Belle and I are sitting on the back porch, and she happens to notice a Sheriff's deputy sitting in our side yard. We live on a corner, and have a street beside our house. I peek over the fence and see that the deputy has some teenager pulled over. The teen is on a side-by-side four-wheeler.
We live in a subdivision outside of town. Four-wheelers on the road are an issue, and many of them have no registration or insurance. Many of the kids who ride them don't have a license yet. It's a problem. God forbid some kid gets run over. Seriously. No one wants that to happen.
So, I sit back down, tell Belle what's going on and give her my synopsis, based on what I did when I was a rural deputy. Shut the kid down. Give him a warning citation and get in touch with his parents. No harm, no one gets fouled, and hopefully the kid learns a lesson. Don't drive four-wheelers on public roads.
About an hour later, Belle notices that the deputy is still there, and I start making excuses for him. He's doing paperwork, it's close to the end of shift and he has no calls pending. Then, we hear air barks and a back-up warning. I peer over the fence and see a wrecker. A nice tilt-bed wrecker.
That deputy is impounding that four-wheeler. Don't ask me why, I can think of a few scenarios. None of them good for the kid, and I bet that Daddy is going to be pissed.
6 comments:
Yeah, that is NOT going to go over well.
My guess is the kid got totally lippy, refused to provide any ID, and just generally ran his mouth off like he does on the internet while playing a game.
He fooled around, so he found out.
Maybe now the kid will understand the only things you say to a cop are "Yes, Sir", "No, Sir", "I understand, Sir", politely sign the ticket, and quietly go on your way.
Yanknow it's funny... I'd love to blame the cops and make derogatory comments here.
But truthfully, I get it, totally understand. It's the same problem many educators face in our schools, and the problem manifests itself in lots of other places.
Someone will decide to sue the shit out of the cop, for, reasons... so they are forced into following the letter of the process exactly.
YES, when I was growing up, I had a few 'conversations' with the police, and I was able to learn my lesson the easy way, thanks boys! Today things are simply too litigious!
Say the cop knew the kids, or their parents... listen buddy, I'm gonna give you a break... Then the kid goes and causes an accident, or injures his passenger - cop's facing a lawsuit in civil court and a whole mess of inquiries from IA at his job.
Sorry kid, I didn't make the world this way, I gotta live in it too....
... So the bigger problem is, most people won't get, is it creates the super-state we're all so worried about! This is how big government gets its paws into everything, controls everything, and nobody can do anything anymore without process and permission. Because if you don't involve a 20-person committee to address the problem, YOU will be singled out and addressed. If the committee decides the solution is to trans the kid for speeding on a public road in a 4-wheeler, nobody will get in trouble when he goes postal and commits suicide after offing 20 of his classmates.
This is going to be the downfall of our society. It's what the managerial class is all about. All the power with none of the responsibility. That's the type of system they are constructing to rule over the world. Look at all the extra-governmental organizations in our world that are fucking everything up? Nobody voted for the WEF, WHO, or the UN, but when they issue an edict... And when they screw up royally (*cough* KungFlu Response *cough*) nothing happens to nobody, because it was decision by committee.
WE
ARE
SCREWED!!!
This story/post is merely a fractal of the overarching problem.
Good call by john law.
They need to do things like that more often. The reason it gets out of control is because we (through our employees at the Police department and our elected officials who set their priorities) allow them to.
When the penalty is to be slapped on the wrist and told "don't do that any more", it's almost like a game they play to try not to get caught. It's exciting.
Make the penalties harsh enough and the fun of the game will be outweighed by the severity of the consequences.
That's true of many petty crimes and annoyances that decrease quality of life and drive good people away from neighborhoods, not to mention more serious crimes.
We live in a mid-sized city (population about 250k and declining) that is suffering the same problems as cities everywhere...not enough cops to go around. The ACAB movement has convinced younger people that it's not an honorable profession and they're staying away in droves.
We can't even get cops to show up for serious incidents, let alone minor stuff. The end result is that a lot of the minor stuff that could be resolved with a little neutral intervention gets out of hand instead and escalates into not minor stuff.
We're working on our escape plans now. I'm hoping my company will allow me to work remotely after we move away from here...if not I'll either just retire, or become a Walmart greeter, depending on the financial situation. Here's hoping the housing market here stays good enough that we can sell the house and be debt free after the move.
Every county around here allows riding ATVs or UTVs in public, with varying rules (or lack thereof). It's a big area and they have lots of legitimate uses - the state even issues a permit, needed for use on state land (of which there isn't much).
Of course, they'd be hard pressed to do otherwise given how many of them there are, how few cops there are, and that some of the worst offenders are county commissioners...
Jonathan
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