Saturday before Christmas, for the second time in a couple years I’ve been pulled over by a cop because I looked at him.
The first time was when I looked at a cop who while driving with a
cell phone to his ear made a left turn across my path forcing me to
brake. He then did a u-turn and came after me at a high rate of speed
and proceeded to pull me over and scream at me. He was quite angry that
I ‘made a face’ at him. Well of course I did, he forced me to slam on
the brakes to a stop because he wasn’t paying attention to the task at
hand, driving. He made up conditions that did not exist not to mention
laws that did not exist and wrote out a warning. The warning was for
not yielding. A lie since I had stopped and had yielded to him. I just
didn’t yield with the appropriate deference to his authoritah. He had
to show me who is boss. After he returns my license with the warning
he starts up again. I tell him that he was in the turn lane when my
signal turned green and I believed he would stop. I finally see the
light bulb go on in his head as his (steroid induced?) anger began to
wind down. It finally dawns on him that he did turn after the arrow had
expired entirely.
It was after this I started using a video camera in my car on a
regular basis. Sadly I did not have it running for the instance I
describe in my LRC article on suburban traffic tickets.
The funniest thing about this cop is that he wasn’t paying attention
to his driving and mistimed a yellow signal causing me to take evasive
action. While I was paying attention for a right turn, decided that the
safest course of action was to proceed once I realized I had mistimed
it because that was the action that did not require any one else take
any action. Of course I was wrong in both instances because what is
right and what is wrong is now what a government employee says it is
when he says.
Back to the Saturday before Christmas, I pull behind this cook county police
vehicle in the right lane at a red signal and follow behind for a while
noticing how the officer is tailgating the vehicle in front of him. He
becomes frustrated and squeezes his cruiser between two vehicles in the
left lane. He is now tailgating someone else. This driver slows the
officer down more and I end up in front of the officer. The officer is
a mere memory of a past vehicle when he comes roaring up on my right
some distance later. He is doing about 60mph give or take 5mph in the
right lane while I am over in the left starting a pass.
I am driving ~43mph in a 45mph zone in the left lane. I had intended
to pass with a greater differential but I am not about to go any faster
than 2mph under the posted limit while a cop is behind me. Traffic to
my right is doing ~40mph. I am slowly passing it. The cop seeing that I
am the faster driver gets behind me. This is an important part, he got
behind me because I was moving slightly faster than the rest of
traffic. At first he stays back but he keeps getting closer. Closer and
closer. As I near an intersection where on the far side the right lane
ends I pass the last vehicle to my right. The officer then accelerates
and moves right, about half the hood of his crown vic vanishing from
the view in my mirrors. He was very close to the rear passenger side
corner of my car. As he passes (at a speed in excess of the posted
limit) I look at him. He passes and then brakes with part of his
cruiser intruding into the left lane. (Because the right lane has
narrowed) I stop. He waves me by. I go and he flips on his lights and
pulls me over.
(quotes are not exact)
Cop: ‘how are you?’
me: -silence-
Cop: ‘how are you?’
me: ‘what?’
cop: ‘you have something to say to me’
me: ‘no’
He then goes on to say that I looked at him like he did something
wrong and I say he got close to my car and point to the rear. He
quickly changes gears. I state I was going 43 mph. He says that doesn’t
matter. Of course it doesn’t matter because it means he was speeding.
He then mentions IL’s keep right except to pass law, except he has a
distorted version where one can’t drive in the left lane of surface
streets past two intersections without turning. I tell him no such law
exists. He insists it does. I tell him I’ve read the vehicle code but
I’ll check it out online. He gets angry that I do not accept his word
that is the law. He wants to write a ticket and says I can take it to a
judge. He says he pulled me over to give me ‘advice’ that if I give him
‘attitude’ he’ll right up a ticket. Of course he knows that in c(r)ook
county traffic court the law doesn’t matter and he’ll have a good long
time to make up something else. He goes on with more details of his made up law. Actual IL law
applies only to interstates. He’s lying to me and using threats to push
the lie. He is the law. This traffic stop was about one thing and one
thing only, to tell me who is boss. To show that he can do me harm and
that I shouldn’t so much as look at him in the wrong manner.
Actual Illinois keep right except to pass law
applies only to interstates. What wording there was for surface streets
was removed and I did not violate that older wording because I was
passing traffic to my right and the lane ended once I was past it.
“(d) Upon an Interstate highway or fully access controlled freeway,
a vehicle may not be driven in the left lane, except when overtaking
and passing another vehicle."
I say ‘no’ when he asks if I want to challenge it in court. But I
don’t say that he is right, because he’s lying to me. Shortly after he
demands I put my headlamps on even though it is 3pm and merely
overcast. I can see vehicles more than quarter mile away. There is no
such law requiring head lamps to be on in the middle of the day in such weather.
"(b) All other motor vehicles shall
exhibit at least 2 lighted head lamps, with at least one on each side
of the front of the vehicle, which satisfy United States Department of
Transportation requirements, showing white lights, including that emitted
by high intensity discharge (HID) lamps, or lights of a yellow or amber tint,
during the period from sunset to sunrise, at times when rain, snow, fog, or
other atmospheric conditions require the use of windshield wipers, and at
any other times when, due to insufficient light or unfavorable atmospheric
conditions, persons and vehicles on the highway are not clearly discernible at
a distance of 1000 feet."
With
his ego satisfied, the cop returns to his cruiser and I get on my way.
I time my leaving from the side of the road so he gets stuck behind a
driver who was going much slower than I was. The last I see of the
officer he’s stuck behind someone doing 35mph in a 50mph zone on a no
passing two lane road. If he left me alone he would have been flying
along at 60mph.
Since I first started driving I’ve had cops tailgate me, cut me off,
change lanes and turn with out signaling, and so on. My first driving
encounter with a cop was with an Illinois state trooper. He was
aggressively tailgating the newly painted old car I was driving. I
followed the textbook with regards to what one should do when tailgated
and slowed down. The officer just got even closer. I held the slower
speed as the officer followed me through a right turn. A bit later I
had to make a left from the two lane road we were on so I signaled and
stopped to wait for a gap in on coming traffic. As I waited the trooper
pulled his car onto the gravel shoulder and purposely nailed the
accelerator to spray my car with rocks. I think if this were to occur
today I’d be pulled over and ticketed for something entirely made up.
I regard police as the most dangerous drivers on the road. Not only
for what I’ve mentioned above but a number of other occasions where I
have had them nearly hit my car or otherwise wreck theirs within my
view. One comical instance was where one speeding cop was tailgating
another and the lead one braked. The follower narrowly avoided a
collision. I watch cops closely when I am driving because of the double
threat they pose. I’ve looked at them many times when they’ve done
screwy things around me for years. It is only lately that I have been
pulled over for it. It’s a disturbing and petty exercise of power. They
have no problem with lying because they know the entire system is
corrupt and will not call them on it.
Most people seem to think it
to be stupid to do something such as I did, a mere look of disapproval. I find that most disturbing. These cops are not our masters, they
are just hired help. When they do something I would glare at any other
driver for, a cop will be treated no different. If that upsets them,
too bad. If they push the issue I think it will be worth the expense to
fight it.