Howard Co (MD) Police are completely out of control

[John V]

Originally Posted by stuka

Insane that the population of MD has not revolted to this level of draconian speed enforcement.

Exactly what do you suggest we do?

They're not very creative with their locations for speed traps. I've never been nabbed because I know where they trap and I slow down in those areas. Easy.

[FC]

Originally Posted by John V

Exactly what do you suggest we do?

Pick up your assault rifles.

[Plaz]

Originally Posted by FC

Pick up your assault rifles.

And make sure you have good brakes.

[rautox]

I came along a few minutes later. I saw the car had strange damage for a car-car collision. Now, it's obvious what took out the bumper and hood. And I think anyone who's watched those guys wander into oncoming traffic to pull people over saw this coming... unfortunately. Wow.

[bren]

Originally Posted by rautox

I think anyone who's watched those guys wander into oncoming traffic to pull people over saw this coming... unfortunately. Wow.

Yup. Doesn't surprise me one bit.

[FC]

Originally Posted by rautox

I came along a few minutes later. I saw the car had strange damage for a car-car collision. Now, it's obvious what took out the bumper and hood. And I think anyone who's watched those guys wander into oncoming traffic to pull people over saw this coming... unfortunately. Wow.

I've started to see officers do that more and more around here. The other day (I was driving the wife and dog so I wasn't speeding), with the blinding sun in my face, two officers were on foot under the shade of a tree on a 35mph zone (one with he gun, the other presumably for flagging people down) right on the edge of the road. I just could not see them. I suddenly see flag officer just move around and that is when I finally noticed them at all. I instinctively swerved away from the motion and got a dirty look from the officer through my RVM.

WTF. I can easily see some distracted person in a large vehicle clipping one of them, or worse. That really is a dumbass thing to do. Law enforcement procedures need to be overhauled. Boston is still dealing with a case of a fleeing car running into a taxi cab killing the driver, a male passenger just back from Iraq, and leaving gf of passenger with severe brain and other injuries. All because the officer was chasing the suspect through a 25mph, crowded neighborhood over a minor traffic violation.

That really pisses me off. Yes runaway driver is a dick, but really, you couldn't mail the ticket, or whatever? It's really not worth it to do stupid shit like that.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by FC

I can easily see some distracted person in a large vehicle clipping one of them, or worse.

Yeah, because god knows a distracted person in a tiny little subcompact wouldn't clip one of them, or worse.

[FC]

Originally Posted by clyde

Yeah, because god knows a distracted person in a tiny little subcompact wouldn't clip one of them, or worse.

I knew someone would bring this up. In a large vehicle, you will be closer to the cops while staying in your lane, which in this road, considering the traffic, you have to. Nevermind that larger vehicles, like delivery trucks, vans, large trucks etc obviously can;t handle worth shit.

So no, I wasn't talking about SUV's, but a large SUV is still tougher to maneuver than a civic.

And of course, a dude in a motorcycle could still take them out. Just pointing out that there are a lot of large vehicles, and they clearly would have a tougher time avoiding them.

[blee]

That's really sad news. One can interpret the story in a number of ways, but it looks to me like one county's hunger to gain speeding revenue has now caused the death of a good man and the years-long psychological trauma of a young woman who was guilty of something that all of us do.

[John V]

Tragic. The poor guy was just doing his job - yet how reckless of HoCo to put him in this position. Maybe they will rethink how they pull people over for speeding now.

(This is common practice all over MD - it's not unique to HoCo).