5 ms·

Pulling out of a parking lot, I looked left, looked right and started to pull out only to narrowly avoid getting rammed by a cop who ran a stop sign. He jumped

Pulling out of a parking lot, I looked left, looked right and started to pull out only to narrowly avoid getting rammed by a cop who ran a stop sign. He jumped out of his car and started screaming at me to pay better attention to the road. No emergency lights, no siren. Just (from my perspective) someone who apparently ran a stop sign and got angry when someone else was in his way. You never know what kind of day someone's having or if they're about to go off on someone. Now, make the consequences of catching someone on a bad day 10x worse because they have a badge and a gun. Fortunately for me, I don't think I even got a ticket, but people have been shot in dubious circumstances many, many times. I'm not about to crack a joke or laugh at one in a police interaction.

megablast 3y ago
You need a dashcam
- soperj 3y ago
  Dashcam doesn't stop bullets.
  - marginalia_nu 3y ago
    You need a mad max style technical.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
Traubenfuchs 3y ago
> they have a badge and a gun ... and immunity from persecution for shooting you. ... and a statistically vastly higher chance, compared to the average population, to desire committing murder and hurting other people. Bad mix. Police (in the US) is fucking scary.
- nathanaldensr 3y ago
  > persecution I think you meant prosecution as they are definitely not immune to persecution nowadays--at least from the public.
  - Traubenfuchs 3y ago
    Yes!
hotnfresh 3y ago
I once saw a cop whip an illegal U-turn in the middle the main interstate-connected road of a small town, no lights or warning whatsoever, on a street that wasn't crammed full but was very much not empty, then nearly hit someone pulling out of a fast food joint who'd presumably already looked left and saw nothing close but a cop car going the other way, so thought it was fine to pull out ("You're supposed to check twice" sure, but there's still a window where you aren't looking one direction or another as you're pulling out—you can't not have that, it's entirely possible they did check twice). Cop pops lights and pulls the car over, probably a bullshit reckless driving citation for nearly getting hit by the cop. I felt so bad for the poor driver who did nothing wrong. Guess whatever they were heading toward wasn't so important after all, too, if they had time to stop that car for a bullshit reason. Between that and a few other not-quite-that-bad incidents, I now treat cop cars as the least-predictable cars on the road. You never know WTF they might do, and you'll be the one in trouble if they cause a wreck.

megablast 3y ago

You need a dashcam

soperj 3y ago
Dashcam doesn't stop bullets.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  You need a mad max style technical.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

Traubenfuchs 3y ago

> they have a badge and a gun ... and immunity from persecution for shooting you. ... and a statistically vastly higher chance, compared to the average population, to desire committing murder and hurting other people. Bad mix. Police (in the US) is fucking scary.

nathanaldensr 3y ago
> persecution I think you meant prosecution as they are definitely not immune to persecution nowadays--at least from the public.
- Traubenfuchs 3y ago
  Yes!

hotnfresh 3y ago

I once saw a cop whip an illegal U-turn in the middle the main interstate-connected road of a small town, no lights or warning whatsoever, on a street that wasn't crammed full but was very much not empty, then nearly hit someone pulling out of a fast food joint who'd presumably already looked left and saw nothing close but a cop car going the other way, so thought it was fine to pull out ("You're supposed to check twice" sure, but there's still a window where you aren't looking one direction or another as you're pulling out—you can't not have that, it's entirely possible they did check twice). Cop pops lights and pulls the car over, probably a bullshit reckless driving citation for nearly getting hit by the cop. I felt so bad for the poor driver who did nothing wrong. Guess whatever they were heading toward wasn't so important after all, too, if they had time to stop that car for a bullshit reason. Between that and a few other not-quite-that-bad incidents, I now treat cop cars as the least-predictable cars on the road. You never know WTF they might do, and you'll be the one in trouble if they cause a wreck.