[Wmcmanus]

Just got a ticket in my own driveway! I live off a street with a 25mph speed limit that really should be 40. We've been complaining about it for years, but it never goes anywhere.

So as I'm driving home tonight and turn around the last bend there they are right in front of me pulled off on my side of the road but pointing the other way. I figured they were shooting the gun at the cars coming toward them but apparently they have radar in the rear of the car that picked me up at 42.

This is right where I turn off the main road and into my driveway (I'm the 2nd house on the street). They pulled in right behind me a wrote me the ticket. After explaining that I lived at this house, they started in about how I should be appreciative that they're monitoring this road, and what if I had a kid that ran out in the road, etc. I told them that I don't have any kids but if I did they would have enough sense not to be playing in traffic. The guy kept going on and on, so I told him to just write me the ticket and quit all of his bitching.

Now they both jump out of the car and the guy in the passenger's side is reaching for his handcuffs, saying how I'm using curse words and that they can arrest me for this. I'm saying, "Relax already... what curse words did I use? Bitching? That's not a curse word." So this goes on for 3 or 4 tense minutes as I'm saying, "Ok, I'm fine. I won't say another word. You can say all you want to." This seemed to relax them, and they soon settled back into the car, the ticket writing business, and all sorts of bitching about how many 25 mph signs are posted along the road and that I should know the speed limit if I live in the neighborhood, etc. The guy just wouldn't shut up about it.

As promised, I didn't say another word but then quickly crumpled up the ticket and tossed it on the ground without looking at it the minute he handed it to me (along with my driver's license, which I put back into my wallet). Then I turned without making eye contract, went to the front door, put the key in, and walked inside the house, leaving them in their car at the end of my driveway, apparently dumbfounded.

The next thing you know they're knocking on my door and telling me to open it up and blabbering on about how I'm disrespecting them. I told them, "You gave me the ticket. I can do anything I want with it. It's in my yard so I haven't littered. You have no further business with me. Now get off of my property. Giving me a ticket on my own driveway when you could have just as easily cut me a break isn't exactly showing me respect. What makes you think I owe you anything more?"

Then I let them blabber on and on some more as they stood on my porch and pounded on the door. I just kept repeating the same things to them. "You gave me the ticket. I can do what I want with it. You have no further business with me. No, I'm not going to open my door. You're not invited in and I don't want to come out. Please get off of my property."

Eventually they got tired of hearing themselves talk, so they left. I hope that's the end of it, but we'll see.

 

[Duggeh]

Bored cops trying to make quota. Does your local police force have "targets"?

Were you driving the Atom?

 

[uraflit]

o god. getting into a bit of a tussle there i see...

i dunno if its a smart thing to piss off cops who know exactly where you live, but taking bullsh!t from cops is something i wouldnt want to happen neither.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Bored cops trying to make quota. Does your local police force have "targets"? Were you driving the Atom?

No targets that I know of. Bored, I suppose. Boring is more like it. Why do they insist on adding insult to injury by going on and on about speeding and if a kid runs into the road and how it causes accidents, makes the US dollar weaker, leads to impotency and baldness, etc. Just write me the ticket and then leave me alone again until the next time. Yes, I respect your uniform. About as much as I respect a Burger King uniform.

No, it wasn't the Atom. I'm in Cayman at the moment. The Atom is in the States. It was my Pontiac G6 hardtop convertible. Nice car for Island life, but maybe I should slow down a bit.

 

[bhd812]

LOL John Wayne style!

Why don't you have a k40/valentine? it could of saved u a bit of grief knowing which way they were pointing the gun.

I could see this happening how you stated it. you were smart about not opening the door, warrant is needed only when door is locked (or an extreme case of something bad). if you would of opened the door you butt would of been in some trouble..

 

[plaidplatypus]

At least you didn't get strip searched and put in jail. That happend to my roommate after he told the Security Forces Airman that his ticket was Bull$#^*. I've been pulled over by them on a couple occasions myself the first time for not using my blinker and the second time I drove in a circle and was pulled over to be asked if I was lost.

 

[DevilDog]

Wow, this is not like you at all. You are a very quiet person, I would never have thought you would have done anything like this. I guess it just shows how disrespectful the cops must have been for you to act this way.

 

[colonelkernel8]

Maybe an ego problem? I don't see why you could not have just cooperated. They were doing their job, I think 17 mph over the limit is pretty substantial.

 

[amphead]

Hey Wmcmanus, sorry to hear that man. You should have said "Don't taze me bro!" he he........Wow I am surprised that everyone doesn't know each other on the island you are on.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhd812 /img/forum/go_quote.gif if you would of opened the door you butt would of been in some trouble..

Not really. It would have made things easier in a lot of ways because they would have settled down a bit. The whole thing that bothered them so much was the disrespect, but I kept asking them (through the door): "What have you done to earn my respect? Am I supposed to come out there and look you in the eye and say I'm sorry? Well, sorry because I'm not sorry. Just go away."

So the guy from the passenger side, who seems much less upset about the "respect" thing than the other guy who was doing all of the blabbering while he was writing the ticket, now wants to make peace. He asks me, "What did we do to you that wasn't respectful?" So I told him (through the door, which he could see inside of because of the window glass), "Listen... you both had the chance to deal with me in a reasonable way. You could have cut me a break and earned my respect. But instead you wrote the ticket, and worse yet, your friend there blabbered on and on like I'm some sort of kid. Then you didn't allow me to say what I had to say and threatened me with handcuffs. You insulted me on my own property. Think about how that would feel."

Then he said, "We didn't do anything wrong. We just gave you a ticket for what you did wrong. You need to open the door and apologize." At that point, I said, "No, you need to get off of my property. You're still not willing to listen to me. If anything, you owe me an apology. I've got nothing else to say." Then they finally left.

Once I was inside the house, I wasn't nervous at all and there was no way I was going back outside because there was no reason to. They had given me the ticket and that should have been the end of it.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by colonelkernel8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe an ego problem? I don't see why you could not have just cooperated. They were doing their job, I think 17 mph over the limit is pretty substantial.

Maybe. I've got an ego just like anyone else does. I deserved the ticket even though it's an obvious speed trap and there's no way that 25 mph is even in the slightest degree reasonable for that road. But it is what it is and I should drive 25 there even if nobody else ever does. The problem wasn't the ticket but all of the blabbering nonsense that went with it when the guy was writing the ticket. It's not something that anyone should have to put up with, let alone on his own property.

 

[SonicArmada]

I really don't see your point. Since when do police give "breaks", especially when someone is driving that much over the speed limit?

 

[XGJFilmsX]

thats awsome
hahaha
i love cops

 

[skudmunky]

just something that caught my eye reading this...

"You could have cut me a break and earned my respect. But instead you wrote the ticket, and worse yet, your friend there blabbered on and on like I'm some sort of kid."

why would you respect them for cutting you a break? they shouldn't need to /bend/ the rules for you to gain your respect.

while it may have been anal of them (and since I wasn't there I'm not gunna voice a personal opinion one way or another), it is there job to enforce the speed limit, even if it is stupid.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SonicArmada /img/forum/go_quote.gif I really don't see your point. Since when do police give "breaks", especially when someone is driving that much over the speed limit?

They do it all the time here. Depends on if they know you or not, and they usually do. It's quite a small place. I didn't ask them for a break, just told them that this is where I live. I guess you would need to get a ticket right in front of your own house on your way back from a busy day to understand. It may not be rational but a man's home is his sanctuary and the last place he wants to be listening to some idiot babble on. Just write me the ticket and leave me alone. I didn't ask for a break but I didn't ask to be verbally chastised ad nauseum either.