Originally posted by: bradruth
Originally posted by: DAGTA
Four times I've 'been on the wrong side of the law'. Twice I had done NOTHING, but that didn't stop them from treating me like a piece of crap on their shoe. Both times I was with a group of people and ONE person had done something wrong. The other two times I was stopped for speeding. Both of those cops were respectful.
One time I slid off the road in snow and had to have my car pulled out of the ditch with a winch. A police report had to be filed. I hit no one else. I didn't damage any personal property. I hadn't been speeding. I was completely sober. The police show up to file the report... about half way through they start ripping into me like I had done something wrong and start mentioning that they may ticket me. For what? For sliding in snow?
Last summer I stopped to help a woman after she had an accident. She hit a tree. Her car bounced back into the road and wouldn't move. She was blocking the road and had not hit another car. My friend and I tried to help her move the car off to the side of the road. When the police showed up, we were treated like criminals.... for trying to help her.
I worked in a bar for years. Every month I saw two cops come in and take bribes from the owner.
When I was a teenager, some friends and I would pitch a tent in the backyard and stay out in the yard all night. We didn't cause trouble. We simply enjoyed being outside all night once in a while. One summer night we had two cops come up to our tent and order us out. At that point they wanted to take us to the police station because we "might be runaways". Huh? So ended our nights out in the tent.
Clearly though, I'm wary of cops for 'no good reason'.
There are good ones, I believe that. However, a lot of cops are simply people on power trips.
Were they fully aware that only one person had done wrong? Were you fully aware that this one person did wrong? Did you withhold information or lie?
Hypthetically you could be cited for care required, too fast for conditions (different than violated the posted speed limit), failure to maintain control, etc.
How were you treated like criminals?
Did you turn them in?
This was on your property? Where were your parents?
Yes, they were fully aware. In the first incident, the guy that caused the problem ran (not from the cops, from the owner of the house whose window he broke). The owner grabbed my other two friends so I took off after the guilty guy to catch him to help my friends. I did catch him and told him he was either going to the police to tell the truth or I was going to hurt him (I was 16). We started walking towards the police station when a car with my other friends spotted us. We walked directly towards the car, no resistance. At the station, I started to explain what happened. I was cut off with ,"Shut up Pinnoccio! I don't care to hear your lies! You're all being charged with attempted murder and resisting arrest." I'm sure you can imagine how the next few hours went once our parents got involved. The guilty guy was saying the entire time, "I did it. They had nothing to do with it. They didn't know I was going to do it." Didn't stop the cop from treating the other five of us poorly. His attitude changed very fast as soon as all of our parents showed up.
I know how teenagers can be. Honestly, we were being respectful and clear to him.
The second time was similar. We were with a guy that just walked by a car and ripped the antenna off. My friend Tom and I turned and immediately said, "WTF is wrong with you?" He tried to run and WE STOPPED HIM and made him wait for the cops. That cop was nicer than the last one but still treated us poorly for the first part of the experience.
For the snow: I thought of the 'too fast for conditions'. I was on a highway with a 55mph speed limit. It has snowed the day before. I was holding steady between 45 and 50mph. It was bright and sunny. As I crossed the county line, the conditions became much worse as the road hadn't been plowed in this county. Rather than hit the brakes, I started coasting down to a slower speed. A few seconds later, a car pulled into my lane ahead of me and hit his brakes to make a sudden u-turn. I had to hit my brakes and I lost traction.
The police seemed to assume one of us was driving the car instead of the woman/girl. Nevermind that she said, "it's my boyfriend's car and I was driving and these two stopped to help me.", they wanted to see if we had been drinking and how we wrecked the car.
Did I turn in the cops? No. Who would I tell? The police? It was a small city/town. I'm not that stupid.
The tent was on my friend tom's grandmother's property. It was a lot next to her house that she owned. Tom's relatives were asleep in the house and had full knowledge of us outside. In fact, we had a key so that we could go inside if we desired.