Normally I am in favor of law enforcement. This officer makes an eejits remark at the end of his spiel, which otherwise is fairly imperonal and matter of the fact. HOWEVER, there are a couple of places nearing Exits, 9, and 10 along 270 which I have heard are little more than speed traps. I know that I was stopped and the officer was not nearly this polite. He was completely impatient - he did not even wait for me to fumble through my wallet to locate my license and registration. He claimed I was going in excess of 90 mph. Since I had cruise control on and it was set around 72 (I was just ahead of what was going to be an impossible sea of traffic and I knew it because the sky was threatening and ready to open up in what turned out to be an ice-snow pellet storm). I had already put in a 14 hour day and, because the charity I was working for was having a VIP dinner the next evening with several high ranking members of the White House staff, I still had at least 2 or 3 more hours of work to do once I got to Frederick - so I was trying to move fast. But the cruise control was on. The officer did not want to hear anything from me. Basically he told me to shut up. He kept pointing across the road to that guy over there who supposedly had clocked me going in excess of 90 mph. Now I do have a very fast turbo charged Abarth and it will in fact go 180 mph no problem - and there is the possibility that I misread the setting on the cruise control, that the cruise control wasnt working right (something the dealer insisted was not the case when I took it to him), and I had only set the cruise control about 5 minutes before I was pulled over. But first off, I could not see that guy over there at all. I politely said to the officer that I was not aware that I was exceeding 90 mph (anyone who knows me knows that I tend to drive like a slowpoke, not a mad man even if I do have a very fast car) and asked him where exactly I had been clocked going in excess of 90 mph. The officer refused point blank to answer any questions. He handed me a preprinted 8 x 11 citation with my vehicle information etc filled in which he had looked up without my registration (I may have handed him my license - I dont recall; I just know he was too impatient for me to even find the registration). The fine was for $290 if I am not mistaken even though I have NO points and NO prior incidents. The officer then proceeded to bark at me something to the effect You see that guy over there. [Again I didnt.] He clocked you going in excess of 90 mph and if you dont pay the fine here, which does carry 3 points too, and go to court, that guy over there will be in court and so will I - and it will be even worse for you. Or something to that effect. I was flabbergasted. I have never before been pulled over where an officer completely refused to give me any detail whatsoever about what it is that I was being charged with, behaved in such an abrupt and abusive manner, or was so threatening. Now it happens that I am figuratively a child of the law and I am a law-abiding citizen. I speak very politely to police officers because I know that they have very difficult jobs. And I remained polite even in the face of this officers surprisingly belligerent behavior. At first, I felt so bad about the whole thing I did not know what to do. I did not realize how bad 3 points would be and finally I called up the Clerk of the Court. She looked at my record and the citation and right away she said to me You should fight this. What I did was plead guilty with an explanation (even though I honestly did not and do not believe I was going in excess of 90 mph) and pay the fine upfront. Then I went to court as directed. Turns out that that guy over there did not even bother to show up. I had prepared a whole statement to make to the judge and to beg for leniency (for all I know the cruise control or speedometer may have been wrong, maybe I was not seeing clearly, etc. - but I dont think so!) And the ticket actually came with an automatic 5 points not 3. So it is a dang good thing I went. The judge took less than a second to dismiss the case. I attempted to explain my side and he said Do you want a trial? I said, No. Thank you your honor. I had to pay something - relatively small. Court costs or something like that. However Maryland returned the $290 to me within less than a month. The entire case was tossed out. In the elevator leaving the building, a couple of the defense attorneys told me that there is a speed trap somehwere near Exit 9 or 10 and that some of the officers are more concerned with making an unofficial quota than anything else. One of the attorneys told me as well that the equipment that they use to clock you is known to pick up the trace of cars moving in adjacent lanes - resulting in a completely inaccurate reading. That was all they said. Now I am a guy who generally sides with the police (unless they are supporting Stand Your Ground and the shooting of Trevon, or other such abuses of power - which I think more police are shamed by than advocate). And if this happened to me - and believe me the officer was not nearly as polite as this gentlemen here, it occurs to me that it is happening to other as well. I will not claim I am perfect and in fact sometimes can be a kind of crazy driver. But I honestly do not believe I was going in excess of 90 mph that day, nor do I believe that the conduct of the officer was at all appropriate. And the whole thing made me feel so bad I almost pled guilty and just paid the fine - in which case I would have been hit with an automatic 5 points. And I have NONE. I realize that the the police in Montgomery County and elsewhere do have their hands full but this video is the perfect example of how just one officers misjudgment or misconduct can reflect on the entire force. Based on this and my own personal experience, it seems to me that Montgomery County ought to have internal affairs investigators looking into possible underlying systemic abuse. Look - I realize the County needs money, but it does not need the money at the cost this sort of behavior would suggest.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:28:14 +0000
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