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| 7/14 |
| 2005/10/18-19 [Transportation/Car] UID:40149 Activity:moderate |
10/17 I was driving home late the other night going around the speed
limit with no other cars in sight. Then all of a sudden, I see
these headlights approach from the horizon on the left lane
until he reaches my car and pulls into my lane (all the way
on the right) and he tailgates me for about 3 miles. When he
finally pulls off, it turns out to be a CHP. Why do they do
crap like this? Are they just being jackasses?
\_ They're checking speed and such. That behavior is almost
exclusively CHP, I always get out of the way when I'm in the
left lane and someone does that to me.
\_ Pulling within several feet of another car on an open
hwy is just harrassing and very dangerous. And I wasn't
speeding. What makes him think that it's going to
change for the next 3 miles?
\_ One time I was driving back from my girlfriend's house
in St. Helena, and it's like 3 am. I get a tail gater
for a mile or so. I speed up a few mph, and he hits his
lights. He basically asked me "what is a 19 year old from
fremont doing in st. helena at 3 am" and let me go.
\_ I don't know, I'm not a CHP officer, but I imagine it
allows him to check you more closely for suspicious
behavior: swerving, etc.
\_ He could also be getting closer to check your plate. Or
he could just be an asshole. -gm
\_ Oh, good one. I'd forgotten registration. -pp
\_ I tend to slow down. But there was this one time I was
actually doing about 10-15mph over the limit and CHP was
behind me and asked me over their loudspeaker to pull over
but didnt turn on the red/blue lights, just their bright
white lights. So, I called CHP via 911 and asked them to
confirm that there was a CHP officer trying to pull me over,
and explained that their officer failed to properly identify
him/herself as a police officer. Guess this pissed his
CO off enough to chew the officer out after we both pulled
over and so no ticket for me.
\_ Maybe he hoped you'd speed up and then he'd give you a ticket.
\_ This reminds me of something I've seen on 280 during commute
hours: CHP cuts into #2 lane and hits his brakes, fairly hard;
the car behind him pulls into the carpool lane to avoid hitting
the CHP car; then the CHP officer pulls over that car, presumably
for a carpool violation. True, the following car should have left
enough room that a lane change wasn't needed, but it still seems
both dangerous and stupid. Maybe something else was going on
there. -gm
\_ I mentioned this because this actually happened to my dad.
We were on vacation in Europe like 20 years ago driving
through Belgium with foreign plates, so I guess the cops
there saw this as a nice revenue stream. One cop tailgated
our car, dad sped up thinking cop wanted this -> ticket.
\_ If this happens to you in any EU country + CH, stay calm
and tell the cop he was tailgating, which is harassment,
and that you have a witness. He'll let you go The
European court of human rights has curtailed that kind of
jackass behavior by cops reasonably well. -John
\_ (nice nuke, asshole.) If this happens to you anywhere in
Europe or CH, confront the cop politely and say that he
was harassing you, and that you have a witness--the guy
will almost certainly lay off. The European court of
human rights, for all of its silliness, has done a pretty
good job of curtailing jerk cops. -John
\_ CHP has the most difficult police academy, but yet they are
nothing more than AAA with guns. They hardly ever solve typical
crimes. They maintain a SWAT team only for capitol and defer to
local PD/Sheriff units for tactical situations on the freeway.
And their CHP 11-99 foundation charges more than other police
charities.
charities. Not to mention they DUI commanders off the hook.
(The CHP commadner for Socal apparently has a past of DUIs)
\_ Do you mean "They let commanders with DUIs off the hook?"
\_ http://tinyurl.com/7mzjv
\_ I was actually just trying to clarify the last
sentence of the previous post. Nice link though.
\_ What is the deal with the CHP 11-99? I went to a Ferrari
show and lots of the Ferraris had CHP 11-99 license plate
frames. If you have that frame does that mean you might be
able to avoid getting a ticket?
\_ Essentially you have donated $500 for a possible
avoid a _CHP_ ticket. It goes to help their officer
down fund.
\_ Sounds like this cop was trying to bait you into a getting a speeding ticket.
\- i wonder if this "rush you from behind" is a common cop
tactic deliberately to get you to speed up or just to
catch up to check you out. at the bottom of the pleasant
valley hill [which is absurdly 25mph and frequently has
a cop hiding at the bottom on a side street] where it
becomes grand ave i had a cop drive up to me a liek 50mph
so i sped up to get out of his way and then got a ticket.
i wasnt going 25 admitedly, but this seemed kind of leem.
also with 0 traffic at 11pm on sunday.
\_ Do police have the authority to speed when not in a
pursuit? Can you fight the ticket based on that alone?
(I was going the speed limit and this idiot cop went
2x the limit to catch up with me.)
\_ I've been told that they can only violate traffic laws
when they have their lights on. I know I've seen cops
turn on their lights, blow through a red light, and turn
them off again on empty streets late at night. This may
not apply to speeding. -gm
\- to abbreviate bighead's comments ... "different jobs
have different perqs. when you are a cop, your perq
is you can break the law."
is you can break the law." --psb
\_ s/perq/perk/
\- i like using "perq" since it is short for
perquisite and "perk" has another meaning
[as in "perk up" "perky breasts"] although
you're right, "perk is the standard".
\_ I think perq is more correct in this context.
Use any dictionary and look up 'perquisite'.
\- my dictionary does not contain "perq"
and has other meanings for "perk" however
going by google hits, "perk" seems to be
the more common short form for 'perquisite"
and this is backed up in Fowler MEU 3rd Ed.
So while I acknowledge "perk" may be more
common, i continue to use "perq" and feel
that should get a pass. --psb |
| 7/14 |
|
| tinyurl.com/7mzjv -> www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E24781%257E2968339,00.html Steve Young: Valley residents definitely on a hot streak CHP should get a citation for policing itself By K Lloyd Billingsley, Guest columnist The California Highway Patrol performs good work, in difficult and often dangerous conditions, but a recent development provides new evidence tha t the CHP could do a better job of policing itself. On July 1, Deputy Chief Gary Dominguez became commander of the Southern D ivision, including Los Angeles County, with a population of nearly 10 mi llion. Early last year, Dominguez was on medical leave from the CHP, tho ugh his medical problem did not keep him away from the Montebello Golf C ourse. He drove 13 miles from there and was arrested in Pasadena with a blood-al cohol level of 010 percent, well over the 008 legal limit for driving. That should have been enough for a drunk-driving charge, but local offi cials opted to charge him with failing to obey a peace officer -- office rs had to forcibly remove Dominguez from his car. The charge of failing to obey was later dropped, however, because the mai n witness proved unable to testify. But the DMV still suspended Domingue z's driver's license. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, told reporters that she was "outraged at (Dominguez's) appointment" -- an outrage compounded by the fact that the CHP's job is to keep the public safe from drunk drive rs. "The bottom line is that Chief Dominguez is a deputy chief in the California Highway Patr ol," a CHP spokesman said. Rank alone protects ch iefs against the consequences of their actions. A Sacramento Bee investigat ion found that a full 80 percent of CHP chiefs have filed workers' compe nsation claims within two years of retiring. Deputy CHP Commissioner Ed Gomez claimed to be disabled by workplace stre ss and physical ailments. In 2000, the 57-year-old was awarded a $39,000 settlement, medical care for his injuries for life, and a state industr ial disability pension of $106,968 a year, half of it free of taxes. Two years later Gomez became security director at San Francisco airport -- a stressful, difficult job. Deputy Chief Kevin Mince sought a workers' compensation settlement as a r esult of stress from dealing with his supervisor. He was found to be 23 percent disabled as a result of headaches, shingles, chest pains and "in juries to his psyche." Mince took an industrial disability retirement of $109,259, half of it exempt from taxes. He also moved to Hawaii, where he functions well enough to work as a scuba-diving instructor. Larry Hollingsworth was found to be 61 percent disabled from kn ee injuries, ulcers, high blood pressure and hearing loss. He took a med ical pension from the CHP, but is still apparently sound enough to becom e assistant sheriff of Yolo County. Assistant CHP chief Denise Daeley was hurt in a private car returning fro m a weekend in Las Vegas. The trip was not work-authorized, but she clai med to have been recruiting for the force. Daeley got an annual payment of $57,396, half her salary, tax free, and decamped for Hawaii. The author of the report that authorized Daeley's claim was Mike Brown, t hen a deputy chief and now CHP commissioner. In response to the Bee report, the CHP created a workers' compensation fr aud unit and promised to crack down, sparing nobody, whatever their rank . In more than half a year, however, its efforts have yet to touch a sin gle chief. Workers' compensation was created to help those legitimately injured on t he job, not to bankroll luxury retirement on dubious grounds. CHP benefi ts are generous, and it is possible for officers to retire at age 51 wit h 90 percent of their pay. Despite its good work, the CHP should not be allowed to investigate itsel f If current CHP leaders want to enhance the force's reputation, they s hould hand the pension fraud investigation to the Legislature, decline t o give chiefs special treatment, and make key personnel moves free from even the appearance of scandal. K Lloyd Billingsley is editorial director of the Pacific Research Instit ute. |