A cop comes to your door after 9 o’clock at night, asking you to step outside. His reason for being there is that he saw your car run a red light 3 hours earlier, while he was off duty and driving his own personal vehicle on the way to the gym. If you go to the Twitter post below, you can watch the video that was captured by the woman’s doorbell camera. The video is in multiple parts. (Sorry, still having issues embedding tweets.)
When the woman refused to step outside, he stated that he is going to mail a traffic citation. The problem that I have is the woman talked too much. I give her a C. What she should have done is:
- Don’t answer the door. This is what doorbell cameras are for.
- Through the camera: “Do you have a warrant? No? Then leave my property.”
- Then stop interacting with him while you record the entire thing.
- In most jurisdictions, cops don’t have the right to arrest for a misdemeanor without a warrant, unless it is happening right in front of them at that moment. This guy is clearly out of bounds.
- You want to mail me a ticket? Go ahead, asshole. I will hire a lawyer for this one. I don’t care what it costs, I will pay it.
This cop is clearly abusing his police powers to settle his road rage issues. The ticket likely won’t hold up in court. I would love to know how this turned out, but I can’t find the rest of it anywhere.
The funny part is the people who are claiming that cops are always on duty. I would love for a cop to make this argument in court. The next question should then be, “Are you permitted to be intoxicated while on duty?”
Then there would be a follow up question: “Have you, since becoming employed as a police officer, ever been legally intoxicated?”
If the answer is yes, then the obvious question to come next is: “So which is it? Were you intoxicated on duty, or could it be that you AREN’T always on duty?”
No, cops aren’t always on duty. A Dallas cop who is in Vegas at a strip club isn’t on duty. A cop on his way to the gym in his private vehicle isn’t on duty. If he were, then he would have performed the traffic stop then. Of course, that is fraught with its own risks.
I had a guy back in 2016 who tried telling me that he was a cop and that I was under arrest. He shit a brick and ran away when I produced a handgun. I don’t believe people who claim to be cops but don’t look like one.
7 Comments
Chris Mallory · December 13, 2024 at 3:43 pm
In my state a sworn LEO has legal jurisdiction in all areas of the state. So a sworn LEO employed by a city in the Eastern part of the state still has his LEO powers in a city at the other end of the state, 400 miles and six hours away. A sworn LEO also has full arrest authority 24/7 while they are in state. So on duty while they are in state is semantics. They may choose not to exercise that authority, but they still have it. That is why for a long time the hospitals and some businesses would only hire cops as “private security”.
My state also has what are called “Special Local Peace Officers”. These are tied to a specific property, apartment complexes are the usual place they work. They have the power of arrest but only on that property except while in pursuit of a person fleeing from the property after committing an act of violence or destruction of the property.
TLDR – Know your state laws.
joe · December 13, 2024 at 5:28 pm
i think you posted the wrong twit address DM…you are right though…don’t answer the door…let his dumbass write you a ticket and mail it…can he prove you were driving the car when it happened?…swear to it in court…fuck him…i would fight that ticket all day long…that is about as chicken shit as you can get as a cop…
Jester · December 13, 2024 at 8:27 pm
So he waited till he was on duty instead of perhaps calling it in to his PD? Showed up hours later to track her down? He was out on a power trip alright. And wanted to intimidate her. I wonder if he had found out the car was registered to a man if he would have behaved the same?
Don Curton · December 14, 2024 at 8:35 am
LOL – back in 1982 I had a 67 Dodge with a 440 magnum engine, 6-pack carbs, dual exhaust, lumpity lump cam, posi-trac, etc. Fast. Very Fast. Also distinctive since most everyone else at that time drove Chevys and Fords. So one night I’m out with my buds looking to street drag race other delinquents and apparently some cop saw me but couldn’t keep up. Next morning my mom needed to go to the store but my car was blocking her in, so she took mine. (Bear in mind her daily driver back in the day was a 396/375 hp Chevelle, so she was used to big block muscle). Same cop sees the car, pulls her over, and struts over to the driver’s door just knowing he was going bust some teen but good. Then sees my mom driving. She lets out a real innocent “what’s the problem, officer?” and he just starts stuttering. Finally asks her if that’s her car and she says yes. He tells her to have a nice day and lets her go. I get a full ear-full when she gets back home, too.
Wasn’t the first time some cop pulled that car over days after an event, but at least back then they played fair and knew that they needed to catch you in the act. All I ever got was lectures and warnings. Had one show up at the house, too. My Dad told him off pretty good, said if you didn’t catch him at the time that’s too fucking bad. My Dad helped me put the 440 in that car.
In other news, cops loved that line about always being “on duty”, since it justified them being able to carry 24/7 back before our God-given right to carry was recognized by the state. My aunt used to date a cop and talked about how they’d all be shit-faced at some bar and every drunk cop there had a gun on them. Cause they were always “on duty” even when drunk and pussy chasing. Some things never change.
Divemedic · December 14, 2024 at 7:57 pm
To me, if a department wants to say all cops are always on duty, then any time a cop fucks up, the department should get sued.
TRX · December 14, 2024 at 11:02 am
> I don’t believe people who claim to be cops but don’t look like one.
—
There’s a reason we dress cops in uniforms.
Aesop · December 15, 2024 at 2:06 pm
He saw who driving the car in question?
The correct answer would be “Sumdood”.
Great catch, Inspector Clousseau.
When you can pick Sumdood out of a line up as the person you saw driving R.O.’s car, some hours ago, take that citation for a minor infraction to court.
Be sure and wear your clown shoes and red rubber nose to get the full effect when the judge asks about three questions, Ofcr. Butthurt @$$hole.
Bonus points if the person who receives it in the mail just shitcans it, never having promised to appear in the first place. It’s as unenforceable as third-party camera citations. Better still would be showing up to court with five or ten lookalikes, and asking the officer to find Waldo out of the whole batch.
Go get a warrant? That isn’t happening, because the warrant would be quashed in about 0.2 seconds as a fishing expedition, which is all this ever was, and judges hate to look like suckers.
The simple answer here is that when cops are badgeholes, like this one was, the punishment should be for the entire department to kick them hard in the dicks once apiece, just as defaulters used to get flogged by the entire ship’s company, and anyone slacking on punishing their buddy got the same punishment.
Then they’d all have skin in the game not to be badgeholes, a first offense would be fun to watch – and ought to be televised on local cable TV – and the number of second offenses would be about 0.
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