To Protect and to Serve II

#5,878
#5,878
orangeblood79 said:
Sigh...

So last night, myself and another officer split the cost of a room for two guys who had been stranded in our town. Reason we we there in the first place was that one of them had allegedly threatened suicide to family members. He denied everything, so did his friend who was with him. I questioned both of them for 30 minutes to ensure the guy wasn't lying and hadn't just ingested an entire bottle of pills, like we were told.

He had enough (legal) prescription medication for three people (mental health, etc). They had both just gotten out of rehab. They had no cell phones, no ride (they had been ditched after paying $30 by another guy who had gotten out of rehab with them)...I believed what they were telling us to be the truth.

All they said they wanted was to get home to see their kids (75 miles away for the both of them). Best we could do was put them up for the night and let them keep what little money they had for an Uber or Lyft...because the guy who had allegedly threatened suicide had apparently burned enough bridges with his wife and family that no one was picking him up. He was obviously upset when we called his wife and she told me that she wasn't going to pick him up.

We give both of them the speech..."get right with your family, do what needs to be done, stop f***ing around with meth, heroin, and a**holes who enable that behavior....wish you the best...don't want to see you again..." etc. etc.

As soon as we leave dude calls his wife from the room and begins a shouting match over the phone. So loud that the other guy steps out of the room and still plainly hears everything with the door shut. It gets quiet, he goes back inside...dude had taken 4 bottles of his meds. He's alive, but barely.

Meanwhile, I'm hooking a dude up across town for beating the sh** out of his wife and daughter when the call comes out, in the room we put them in, of an unresponsive male who'd taken several bottles of pills.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we deal with on a daily basis. I'm not afraid to admit that it f'd me up for a bit, but I still had 5 hours on shift and I went back to work. Had to. I was still able to talk with the guy I had arrested in a way that he actually thanked me for being courteous to him and his son, who showed up as he was being placed in my back seat.

We have some turds of our own that give the rest of us bad names but, contrary to what you might believe, there are more good than bad.
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I believe it.
 
#5,879
#5,879
Regardless of our personal feelings towards law enforcement in general, I'd hope we could all agree that drivers which are issued a citation for impeding the path of an emergency vehicle deserve to pay every penny of that ticket.

Saw an EMS ambulance with siren and lights going full blast get stuck behind two vehicles pacing each other in the left and center lanes this morning. Every other vehicle moved out of the way except those two retards who continued plodding along like nothing was happening.

Three lane highway mind you, so there was plenty of room to get the **** out of the way. As luck would have it, two motorcycle cops saw the whole thing and pulled them over after the ambulance had to go all the way into the far right lane to pass.

Sorry if this triggers someone, but fire and EMS need to be given the right of way whenever possible.
 
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#5,880
#5,880
Grand Vol said:
Regardless of our personal feelings towards law enforcement in general, I'd hope we could all agree that drivers which are issued a citation for impeding the path of an emergency vehicle deserve to pay every penny of that ticket.

Saw an EMS ambulance with siren and lights going full blast get stuck behind two vehicles pacing each other in the left and center lanes this morning. Every other vehicle moved out of the way except those two retards who continued plodding along like nothing was happening.

Three lane highway mind you, so there was plenty of room to get the **** out of the way. As luck would have it, two motorcycle cops saw the whole thing and pulled them over after the ambulance had to go all the way into the far right lane to pass.

Sorry if this triggers someone, but fire and EMS need to be given the right of way whenever possible.
Click to expand...

I've got mixed feelings on this because it does deal with a base, human emotion I have of wanting to see these people that impede traffic given some sort of punishment. However at the same time, I don't think a ticket/citation is warranted, either. There were a few people cheering not too long ago about a slow driver getting a ticket for driving in the passing lane and holding up traffic and the event you saw this morning is just a step above that where they are actually impeding emergency vehicles.

I get it. They are either being a-holes or (likely) just unaware of their surrounds and the situation while they are driving. On an emotional level, I understand. These drivers piss me off too.

But, I don't think they deserve a ticket/fine or any type of punitive action. If Erik Estrada and the gang want to pullover the two of them and give them a good lesson about the rules of the road, I guess that is OK, but I'm not really a big fan of getting lectured to by LEOs that are guilty of abusing the blue lights they turn on just to race through traffic right before lunch or time to leave work.

Believe me... I understand. It pizzes me off, also.
 
#5,881
#5,881
Rasputin_Vol said:
I've got mixed feelings on this because it does deal with a base, human emotion I have of wanting to see these people that impede traffic given some sort of punishment. However at the same time, I don't think a ticket/citation is warranted, either. There were a few people cheering not too long ago about a slow driver getting a ticket for driving in the passing lane and holding up traffic and the event you saw this morning is just a step above that where they are actually impeding emergency vehicles.

I get it. They are either being a-holes or (likely) just unaware of their surrounds and the situation while they are driving. On an emotional level, I understand. These drivers piss me off too.

But, I don't think they deserve a ticket/fine or any type of punitive action. If Erik Estrada and the gang want to pullover the two of them and give them a good lesson about the rules of the road, I guess that is OK, but I'm not really a big fan of getting lectured to by LEOs that are guilty of abusing the blue lights they turn on just to race through traffic right before lunch or time to leave work.

Believe me... I understand. It pizzes me off, also.
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I think it's two entirely different situations when we are talking Granny in in the left lane blocking the normal flow of traffic versus knucklehead blocking an ambulance or fire truck.

One is an annoyance. The other has life ending ramifications if they are delayed too long.
 
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#5,882
#5,882
Grand Vol said:
I think it's two entirely different situations when we are talking Granny in in the left lane blocking the normal flow of traffic versus knucklehead blocking an ambulance or fire truck.

One is an annoyance. The other has life ending ramifications if they are delayed too long.
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This. I cant even imagine wanting to try to justify it not being unlawful.

Pull them over and issue a ticket. Dont risk someone's life because you're simply an *******.
 
#5,883
#5,883
I just can't imagine what kind of dick you'd have to be to impede an ambulance. But, if you feel the need to do so, Karma is a *****.
 
#5,884
#5,884
These are the people that make policemen very happy... Call the police over trivial matters and let them get an opportunity to bring justice to these mean streets.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC-iNIAs0fw[/youtube]
 
#5,885
#5,885
Rasputin_Vol said:
These are the people that make policemen very happy... Call the police over trivial matters and let them get an opportunity to bring justice to these mean streets.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC-iNIAs0fw[/youtube]
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That's pretty petty.

Not sue the cops would really "bring justice" though.

Must be a slow news day for you.
 
#5,887
#5,887
This cop is the man and this is some of the funniest **** I've ever seen

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD-Jq_kbPR4[/youtube]
 
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#5,889
#5,889
Rasputin_Vol said:
These are the people that make policemen very happy... Call the police over trivial matters and let them get an opportunity to bring justice to these mean streets.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC-iNIAs0fw[/youtube]
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I'm surprised no one told that clown to stfu and sit down....how big of a poonish ass do you have to be to act like that?
 
#5,891
#5,891
Rasputin_Vol said:
Blind man charged with aggravated assault...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnmnMq25-Ho[/youtube]
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Here's my interpretation.... cop is pissing... blind guy accidentally reaches out and touches him.... cop thinks some bathroom freak is trying to feel him up....takes him down.... then INSTEAD of letting it go and apologizing while helping him up.... becomes a true prick and arrests him.
 
#5,894
#5,894
In worked EMS for 3 years and was amazed at the frequency we’d be stuck behind some clown for 1-2 minutes before they realized we were behind them with lights and sirens and blasting the air horn. I could always tell the moment they realized we were there cause they would abruptly jerk the whell and move over. Luckily it never happened but it almost lead to an accident dozens of times. Once that happened and the lady just slammed on her brakes when she finally noticed us. It was a miracle we didn’t rear end her.

People do the craziest stuff when they see an ambulance behind them. Luckily due to my stations proximity to the 3 big hospitals in Chattanooga, I rarely ever had to run hot on the interstate.
 
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#5,895
#5,895
Cdywolfe said:
In worked EMS for 3 years and was amazed at the frequency we’d be stuck behind some clown for 1-2 minutes before they realized we were behind them with lights and sirens and blasting the air horn. I could always tell the moment they realized we were there cause they would abruptly jerk the whell and move over. Luckily it never happened but it almost lead to an accident dozens of times. Once that happened and the lady just slammed on her brakes when she finally noticed us. It was a miracle we didn’t rear end her.

People do the craziest stuff when they see an ambulance behind them. Luckily due to my stations proximity to the 3 big hospitals in Chattanooga, I rarely ever had to run hot on the interstate.
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I guess that is where I am coming from. Unfortunately, you just have some people that may not be aware at the moment that an emergency vehicle is behind them. I think it is very rare that you would have a situation where a driver is being a "jerk" and maliciously trying to slow them down.
 
#5,896
#5,896
Rasputin_Vol said:
I guess that is where I am coming from. Unfortunately, you just have some people that may not be aware at the moment that an emergency vehicle is behind them. I think it is very rare that you would have a situation where a driver is being a "jerk" and maliciously trying to slow them down.
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Yeah I always thought they were idiots but never really felt they needed punishment from the law.
 
#5,897
#5,897
Rasputin_Vol said:
I guess that is where I am coming from. Unfortunately, you just have some people that may not be aware at the moment that an emergency vehicle is behind them. I think it is very rare that you would have a situation where a driver is being a "jerk" and maliciously trying to slow them down.
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Anyone who has been driving long enough has inevitably been caught off guard by something that you should have been paying attention to--doesn't mean everyone who does deserves a ticket.

However, being caught off guard by a vehicle designed to catch your attention with bright blue/red/orange lights and a siren for anything longer than about 5 seconds is inexcusable to me.

For example, when my youngest daughter was being raced to Vanderbilt Children's hospital, on death's door, and we got caught behind a few cars, just for a couple of seconds, they seemed to last HOURS not seconds. My 4 day old daughter's life was literally hanging on my a thread, and the vehicle transporting her was getting held up by a few people who simply weren't paying attention.

Same thing goes for police, regardless of your disliking of my profession. We're literally trying to get to a scene where someone's life is in danger, traveling at speeds that are lethal should someone, not paying attention, pull out in front of us or change lanes or...not move.

Forget about the police giving a stern talking to just for the sake of getting in our way, that's beyond annoying, I assure you, but we're MOST concerned about the people at the scene that we're racing towards.

Should everyone be cited? No. Absolutely not. Every situation is different and should be treated as such. However, in an emergency situation, seconds matter. They definitely did for my daughter. That's what I think about when I'm running emergency traffic (lights and sirens). Police officers can't truly assess a situation until they arrive on scene, therefore we have to treat those situations as if seconds are the meaning between life and death. And someone who blatantly, regardless of intent, impedes our ability to arrive safely deserves some sort of repercussions. Not all the time but, definitely some of the time.
 
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#5,898
#5,898
orangeblood79 said:
Anyone who has been driving long enough has inevitably been caught off guard by something that you should have been paying attention to--doesn't mean everyone who does deserves a ticket.

However, being caught off guard by a vehicle designed to catch your attention with bright blue/red/orange lights and a siren for anything longer than about 5 seconds is inexcusable to me.

For example, when my youngest daughter was being raced to Vanderbilt Children's hospital, on death's door, and we got caught behind a few cars, just for a couple of seconds, they seemed to last HOURS not seconds. My 4 day old daughter's life was literally hanging on my a thread, and the vehicle transporting her was getting held up by a few people who simply weren't paying attention.

Same thing goes for police, regardless of your disliking of my profession. We're literally trying to get to a scene where someone's life is in danger, traveling at speeds that are lethal should someone, not paying attention, pull out in front of us or change lanes or...not move.

Forget about the police giving a stern talking to just for the sake of getting in our way, that's beyond annoying, I assure you, but we're MOST concerned about the people at the scene that we're racing towards.

Should everyone be cited? No. Absolutely not. Every situation is different and should be treated as such. However, in an emergency situation, seconds matter. They definitely did for my daughter. That's what I think about when I'm running emergency traffic (lights and sirens). Police officers can't truly assess a situation until they arrive on scene, therefore we have to treat those situations as if seconds are the meaning between life and death. And someone who blatantly, regardless of intent, impedes our ability to arrive safely deserves some sort of repercussions. Not all the time but, definitely some of the time.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. And i say that as an absent minded driver. I have passed my exit on the interstate and had to turn around because I was in deep thought, about work, home, whatever. It's scary how much of the time I am driving that i am on autopilot on the interstate...as long as i stay in my lane and don't run into the back of the person in front of me...then every thing is seemingly OK..but holding up an ambulance is something i could see myself doing on autopilot...
 
#5,899
#5,899
To the officers out there... in retrospect, was this a worthy traffic stop? How much time, energy and effort was wasted in this traffic stop? What was the goal here? Was public safety in jeopardy simply because her license plate was blocked?

It these kinds of petty, intrusive, nit-picky interactions that people have with cops that makes them hate cops.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbaUyY1Pwi0[/youtube]
 
#5,900
#5,900
Rasputin_Vol said:
To the officers out there... in retrospect, was this a worthy traffic stop? How much time, energy and effort was wasted in this traffic stop? What was the goal here? Was public safety in jeopardy simply because her license plate was blocked?

It these kinds of petty, intrusive, nit-picky interactions that people have with cops that makes them hate cops.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbaUyY1Pwi0[/youtube]
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Possible fictious tags, expired VL, stolen vehicle, unauthorized use of a vehicle, bolo for a vehicle, drug interdiction. Just to name a few reasons why a LEO needs to be able to read a license tag.

On a side not, I didn’t watch the video. Just answered your question on why an officer might make the traffic stop.
 
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