Sebberry's "grey areas".

[sebberry]

http://www.bchousing.org/aboutus/abo...nance/Minister

Before his election to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Coleman ran a real estate management and consulting company. He is also a former member of the RCMP and a security specialist.

[BallPeenHammer2]

although on a curiousity note: how drunk is a person at .05?

I know at .08 u get a bit woozy, but .05?

[vafanculo]

Cops are human beings and their job is to ENFORCE the law. However, human beings are not robots or T1000 prototypes and do have compassion for some people. Maybe a warning is what a cop sees fit.

Knowing that they ENFORCE the law, if and when I get pulled over, I expect the book thrown at me, and anything less is a bonus.

Personally the only time I was stopped was for driving with no insurance. Tottaly my fault as I did not check the mail for a week and didnt see my reminder. To my surprise the cop gave me 30 minutes to run to the nearest insurance place. Even though I wasn't able to get my insurance due to the car being in my spouses name, all the guy did was tow me home and a warning (no $600 ticket).

Why? I was lucky.

I understand Seberry's point, but luckily for us, cops are humans in the end, and may choose to give you a break.
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[sebberry]

That was nice of him, but I still question why the laws aren't enforced consistently.

I know someone who was a day overdue for his insurance renewal. Fifteen minutes later his car was on a tow truck and he had a $500 ticket. He was no more or less of a danger than you were, yet the outcome was drastically different.

Yes, officers sometimes operate with discretion but unfortunately you can't always expect that they will be reasonable.

[vafanculo]

Originally Posted by sebberry

That was nice of him, but I still question why the laws aren't enforced consistently.

I know someone who was a day overdue for his insurance renewal. Fifteen minutes later his car was on a tow truck and he had a $500 ticket. He was no more or less of a danger than you were, yet the outcome was drastically different.

Yes, officers sometimes operate with discretion but unfortunately you can't always expect that they will be reasonable.

But what is reasonable? To me reasonable is you break the law, you pay the ticket. A warning I see like a bonus. Now, if they went out of their way to add on fines and tickets you didn't deserve, THAT would be unreasonable.
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[gars]

it's very true - cops are human. If I were pulled over for a violation, I have no problem owning up to what I did wrong and pay for a ticket. I think it's ridiculous for people to only expect a warning every time they get pulled over.

It's like when I park on the street and I have to plug the meter. Sometimes, I lose track of time, and when you return, you realized that the meter is in the red. Sometimes, you see that, and you haven't received a ticket - you can take that like a warning. Sometimes, you get back and you realized there's a ticket on your car.

I've been pulled over once and only received a warning. I also have met people who have been pulled over quite often, and they get angry when the cop (who can see on their computer that they have received numerous tickets) give them a ticket.

[Nightwalker]

I've had a number of speeding ticket, and have never been given the full fine. I'm very appreciative when I get a break in my favor just for being polite, respectful and in no way shady.

One time when I was younger, I borrowed my parents van and went to another city with some friends. I followed them through a roadblock with no license, no N, no ID and was let through without a hiccup. That one baffled me, I guess being that I wasn't drinking and told the officer I didn't know where I was and was following the car ahead of me gave me the break.

A friend of mine is an officer, and a great one as well. He's stationed in a small town. Another person in his department almost seems like he's LOOKING for ways to charge people. A few people were in a local pub/diner that the officers themselves frequent, and they were called out to remove them for getting unruly. It wasn't a particularly bad scenario, but he wanted to try to fine the owner for over-serving!

He'll run out of anywhere in that town to go in that town and be well received eventually. Needless to say my friend doesn't like him very much.

Each person's idea of using their own discretion can really vary.

[Soundy]

Originally Posted by Nightwalker

I've had a number of speeding ticket, and have never been given the full fine. I'm very appreciative when I get a break in my favor just for being polite, respectful and in no way shady.

You know, I was thinking about this the other day... lots of time in here (and even in this thread) we see people stating that "I was polite and respectful and the cop gave me the ticket anyway"... like it's supposed to be some sort of "Get out of jail free" card. Then they're pissed off that it didn't help and they didn't get a break and go into some standard anti-cop rant, like the cop isn't playing by the "unwritten rules" or something.

Now it seems to me a lot of these people come in with an anti-cop bias to begin with... so when they're being "polite and respectful" they're really just fronting and putting on an act in hopes of getting a break, rather than ACTUALLY being respectful.

Given that cops actually undergo a LOT of training in being able to read body language and what not, I don 't expect it's hard for them to pick up on that attitude... heck, I have no training at all, and I don't find it hard to tell most times if someone is actually BEING nice, or just PLAYING nice... if they're actually pleasant, or just smarmy. And it certainly isn't hard to tell if someone is actually showing you respect, or just trying to LOOK like they're showing respect while cursing you under their breath.

Vafanculo said it best, "To me reasonable is you break the law, you pay the ticket. A warning I see like a bonus."