Just to balance the conversation out, how an example of when I DIDN'T get a break.

Young USAF 2ndLt, hustling to base at 0630 cuz I'm late for commander's PT call. I come over the brow of the hill and a local cop is sitting there waiting. Hit me at 51 mph in a 35. No problem. I was doing it and got caught. I'm pissed because I'm late, AND I got busted, but I'm not giving the cop any lip. Morning is not going well.

"So, how much is this going to cost me?" [:@]

"Well, that ticket there for 16 over the limit is going to cost you $50." ("****!, I think to myself as I'm signing the ticket.)

And, you know, that was enough. I didn't need to hear any more than that. I'd have been fine if he'd just left the knife there in my chest where, by my own admission, it rightfully belonged. But, no. This guy was all the arrogant, petty autocrat attitude that no cop ever likes to get from a perp. So he continues and twists the knife...

"Now, if you'd only been doin' 15 miles over, then it only woulda cost ya $20." (And I thought, but didn't say, "And you couldn't have given me the ONE G*damn mile an hour?!?!?!!!! Ya already got me, I'm not giving you any attitude, and you made your point. And couldn't you have just left it at that? Did you have to tell me about the ONE mile an hour???")

My take at the time was he was a sanctimonious, underachiever with a Napoleon complex, caught up in his authority, who didn't like GIs and took extra pleasure in being able to make sure I knew he didn't give me any kind of a break whatsoever. And it didn't change my driving habits as much as it made me resent the local LEOs a whole lot more.

Other side of that coin is the NY Highway Patrol trooper who pulled me over a few years prior to that when I was still in college who could have given me a ticket but, instead, gave me some fatherly advice that was straight from the heart. THAT made a big impression and was far more effective in changing my driving habits than any ticket would have been.

It cuts both ways. Cops are humans. There are good ones and bad ones, each does the job for their own reasons, not all of them noble or altruistic, and they all have good days and bad days. A bit like GIs and, well, everyone else, really.

 

My wife got pulled over yesterday when we were coming home from her grandmothers.&nbsp\\; 80 in a 65 on the freeway.&nbsp\\; She didn't pull any attitude (for once, maybe because our 5 year old niece was in the back!) just basically said oops and sorry more or less.&nbsp\\; I was sure he was going to give her a ticket, but she got away with a warning.&nbsp\\;
&nbsp\\;
I got pulled over on my bike about 1 1/2 years ago (on my birthday!), when I was doing a ride with route2null.&nbsp\\; Luckily she just gave us a warning.

 

&nbsp\\;
Your're argument just doesn't stand up at all my friend and you are comparing apples with pears.&nbsp\\; In this case the LEO / COP / Officer was doing his job - he made a judgement call tha booking this guy was not what was needed, but rather a good **** chewing and a warning was better as he must have realised the guy would think twice next time around.&nbsp\\; Just like a teacher might let a student off for minor offense rather than give him / her a detention as a good telling off and a warning would be better.&nbsp\\; As an ex-teacher sometimes a bit of leniency was far more effective than a punishment - also it didn't switch them off against authority.&nbsp\\; The other examples are to do with being imcompetent which this guy wasn't.

 

Here is one I saw in Laconia, and shows how the town has all but ruined the event with overpolicing.
I was walking up the sidewalk with a friend, and this state trooper had stopped her cruiser, and held up traffic talking to someone
in front of me. My friend thought she was talking to us and asked what whe wanted, she replied none of your business, move along, this has nothing to do with you,&nbsp\\;with a ton of attitude. She was giving this guy crap about something, and after seeing the guy later in the cround, we asked him what it was all about. She thought she had seen him throw a cigarette butt in the gutter, and was all over his case about it, making him pickup butts on the side of the road. Come on man, Laconia used to be a place to let loose and have some fun, a few burnouts, show your bleeps, etc. Now you can't even get caught tossing a butt, or you might get arrested. The street was packed and she held up traffic for quite sometime before she was satisfied that this guy had learned his lesson. In my book, that's over the top, it's bike week for craps sake, give people a little slack, and she was rude when we asked what was going on, hey we thought she was talking to us, we were NOT rude or anything, but she was. Laconia has gone to the crapper these days, I have been going for 35 years, and this year it was like a biker fair or something, more of a carnival than a bike ralley. I stayed for 5 days, and only heard ONE burnout way in the background somewhere. I used to enjoy Laconia, but not anymore. WAY too many police, they had cruisers and state police every 200 yards or so, on the side of the road, and you had to get eyeballed by at them as you went by, and they checked you out.
The fun has gone from Laconia, and I don't know who to blame, mostly the town I guess, for making it this way.
Sorry to get off topic, but the butt incident, made it very clear that not much fun was going to be had at Laconia this year.
How can you have fun when the police are in your face everywhere you go, and I mean right in your face!
They were standing in the middle and the side of the road to make sure to get in every riders face, before they let them go on.
Time for me to start going to other ralley's from now on, Laconia has lost it's lustre for me.
Rags