[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: Cops Speeding
In article <DDxGDr.Ev0@liii.com>, Jeff <jek@liii.com> wrote:
>In article <41nf0a$emd@uuneo.neosoft.com>, Dan Parker <eds@neosoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>Just got back from a two-day drive from LA to Houston, and something that
>>bugs me almost everyday occured to me:
>>
>>Under what conditions are cops allowed to exceed the speed limit? Do they
>>have to turn on their lights/siren?
>>
>>What authority do ordinary citizens have to monitor/file complaint/pull over
>>cops who are speeding for no justifyable reason?
>>
>
>Kind of the same thing happened to me about 2 months ago. I was driving
>on the New Jersey Turnpike heading North going back home, and I was in
>the middle lane. I was doing about 75 and in the left lane, 2 state
>troopers with their lights off, *BLEW* by me. I was doing 75; they had
>to be somewhere around 100mph. I gave it a little more gas, and I was
>doing about 85-90 just trying to keep up with them to see where they're
>going with their lights off (yea, not a good idea, but...) anyway...they
>pulled off to the next rest stop about 4 miles later and got stuff to eat
>and drink.
A couple years ago, my mother showed me an article from the Orlando (FL)
Sentinel. A man driving on I-4 was passed by a city police cruiser far
exceeding the limit without his lights or sirens on. The man decided to
see what the cop's hurry was, and followed him. He clocked the cop at
about 85 (in a 50 zone). The cop soon exited the Interstate and pulled
into a fast food store or something like that. The man pulled in also,
and (talk about b*lls!) confronted the officer. Since the cop was not
on his way to some official emergency (which the cop admitted), the man
pulled a "citizen's arrest", claiming that the cop deserved a ticket for
speeding, that he had clocked him doing it, and that he was going to see
to it that the cop got fined. The officer turned around and wrote the man
a ticket for speeding (85 in a 50). The case went to court, and the judge
(obviously an honorable man) upheld both tickets.
So, you're not completely powerless.
Stephen B. Wright
sbwright@midway.uchicago.edu
Follow-Ups:
References: