How Do the Police Operate Where You Live?

I ask because I'm still butt-hurt and annoyed about what happened to a friend and me a couple of nights ago.

He and I had gone downtown to an engagement party (opportunity for derail: how do you feel about engagement parties?) and on the way home we got pulled over. His registration tags for his vehicle were expired and that was the police officer's grounds for pulling him over. I don't know how vehicles are treated where you live, but in Boise, Idaho motorists are expected to pay a fee to renew their tags every year. My buddy is very meticulous and organized so all of his documentation was up-to-date; he even had up-to-date registration tags in his glove box.

The officer required him to produce current licensing and proof-of-insurance (motorists are required to maintain insurance for liability at a minimum), both of which he had. The police officer also asked him if he had been drinking that evening because intoxicated drinking carries with it stiff penalties and generates a lot of income for the government. My buddy had had two beers three hours previous. He had been drinking water and lemonade over dinner for the past couple of hours.

Then the police officer turns to me, asking if I've been drinking that evening. I responded in the affirmative because I had consumed two beers over dinner and then the officer asks to see my license. My buddy asks why the police officer needs to see my license. He doesn't answer. I press the issue and insisting that the question is a legitimate one, I repeat it. People who consume alcohol must produce proof of age upon request. That is a legitimate enough reason. I produce my license, the officer runs it through his computer to see if there are any arrest warrants outstanding for my buddy or me. When he returns, he subjects my buddy to approximately ten seconds of field sobriety tests. He passes, we're released, and we go on our merry way.

I'm curious, are the police in your area guided by similar principles?
Do they use trivial offenses to investigate people who are not actively or deliberately committing any crimes in hopes of fining them for more legitimate offenses?

I'm still pretty frustrated because apart from being in a coma, I cannot possibly mind my business any more than being the sober passenger of a sober driver.

 

In response to engagement parities, I think they're a load of bull. Why bother when most people have hen and stag/buck do's anyway? Just my opinion, but I really don't see the point.

In response to the police, I can't really comment because I've never been in a bad or annoying situation with the police. However I do see a lot of them on the street and yet since I've lived here I heard stories in a newspaper of how in a nearby area a mother was found dead in a bin and a couple killed a child under a four. I realise sensibly police were helpless to counteract these crimes, but still if they're often aimlessly wandering the streets it's hard to feel something more couldn't have been done - even if that's just the reactionary response you'd expect whilst reading a sensationalist newspaper headline from your average member of the ignorant masses.

As a side note the "chief of police" or whatever the english equivalent was in my home town used to ride around on a bicycle with the blue strobe light on his head because he had a heart attack and that's a way the doctor suggested he should get fitter. I never thought there was a more inept example of a policeman than him.

I say "in a nearby area" as I don't fully trust Smuel or HWLFP to track me down and eat my skin. Especially Smuel, he gives that "skin-eater" vibe.

 

I think he was just being thorough - though I've encountered plenty of dick cops myself.

I was pulled over just last year because I forgot to turn on my headlights after leaving a convenience store. I was then given a field sobriety test because the officers thought I was drunk or otherwise intoxicated, when really he was seeing symptoms of autism.

 

I had no idea that so many of you guys are black.

 

I agree he was being thorough and to his credit, he was not rude about anything, but he was acting off of practically no suspicion. Our suspicious behavior consisted of coming from the downtown area at approximately 11:30 PM on a Saturday. The excuse to investigate us was some expired tags.

I understand the police officer's perspective. If you have a lead to help you make a score, then go for it. However, at some point I think it was appropriate to realize that this is a bad lead and he should cut his losses and do something meaningful with my taxes.

Also, there is no colored population in Boise to speak of. If their were, this would be somebody else's post under even more ridiculous circumstances.

 

Ha. DWB.

That's unfortunately up to the officer to decide. He could just as easily say being anal is a good use of taxpayer money, and who are you to question a certified police officer? I even went so far as to tell the officer who pulled me over that I had a beer 3 hours prior, and what he was describing regarding my body language were symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. He called in another police officer so they both could watch me do the field sobriety test.

The thing about any job is you've got "customers," and the customers should be satisfied with the service - not annoyed. I like a thorough employee helping me get the right tools for my purpose and budget at Home Depot; I don't like if that employee rings things up that I don't need on the grounds that he's working for the store, especially when he could've been helping other customers who need him more than I do.

 

I keep forgetting that you're not the one who lives in Turkey.

 

Queensland cops are:-

Textbook examples of organised criminals, see 'The Fitzgerald Inquiry'.

Stupid, illiterate and often moustachioed.

Rednecks questing to save the world from hippies and fagts.

I have often been pulled up and questioned. Why, I ask. You look like someone we're after, they answer, meaning I look like the kind of person they like to harrass.

They operate like little, stupid, corrupt fascists, of course. The exceptions are surprising and only serve to prove the rule.

 

Don't know about you gentlemen but me, I always loved that saying. Something doesn't follow the rule, therefore the rule not only isn't proved to be faulty, it is now conisidered more correct than before something was known to go against it. Go logic.