In another forum, a discussion about the most recent police killing of another "oops, wrong address" homeowner inspired a member to relate his deep distrust of police by describing an encounter suffered by his girlfriend.....I responded with "my encounter" below.....and thought it might make for a good thread. What's yours?
My most recent encounter with a police officer was not but 4 days ago. I got pulled over for speeding (was doing 40 in a 30 zone, I thought it was 35 soo...meh). I saw him coming too, he swerved right around from his little parking spot and came up right behind me and it took about 15 seconds before he turned his lights on. I pulled over right away. I was actually on my way to work to make some copies on my day off and my job is only a mile and a half away from home. He comes sauntering up, "Do you know what the speed limit is here?" "35?" I said meekly. He says, "Doesn't turn 35 until you hit that light," he points to the light straight ahead of me. He asked for my license and my proof of insurance and immediately I am like, ooohhhh (*)(*)(*)(*) me, in my head of course. Left my purse at home which has my license in it and I just bought new car insurance a week before and they hadn't sent me my cards yet. I told him so and he just said ok and walked back to his vehicle. He was running my plates and all that good stuff I suppose. He comes back, "Miss did you receive any notices from the DMV about your car insurance?" I said, "Yes, they sent me a notice that I didn't have any so I purchased new car insurance right away, that's why I don't have my cards yet." Then he went on to explain to me that technically my vehicle is not supposed to be on the road while these notices are out on my plates and such, I just politely apologized and told him I didn't realize that. He went back to his car. Another 5 minutes passes and he comes back with a partially filled out form and says, "Well I am going to give you a break today, you're lucky I am not a traffic cop otherwise this would have been full and I pulled you over for speeding," he pointed to the page, "You just need to provide proof of your license and insurance to the court here, which isn't far from here just up the road so you can probably go on your day off from work or something." He hands it to me and I thank him and he lets me go. Well I went into work and printed out copies of my insurance which I am kicking myself for not doing sooner. As soon as I got home I called the number on the back of the ticket to see if I could provide my proofs of insurance and license asap. The guy on the line told me the officer needed at least 5-7 days to put the ticket number into the system. lol I was like, c'mon man, I'm trying to be responsible and quick about this. I have no idea if they are going to charge me anything for not having proofs of insurance and license, the officer didn't write anything out on the ticket cost lines, I sure hope not though because I am trying to get out of debt, not back into more of it! Anyways, the very few times I have dealt with police officers it has been pretty uneventful. I've never been arrested or spent time in jail, guess that's the perk of being a blonde, white, woman with an extremely cooperative attitude.
I was tazed in my PJ's for not removing my Occupy protesting tent from public land by a girl cop once.
