarian anarchy will surely result.
My personal guess is that the legislature allows police cars with flashing lights to park essentially anywhere (I can’t imagine arguing that a policeman is ‘illegally parked’ when he uses his vehicle to divert traffic around an accident). The issue of when a cop may use flashing lights to avoid parking restrictions is more likely a matter of departmental policy than of specific law.
“It would not be unreasonable for the legislature to explicitly allow such conduct. ”
Virginia does not. Emergency vehicles can only ignore traffic laws during an emergency response and only while using lights and siren and only while providing for the safety of those around them.
That Arlington cop was in fact violating the law.
//That Arlington cop was in fact violating the law.//
Fair enough. I would not be surprised, however, if there were other states where his actions would be technically legal (though most likely contrary to department policy).
BTW, as for the confrontation between the cameraman and cop, I would suggest the best way to handle such things would be for cops to carry around business cards (say, ten on their person and 100+ in their car) with their name and badge number along with police department phone numbers and extensions, including Internal Affairs. A cop who was confronted by a cameraman as in this situation could thus courteously offer the person one of the business cards and politely ask him to direct any complaints or concerns to the IAD.