Cops these days ...

[min301]

I was far from an angel, but as happened to me,
they should have been arrested, the cars impounded,
and they should have been prosicuted.

In nearly every state in this union, it is now
a felony to street race...Mark, I street raced half my adult life,
but never would ever do anything like this in a neighborhood setting.
Stupid doesn't do it justice, and making excuses for these asshat's just makes you an even bigger one.

[boxer3main]

So if junior only ever gets a "warning" from Johnny Law since he thinks it's only the kids first time in trouble with the law, how is the next cop supposed to know he's been stopped 17 times already for the same thing?

it all catches up..and 17 times may not be an exxageration before it does. Depends on the city.
my own story at 17 needed defense by a judge, a military unit, and other polica officers to mention the crazy police officer that was destrying my life with a sociopathic focus..
true story.


as if cops don't know what 17 is and a ticket...gets quite darn serious.

I still think my own record reads back like 23 violations..been 6 without any, the 5 more before that.. got it all at once when I was a kid, with similar signatures from the same police is what got me defended from the government, by the gov't.

they want to give a kid a chance, let them.I am an example when it does not happen. A real badass emerges eventually if they are one...i am not and sure could have used the warning.

[peewee]

I don't think rational minds are going to prevail here. So, let's just declare that street racing through a neighborhood is okay as long as nobody gets hurt. On that day, at that time.

That's about as absurd as anything I've ever heard. Ever.

[min301]

I don't think rational minds are going to prevail here. So, let's just declare that street racing through a neighborhood is okay as long as nobody gets hurt. On that day, at that time.

That's about as absurd as anything I've ever heard. Ever.

Agreed, absurd.

[SuperBuickGuy]

deep breath taken...

okay

Bamf, stop thinking like a cop. Before you retired, you had the terrible job of cleaning up the mess when kids mess up, with the added bonus of getting to tell their parents. Because of that, you operate on the premise that no matter the crime; someone's going to jail.

Are the kids dumb? oh yeah... but getting a break won't make them bad kids. I bet the "that guy's a former cop" comments by the school cop will solve the problem. If they don't, then next time nail their silly little hides to the wall. But you're no longer charged with enforcing the law, you're a private citizen who gets to see people break the law and get away with it.... kind sucks that you can't do anything about it, huh? welcome to life for the rest of us.


oh yeah, Dulcich - I'm not saying they need a stern talking to.

[Stich496]

Wow....

Street racing in a neighborhood, with peds present/school letting out, is now just "stupid crap we all did as a kid"?

Sorry guys ... not me.....maybe out on the highways and such (looking back, even that was stupid) but never in neighborhoods, you can say all you want that I did, I know better.

In colorado, we require these kids to sit thru 30 hours of classroom instruction, 6 hours drive time with an instructor and 80 hours behind the wheel with a parent/responsible party. Part of the required material that is covered deals with careless vs reckless vs accidental. For anyone to say that kind of behavior is acceptable because of their age is utterly stupid! Just by getting the license, they know better .... the material was presented at some point.

The argument about punishing the parents .... I have to raise the BS flag. Like I said, if my kid does it, easy enough, he doesn't drive anymore .... period! My insurance will actually go down cause I'll take him off of it .... oh yea, that car he drives is in my name, not his, so no, he won't be driving it.

I thank God every day that he shows the responsibility to drive, no i'm not that naive to think he doesn't act different when I'm not around, but I'm pretty confident he won't "just be doing what kids do" and seriously hurt someone or worse ....

no one said it was "acceptable because of their age" but we still did it.. and we knew better..
and those manadated classes are an f'n joke.. all that is is one state dept, washing anothers hands, and who runs the classes and schools retired cops..
not one I've ever sat in on. shows how to control a skid in any real world way..sorry telling them "you turn into a skid" just isn't enough..
nevermind the rest of the useless babble they teach.. "look at 3 cars ahead" ya great, as long as the car infront of you isn't a suv..

they don't teach threshold braking, watching the mirrors so you have an "out" if you need one.. car control on ice, or oil road(issue on roads that see no rain then are a skating rink after the first rain..

what they do teach is drive with both hands on the wheel.. and how to drive if you had all day and no one in a rush behind you.. and the braking style you'd use if you had 4 wheel drum brakes that had already faded..
sorry that will do nothing in the real world..

[DanStokes]

I'm going to throw out another thought here. Peewee's absolutely right - teenagers, especially boys, simply lack the hardware to make these decisions instinctively (there are, of course, exceptions). They won't have this kind of ability for a while. So how do we get them to act reasonably in the meantime? First, they get instruction that tells them what is expected in our society. Then those who flagrantly step outside of the acceptable bounds need to pay a price so they can learn not to do that again. It's like the toddler putting his hand on the hot stove. The Mom tells him not to but once he does it the pain leaves a lasting (and lifelong) impression. Does the toddler lose the curiosity - no. But he simply learns not to do that. Same deal.

The price the kids pay has to be in line with the severity of the offense. I agree that the kid doesn't need to go to the Pen but we as a society need to get his attention. While the whole idea of using school as a punishment is really strange (school is a privilege!) the real question is "Is this an effective punishment for these boys?" Not knowing the boys in question I can't answer that.

To pick up on what Bamster said - I did PLENTY of street racing as a kid, but NEVER in a populated area. Not because of some higher moral ground but simply because doing so would mean we'd likely get caught and there was gonna be Hell to pay, even if Dad secretly thought it was OK (remember the hand on the stove?). The societal pressure at that time was that parents were expected to have a handle on their kids at all times. And us kids, of course, were trying to shake loose from the handle. It was a dance but we knew the price if we didn't follow the steps. So no, no street racing in residential areas. As I said in my first post, neither me nor any of my buddies dared to get caught and turned over to our Dads. I'd have taken the courts any day!

Dan

[Stich496]

you know what, I'm really sick of the I didn't race in someones 'hood..
your full of crap.. just because there isn't a house every 20 feet, you STILL DROVE LIKE AN ASS IN SOMEONES 'HOOD..
but you'll justify it because it might have been a house/farm every 30 yards..
same actions.. and no at their age you didn't care if there was a house every 20 feet or one every 100 yards..
I'm out because I don't have boots tall enough for the bullcrap that some are shovel'n

[Bamfster]

And I never expected the sheriff to "break it off in 'em" .... trust me, I want no part of that job anymore!

But the fact that he thinks a homework assignment and an apology letter is better than a citation and a meeting with the parents (remember, he is the school resource officer so he deals with kids n their parents regularly) is beyond me. If he wants to do that on top of a ticket .... cool. If these kids were merely speeding down the street, ran a stop sign or something along those lines ..... well I guess we wouldn't be having this conversation because I could have cared less. I understand new/young drivers make mistakes and sometimes screw around .... but not these kids.

[peewee]

Do it through a crowded neighborhood, you're going to jail. Period. That's just plain moronic. If you have to do it, there are better places to do it, especially on a sanctioned track where everybody's out of the way when things don't go just perfect.

I'm saying, kids don't realize the risk to others, and they don't care. And I'm completely agreeing that we all did it back then. That sure as heck doesn't make it right now. We're suppossed to be more civilized now, but I guess we aren't. For sure none of us got our lives ruined by it, except for the few that actually did kill somebody else doing it. And that's what you had to do (kill somebody else) to get in trouble for it. So we kept doing it, thinking it would always only happen to somebody less skilled than "we" were. Still, with no regard to the safety of others.

Bust one kid up the river for just doing it, not (luckily) for killing somebody else in the process, there's the Message that never gets out. And to your point Stich, that's the Message that was never sent to us when we were doing it. Never was. it should have been. Why wait for some bystander to be killed?