Cop in a handicapped parking space!?

[TooManyGizmos]

~

Can this thread get back on TOPIC

The (OP)BatteryCharger was annoyed when he saw basic civic principles being violated by a uniformed officer .

The officer was dis-respecting the codes he was sworn to enforce , and also the confidence of the general public ..... as if to say ":nana:" . It was a very inconsiderate and irresponsible thing for him to do .

BatteryCharger seems to have been infuriated by the act in a "How-Dare-You" ... kind of way . He was still annoyed when he posted ..... evident by his keyboard tone ..... but he was simply asking for advice on how best to submit the evidence and to what agency. He obviously didn't really know what to do ..... but he knew he wanted to do something .... rather than just "shrug" it off and ignore it.

BatteryCharger is NOT the bad guy here ! He should not be scolded so much and labeled for his choice of words in his OP while he was still baffled by what he saw.

I'm sure he did not intend this to become a "Cop bashing" thread - nor did he expect to be "Bashed" himself when he posted to share what he saw ... in dis-belief .

Please comment only on the post "content" and it's merits ..... Don't attack the poster .

~

 

[DimeRazorback]

We're confiscating Bindi Irwin.

Please do!

 

[Mike Painter]

While you guys are sitting home, with your families, at the table casually enjoying dinner, this guy is grabbing a snack,which may be his dinner, that he will eat while sitting in his cruiser. Additionally, if he gets an emmergency call, his snack goes out the window. He will probably repeat this scenario on most of the holidays.(Christmas, Thanksgiving, kids birthdays).. It's a tough tough job, alot of sacrifices that you guys don't even realize......

Been there, done that and it is NO EXCUSE for parking in a handicapped zone.
Yes, it may be a tough job but it was done by choice.
(And if he lives in Redwood City, CA among others he *starts* at about $8000.00 a month)

 

[mvyrmnd]

We're confiscating Bindi Irwin.

She's all yours!

 

[StarHalo]

UPDATE: Bindi Irwin is needed for the operation of the Australia Zoo. So we're taking Miranda Kerr instead.

 

[Empath]

Bout half hour ago I called in a few neighbors to join me review some of these posts. They can't believe what they are reading. " Breaking the Law ", Commiting a Crime "' Violating the Constitution ", Abuse of Authority ". Ha ha we are having a good laugh. YOU PEOPLE ARE A RIOT......

Rants, regarding touchy topics are the ideal threads in which trolls can jump in and really stir up a fuss. To a certain extent, we're tolerant while we make certain that it's trolling and not just a tendency toward clumsy commentary.

When the troll brings in his neighbors and friends to admire his handiwork, it's a bit much. Perhaps you've got off to a bad start, and think flaming and trolling is acceptable. After you return in about three days, hopefully, you'll recognize we have limits. Your posting privileges are suspended for three days.

Regarding the closing of the thread; there is no need to close it as long as it's returned to it's original theme, and it doesn't continue down the road of anti-LEOism. It's not likely that BC's experience demonstrates a common occurrence.

Edit: After reconsidering, I've lifted the suspension. Hopefully, an awareness that your activity is viewed in such a way is sufficient to bring about a reconsideration from you too, regarding the nature and styling of your posts.

 

[mvyrmnd]

UPDATE: Bindi Irwin is needed for the operation of the Australia Zoo. So we're taking Miranda Kerr instead.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!



(final OT post, I promise!)

 

[Patriot]

I hope this thread is short lived and CPF doesn't become CBF(Cop Bashing Forum) . Lighten up....

Wowee parker2520, that's a classic overreact man. Two posts in and the 3rd post you've assigned the whole forum the title "Cop Bashing Forum." Who needs to "lighten up" or at the very minimum, gain some sense of perspective?

I think the CPF community for the most part loves and respects our men and women in uniform. I know that I do. They enforce the Mosaic based laws that this nation was established upon and I love that they legally force morality in a world where people can so quickly become immoral.










To to original poster, I suspect that if you went back inside, politely introduced yourself to the officer and shared your thoughts with a kind attitude and a smile, he'd probably apologize, admit that you were right, and never do it again.

Cops are just people and if you approach the matter with respect you'll often get respect. If you want to go "mad dog" on the policeman and department you'll likely rub them both wrong, in which case, don't expect any breaks or understanding from them in the future. This isn't to suggest that you're a regular law breaker, but mistakes on the road happen sometimes. In such situations I'd expect the same leniency that you've offered to them or lack thereof.

I would let it go this one time and if you see it again just politely speak to the man. If by some chance he's not apologetic then bring it up with his supervisor and share your pictures.

I respect your strong sense of right and wrong but there are areas in each of our lives were we lack discernment when applied to various matters. Sometimes we just need someone to alert us to things that we're otherwise oblivious to.

 

[mossyoak]

When did this forum become so sensitive? i mean come on its the internet, relax.
BTW, i love the handicap parking spots at gas stations, they are always empty so i can just run in and grab a 6-pack and can of dip and leave my jeep running with the doors off and watch it through the door so that no one steals it. thats convenience

 

[Robocop]

In 13 years of police work I have seen good- cops semi good cops- and simply bad cops. I have also slowly learned that some people do not like any cops for whatever reasons. I was shocked when I began my career to find that many people hold police under a magnifying glass waiting for any chance to spring into action. I have had people spit,curse, lie, and try to hurt me at times for nothing other than a chip on their shoulder.

I once saved a woman from a burning vehicle who had badly broken legs after she struck a semi truck from behind. I had to untangle her legs from the pedals and reach under her arms to pull her backwards from the car....all while surrounded by flames. I had minor burns to my arms and she had more serious injuries yet she survived to a full recovery. Imagine my suprise when she tried to place a lawsuit against me claiming I hurt her neck when I pulled her from the vehicle.

Imagine my further suprise when some members of the public jumped in with their own negative comments. Some people tried to find negatives and I heard many say things like "he was trying to be a hero and show off" "he just jumped in there and did not even think before he started pulling on that poor girl" and my favorite "why did he not just try to put out the fire first"

Point is that many saw the real situation and thanked me however many more simply would see nothing else other than negative....regardless of the facts.

Yes if this officer was simply shopping then he was wrong however never assume until you know the facts. I also do not know the regulations in your area however in my area we are allowed to do many things on duty. Yes we can speed, run lights, and park in no parking places if on business. Many times I have had alarm calls at local businesses and always park in the rear to avoid anyone see me approach. Often I will block loading zones or pedestrian traffic when first arriving simply as it is a tactical advantage for me and saves time. Often the alarms are false and after a brief conversation with staff I will leave.

Recently I had an alarm at a local credit union that was given to me as a robbery alarm. Of course I responded with caution thinking this may actually be a robbery in progress. When I arrived I parked 2 blocks away (so I could approach unseen) and simply left my car in traffic with the lights activated. I ran to the location and found it was a false alarm. I spoke to the manager inside for maybe 3 minutes and then cleared the call and went back to my car.

In that short time there were at least 3 people who called the station wishing to complain giving my car number. Each caller said I was blocking traffic and that they saw me inside the credit union waiting in line as if I were doing personal business.....they could not have been more wrong however maybe it did look that way to them. My point is what is so important with their day that they did feel the immediate urge to call and complain?.....why did these few people not figure it out like the others who assumed I was on an official call....why did these few people think different and simply assume I was in the wrong?......

To the poster I am not saying you are ignorant however I am saying you do not know the entire situation. Maybe he did originally have an emergency call there and after clearing the call grabbed a snack. If it is a private lot those parking places are usually determined by the owner rather than the city. Maybe the owner often asks the officer to visit and asks the officer to park directly in front just to be seen. Many of our local stores enjoy it when we visit and they will often ask us to park directly in front.....they feel if people get used to seeing the police there often they will have less trouble from criminals.

Maybe you should have simply asked the officer if he were on business. As I said before I do know some officers who are less than honorable however most of them are decent people. Maybe if you explained your concerns you could have made a difference and the officer would realize his mistake or maybe he could have explained the situation in a way to justify the situation.

I have to say I am a little biased here and freely admit to always taking the side of any officer until I know they are wrong. However I do not do so blindly but more so from many years of knowing things are not always as they may appear. I will promise you that the red lights you see us all go through are not what you think. To many it appears we just do not want to wait and we turn our lights on and then go through then turn the lights off again.

With todays new technology every time I turn my lights on it records audio and video. It is well known by officers that people will freeze up when they see a police car speeding through traffic so actually it is often faster to drive to a call without lights and sirens however we will go through the red lights with them on.....in reality those cars you see run the red lights are most likely on their way to a scene and as such can run red lights and pass other vehicles. Most policy states that emergency vehicles must use lights and sirens when going through red lights so we flick on the sirens and lights when going through then continue on normally without them......the whole time while the people behind us are cursing us as we all know they think we are just impatient.....again they are often wrong.

My entire day is recorded so believe me when I say every thing I do is downloaded nightly and as such if I do something I will always have a valid reason. Many depts. are now also recorded so if they drive fast or even park in the street it will be recorded on dash cam and veh/body mic. If you feel the need to investigate further please do so and visit the dept. to speak with the officer. I would maybe speak to the store owner first to make sure the officer was not on a call there or summoned by the owner for some official business first.

To sum this all up let me say again it is not always as it seems and yes many people will bend over backwards to try and make police out to be the bad guy. I will also say yes some deserve it however very few and with todays standards these officers are usually quickly weeded out. Most any good officer will quickly point lesser officers in the right direction. I have done this many times and yes even twice I have recommended officers to not remain employed as an officer. (I am a field training officer)

Good luck to you and again this is not as deep as some tend to believe. If it is such a burden on your mind I would again suggest speaking to the officer directly or his supervisor. If nothing else you may get a good explanation for his actions or some other type of satisfaction.

 

[BatteryCharger]

I don't think I need to add much here other than what I saw in the store, the cop had a small hand basket and was in the produce area calmly looking at bananas. I don't know, maybe somebody was smuggling coke inside a banana and he was there to investigate, but if any valid excuse is made it would have to be a pretty surprising and unlikely one.

The car was parked nice and square in the spot, as if he took his time to park it, and, was not running. If it was an emergency it would have been much quicker for him to just stop in the entrance not paying attention to lines and leave the car running.

It's literally a several acre parking lot serving a large grocery store that had no more than 5 cars in the lot. So many other places for the cop to park, either right in front, or stealthily somewhere else. The disabled space isn't even really the "best" spot they have.

As for talking to the officer in person, confronting a police officer in the middle of the night while you're pissed off and telling him he's wrong generally is not a good idea. (especially one that may possibly be arrogant enough to think he should park there) Honestly I don't think a simple phone call is enough to convey the gravity of the matter or how exceptionally annoyed I was. Going the extra mile to bring photographs to the police department probably means his superior will go the extra mile in reminding him not to do that again...and if copies of those photos get forwarded to the officer, he's probably going to feel pretty stupid.

 

[Robocop]

I agree that confronting an officer while you are angry is not a good idea however if he is a patrolman in your area you can address the issue calmly as you will likely see him again.

As an officer I see this many ways and one of the worst ways is that often a thread such as this will spin quickly out of control. It is perfectly fine to discuss the nature of the situation and even fine to offer various reasons for the behavior. What usually tends to happen is that many will turn this towards "cops are all wrong" thread and we will get nothing from that.

Sure if he was simply shopping then he was wrong however again this does not mean that all officers are power hungry people who thumb their noses at the law. Again until you actually speak with the store owner or even the officer no one knows the situation.

I work downtown Bham where parking is a nightmare and I have several hospitals on my beat. I know one elderly man who visits the VA hospital monthly and he will walk a few blocks to get there. He carries a walker and is considered handicapped yet he still gets around slowly.

I will always offer a ride when I see him and he always accepts. I pull my patrol car right up under the entrance and block the handicap lane while I help him inside. Yes I have had several complain as to the patrol car parked in the handicap lane yet again I am using it for transporting a handicapped citizen. Now to any who pass by I am sure if they looked inside and saw me chatting with this old man they would assume I was too lazy to park a few feet away and walk....yet again they would be wrong.

Someone posted earlier that most likely the officer would admit he was wrong and learn a lesson if he was simply ignoring the parking rules. Maybe you could approach with a smile and just speak with him normally first and bring it up in routine conversation. This thread is allowed to run for now simply because it has remained mostly civil. I will caution any who post that the first whisper of attempting to bash officers will have it quickly closed.

Good cops do not like arrogant cops and again they are usually quickly easy to spot and even easier to teach them how cops should act....both on duty and off. With todays video phones and cameras everywhere cops are usually always on their best behavior. If they are not again it is only a matter of time before they are discovered.

If this is really an issue you wish to address I suggest going to the store owner first and ask them to nicely suggest to the officers not to park in the wrong location. You do not have to leave your name and make sure the owner is aware of the problem and follow up with the owner later to see that it was done. Good luck again ....

 

[davidt1]

I just stopped at the grocery store on my way home, about 12:30 AM. I was quite annoyed to find a police car parked in one of the marked disabled parking spaces. I saw the cop in the store, he wasn't on any "official business", he was getting a snack, and appeared to be "on duty" given the uniform he was wearing.

I assume this sort of behavior is NOT allowed? I HATE cops that think they can have privledges the rest of us cannot! It was late and there was plenty of other, non disabled front row parking. Personally I have arthritis and could get a disabled parking permit if I wanted one, but I DON'T, because I don't REALLY need it. I leave the spot empty for somebody that does need it.

I took a bunch of pics with my cell phone, showing the liscense plates, car number, and clearly where it was parked.

I'm not going to lie, I'm pissed. If I would have saw the cop in the parking lot, I would have yelled at him. I think he deserves to be punished. I nearly called another cop out. What should I do with my photographs? Should I take them down to the local PD and have a little chat about the incident, or maybe I should skip right over them and send 'em to the local news stations? This kind of nonsense isn't allowed is it? If the man is legally handicapped, then he can't possibly be a cop...

There was a local news story several months ago about a cop parked in an emergency space while he was on a donut break - a lawyer caught him, gave the cop a ticket, and took the entire police department to court. The lawyer won. :ironic:

:shakehead :shakehead

Bring it to the attention of the media. Many times it's the only way to get things done. You can have your name withheld for fear of cop retaliation. I often wonder how so many insecure, unintelligent and undeserving people can get hired by police departments. One time I saw this cop walking slowly across the street against a red light and the dumbass got a kick out of watching people stop in the middle of the intersection for him.

 

[parker2520]

I hope this thread is short lived and CPF doesn't become CBF(Cop Bashing Forum) . Lighten up....

That was post #3 in this thread. Anyone with even a moderate amount of intellegence can see that when an angry irritable person posts like this, no good can come from it. 99% of the contact that people have with police is negative. Arrest, traffic violation, even something as simple as please move your car, you are obstructing traffic, does not sit well with the public. Most people let it go but for some it haunts them and everytime they see a police officer, the anti authoritarianism in them arises. Firemen don't have this problem. They are seen on the front page of the paper runnung into a burning building and leaving giving mouth to mouth to a child. Cops usually get negative publicity. So to the moderator who was going to suspend my posting privileges for 3 days, may I suggest that you do a better job at monitoring the posts. This could have been avoided..

 

[dano]

It's a parking space....or is it something bigger. That one little victory over "The Man."

 

[Greta]

It's a parking space....or is it something bigger. That one little victory over "The Man."

dano... maybe, maybe not. Sadly though, many of us who are in some way associated with law enforcement see that mentality way too often.

What really bothers me though, more than anything else, is that some people get so angry and upset over something so small. This is not to minimize the fact that it's entirely possible (and more likely than not probable) that this officer did something illegal. However, is there anyone here who has actually gotten ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot in an otherwise completely empty parking lot? My guess is no. And if the answer is yes, my guess is that they also got ticketed for something else just a tad bit more serious and they got belligerant and the officer just started writing.

Now I realize that sometimes officers take the same mentality that breaking the law is breaking the law and there are no excuses or exceptions - plain and simple, you are wrong and should be punished. Several years ago, my daughter got popped for overturning an intersection. It was at like 1 or 2 in the morning and there were no other cars on the road except her and a cop. She really was quite annoyed with the whole situation and actually said to me (not the cop... she'd been raised better), "didn't he have anything better to do?" (Yes, I cringed.) Fact of the matter is though, she was wrong and she (and me too!) learned a very important lesson that night... she learned about a law that she didn't even know existed (neither did I!) Neither one of us has ever overturned an intersection since.

Anyway... the anger issue. It can go either way. Either a person who gets this angry over such a small issue has no other much more important issues in their life to get angry over (kudos to them for having such a conflict-free life!! :twothumbs ) or when something much more important does come up, they are angry beyond control. THAT is the scarey scenario! And that is why you and Robo and my husband have job security. In Sociology, that is called the functionalist perspective - necessary evils.

 

[Nitroz]

For your first example, there are times when you need to make a silent approach when responding to a call.

A story for your second example: The other day at work my partner (we're EMTs, not police officers) and I were on our way to grab some lunch when we got a call with a code 3 (lights and sirens) response. We were sitting at a red light when the call came through so on go the code lights and the siren, shortly after we cleared the intersection the call got cancelled and we ended up pulling into the establishment at which we planned to dine about 300 feet up the road from where we shut our lights off. I bet that looked like abuse of an authority from an outside perspective, but the point is, make sure you have ALL of the facts before rendering judgment.

Your last example, there is no excuse for that. I have had it happen to me as well, it's a blatant disregard for the safety of others on the road.

I do know that at times the police do get a call and then it is cancelled and I understand that. But on my first point this police was out of his jurisdiction and going away from it.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate what the police, firemen, and ambulance workers do and feel that they are underpaid. But you do have some that abuse power, but that is life and many people abuse their authority.

 

[adamjh3]

I do know that at times the police do get a call and then it is cancelled and I understand that. But on my first point this police was out of his jurisdiction and going away from it.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate what the police, firemen, and ambulance workers do and feel that they are underpaid. But you do have some that abuse power, but that is life and many people abuse their authority.

Yes, we do have ones that abuse power, unfortunately, and it sways public perception against us because those are the ones that get the most press.

Please, don't take my last post the wrong way, I was not trying to single you out, simply alluding to a bigger picture.

 

[PapaGary]

I honestly wish that my life was so uncluttered and boring that I had the time and energy to waste getting so indignant and militant over a cop parking in a handicapped spot at 12:30 in the morning.

Well said.

 

[Nitroz]

Yes, we do have ones that abuse power, unfortunately, and it sways public perception against us because those are the ones that get the most press.

Please, don't take my last post the wrong way, I was not trying to single you out, simply alluding to a bigger picture.

Not at all.

It does seem that bad press always stirs more interest than good. If you had two stories on the front page, one good one bad, I am sure most people would read the negative press first.

Now I will take a second to thank all of the military, police, firemen, and all search and rescue personnel for all of the hard work and sometimes the ultimate sacrifice.:thanks: