Governor gets pulled over for red light violation, does the whole “do you know who I am” equivalent, then says “Come on, man” and the cop lets him go. Two people who should lose their jobs.
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It apparently didn’t stop there, or we never would have seen it. I wonder who released the video?
I would not issue a traffic summons to a governor or high ranking politician unless the violation was egregious. Cops do have discretion.
I also hardly gave tickets to anyone back in my patrol officer days.
This is much ado about nothing.
I don’t really find fault with the cop as the governor would likely get it thrown out and it could hurt the cop’s career. But the governor showed that he thinks that he is above the law. Not that he’s the first politician to express those sentiments.
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Why not?
This sort of thing made local headlines a few years ago. A mayor was pulled over for speeding and their insurance had expired 6 months previously.
Not only were they not given a ticket, the officer escorted them where they needed to go.
There is no way in hell I would be given that same courtesy. It’s never a good look when government officials use their position to avoid the consequences of their poor actions.
I would think the governor should have to go through the steps to get it thrown out, which would probably be on public record.
And we live in a broken system if this sort of thing would hurt the cop’s career and not the governor’s. The cop is just doing his job.
Cop is kind of in a no win situation here.
Issue the ticket, and potential repercussions for doing so.
Don’t issue the ticket, and catch a bunch of grief about letting the Governor go.
It’s the governor’s behavior that’s problematic.
I’m with you on this, however temperament plays a role here. I have gotten out of perhaps 4 or so tickets in my life showing my Fire dept ID and letting my badge be visible during first encounter. Only didn’t work once, cop was a bit surly and I just took it quietly. But always, always I approached it very delicate, never saying anything about my affiliation, let the cop ask about it.
Best one was on a family vacation about 12 years ago in New York City, got pulled over on the fwy doing 75..Handed the cop by ID and license, he handed them back and said thank you for your service. Then said he would never give any fire guy from anywhere a ticket..It only hit me later that he was somehow connected to 9/11, then it all made sense..
And before all of you civilians start complaining, you just need to think of this as one of the job perks, every job has them, this is just one that goes in our favor to the many times the job goes the other way..
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For a state patrol the governor is at the top of his chain of command.
So awkward at best, and a “career limiting move” at worst.
FTFY
That’s the kind of worry I would expect a cop in a third world country might have.
I generally fall on the side of giving the benefit of the doubt to law enforcement. This is the kind of thing that really makes me think twice about that.
It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Traffic violations are not crimes. I would never (and never did) let a crime slide for anyone (and plenty of people pulled the “do you know who I am?” trick while the cuffs went on, usually for DV crimes oddly).
This was a minor traffic violation. One that I *personally* would let slide with a warning (and have let slide, probably 100+ times) for anyone I pulled over.
6 months expired insurance is exactly the kind of violation I would not let slide. Or DUI.
I stopped a very well known D1 football coach once upon a time many moons ago for a traffic violation. He got a ticket. He didn’t tell me who he was and was very polite and apologetic. I also arrested a high profile D1 football coach (different guy) for DUI/crash; his female companion tried the “do you know who he is” card; yes, ma’am, I do. The arrest made ESPN. (Both of these were over 20 years ago.)
I’ve only been pulled over a few times and I’ve never said anything about my employment unless I was armed. I got pulled over by Colorado State Patrol a long time ago. I was armed and let the trooper know. He bantered a bit, usual cop talk stuff. I got the ticket.
Troopers don’t mess around.
Come to Massachusetts. Staties most definitely mess around in these parts.
For sure, another story. Was on a motorcycle ride with all cops and highway patrol officers, was a poker ride on the back roads from Coachella valley to Vegas. Most Harleys, but me with my BMW and a couple sport bikes. A lot of 100mph+ areas, some guys hitting 120+. But only warning everyone in the group said was to keep lookout for a CA trooper. In the past he has pulled over 5 or 6 of them and wrote all tickets. About 40 law enforcement officers on vacant back roads, but he was having none of that..
Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. Your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side when he sees the big red light behind him … and then he will start apologizing, begging for mercy.
This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop-heart. The thing to do – when you’re running along about 100 or so and you suddenly find a red-flashing CHP-tracker on your tail – what you want to do then is accelerate. Never pull over with the first siren-howl. Mash it down and make the bastard chase you at speeds up to 120 all the way to the next exit. He will follow. But he won’t know what to make of your blinker-signal that says you’re about to turn right.
This is to let him know you’re looking for a proper place to pull off and talk … keep signaling and hope for an off-ramp, one of those uphill side-loops with a sign saying “Max Speed 25” … and the trick, at this point, is to suddenly leave the freeway and take him into the chute at no less than 100 miles an hour.
He will lock his brakes about the same time you lock yours, but it will take him a moment to realize that he’s about to make a 180-degree turn at this speed … but you will be ready for it, braced for the Gs and the fast heel-toe work, and with any luck at all you will have come to a complete stop off the road at the top of the turn and be standing beside your automobile by the time he catches up.
He will not be reasonable at first … but no matter. Let him calm down. He will want the first word. Let him have it. His brain will be in a turmoil: he may begin jabbering, or even pull his gun. Let him unwind; keep smiling. The idea is to show him that you were always in total control of yourself and your vehicle – while he lost control of everything.
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Same. I had a long list of people that I generally wouldn’t issue a ticket to unless they talked their way into it: Doctors, nurses, firefighters, paramedics, etc.
Here, at least, we have the discretion to ticket or not ticket as we deem appropriate. To me, this is a nothing burger for the cop at least.
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You had a long list of groups of people you wouldn’t ticket. What if an individual in one of those groups was a repeat offender and a genuine threat to public safety, and because you and others hadn’t recorded any of those offenses, that individual continued to be a threat? Why not issue a warning so that the incident is recorded in the individual’s driving history? Did you depend on word-of-mouth within your and across all neighboring precincts?
My employer is large, and all warnings were documented on a system that they could access (or I could see if they had a warning for stuff as well). You can’t rely on word of mouth in a big city, so we had a system for it.
People could talk themselves into a ticket, and if they were a chronically bad driver that would have fit the bill although it never happened. It wasn’t carte blanche to do whatever, and no one ever took advantage AFAIK
That’s good to know. Every traffic stop is documented and associated with the offending driver, correct? So every time you stop someone, you check that system to look for prior warnings and offenses, and also enter that stop in that system?