Not to get politcal again but then the genius’ at Homeland Security set these guys up with automatic rifles, combat gear, and train them as SWAT teams. Scary huh?
Not to get politcal again but then the genius' at Homeland Security set these guys up with automatic rifles, combat gear, and train them as SWAT teams.
Ever see the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority) police??? Automatic rifles, combat gear…and trained as SWAT teams.
Back to TV cops, I personally think that if they actually made a realistic cop show, it would be so mundane and boring that no one would watch it. Most police work is boring and mundane and most of them work their entire careers without ever getting into a shootout with bad guys. On TV, every episode seems to end with a car chase and/or a shootout.
Also, I would be willing to bet that most restaurants have kitchens where the staff is not constantly being yelled at by an abusive chef that has to have every other word from his mouth bleeped out.
Yeah “Car 54 Where are You?” may be more realistic than we thought. I worked the kitchen for a couple years and no one ever yelled at anyone. You’re just too busy, concentrating too hard, or too tired for any of that.
Yeah "Car 54 Where are You?"
Probably more realistic then Adam-12.
The dukes was a product of its time. Can't imagine anyone making that show today. I didn't bother seeing the movie that came out a few years ago.
I imagine that, in some places(like where OK mentioned), it’d be a biography, not a comedy show.
True enough bscar2 but I’ve run into similar cops in other states. When I first went to California many years ago I wasn’t in the state 2 hours and got stopped by the CHP. The trooper whipped around and tailed me for a full 10 miles before before pulling me over.
My crime? No front license plate. That guy had me sitting out there forever and he was going to impound my car even though I told him I was a legal resident of OK where front plates are not issued and I was a visitor at that point.
No amount of explaining could seem to make him comprehend that the state would not give me a front plate even with a bribe or at gunpoint.
He was thwarted a bit because HQ said it would be 3 or 4 hours before a wrecker could be sent there from Barstow and that put him in a spot.
At that point I was ticked off and telling him to just have his dispatcher get hold of anyone in OK other than the DPS/DMV (it was Sunday); it didn’t matter who. Call any local PD or the state patrol and they will be told that OK does not issue front plates, nor do they to this day.
The trooper finally called back in and we had to wait another 20 minutes before it was verified and they let me go.
Almost a full hour of sitting on the side of the highway in a car with no A/C in the Mojave in August.
The trooper apologized for wasting my time and welcomed me to California…
I was fried and ready to leave; never to return actually.
California also wasn’t very welcoming to Henry Fonda in “Grapes of Wrath”
LOL
^
Well, at least he did apologize…
Several years ago, a friend of mine wound up in a ditch as a result of avoiding a deer that he suddenly encountered after cresting a hill. He didn’t have ABS, and thus was unable to steer the car while jamming on the brakes, thus sending him into the ditch. (I was driving in back of him, so I witnessed the entire, albeit brief, incident.)
Anyway, the first cop to arrive on the scene was a State Trooper, who was the very essence of professionalism. However, when a local cop arrived, the Trooper passed responsibility to the local yokel–who proceeded to tell my friend that he was considering issuing a ticket for careless (or reckless?) driving.
My friend was stone sober, and was already very shaken up, only to be more shaken-up by this JO suggesting that my friend was somehow responsible for driving his car into a ditch on a dark country road in the heart of a deer-infested area. Luckily, I had seen everything, so if he had gone ahead with the ticket, my friend would have had a witness who could attest to the actual facts of the situation.
Although he did not issue the ticket, he never apologized for acting like an anal sphincter.
It was said that if you lived in Georgia, you seldom got a ticket there, but if you were from out of state on your way to Florida you were fair game even with the tiniest infraction. I know a guy who crossed a very faded solid line (barely visible) and was instantly pulled over by the local trouper. Drivers from New York were considered to have deep pockets and appeared to be singled out.
I am more afraid of cops in the US than in Mexico, which may surprise some of you. This is because I know what some of them are doing.
In 2007, I was driving in Mississippi, about half an hour south of Hattiesburg. I had cruise control on at the speed limit, and when I saw a cop with a truck pulled over, I moved into the left lane. We are used to that in Texas, where failure to move over or slow down is a serious offense.
A few miles down the road here came one of them, and hovered behind me for a few minutes, then pulled me over.
When he walked up behind me he grabbed my rear hatch and gave a mighty tug that shook the whole car. He had no legal basis to enter my car by opening that door.
Then, when it wouldn’t open, he walked up to the passenger door and gave me some malarkey that he wasn’t sure, but thought maybe we had not pulled over when we passed the emergency vehicle. Then he waved us on.
It scared me to think they might find a driving error by their own mistake.
When I got to Hattiesburg, I called my son who was also driving across the country. We planned to meet in his house in VA. He said a couple hours earlier he also experienced a totally false stop in Arkansas.
I mentioned it to the motel clerk and she said a lot of people had been reporting false stops in that stretch of highway.
After a couple days of thinking it over, I realized if that cop had gotten that back door open, he would have tossed something in and our car would have been gone. This was based on the fact that he had no legal basis for opening that door, so ti had to be an illegal reason. If you don’t agree, that is your problem.
In 2009, in broad daylight, I was on the Interstate in KY, headed north. There had been a long construction site with 55 speed limit. At the end of the construction site just beyond the sign was a HP car. I waited very carefully until I was actually past the sign and dialed up to 70 again.
In a mile or two there he came and pulled me over. He told me he had clocked me at 70 in a 55 zone. I told him I had been on cruise control at 55. He took my license and checked me by radio. When he gave me back the license he repeated he had clocked me at 70 in a 55 zone. and, waved us on. If I had been doing 70 he would have given me a ticket.
It was clearly checking out a Texas plated car with no legal reason to stop it, but did it anyway.
For the record I have been driving for 53 years with never a moving violation. So, no one need moralize about my motives for making something up. It has been years since I drove even 1 over the posted speed limit, to avoid giving any reason for stopping me legally.
And, I have spent a lot of time googling and found a lot of people are saying the same thing.
And, right here on Cartalk a man wrote a few months ago of driving across the country at maybe the 3 over I forget and was stopped a couple times but no ticket written. To me a sure sign of someone hoping to confiscate a car.
In Mexico, they want $20, nor to steal your car.
I certainly will not defend that but the fact is in Minnesota, a Texas plate is a drug or immigrant suspect. I 35 coming from Mexico and I 90 coming from the coast are main corridors for the drug trafficing. Yeah, I know its profiling, but a few make it hard for everyone else.
Many years ago when I much younger I was out running around with a friend one night and we were sitting at a light in a deserted downtown square. Two girls pulled up on my side that I vaguely knew and was chatting them up a bit as the light turned green.
As we rolled past the intersection at slow speed the girl driving the Camaro RS next to us said “I think those cops want to talk to you” which led to a “What cops?” and about that time there was a banging on the trunk lid.
Looking around we see 2 cops jogging along behind us and the faster of the two was hammering on the trunk lid with his flashlight and yelling pull over.
The upshot was that my buddy who was driving was pulled over by cops on foot and cited for “Failure to Devote Full Time Attention” and had to pay a fine for that even though there was no speeding, no swerving, or even anyone else in sight. He wasn’t even talking to the 2 girls who had sped up and turned at the next intersection.
Even worse, they didn’t have a ticket book so we had to sit on the curb for 15 minutes while awaiting a squad car with a citation book they could borrow as their job was just to walk the downtown area checking doors.
It was somewhat humorous, for me anyway, thinking about it later although my buddy wasn’t as amused at coughing up money on such a hokey offense or his pride being hurt after his car was run down by joggers… 
Story I remember hearing at work was one night a guy had been bragging about his IROC Camaro and how quick it was. Another person at the party said he’d race the car, on foot, from street lamp to street lamp(100 feet maybe, not sure how far they’re spaced apart).
After a few races, the cops show up claiming they had calls about street racing in the area and if they knew anything about it. They told them the truth, that the Camaro had been racing the person and had lost every race. The cops didn’t even have the heart to write the guy a ticket
How about a 70’s muscle car racing an 80’s Datsun.
That part of the show starts at about 19 minutes. Want to guess who won???
I had a friend with a duster and a 6cyl engine came in ranting about how he blew off a duster with a 340, Chevy heads we were " only chrylser could build a 6 cyl that blows off a 340. The cops can pull you over anytime, tail light out, oh it’s working now. Had a cop who used this for many high school kids. So there was a pothead in our class, got pulled over for tail light out, they even searched inside the spare tire and let him go, they did not look in the back seat at the box labeled “Dope Box.”
After my 6 month tour in Nam…I was stationed at Ft Campbell Ky. The cops HATED the military. They would pull you over for anything. I was pulled over more then 10 times for the 2 years I was there…and never given a ticket. They just wanted to search the car.
Here is a very relevant article from NJ.com, indicating that it is almost impossible to get pulled-over in the little town of Helmetta–IF you are a resident of the town. If you are an outsider…look out:
I think the numbers for Helmetta speak for themselves unless we’re to believe that no one in a town of 2K+ residents ever breaks a traffic law.
^
Exactly!
Since the same number of Florida & Maryland residents were given tickets (2 for residents of each state) as the number of locals (2), and since this town is most definitely NOT a tourist spot, you can be sure that somebody in authority gave the order to ignore violations by locals, and to go after only those from out of town.
Note: It is reputed to be a pretty little town, but–since I have lived in NJ since 1956, and have lived only ~30 miles from it for the past 17 years, but have never visited it–you can be sure that there is really nothing to draw outsiders to that town.
Now, the process begins to find out who gave that order, and when. If I was a betting man, I would wager that they never figure out who to pin this on.