Modern Vespa

I'm surprised by a couple of things in this thread. First, I'm stunned that Montreal would charge $161 for a non-moving violation. That's a lot over the top IMO. Second I would think that some of my fellow cops retired and active would assume that the cop in question was wrong.

When I joined the PD in the seventies the academy was six months long and that was followed by 12 weeks riding double with a field training officer. I learned a lot about my chosen profession. I learned all about the penal law, the criminal procedure law, the family court act, federal offenses, first aid, CPR, how to handle family disputes, when deadly physical force was authorized and when it was not, firearm safety and marksmanship and how to completely the mountain of paperwork associated with each of those tasks in a timely manner.

No where at no time in all that training did I get any instruction on how to direct traffic. It's one of those things that you were just to intuitively supposed to know how to do. Well I can tell you it's not intuitive, it's very dangerous and it's very difficult. It doesn't get easier when someone is honking at you.

From DAVIDMASSE's description it's impossible for me to say whether the cop in question was doing a good job or a poor one. I don't think anyone else can either. No one has any idea what her instructions were relative to the situation she was assigned.

Think about this example for a moment. You get to a four way intersection and the traffic light isn't working. Each directional lane wants to have some cars make left, some straight and some make a right turn. If you're standing in the middle of the intersection the last thing you want to happen is cars moving that you don't specifically control. The only way to prevent this is to stop all the traffic in all four directions. Then you pick one and facing them you let them go straight, left or right. Then you stop them and go to the next directional lane and let them do the same. You keep rotating lanes one at a time until the TL starts working or you get some help. This is not very efficient as to moving traffic quickly. TL's do a much better job. But then the reason you got stuck in this situation is the mechanical device failed and you are the backup. If the light starts working again you hope that some passerby will have the sense to tell you so because you are directly under the TL and can't see it in most cases. All the while you are cursing yourself for delaying that "pee" break and praying it won't start to rain. Once you start there is no going back to the car for your raincoat or to duck into the nearest rest room for relief.

It's not easy. But you have to remember the prime directive of police work. You return home safely at the end of your shift no matter how many people you annoy.

This is very simple. I've seen it before.

She just saw her husband's ex-wife's 14yo daughter that lives with them in the One Direction crowd and she was supposed to be grounded for smoking.
Her husband is a cop too, in fact her Sargent.
He made her do traffic today because they're arguing over the fact she won't let him get a Vespa............and there's the problem.

Why'd you wait so long to get this all straightened out?

I'm going to be the jerk on this thread and side with the LEO. I think you're making a few assumptions here.

1. We don't know if she was just following orders. Her CO may have told her exactly what to do?
2. The traffic may have been backed up for a lot longer than you'd been there. Maybe they knew something you didn't?

I've found myself sometimes stuck in traffic a few cars back from the intersection and honking like a madman, only to find a traffic cop at the intersection once I got there, due to heavy traffic. In NYC, they don't deploy traffic cops to intersections unless the situation calls for it. When I see them, I just go with the flow.

Also, it's not her fault that you're wearing a heavy, black jacket and helmet; it wouldn't be any different if you were sitting in a car with no A/C.

Finally, I'd be upset if a truck driver behind was blowing an air horn every minute because traffic is backed up.

NYS has a motor vehicle law against "unnecessary or loud" horns. http://ypdcrime.com/vt/vt_guide.htm

You may want to check your local motor vehicle laws.

Your explanation makes much more sense than mine.

I wouldn't say crap about how poor a job the officer was doing --
I would say you were sounding the horn because of the risk of heatstroke...
which falls under the category of 'warning of danger'

--just a thought.

This ^^

Extenuating circumstances, you felt you were becoming faint in the 30°+ temperatures due to being adequately protected for riding your scooter.

Or you could have just pulled off to the side stripped yourself of the hot protective gear and cooled off for a while. Not wanting to crank up the Toreador Pants discussion here but every decision has a risk and a benefit. Was the probable fact of getting caught in city traffic with heavy gear and suffering a heat stroke more dangerous than the risk of getting into a situation where the gear could save your life. If both were dangerous then maybe a decision not to ride would be the best choice.

well your honor. I was sitting at the lights talking to a guy in a pickup truck next to me. When he said "what the fuck is this stupid cow of a cop doing, blocking all the traffic up" At that point he honked his very loud horn just as I was adjusting my rear view mirrors that looked like I was making a gesture towards the cop, like I was asking her what the hell was she doing.
It was a few minutes later that the very same pickup driver did the very same thing, again I was stretching my arms in a downward direction to relieve the pain of holding my scooter up in the very high temperature. This again looked like I was making a gesture towards the cop lady.
I did say out of the corner of my mouth to the pickup driver " listen shithead, I'm going to tell the cop that it was you that did all the honking" It was at this point that the driver pointed at the passenger seat where a Colt 45 was half hidden under a coat.
I thought the better of the deal and decided to save the cops life, if he did start shooting the nice lady cop was probably just as bad a shot as she was at directing traffic and would have been taken out by the pickup driver along with myself.
so your honor in a way I like to think that I saved not only my life but also the life of that wonderful If stupid traffic cop...
I would also like to point out that with all the noise and commotion the chances of the nice lady cop hearing my peep peep little horn would prove that my statement is true and to prove it I am more than willing to give a demonstration of the sound of my week sounding horn.

PS
Don't forget to change it back to the original darling

I really don't like female cops. However i guess it's rough in a "man's" world but they know that when they joined. I say not guilty. Sitting in the heat you were hot and i'm sure your scooter was hot. I wouldn't just pay because IMHO you did nothing wrong. She needs to learn that. If you let her get away with it she'll so it to someone else and maybe they won't have the money to pay the ticket they shouldn't have gotten. You coud say you were honking at a bunch of bunnies that were crossing the road so they wouldn't get run over. Good luck

Unfortunately those personality types gravitate toward law enforcement. I have a cousin with similiar issues who is a cop. You do need to watch out for them.

I have been in almost the same position as you were, but it wasn't a police officer directing traffic, it was a construction worker so no ticket, just an annoyed construction worker.

I don't think I would have used my horn at a police officer. So, you are probably guilty as charged, but I would fight it in court to get it kicked out or the amount lessened. In court you will get to face the "offended" police officer (if she shows) and pleading your case just may get you off. I certainly understand why you did it, but it was the wrong thing to do.

Sounds like both parties were hot and frustrated and probably both somewhat in the wrong. My dad was a cop so I grew up with a fair number of them around. The majority are decent hard working people but all are human. Whether you think she was doing a bad job of directing traffic isn't really relevant. She probably was over reacting to your horn and a $161 ticket for 3 horn blasts does seem excessive so I'd contest it. Judges have discretion and I suspect the fine would be reduced or dropped since 3 "honks" doesn't seem excessive.

I got a ticket in my sons car for driving with an expired inspection sticker. The battery was dead when we returned from Colorado so we had to replace it. After replacing the battery you have to drive 50-70 miles to reset the CPU before you can taked the emmissions test otherwise it gives a false fail so the shops won't test until you ave driven it that far. I got my ticket less tha 30 miles on the new battery $290 plus $75 in court costs, 8 days past the inspection due date. Judge actually told me I should have towed the car to the shop for testing. When I asked how the 50 miles needed to reset the chip was supposed to be out on he just shrugged but did reduce the fine.

You should have just waited like everyone else.

What makes your commute more important than everyone else's ?

Patience eh ?

Bill X

OP, give the lady a break. Under the uniform she's just a person whose day wasn't exactly going great before you arrived on the scene. And consider that of all the people there who weren't happy about the situation, how many of them were "outspoken" in the same manner you were?

Listen, I'm not fond of police, not because of what they do but because of the type of people the job appears to attract. On the better hand I wish we had 100% of them treat the world the way my brother in law does. You want an example of who a leo ought to aspire to be, this guy is it. And guess what? He has bad days. Just like the rest of us.

All you were served was a "lapse of living what your mother taught you" fine. We all pay those from time to time in one way or another. Pay it, learn from it and move on.

Harv

David,

Just being selfish, but I'd go for challenging the fine, first to get the judge's opinion on whether it appeared reasonable, but more importantly, so your dedicated MV thread-followers have another tale to read of your adventures

When first reading this thread, the somewhat rhetorical question popped into my mind, whether full gear insulates a oerson from taser shocks.

My guess is she wasn't just hangin out in the middle of the road looking for someone to screw with. She probably knew something about the situation that you didn't, or had instructions as to a specific time to open the intersection, or maybe one of a hundred other reasons for stopping traffic that we will never know. Sorry bro, Guilty. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a police officer for seventeen years. I hated traffic control. I always wanted to get the road open and get the hell out of there as fast as I could. Sometimes it took a while. That's life. We don't always get what we want.

This would be epic.

Cop got it wrong.
Should be 161$ per toot.
Maybe the judge will fix it.

Ha! You're a big help

I was going to suggest a reduction admitting that only the last toot was worthy of an offense...

You know, if you brought a few of us along to court, I'm sure you'd get out of there no less than several hundred dollars poorer.