I’m working on a series of writings that are my experiences with our law enforcement people. I will endeavor to recall all my experiences, good and bad, no matter how trivial. I have an overall negative feeling about law enforcement personal and perhaps through this, I will learn if that feeling is justified.
Summer Ticket
Driving to Michigan over the summer after I had just turned 16 I was tagged for doing 70 in a 55. The officer made me come to his car and sit up front, not in the cage in the back. He was friendly and chatted about where I was going. He told me I had good reflexes and that he tagged me first at 85 and then ¼ of a second later at 70. He said “you reacted pretty fast when your detector went off so I’m going to ticket you at 70”. I laughed and said thanks. We talked about the radar gun he had and he showed me how it worked.
Other than the ticket it wasn’t a bad experience.
Later that same summer, later as in 2 weeks, I get tagged for 30 in a 25 zone. I was being followed by my friend Ken. I thought at first that I was indeed the one the cop was trying to pull over since he was standing on the side of the road and pointing to me. So I pulled over right behind his car. As Ken went by the cop pointed at him and told him to pull over. At this point I wasn’t aware that a cop could pull two cars over since I knew he could only tag one with radar. So I figured I’d gotten lucky and it was Ken he got not me. Though Ken had been behind me he was probably 70 yards behind me so it could be that it was indeed Ken that had been radared.
So I start up and drive past the cop.
Mistake. The cop runs after me and points for me to pull over. Ken must have been thinking the same thing I was and when he saw the cop pointing for me to pull over again he started up and passed us.
Well, now the cop is really furious and tells me not to move and runs after Ken and points for him to pull over.
When he came back to my car he was red and panting, typical small town cop with about 100lbs to loose. He yelled at me and wanted to know why I had tried to flee.
Oh great I thought…fleeing… so I explained that I didn’t know he wanted us both and apologized. He never did relax and was very rude about the entire situation.
Granted he had cause but he could have got over it.
This leads me to the court date a few weeks later. I sat there in juvenile court listening to the cases. It was amazing. Case after case read the same, “ran a red light hit a car”, “failed to stop at stop sign, hit a car”, “speeding, ending in car chase, hit a car”. Everyone there had hit another car and caused all kinds of damage, from fender benders to people in the hospital. Their sentences seemed pretty light. Some probation, and fines under $100.
“Hell,” I thought, “I should get off pretty easy. I didn’t do any damage.”
WRONG.
My sentence for two speeding tickets 2 weeks apart, with no vehicles destroyed and no people in the hospital? Thirty days suspension of my license, $250 fine, and I had to retake drivers-ed in the form of a special class for “bad” drivers. To this day, my best guess is that the judge was trying to set an example or prove he wasn’t soft on type. I was the only white middle class teenager there.
Ah…Justice…gotta love it!