Cop Paranoia

[TXlib]

Does anybody else have cop paranoia?

When I was 16, the very first day I drove to school after getting my license, a cop car got behind me as soon as I left the neighborhood, and followed me the whole way to school. It was a twisty route, not on main roads, and he was on my ass like a hemmorhoid the whole way. I was freaking out. I paid so much attention to him and to my speedometer that I wasn't paying enough attention in front of me. I didn't know why he kept tailing me, and why he didn't just pull me over.

I got to school, and he followed me into the student parking lot. I parked, and he paused his car behind mine, glared at me, and drove away.

Now, what I should have done is pull over as soon as I found him distracting, and let him by.

---

Fast-forward to today:

Every time I see a cop car going the other direction, I half-expect it to slam on the breaks, flip around, and pursue me, lights and sirens and all.

When a cop car is behind me, I am paying so much attention to my speedometer and rear-view mirror, I am neglecting the road ahead of me. I have, in the past, pulled over to let the cop car go by rather than continue with him tailing me.

I have only very rarely been actually pulled over by the police, and have never had any real legal problems.

Anybody else feel this way?

[HEyHEY]

1. No, I think it's just you...

:-)

[VelmaD]

2. Absolutely...

and the cops don't do anything to dispell that feeling. I think they get a kick out of getting behind some poor shlub and following them TOO DAMN CLOSE just to watch them squirm.

[Bunny]

3. Are you black?

I've heard that this type of cop behavior occurs with some frequency to our black friends. Maybe a little intimidation?

[TXlib]

11. No, I am the very definition of "Honkey"

Any whiter, and I'd be an aspirin.

[Bunny]

17. Hah!!!

Excuse me while I clean the pop off of my keyboard! Any whiter and you'd be an aspirin! That's a good one! :)

[dreissig]

4. He Was Trying to Rabbit You

Cops do that to get you to bolt. You probably paid special attention to him that day because it was your first day with your new license. He wanted to to know if you were going to run. If you did, he'd have caught you.

But you didn't run. You drove into the parking lot, turned the engine off, removed the key from the ignition, and got out of the car. Maybe he stayed in character by "glaring" at you. To him, it wasn't anything more that a goof.

A Highway Patrolman did that to me near the state line. He did a doubletake when he saw me, then wheeled right around in hot pursuit. I said to myself, "He sure thinks he knows me!" When he sped past me, I realized it's a game they play.

[elfwitch]

5. Me too...

I have the eyeball disease too. It doesn't matter if I'm doing anything wrong or not. Even cars that look cop-ish (transit police, rent-a-cop security cars, etc.) make me a little twitchy. I attribute it to far too many years doing things that aren't exactly legal (pot, speeding, etc.).

[pretzel4gore]

6. maybe a nice gun

would make you feel safer(?)
the busybodies (cops) are everywhere :-(
gotta protect all that private property i guess

[Another Bill C.]

7. It even happens to me.

I'm 65 and I've never had a ticket in my life. I drive a '92 Mustang GT convertible in the summer and I can count on seeing a cop do a quick turn-around and following me at least a couple times a month. It still rattles me.

[Lars39]

8. Having grown up around my sociopathic BIL cop, yes.

I know what some are capable of. Recent exposure to another one from the same template just confirmed my self-preservation paranoia.

[bif]

9. "I definitely smell a pork product of some sort..."

Can't stand 'em.

[7th_Sephiroth]

10. all the time

i have a bunch ofskateboarding stickers and dragon stickers on my tailgate *jeep* and my jeep is decorated with dragons, so i think the cops think i'm in a gang

[TXlib]

12. I told my parents about the cop following me to school

about 10 years later.

My father was upset I didn't tell him back when it happened.

Turns out, there was a cop who had a grudge against my father, since my father reported him for drinking on the job (cop had major liquor reek on his breath).

I think most town/city cops are little more than the old HS bully, given a badge.

[BiggJawn]

13. "Fishing Expeditions"

They hang on your ass waiting to see if you'll get rattled and make a "mistake".
I think the practice sucks, but what can you do about it? as I read once they "have a gun and a modicum of authority to use it"...

I try to Zen out on them by flashing on the idea that while he's riding my ass, somebody else is doing the same to his wife...:evilgrin:

[TXlib]

14. Now when it happens, I just pull over.

And let the cop by.

If they should happen to stop and ask me why I stopped, I'll just answer that I was paying too much attention to my speedometer needle and rearview mirror, and not enough to the road in front of me.

[Dogmudgeon]

15. Now now, be nice

Once a lot of guys put on the badge, they regress about ten million years down the evolutionary line.

What's the best way to deal with an agitated monkey?

Be nice to him!

I don't suggest throwing peanuts, but put on your best parent-to-child smile and realize he can't help it; he's a victim of millions of years of evolutionary envy.

--bkl
Where arrogance fails, anthropology succeeds.

[LincolnMcGrath]

16. Paranoid? Or are they really

out to get you?
Someimes they might just by driving somewhere. Are they closer, or hanging on longer then any other tail-rider.
As an MP I noticed how freaked out people got as I "drove" from place to place. Tail-gating was common for me becuase I wasn`t going out for lunch, I was usually responding to a crisis.

:shrug: :tinfoilhat:

[Paranoid_Portlander]

18. Paranoid here.

It will never happen to me because I have never driven a car in my entire life. I was pulled over as a pedestrian once in 1986 because the cop thought I wasn't good enough for the neighborhood. (I didn't live there.)

[amazona]

19. i've been pulled over a lot so is it paranoia if they're really out there?

Seriously, when a cop is tailing me, I do exactly that -- I pull over and let him go by. I drive like a little old lady (speed limit or slower) so probably he DOES just want to go by. However, with my huge income, I have spent most of my life driving older cars, so I used to get pulled over all the time. I never got a ticket though but it still makes you paranoid. They are really just fishing. One of my cars was a 1960s "finned" Cadillac so I was always getting stopped at night for driving while black; sometimes they would shine the light on my face and then zip off when they realized I wasn't black, but other times they would feel obligated to go through the whole charade of calling in my license or whatever before letting me go. You know when they say, "You were weaving," it's just a fishing expedition. It really gave me an appreciation for some of the **** that minorities have to go through just to drive on the interstate; you are automatically presumed to be transporting drugs, I suppose. I found it best to be very patient -- they keep asking the same question and repeating themselves -- very patient and very passive. No matter how many times they ask how much you had to drink, always say, you didn't have anything, and so on. They are looking for people to lose their temper to give them an excuse to go tearing through your car. So just be passive and they will decide you're a harmless nitwit and go on to the next person.

My current car is a foreign car, and I can't believe the difference in how I'm treated. Even though it is fire engine red, I never (knock on wood) get pulled over. If you have true cop paranoia, don't get a Cadillac or another big American car. It just puts $$$ in LEO's eyes.