So mad at the law!!!!

[blueberryboomer]

Sorry guys/gals but I gotta vent.
A few days ago a off duty police officer hit and killed a 20 year old. They still have not pressed charges on him, I probally should mention he was way past the legal limit for being drunk.
They report this on the news and the next story is:
2 best friends 20 years old go to a party, have a little to much to drink and crash on the way home, the passenger was killed. The driver, is charge within hours. Where is the justice?
I want to know why they haven't done something to the police officer yet!
I have no problem with drinking, as long as you don't get behind the wheel of a car after. My hubby was hit by a druck driver 4 years ago and left totally disabled, so this is something I feel very strongly about!
I have told everyone I know if I ever see them driving after drinking, I will stop them, beat the crap out of them and then call the police to turn them in. I'm not a mean or nasty person, but the idea of someone getting behind the wheel of a vechile after drinking drives me nutts! If you want to kill yourself, do somewhere no one else is going to be hurt.
Thanks for letting me vent. I feel a little better now...Lisa

 

[daniel411]

It is upsetting The boys father gave a pretty scornful speach the other day towards the officer/department.

 

[lovethesea]

we were involved (not directely thank goodness) with a drunk driver. He was driving at such a high rate of speed on the highway and cutting everyone off. By the time I started to back off of the whole situation his SUV was now starting to
kind of "wobble" from side to side as if it was going to flip over due to the crazy driving. Just as I pick up my phone to call for help he went into the concrete median and swerved all the way back across the traffic taking out a few cars in the same direction.
We all had to come to a stop. This guy started to get out of his car and was staggering around. 2 guys jumped him and beat the living daylights out of him. By the time the police arrived it was assumed that he was injured in the wreckage.
No one thankfully was seriously hurt, but he got what he deserved.

 

[belothsurf]

I hear you...and it sucks. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. Cops look out for cops........and they can be just as guilty......... :notsure:

 

[tangman99]

I'd wait and see on this one. I agree that cops will look out for each other whenever they can, but something like this is aweful damn hard to cover up. You have to consider that when a police officer is involved in something like this, an outside agency is going to come in do the investigation. They usually don't rush in and make an arrest as a police officer is not usually a threat to society and not much of a flight risk. I'm sure they will go through the steps of suspending him with pay while the investigation is in progress and then see what happens.
I agree with drinking and driving. When I was a police officer, I never gave any breaks to anyone drinking and driving. To me, that was a zero tolerance law.

 

[aarone]

didnt ole ted kennedy do something similar?

 

[blueberryboomer]

I'm sure they will go through the steps of suspending him with pay while the investigation is in progress and then see what happens
Tangman,
Why do they pay him? I think that is wrong. Itslike a paid vacation.
I will never understand why the law is the way it is.
another example:
Down in Detroit there was a muder, the news said that the man that did it wouldn't get the dealth penilty(if we had it) because it was a case of mistaken idenity, but if he shot whom it was he was looking to shoot, he would get the dealth penility. Doesn't make much sense to me.
Lisa

 

[schneidts]

Almost a year ago, Aug. 15th, a drunk driver blew through a red light and took out my car. Luckily, I didn't have my family in the car, and I wasn't seriously hurt. I hurt my knee real bad, but it ended up being fine. The cops came and the guy blew way past the legal limit, and he was arrested. This happened at 4:45 in the afternoon, on a Friday. The funny thing is, I past the guy driving the same van he hit me with two days later on the same road. I couldn't help but think, "I wonder if he's wasted right now".

 

[tony detroit]

Originally posted by TangMan99
I'm sure they will go through the steps of suspending him with pay while the investigation is in progress and then see what happens.

Gotta love how the government agencies help each other. I'm sure if I blew something up at work and accidentally killed somebody I would get the time off without pay. The best with pay story for Michigan was last summer when the Rockwood police chief shot the boy at White Castle.
No complaints on the DUI laws here either, I wish they were zero tolerance. Motorcyclists appreciate them, although I don't ride on the street anymore. We call cabs and have them pick us up at the house when we were thriving in our go to the bar days. My gf still goes, but I usually stay home now, going to the bar isn't really that impressive to me anymore and you always run into some less desirable people while you're there anyway..

 

[blueberryboomer]

schneidts, I'm really glad to hear you are ok after your accident.
Unfortunitly, I can't say the same of my husband, the day after the accident I took him to the ER, he was having severe headaches, neck and back pain, plus two black and blue knees.
They exrayed him, gave him muscle relaxors and sent him home, I feel they should have treated him for whiplash, but they didn't. A week later we went to our family doctor because he was not feeling any better. From there we have seen hundreds of different doctors, final outcome, my husband recieved 9 herniated disks from neck to lower back, constant headache,(has not gone away in almost 4 years), fms, and as a result of weight he has put on because he can't do even a 10th of what he use to do, he has developed Diabetes type 2 and now needs to take shots every day.
He was in a semi, the truck was totalled after getting hit headon by a pickup truck. He went threw 1 ditch jumped back on the highway and nosedived into the ditch on the other side of the road.(steering geer broke)
The woman(I'm using the term lossly here) was drunk, on crystal meth, had no license and , the owner said had no permisson to drive his truck. Where is she now, in jail is what I want, but alas, she is free to roam the earth with a little bit of a limp. She messed up her leg and spent a week in the hospital.
You would think that she would be spending time in jail, but no. And its not even her first offence.
I makes me sick!
I hope when we get our day in court she is there, I would like her to know what she has put our family threw the last few years, but you know what, she probally won't care any way.
If she doesn't care about herself, then why would she care about us.
tony detroit,
That is what we used to do also, when we we going out drinking, we would take a cab to and from where ever we went.
Its a good pratice to have...Lisa

 

[tangman99]

Originally posted by BLUEBERRYBOOMER
Tangman,
Why do they pay him? I think that is wrong. Itslike a paid vacation.
I will never understand why the law is the way it is.
Lisa
That's just the way it is most of the time. Anytime something happens out of the oridinary where a law may have been broken or if you had to shoot someone, you are immediately place on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is completed. It is usually with pay because in a majority of cases, it is just procedure, everything turns out fine in the investigation and you go back to work.
Consider if you answering a bank robbery and someone came out and pointed an automatic weapon at you and you had to shoot and kill him. It's a clean shoot but you still go on administrative leave until it is investigated or at a minimum you are given desk duty. In that case, it would not be fair to put them on leave without pay.
I agree that it should be different for different circumstances but usually it all falls under the same thing. Regardless, I would not want to be in his shoes right now.

 

[blueberryboomer]

I totally understand if the officer had to shoot someone in the line of duty, but I don't understand how they could put this in the same realm. An officer of the law should know better, after all its his/her job to catch these people. Just because they are not in the uniform doesn't mean they no longer have a resoponsbitly to the law. I get so upset when I hear of this, I wish there was something I could do about it. Lisa

 

[tangman99]

I understand your frustration and yes, a police officer is a police officer 24/7 and expected to live up to that. You don't have to be in uniform or on duty to excercise your authority if you witness a crime. As I said, the majority of incidents that would cause a police officer to be suspended are usually within the guidelines and will be cleared up with no problems.
There is also the other side of the coin. If a police officer is brought up on charges and found guilty in court, the court many times will look upon the officer more harshly that an ordinary citizen. As a police officer, you are expected to know the laws and obey them. Anything less has no excuse and is many times the judge will bring down a harsher sentence.
This is not always the case, but it was something that was always re-enforced to us in training.

 

[lionfish28]

excuss me but were and what time did this happened?

 

[blueberryboomer]

Tangman, I do understand!
On a positive note, they we're able to track down the women who hit Tom and get a depostistion from her. i can't believe they have found her, they have been looking for 3 1/2 years..
lionfish28, It happened in the Detroit area, I don't remember the time of the day though, sorry. I haven't seen anymore about it.

 

[salty cheese]

Originally posted by aarone
didnt ole ted kennedy do something similar?
Chappaquiddick