JD40... heh, your only fault is being a good cop, and a nice guy bro. My dad was a cop, his twin brother (my uncle) is still a cop, my best friend was a cop, my old college roomate is a cop...

I know cops, and I feel bad for ya. 9 times out of 10, its a thankless job, where your basically getting paid a teachers wages to duck bullets and stick your hands in some dudes pockets hoping there are no used needles in them.

Whether its fair or not, the cliche' "Guilty by association" is a cliche because its what people (society) uses.

If someone gets upset with one cop, then in thier mind...Cops get a bad rep, If someone gets upset with one lawyer, then in their mind... lawyers get a bad rep.... I can kinda relate. The bottom line is when you say things like:

Sure there are A-hole cops out there, but how do you think they got that way?

...your not changing peoples minds.

Obviously, the short answer is; They got that way because of their job. Your business is the business of dealing with the undesirable dregs of society, with liars, cheaters, drug dealers and killers.... and because of this, some cops become desensitized, accustomed to criminals and criminal behavior, and their rationale becomes tainted, jaundiced, and bais and prejudicial in the extreme. (ask me about my dad and uncle).

This is a problem with no justification. The problem leads to situations like where you have a street hardend cop pulling over Average Joe treating it like its BOLO drug lord felony stop, when all average joe did was violate a non-criminal traffic code. Is it fair to Average Joe? hell no. Is it fair to hold it against Street Hardend cop? I dont know, but I want to say yes. Paranoia is unexcusable. In a jury trial, when I find I have to call a hardend, macho, and overly proud cop to the stand for cross, i can only smile. Its the quiet, calm, rational, by-the-books cop that scares me.

in any event, thanks for posting your perspective and answering questions.

~AJ

 

These are the guys that should be pulled over

Click here
.
.

 

First time ive ever seen that vid. That **** is insane... Its those type of dudes who kill motorcyclists.

bastards.

~AJ

 

that wasnt in the US

 

Thank you for posting that video.

I've seen that before and just amazed how good fo drivers these two are. Risky, dangerous, stupid, and definitely not sensible, but still good drivers.

 

thanks for all the cool posts!!!

I would pull someone over for speeding when i feel he may kill someone. That could be 1mph over the limit or 50mph over the limit. Depends on the time of day, pedestrians...etc. If its 3am and your going 10mph over the limit...I wouldnt care.

Best thing to do when you get pulled over is just to be truthful. Just be nice and hope that you get a cop that isnt a ticket hound. Unless you commited a major offense he should let you go with a warning.

 

What was that Blue car? It had some giddy up!!!

 

Ya it did. Thats what I was thinking...
Looked like the clip was from europe or something.

 

I believe that blue car was an Audi S3 upgraded to something like 600-700 HP. Beastly!

 

that video was shot on a freeway in Taiwan. its either an S3 or S4 Audi. but it has more than 480 whp. this info was posted awhile back in an asian forum, forgot where. anyways, i'm really impressed that they didnt f-up and they're asian! i'm amazed and i'm asian myself.

 

OK, sorry I haven't been back in a little while, but I wanted to warn you of something. Back a few pages ago you asked why you needed a lawyer and said you'd go in and plead guilty with an explanation. I just want to share what happened to me the first time I went to traffic court and thought exactly as you do.

At the start of session, they read the list of names and asked that each person stand up to state they were present and whether they plead guilty or not guilty. So they say my name, I stand up and plead guilty. After all that, they tell all those who pleaded not guilty to step out in the hall and speak to the prosecutor. While they did that, they went through all those who pled guilty. When it was my turn, I went up to the table in front of the judge. He did not ask my any questions or even look up from his file. He simply stated "you were doing 45 in a 25, that's not good. I'll reduce it to 39. See the cashier on your way out." Boom. End of story. I was never given the chance to speak and I wound up with the same 4 points I would have had if I had just sent the ticket in with my check. I learned my lesson.

Second time I went to court, I plead not guilty, went to speak to the prosecutor and dropped 3 points off the tickets I was there for. It still hurt, though (now here was a dick cop who gave me a ticket for speeding AND a ticket for following too close when he came within 6 inches of my bumper and cut someone off while almost running him off the road to get behind me).

Anyway, my point is, pleading guilty may not get you the chance you are looking for to speak your side of the story, and going without a lawyer and at least pleading not guilty may not be much better.

oh, and did I mention that I've now been paying 3 years at DOUBLE my insurance cost? Yeah, $900 for a lawyer would be a bargain.

 

I'm from phoenix also and got a criminal ticket. I basically hired a lawyer and he talked to the judge and they reduced it to 2 civil tickes along with fines. Hope that helps

 

Damn that sucks man, really, Glad you are ok now and hopefully you will forget that nasty cop!

 

I used to drive a 1973 Chevy nova. It was just about the ugliest car in town, but it was what I had. Unfortunately for me, it's very rich town. The cops pretty much followed me around wherever I went, and that got very old.

One time, about 2 in the morning, I'm driving down this 2-lane each way road and not surprisingly, here's the cop. He decides to turn on not one, but TWO searchlights on me, and he's got his brights on besides. I had three rear-view mirrors blinding me, and I literally couldn't see in front of me. I was very, very tempted to stop right there in the middle of the road (with literally no one else out there) and start yelling at the cop. He was creating a hazardous situation with his behavior, and this was like the third night in a row they followed me home. Unfortunately, I was totally wiped out, and I decided it wasn't worth the hassle. This guy followed me for another mile like that, and then I left his jurisdiction. Bastard.

 

So did this Guy go to "Federal **** you in the *** Prison" or not?

 

Wow, Id didn't know they had a "Weekend Only" Jail Option? Most people I know that get locked up dont get that convenience..

WHY WOULD YOU THINK THEY WOULD ONLY GIVE YOU WEEKENDS??

Unless you have 4 Weeks of Vacation you will loose your job serving a month long jail term bucko.

 

well not to resurface an old thread, but I had my court date today.

I pleaded guilty with explanation.

I was fined $425 and I'm assuming 3pts on my record - no one mentioned anything about points.

I'm actually really happy with that. It's $75 less than I thought and I'm not going to jail or going on probation.

Had I gotten a lawyer, it would have been at least $900 and I'd have to pay that all right now and still would be paying higher insurance rates even if I just got 2 points on my record.

With my insurance going up because of 3pts. Even if it goes up $30-35/month increase, it'd still probably be cheaper in the long run than the lawyer fee and 2 pts on my record.

so I'm feeling good!

Anyone in AZ getting a ticket and going to chandler court. The judge I had seemed like a pretty laid back, fair guy. Ron Johnson I think was his name.

He asked each individual to approach him and plead and things were taken care of right there on the spot if you pleaded guilty or guilty with an explanation.

 

I was somewhat surprised at how much $$$ the attorneys wanted in your area. There must be a limited number of them.

The attorney problem was truly unfortunate for you.

Considering everything, it sounds like you came out of it best that you could.

We all make mistakes (and sometimes we get caught ). The important thing is to learn from them.

 

I guess nobody paid attention to the whole "what should you do if someone is tailgating you" portion of the written test.

So many people say "I sped up because some guy was on my bumper".

omg wtf, that and the OP said he just wanted to get out in front of traffic and resume nrmal speed, what, 85? Thats still 20 over, if you werent going to do 85 why would you go in FRONT of traffic and not slow down to get behind?

Honestly, overzealous cop or not thats still not the way to drive, and if 85 with cars around you makes you feel uncomfortable, find a new way to get around, I mean, not to be a dick here, but how do you justify knowingly breaking the law "because everyone drives 20 over", or because someone was tailgating you or you felt "crowded"?

If you felt crowded at 85, slow down, get over, don't speed up. If you were being tailgated tap your breaks and start slowing down (don't break, just tap them and ease off the gas), if everyone does 20 over the speed limit then you nor anyone else, singled out or not (SOMEONE has to be singled out unless theres a dozen cops), should be ok with the fact that at any time you could get a ticket.

Not trying to be a dick or anything and it sucks you have to go through this but you need to learn how to drive safely.

 

Balthazar yeah I agree with you, but just want to reinforce some points


i live in phx az.

people pull out guns and shoot people on the highway here because of road rage

a car was tailgating me

another car almost swirved into my lane and stuff like that

everyone was driving 80mph and were bunched up really close together.

I thought there might be some drunk drivers hovering around my car. We have a lot of DUI's in phx too.

when I zoomed out ahead, I have no idea how fast I was going.
A car did zoom way up behind me and rode my tail big time after I pulled forward
It was a cop - he turned on his lights. I looked down and I was going like 83 or 84 or something because I was in the process of slowing down.

The cop said if he had to guess, he thought I was for sure going over 90. That's why on my ticket it says "other" as his means of determining my speed.

There wasn't a single car ahead of me for about 100 yards when I speed up.

My car is fast. I have a lot of mods. My digital speedometer will say 81 one sec, then 93 the next with nothing in between.

yeah what I did was wrong, but at the time I actually felt it was safer than hang around there with people trying to run into me from behind and the side.