Calgary Police once again proving their value to me....
So I'm driving up Mcleod today, not flying or weaving, just driving normally with the flow of traffic (i.e. other cars around me were driving the same speed or faster)
Anyway, I approach one of Calgary's finest in the van. He's going back and forth from lane to lane, so when he gets out of what the rest of the world calls the 'fast lane', I decide to go by him. I proceed to pass him, and when I say pass, I mean I literally CRAWL past him. I'm maybe going 2-3 kph faster than him. - maybe slower. Well as soon as I pass his front bumper he whips in behind me and flicks on the lights. I just say to my girlfriend, I wonder what this is about. It's that UNobvious.
Actually giving a shit about the safety of the stop, I signal to him that I'm moving up further to pull over on a safe part of the road (not like the idiots I see pull over on blind corners or merge lanes).... so I find a spot where we can both get completely out of the lanes of traffic. I drive 3 feet off of the side of the road. But it was all for not anyhow, because the first thing this moron does is stay parked on the road blocking a lane of traffic. I guess he's never seen any of those videos where cops get creamed by passing cars. Totally understandable.
Then when he gets to the window, I am polite and give him my papers etc and ask him why he's pulling me over.
So with a caustic and condescending tone he says, "Well when "I" pass a cop on the road, I make sure I'm not speeding first!" Now let me repeat, it took me about 10 seconds to get past his front bumper, and I know my speedo is off a bit, but every other car in the vicinity was doing the same speed. He doesn't want to hear anything I have to say and just walks off while his boyfriend partner is outside looking over the car. I have a clean driving record and he knew that when he checked, but he comes back and just hands me the ticket and starts to walk away. So I stop him and say, "wait a minute, why don't you explain why you pulled me over vs. anyone else?" I mentioned my clean record and how I know the rules of the road more than half the idiots I see driving around this city and yet he singles me out and throws me a ticket for going 90 in an 80. WOAH!! Yeah fuck, that's really moving. I'm surprised he caught up. I'd expect to get attitude for going 50 over. But 10? In Toronto even the cops would laugh at that one. Why? Because they've got better things to do. I asked him if he clocked me and he says he was pacing another vehicle to fine them when I "flew" by. So what was the other guy getting a ticket for, 82 in an 80?
Anyhow all he could seem to say was "take it to court", so I guess I've got a hot date in february.
I tell ya, from the fucking idiotic radaring cyclists in the park this summer to the constant stories I see here, the constant examples of the worse police work I have yet to see in this country, to the drug dealer on my street who they can't seem to bust even though they're fucking there weekly.... man, ZERO respect for this police force. My father was a COP and there are COPS out there I respect, but this city has a POOR representation of police pressence. It's laughable.
I hate to generalize but every interaction I've witnessed here lately has been with a cop who obviosuly got beat up in high school and wants to get back at the world. I feel bad to the GOOD COPS out there that have to be grouped with these dickheads. I wasn't arguing, just looking for an explanation, and I get this Robocop attitude....please. Give me a fucking break.
Oh and to make an preemptive reply to the inevitable perfect driver who never does anything wrong who's going to say I deserved it, go troll another forum you waste-of-space.
I mean, there has to be people here who are seeing the driving getting worse here while the amount of useless insignificant fines increase? Policing is about making a place safer, not, let's see how many easy fines we can give out in a month to buy fuel for the Chopper, so we can wake people up all night.
I'll just add that yes it's really an insignifcant fine and that's not what bothers me. Truly I would have rathered get pulled over for 30 over than this. I wouldn't have even argued or questioned it. I just can't get over the constant bullshit fines I continue to see given out in this city when their efforts could most certainly be directed to more significant issues. AND there are certainly plenty of them.
/rant.
oh, Happy new year too.
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treasures n eerything.
