Friday, April 13, 2007

Two Days

I've been on the road the past two days. Not traveling the whole time, because the trip can be completed in 18 hours. It would be a good Saddlesore ride. When you are traveling with Milady and her mother, you take your time. Side trips are important.

Some notes from the road

The Florida Highway Patrol will let you run 80-something miles per hour on their Interstates. I don't know exactly where the cutoff is, but 89 miles per hour is over it. The officer was very professional and very polite. No, I did not get a ticket. I don't get tickets. Just doesn't happen. Professional courtesy and all that.

Alabama is more narrow at the southern end. If you can't blow through Alabama in an hour, tops, on I-10, you're not traveling properly.

The reconstruction of Biloxi and Gulfport are progressing nicely. There is only so much that the crews that are there can do, but I submit that a good craftsman in that area will be fully employed until the next hurricane. If you're a young person wanting a career in the building trades, you could do a lot worse than the Mississippi gulf coast. Were it me, I'd save enough money for a good used bulldozer and park it somewhere safe waiting on the next hurricane. There will be a next hurricane. Bulldozers are invaluable in the days and weeks after a hurricane.

I'm tired and I have a lot of stuff to do this weekend. Blogging will recommence shortly.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"No, I did not get a ticket. I don't get tickets. Just doesn't happen. Professional courtesy and all that"
This is the sort of thing that gives police a bad name.
As long as there is one law for cops and another for"civilians" the statement "95% of the cops give the other 5% a bad name" will remain true.
and,by the way to all the LEOs out there, if you are NOT in the Military.... you are a Civilian.
Dennis

Pawpaw said...

Oh, please. Give me a damn break.

Every trade, profession, and craft finds ways to acknowledge and assist other members of the clan. That's been so since we came out of the Dark Ages and founded trade guilds.

And I never refer to citizens as "civilian", whether or not they have served. If you read this blog, you'd know that. And, with the DD Form 2 in my pocket, I guess that makes me Military, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

LOL, cops dont give other cops tickets unless something or someone isharmed, thats how it is.

Anonymous said...

Dan,
That is my point!
I was never taught that something was ok for me but not for my friend or my cousin. My dad also never said "do as I say not as I do"
That is the way I raise my children, and that is the way I try to treat everybody.
Either the speed limit(or any other law) is for everybody or it is for nobody and when the law is noted enforced impartially, how can the person enforcing it expect to be respected?
Dennis

Anonymous said...

PawPaw,
I thought I posted this once, but it is not here. I probably screwed up somehow.
I agree that every craft,trade and profession proffer professional courtesy and assistance to thier brothers. I have no problem with that.
I do have a problem when one doctor sees another doctor screw up and doesn't call him on it or covers it up.
The same goes for an officer breaking any law that he would stop and cite a non-officer for.
That is not "professionial courtesy. It is a violation of ones oath to enforce the laws of the state.
If that officer gave everybody a warning and let them go, I have no problem with that.
I do have a problem on selective enforcement based on job title.
I never claimed that you used the term "civilian" for non LEOs, and if I seemed to imply that as something personal to you,I do heartily apologize.
That comment was meant for the large group of police that do use the term.
I hope this clears up my position.
Dennis

Pawpaw said...

Dan says: "Either the speed limit(or any other law) is for everybody or it is for nobody and when the law is noted enforced impartially, how can the person enforcing it expect to be respected?"

We have a term for that in the profession. Guys who write tickets for every infraction, every time. You usually see it in small town departments, where they'll drop the speed limit down from 55 to 45, then ticket anyone going 46. We call that a speed trap and we don't respect those guys, do we?

Now, lets go to the common interstate highway where everyone is speeding. Literally everyone is going over 70 mph. Do you want us to ticket everyone? Stop large blocks of speeders, maybe ninety at a time, and issue tickets to everyone? Wouldn't that charm the motoring public?

I see what you're saying, Dennis, and I appreciate the sentiment. The problem is that giving tickets to everyone just isn't workable. You pick and choose the tickets you give and hope that you stop the worst offenders before they hurt someone. I personally don't like writing tickets. The last two years I was on the road, I wrote just exactly three tickets. I gave a bunch of warnings. A bunch of warnings. I made some arrests, wherein the guy didn't get a ticket, but went to jail.

But, I only wrote three tickets. Those two men and one woman, desperately deserved those tickets.

Now, what is it you do for a living? You've never covered for a buddy?

Anonymous said...

PawPaw,
I'm an ex machinist who went over to the dark side and am now a q.c inspector for a small theme park in Anahiem.
Yes,I have and will continue to cover for the people I work with to a certain extent.
I never have and never will cover when safety is involved.
If on a cursory visual insp of a part from our shops I notice a correctable problem I will wheel the parts back to the lead of the shop and inform him/her that these parts are not ready for inspection and why.
Mildley like the officer in the median watching traffic flow by.
Once I have started the inspection of the part though, the part gets inspected the same as one from an outside vendor.Then there is no favoritism shown to anyone.
When that officer decides that this vehicle needs to be stopped, regardless of the reason (speeding, weaving,whatever) at that point friendship should go out of the window.
No, every traffic stop need not end in a ticket. that is not what I'm saying.I have received my share of warnings,(some of them fairly humorous),and I have appreciated every one of them.
I'm only saying that being a member of any group,(Mason,K of C,Marine Corps,Law Enforcement,Loyal order of Raccoons...) should enter into the decision on whether or not somebody gets a ticket.
I don't believe you would respect an officer who Never wrote up a member of the Elks or always wrote up every person with a Star of David emblem.
I don't expect this to change any more that I expect Ted Kennedy to leave the Dark Side (NO,I am not saying that Police are part of the Dark Side). I am only trying to show that this practice is wrong and any officer who practices it or condones it is part of the reason that folks have a picture of some departments as being "above the Law".
This impression does nobody any good and in my never to be humble opinion needs to be addressed and whenever possible corrected.

Once again, my intention is not to offend you or any other LEO out there.
Dennis

Anonymous said...

"I'm only saying that being a member of any group,(Mason,K of C,Marine Corps,Law Enforcement,Loyal order of Raccoons...) should NOT enter into the decision on whether or not somebody gets a ticket.I'm only saying that being a member of any group,(Mason,K of C,Marine Corps,Law Enforcement,Loyal order of Raccoons...) should enter into the decision on whether or not somebody gets a ticket."
"
I should preview before I post, that should read ,

"I'm only saying that being a member of any group,(Mason,K of C,Marine Corps,Law Enforcement,Loyal order of Raccoons...) should NOT enter into the decision on whether or not somebody gets a ticket."
Dennis

Anonymous said...

How do you feel about the town of Woodworth collecting just under 1 million in 2006?

Paw Paw's response: Anyone who speeds through woodworth is a damned fool.

That sounds like respect for a speedtrap to me.