Originally posted by nookie dreamin':
Might as well jump on the wagon expressing lack of faith in our noble police, sworn to protect and serve.... I own a video store that happens to be next door to a bar and grill.. A couple of weekends ago, some guy decided to park in my parking lot, and went to the bar... was there a couple of hours. In the interest of being a good neighbor, I usually don't squak about this kind of thing. Well, in this instance the guy came back to his truck, and while backing out, smashed into my lighted reader board sign, doing significant damage, then tried to drive off.. When I heard the crash, I ran out of my store and yelled "what the h*** are you doing?" He replied in a extremely slurred voice, " I was jus
tryin to fine a place to park, sir". Well, I got him to stop, come inside the store and talk about what just occurred. I asked him for his name , address, phone number, and drivers license, intending to work it out without involving insurance companies, and the law. Well, aforementioned drunk claimed he did'nt have his license with him, but was staying at the campground 1 block away, and would go get it. I gave him twenty minutes to procure said license and return and we could work this out without anyone from law enforcement being involved. Ten minutes later, he returned, on foot with his license, and equally as drunk girlfriend. I took the info from his license, then asked for proof of insurance, and he slurred, I don haf no shurense.. OK, were going to do this the legal way. I picked up the phone and began to dial 911.. at this point his drunk girlfriend began to cuss me out for being an ***hole for calling the police.. The 911 operator answered and I explained what was happening, all the while girlfriend is still yelling and cussing at me. 911 operator hears this and asks if I need an officer to respond and I say yes, IMMEDIATELY! All the while, I have other customers in my store, stunned as to what is transpiring in front of them and their children. I had to ask the cussing drunks to leave my store immmediately, which they did. This leads to a 45 minute wait for our "protectors" to arrive. When they did , I explained what had gone down, i.e. drunk driver, no license, no insurance, smashed sign, staying in campground down the street... Well, sir, we can't do anything about this because- A: we didn't witness this, and B: this occured on private property.. However, we can attempt to find him at the campground and speak with him. Gee, guess who fled the campground long before the "public servants"
arrived? When I asked "can't you do anything about this because I, as a law abiding citizen, witnessed all of the above mentioned infractions? They said(Snohomish Co. Sherriff),
well we can file a report, but you will have to try to get justice through the court system.. Swell, just what I need, close my store, lose money, to try to get a judgement against some lowlife that will never pay, or be held accountable for his actions.. Fast action by law enforcement would have caught this clown, however, it seems that unless gunplay is involved, our "protectors" will not drop their donuts to protect property. I am left with a smashed sign, $500.00 Deductable on my business insurance, and a profound distrust of our vaunted "protectors"! Quite a rant, but this kind of crap occurs more often than any of us would like to see. Oh well, my sign is still busted, but I feel a little better...
I hear ya this does happen all the time.
Goinfishin, I do know a few cops and they really are not all bad but some of them do have a tendency to be on a powertrip. Like you said you get some "bozo's in every profession, the difference is that the profession that you are in requires you to wear a gun and deal with the public. Not everyone can effectively talk to people and calm situations down without escallating the situation. You also have to admit that the "fellow officer rule is BS". I guess in this profession you are trained not to lie why the rest of us do it all the time.
. I guess another part of the "fellow officer" rule is that sweep what each other does under the rug. How may LEO get off of tickets and other minor infractions that the rest of us dont. Or let one of your family members call the police I have noticed that the response time for them usually has a tendency to be a little faster than the rest of ours. Sorry for ranting myself.
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