Law Enforcement Power!

[Mookie]

I know we have several law enforcement people on the forum, so this is for you!

We go to our watch site each afternoon after work for about an hour.  It is a good time to review the day and watch some trains. 

Our site is right by a crossing but was pretty busy yesterday, so we parked off street about a block away and could see the crossing clearly.  There were several MOW trucks around the area since that crossing has lights and gates and they malfunction quite often.  Yesterday was no different - the arms would go up and down every so often with no train anywhere around. 

A few months ago we made friends with a city police officer that patrols this area - when he stopped to make sure everything was ok.   Now he waves or stops for a quick train chat every so often. 

He was "heading in" yesterday and paused only for a minute and used his horn to sound two longs, a short and a long over his loudspeaker for us.  Imagine my delight when as he was doing this, the crossing gates went down!

[CANADIANPACIFIC2816]

Mookie, some of my favorite people are police officers, they are the salt of the earth, if you know what I mean. I have the distinction of having worked with our local police department here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and we have one of the finest police departments anywhere in this country.

Twice a year our local police department offers an eight-week course to the general public, "Citizen's Police Academy" where one can learn first hand what law enforcement is all about and what our police officers face every day in their jobs. I am a 2005 graduate of this course. For the rest of you out there, I would look into taking such a course if your local police department offers anything like this.

CANADIANPACIFIC2816

[zardoz]

Post edited for political correctness.

[samfp1943]

In the above two postings you have the crux of the problem between the police and the puiblic.  Law and common sense and its application, seem to be open to interpretation and application...A cop on the beat makes a decision in seconds that might evenly divide the Supreme Court in its deliberations.   The whole issue becomes a circular argument; a society without law is an anarchy... 

[topcopdoc]

The issuing of tickets is usually not mandatory but upon the officer's common sense and discretion. Discretion is covered in the police academy training common sense is not. Law Enforcement like any other profession has its share of idiots.

 

Doc

[zardoz]

Post edited for politcal correctness.

 

[vlmuke]

I would have to agree about the citizens police acedemy, our local sheriffs dept offers one I took it back in 2006 it was really fun except when we went to the stinky jail, but it gave me a deeper respect for the men and women of law enforcement, but what I really enjoy is the annual picnics they offer us graduates at the shooting range in the summer, and to get to know our local officiers

[zardoz]

Post edited for content.

 

[Mookie]

Zardoz:  I have bit my tongue, since I consider you a friend, but must now disagree with you.  This was a posting meant to be a lighter side of law enforcement and something to lighten up the forum.  I hate that it has been turned into a bash law enforcement posting.

Please let it die a natural death for now.

Jen

 

[zardoz]

My apologies, Jen.  Aforementioned post edited.

[Mookie]

I appreciate it.

[Semper Vaporo]

All that proves it that the police are people too.

I recognize that there are those that would say that the police should be held to a higher standard.  I dissagree.  I hold everyone to the same standard.  Obey the law.  Period, No exceptions.

Bankers are required to be scruplous in their financial dealings, and so should YOU.  The Candlestick Maker must be honest in his manufacture of candles, so must you be honest in your vocation.  You expect the baker to pack a whole 12 donuts in your dozen sized box, why shouldn't you put 12 bottles in the sack when you return them for the nickle deposit and tell the grocer that there are a dozen in it.

There is no difference in the standard that any of us are to be held to.

Is it okay for you keep up with traffic on the interstate roadways by driving 80MPH in the 70MPH zone if you are not a police officer?  Is it okay for you to grab a handful of napkins or straws at the local takout eatery so you will have some extras in the car for later if you are not a policeman?  Is it okay for you to you drink to excess, yet because it is just a short drive home, do so anyway, if you are not a traffic patrol woman?  Is it okay to do drugs if you are not a narcotics officer?  Is it okay for you to keep mistaken extra change from the cashier if you are not a policewoman?  Is it okay for you to purchase a specialty seldom needed tool, take it home to use it just once for a special project and then return it to the store and say it is not what you wanted, if you not a member of the bunko squad?  Is it okay for you to park in the fire lane in front of a store because you won't be long in the store if you are not a detective?  Is it okay for you to shoot back at some vile skum-sucking rock-throwing 12-year-old, if you have not had sensitivity training?

I didn't think so.

I will agree that if some person proves that they are incapable of meeting the "standard" in certain areas then they should not be put in charge of enforcing that standard for others.  If the banker proves to be an embezzeler, he should not be a banker.  If the baker proves he can't count, he should not be allowed to exchange donuts for cash.  If you cannot control the speed of your car, you should not be allowed to drive.  If you cannot be trusted not to drive after you have been drinking, either you should not be allowed to drink or not be allowed to drive... your choice(?)  (I wonder, if asparagus were proven to cause you to act stupid, would you argue that it is your right to eat asparagus, or shun the vegetable altogether?)

Are some police persons in the wrong profession?  Sure, some are the scum of the earth, just like the embezzling banker, the short-changing baker, the drunk driver, the speeder, the petty thief, the drunken mob, the rioter, the patron of the prostitute, and the dirty-rotten, skum-sucking, rock-throwing child.  What are your faults?  (Is conceit the only one, maybe?)

Do I want my police department to be above reproach?  YES, I do!  I expect my fellow drivers to be so also, as well as the grocer, the banker, the garbage collector, the street sweeper, the iron worker, the car mechanic, the TV repairman, the carpenter, brick layer and roofer, the kid that mows my lawn, the TV gameshow host, my favourite movie star, singer or dancer and Member of Congress (talk about "song and dance" people!), the new or used car dealer, the compuer tech. and all others.

Ye that are without sin, cast the first stone.  Just watch out for the sinner with the wrist-rocket in his hip pocket ready to retaliate!

Semper Vaporo,

Charles T. McCullough

CMBY RY

 

[Anonymous]

Yes...salt of the earth...providing there is salt on the donuts. 

 

wrote out a couple of $85 tickets for failing to have life jackets on board either of the two canoes.

Hmmm, they broke the law. They did not contest that they broke the law. The sergant wrote citations because safety devices, you know, those crazy things designed for, oh, I dunno, SAFETY, werent present. It matters not, that these canoers saw some inconsiderate lady jump off a bridge in front of them. Again, they broke the law. I fail to see the problem here.

Maybe it wasnt the best thing to do, afterall, there will be bleeding hearts out there that will look past the infractions, and only see someone who was upset, and moreso because of a citation. Woooah is them.

[greyhounds]

Yes...salt of the earth...providing there is salt on the donuts. 

 

wrote out a couple of $85 tickets for failing to have life jackets on board either of the two canoes.

Hmmm, they broke the law. They did not contest that they broke the law. The sergant wrote citations because safety devices, you know, those crazy things designed for, oh, I dunno, SAFETY, werent present. It matters not, that these canoers saw some inconsiderate lady jump off a bridge in front of them. Again, they broke the law. I fail to see the problem here.

Maybe it wasnt the best thing to do, afterall, there will be bleeding hearts out there that will look past the infractions, and only see someone who was upset, and moreso because of a citation. Woooah is them.

I think the sergant did the right thing.

God knows what he's seen.  People killed or maimed because they didn't have their seat belts on?  People drowned because there were no life vests?  Maybe he's put his own life on the line to go in after someone who didn't take care of themselves.  Maybe he's seen a fellow trooper do that.

It's not his job to decide when and where to enforce a law.  Just be thankful he goes out there every workday with a vest and a gun to get between you and the "bad guys" who are out there.

 

[zardoz]

I give up.

[doghouse]

 

Zardoz, George Orwell references aside, that "perhaps you should reserve judgement until you have been there yourself" statement works for law enforcement as well.

[CShaveRR]

For the first time in her illustrious career, Mookie may have initiated a thread that's gonna get itself locked.

A shame, too--her story's a good one.  There are crossing signals that are triggered by the sound of a train horn, but that crossing at Camp Mookie isn't one of them--railroad experts such as Ed Blysard, Mudchicken, and Yours Truly have been there and left shaking their heads.

Is there any way we can delete all of the follow-up stuff and leave Jen's story to stand on its own--then lock it?

[Murphy Siding]

For the first time in her illustrious career, Mookie may have initiated a thread that's gonna get itself locked.

A shame, too--her story's a good one.  There are crossing signals that are triggered by the sound of a train horn, but that crossing at Camp Mookie isn't one of them--railroad experts such as Ed Blysard, Mudchicken, and Yours Truly have been there and left shaking their heads.

Is there any way we can delete all of the follow-up stuff and leave Jen's story to stand on its own--then lock it?

  Maybe it would be more appropriate to start a new off topic/bashing police thread, that could be then deleted on it's own merits.  Unless it morphed into another Global Warming thread, of course.

[Mookie]

Carl said what I have been thinking all morning.  It was a funny and it got hi-jacked into a rock throwing contest.  I have had more than one thread hi-jacked and completely deleted because it goes off on a tangent. 

I am not sure what about my postings everyone likes to tear apart and get them deleted.  Maybe a conspiracy of some sort?

Or maybe I should just post some tear-aparts for frustrated posters?

At any rate, maybe you had to be there to enjoy the funny - it was perfect timing.  No more, no less.....

Mook!

[Krazykat112079]

Have him repeat the event and see if the gates go down.  They may be haunted by someone that died there!  That would be eerie and fantastic all at the same time.

[spokyone]

 

He was "heading in" yesterday and paused only for a minute and used his horn to sound two longs, a short and a long over his loudspeaker for us.  Imagine my delight when as he was doing this, the crossing gates went down!

Seems like the policeman knows something we don't. I have tried that trick and a 18 wheeler relative has tried also in your state. Keep us posted. Maybe a new thread if needed.

[Semper Vaporo]

Forgive me please!  I don't see that anyone here has "bashed" anybody.  My initial response was to a post that was altered betwixt my reading it and getting my response posted, so maybe my words have lost some of their intent.  (That is what I get for being slow to think and type!)

Folk here have expressed opinions about a situation from another thread.  I recognize Mookie's intent.  And I saw Zardoz's response about a web site that tracks and exposes the failures of certain police individuals to do the "right" thing, whether it be, being an upstanding citizen or being a compasionate citizen.  My response was to state that the web site just proved that police are just like YOU and "ME" (unfortunately!)

Yeah, I sure wish they possessed superior analytical skills and could discern motive and circumstances in an instant.

I do not know much of railroader's experiences.  BUT, I do know of motorists experiences that follow along with what has been described here for a railroader.  I have been the object of another citizen's (and I use the term loosely) maliscious intent by dropping large stones off of interstate overpasses onto MY car.  I know a man whose wife was killed by an idiot (and I keep the that "title" unencumbered by profanity) that dropped a bowling ball off of an overpass.

I also have experienced many aspects of the spectrum from the police.  Once after an accident caused by 1 inch of ice on the roadway that dumped a dozen cars into the median, of which I was the LAST before the salt truck came and the ice dissappeared (which confused the state trooper no end).  MY car was totalled in hitting the car that went into the ditch a minute or two before me.  The trooper gave me a ticket.  In another event, as I was approaching an intersection in town, (one I SHOLD know very well,) the red light went out and the car in the left turn lane pulled forward and made a left turn, so I proceeded through the intersection.  Half-way across I realized that the red light going out was NOT a precursor to a green light coming on... it is a 4-way flasher intersection.  "WHAT A DOLT!" I says in my mind.  "I'm glad there are no police in the area or I would get a ticket for sure" I thought.  HA HA, look in the rear view mirror.  See dem red and blue flashing lights?  I pulled over and dug out my driver's license, wondering what this was going to cost me. The officer asked, "What's going on here?"  I felt that was an odd question, but the only answer I could think of was, "Would you believe, stupidity?"  The officer took my license and returned to his car, leaving me to mull over budget constraints and to chastize myself for being a dolt.  When he returned, he said I should be more carefull in the future and I could go my way.

Now, in my thinking, the first officer was "cold" and the second one was "considerate".  I am sure there are other reasons for the events to unfold as they did, but "I" am not privy to that knowledge.  I will tell you truthfully that I said "Thank you" to BOTH officers, but I will also admit that it was a bit more "heartfelt" to the second one.

What makes Mookie's story funny to me, is that I had a cheap plastic chime whistle under the hood of my car hooked to too small of an air compressor and blew it JUST twice ("Woo, Woo") in the parking lot of the Illinois Railway Museum within earshot of an off duty state trooper.  I was told, IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, that it is illegal for an automobile to make the "Railroad Grade Crossing Signal".

I must admit that I don't understand why this thread might be locked.  Nobody has called anybody a name (well I have called myself a "dolt" but that is just being truthful) (and nobody has disparaged steam locomotives) so I see no reason to stiffle a simple discussion at this point, but I apoloize if I am out of line here.