I fought the law and the law…. Lost!

[Crai]

Many moons ago in TN I was driving down the highway in the center lane. It was night, it was raining, I had a semi on my left and one ridding my bumper. As I passed an on ramp I put my right blinker on to merge into the right lane and take the next exit about 2 miles farther down the road. As I go to merge over I see in my mirror a set of headlight and the high beams are on. They are even with my right rear quarter panel. I speed up to try and cut over but they speed up to. (Keep in mind I have the turn signal on) I speed up again they speed up again. My exit is fast approaching and I am about to miss it. If I miss it I get to drive 20 miles out of my way. So I punch it and cut over and start down the off ramp. ….

That’s when the blue lights come on.

So I pull over and this cop walks up to my passenger side window. I lean over and roll it down. She bends down and sees my dog sitting in the front seat. (A Small Jack Russel named Daisy Mae) She puts her hand on her gun and unsnaps the retention strap and then says “Your dog ant gona bite me is it” I promptly inform her I am a CCW holder and Armed and shooting my dog would end badly for her.

(A week earlier the police had pulled a family over Mom Dad 2 young kids and one of the officers used a shot gun on the family dog they ended up paying a lot of money and several people were fired)

She snaps her retention strap and asks me if I knew why she pulled me over. I told her “Yes Entrapment here is my info go write the ticket and I would see her in court” She comes back hands me the ticket and my cards back and I drive off.

Court: So I took the day off work to contest the ticket. Most times when you do this you end up with a lesser fine or court costs. When I arrived I ran into an old friend I had lost touch with. Turns out they were working as the judge’s assistant. I tell her what happened and she described the cop to me. I asked her how she knew who it was and she informs me that this Cop pulls that stunt all the time. It’s how she makes her quota. So Court starts and anyone that has been in traffic court knows it’s a wasted day lol. I expected to be there for a good while. Somehow (Wink) My case gets bumped to the front of the line.

I Stand before the Judge and told her what had happened and why I was contesting the ticket. The Cop stands before the Judge and blows smoke about how I had plenty of room to move over and she was just clocking me. After a few minutes of this the Judge tells her to be quite. She looks at me and says "dismissed no court costs or fines have a nice day." (I was shocked I expected at least a court cost) Then the Judge did one better she told everyone that was there with a traffic ticket from that cop to stand up. A good 20 people stood up. The Judge then says your cases are dismissed pay the court fee have a nice day.

She looks at the Cop and says “I am going to do that every time you are in my court room till you decide to not break the law. You better find another way to give tickets or you’re going to end up on the end of my gavel”

My Faith in the Justice system was restored.

[Nunavut Pants]

Nice!

Something similar happened to me once--in Federal court! Did you know you would wind up in Federal court for breaking California vehicle laws if you speed on a Federal base in CA? I didn't.

Turned out the rent-a-cops they had on base (complicated; the base was "closed" but not really) had been quite over-zealous handing out traffic tickets, so the D.A. dismissed every case. There were over 30 of us that day for tickets. Most of them were either BS or were inflated--mine was the latter; I had been a little over the limit but not almost double it as the ticket claimed.

The judge did not dress the issuing officers down; I assume that happened elsewhere. Because they were much less zealous issuing tickets after that.

[MadMike]

A cop did something like that to my brother once, ages ago. We went on an errand, and on our way back, a car came up behind us and started riding our tail. So my brother speeded up, and the car behind him did the same. So my brother speeded up some more, and car behind him did the same. Next thing we know, we see red and blue lights flashing behind us. It was dark at that point, so we couldn't see that it was a cop before.

Considering that this happened in a rural area, just outside of a town of maybe 200 people, I'd say that was a stroke of bad luck. That area is so empty, they don't even have their own police force. The closest police station is the state police about 20 miles away. But this particular cop was known for patrolling that area looking for people to bust, and he was also known for being a complete and total prick.

My brother never took it to court, although I told him he should, since that seemed like a clear case of entrapment. He just paid the ticket. He was worried about how my stepdad would react, but when my mom told him about it, his reaction was, "How can I yell at him? I would have done the same thing!"

[prjkt]

Someone riding up my tail? I'd have slowed down to a "safe" night driving speed

[Crai]

Someone riding up my tail? I'd have slowed down to a "safe" night driving speed

On that stretch of road its locally called Kill-ya-Highway, The Semi's do not stop or slow down. if I had hit my breaks I would have had a semi drive over my little crap Toyota at the time. Id be a much flatter Crai lol. The Cop knew this and pulling over a rig is more of a pain than cars. So she would drop down the on ramp lock someone in the middle lane and just wait.

[Geek King]

Heh. Here in Ohio-land, many years ago, the speed limit dropped to 55 on a short stretch of I-75 outside of Middletown. The local officers wrote a great many tickets there until the judge in Middletown had enough and started only fining the absolute minimum--$5, no court costs.

Funnily enough, when the town council started to see the budget go to hell from having to pay to have the court open with piddly income from the tickets, the speed limit got raised back to match the surrounding area.

[Rosco the Iroc]

Many moons ago in TN I was driving down the highway/snip/ I speed up to try and cut over but they speed up to. (Keep in mind I have the turn signal on) I speed up again they speed up again. /snip/ So I punch it and cut over and start down the off ramp. ….

That’s when the blue lights come on.

So I pull over and this cop walks up to my passenger side window. I lean over and roll it down. She bends down and sees my dog sitting in the front seat. (A Small Jack Russel named Daisy Mae) She puts her hand on her gun and unsnaps the retention strap and then says “Your dog ant gona bite me is it” I promptly inform her I am a CCW holder and Armed and shooting my dog would end badly for her./snip/.

OK let me get this straight, she made you speed and cut her off in a attempt to give a ticket BUT did not say anything when you threatened her with a gun?

[AccountingDrone]

Someone riding up my tail? I'd have slowed down to a "safe" night driving speed

I did that on CT Rt 6 back when I was working for ADT in the late 90s. I was wandering home at about 3 am [odd swing shift] and was going towards Wilimantic and lights popped in my rear view mirror. I had it on cruise control at the speed limit. Car started riding my bumper so I tapped it one tick slower. Lather rinse repeat until I am going 15 below speed limit, so I kick on my flashers per law. Keeps riding my bumper so I keep slowing down until the blue lights come on. I pull over, and this baby lawman starts hassling me, so I tell him that I had no idea who was riding my bumper, I simply kept slowing down to try and maintain a safe distance between us in case I needed to slam on my brakes due to wildlife in the road. His trainer who was riding along and listening to this yahoo basically squashed him and told him that I had done nothing wrong, he was trying to bait me into speeding up so he could give me a ticket.

[Jay 2K Winger]

My sister once got a ticket thrown out.

She was in high school at the time, and borrowing what was Mom's car for the day. After school, she and some friends were heading out to do whatever, when the car ahead of them stopped suddenly at an intersection. She managed to avoid hitting them.

The car behind her did not. And that impact pushed her car into the car in front.

When the cop showed up, he wrote my sister a ticket and pronounced her at fault for the whole thing. Apparently (though note I wasn't there and all this is per Sis' account) because she was a teenager and the other drivers weren't, so OBVIOUSLY she did something wrong, right?

Mom and Dad had Sis go to court to contest the ticket. Accident is recounted, the judge asks the cop if he witnessed the accident. When the cop said he hadn't, the judge threw out the case and Sis didn't have to pay anything.

[Crai]

OK let me get this straight, she made you speed and cut her off in a attempt to give a ticket BUT did not say anything when you threatened her with a gun?

It was not a "I'm going to shoot you threat" it was

"I promptly inform her I am a CCW holder and Armed and shooting my dog would end badly for her."

In Tn when pulled over you must inform the officer that you are a CCW holder if you are armed.

So By LAW I was obeying. The fact I also informed her she would have a bad life for shooting my dog in the same breath can be dismissed in court. She knew she was in the wrong for the entrapment, then acting like she is about to draw her weapon and shoot my dog can be construed as threats of violence. Had she pushed the issue she would have lost per TN state law.

Now some more back story that prompted my concern for a cop threatening to shoot my dog.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cop-kill...amily-watches/

and the Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0T2X1dXcI

[Rosco the Iroc]

I'm not trying to pick on you.
Yea pets are not safe around cops it seems, hell one just got charged for shooting a guy's cat for what was proved for no reason.
But TN is not a "must inform" state you are not bound by law to tell her that you are armed and that you did and in the same breath that she will be sorry sounds like a threat with it vs lawyering up.
Maybe it was said a little different then or thankfully she did not take it that way.
I'm not saying never tell a cop if you have a gun unless required, but if you do might want to be more careful.

[Crai]

No it was a good question. And in retrospect now days i'm sure one would take it as a "I'm going to shoot you" comment I have also mellowed some since then. (Youth and temper not a good combo)

My CCW Class we were instructed to inform if armed. That was a long long time ago. I will have to go look the law up again.

Personal the More I'm around People the more I like my Dog.

I have nothing against Cops so long as they follow the Law and are not jerks. If i'm speeding and they get me I'm a big boy and will admit to it. If I see a Cop in trouble I wont hesitate to stop and help, I also have a full med kit and stop at accidents that don't already have medics. Helped several cops by pulling people out of ditches and out of the middle of the road, so traffic could move on.

But this one Cop was well she was an Entrapping jerk with an I'm going to shoot your dog attitude. i won and I like to think I helped save others from her BS and power trip.

[Lovecats]

The cops in the town where we live in Illinois used to ride your bumper to try to get you to speed up (the speed limit in residential areas was 20). I always used to slow down. They were notorious for doing this towards the end of the month to try to get their quota.

[wolfie]

Would be VERY interesting if, when the cop was trolling for speeders by riding someone's bumper, a ball rolled out from between 2 parked cars and the driver slammed on the brakes anticipating a child chasing after the ball.

A rear-end collision is (barring exceptional circumstances) always the fault of the car behind, since you're supposed to leave enough space to stop in case the car in front stops suddenly. Cops rear-ending someone who's trying to avoid hitting a child would be BAD NEWS.

[Slave to the Phone]

Many years ago, I also learned that getting a speeding ticket on a base results in a very scary letter from the Federal Court. I felt that the fine was excessive because of the circumstances so I showed up in court to plead my case: no children or pets in the area, straight road with good visibility, going with the flow of traffic and a lack of speed limit signs.

The judge listened to me and then asked me what I thought was fair. I had mentally prepared myself for a lot of results, but that certainly wasn't one of them! I stammered out that since I had looked up the speed limit and was going over it, the ticket shouldn't be thrown out, but that I thought the fine should be cut in half.

The judge agreed with me and cut the fine in half. I left feeling that justice had been done.

As to the CCW thing, in my classes (in Arizona), I am always told that we should always let the cop know that we are armed and proceed how they instruct us. The way to do this is to give the cop our CCW permit along with our driver's license.

Once my sweetie and I were driving through Texas and got pulled over for following too close. We both thought that it was because of our Arizona plates and the tinted glass, but whatever.

Sweetie handed the cop his CCW permit and license. Cop thanked sweetie for showing it to him and asked if sweetie was carrying. When sweetie said that he was, the cop asked sweetie to give ME his gun and get out of the car. That sure didn't make a lot of sense then and still doesn't. Cop could have been in more danger by turning his back on an armed wife who didn't like how he was treating her husband.

It all worked out, I just put the gun on the driver's seat, sweetie got a warning ticket and we all went our separate ways.