My negative encounter with an OC'er today.

[RoyJackson]

To the OP:
This guy's name wouldn't happen to be George, last name beginning with a "D", would it?

[NEPAdestroyer]

*Bold is mine

That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day. Why should he care about vehicle registration? because it's his job to uphold the law, and last time I checked, it is illegal to drive on an expired registration. Many people would argue that certain laws aren't worth enforcing, but that doesn't mean they should not be enforced only because some people don't agree with it.

It's up to the officers discretion whether to issue a warning or a ticket. In my experience, when you show respect to an officer, you're more likely to be let off with a warning. This guy was plain rude, so I would have issued him a ticket as well.

would you call the cops if you seen someones registration was expired?
also i hate this "because it's the law" shit. i'm a gosh diggity darn free man. if i'm not hurting another then how about you pour me a big ol' glass of leave me the hell alone? this just like when i was a kid and the folks would have some retarded rule in the house that i would question and there response would be "because i said so" that doesn't sit right with me. and, too many people are just too complacent about law... just writing them off as "because someone said so"..... bullshizzle my nizzle.
i wasn't around when the rules were being written so why in the great big pile of darn should i have to abide by them? t's cool though i still love ya' baby<3

[GunLawyer001]

I'm sure you know all too well what a simple conversation with a determined LEO can lead to. Once people start talking it doesn't end until they leave under arrest, once they are comfortable, they just don't know how or when to shut up. I am wary of advising anyone to actually engage in any lengthy conversation with a PO, to consent to an interrogation or to "just have a short talk"...I mean, they are trained to extract information.

That's why I advise people not to talk to cops if they believe they are a suspect.

But until you can determine what the cop is going to say, from "hey buddy, your fly is open" to "smells like there's a corpse in your trunk, mind if we search?", it only makes sense to be civil.

I've heard stories of people who were given too much change by a hostile clerk, and when they turned back to say "I gave you a $5..." the clerk immediately and aggressively insisted that she gave the right change. I can't fault someone for reacting there by just walking away with the excess. And in this situation, I can't fault a cop for using his unquestionable discretion to enforce the laws as written.

[NEPAdestroyer]

I've heard that anger management classes are open to the public; you may wish to check them out.

I think the lesson here from the encounter (which on further reflection sounds almost TOO perfect an example of the textbook "PAFOA guy with a recorder asserts his rights in the wrong way" encounter) is that if you're going to be an absolutist and push your rights balls-to-the-wall in a rude manner, then make sure that you're in full compliance with the entire PA Crimes Code, the PA Vehicle Code, your local ordinances, and the entire Federal Code. Since it's humanly impossible to be familiar with the current version of all of these (some of which the Legislators have not even bothered to read), a little politeness would be appropriate if you'd like an LEO to cut you a break.

And to put this in perspective, I criticize cops, DA's and lawmakers at least half the time. I call each case like I see it. When you say that you won't bend an inch, don't whine when you get that back.

FACT: i was in anger management...passed with flying colors.

[camper]

Rep to you, I loved the way you handled the whole thing. The way I see it as was told by you, you were trying to do the guy a favor and he came out a prick all the way around. He didn't have a problem with everything being "by the books, mr police guy" to ensure 100% legality with the way he dealt with you initially, but then all of a sudden when he broke the rules it sounded like he cried "let me slide--favor, favor!".

Hopefully this will serve as a lesson that being antagonistic without reason towards anyone is a bad idea.

I try REALLY HARD to no let past brushes or brushes others have had taint my view of a group of people who have yet to wrong me personally. Otherwise, I would harbor immediate hated and distrust from police, black people, mexicans, white people, women, men, dogs, people from PA, grocery store workers, bankers, lawyers, people with the last name beginning in S, gays, muslims, christians, dentists, loose women, etc.

The way you handled the situation would probably be exactly the way I would have, and had I been sitting on the other end I probably would have realized "Damn...I deserved that for being such a prick". After I cooled down, of course

camper

[Curmudgeon]

To the OP:
This guy's name wouldn't happen to be George, last name beginning with a "D", would it?

Well played.

[Agent Smith]

would you call the cops if you seen someones registration was expired?
also i hate this "because it's the law" shit. i'm a gosh diggity darn free man. if i'm not hurting another then how about you pour me a big ol' glass of leave me the hell alone? this just like when i was a kid and the folks would have some retarded rule in the house that i would question and there response would be "because i said so" that doesn't sit right with me. and, too many people are just too complacent about law... just writing them off as "because someone said so"..... bullshizzle my nizzle.
i wasn't around when the rules were being written so why in the great big pile of darn should i have to abide by them? t's cool though i still love ya' baby<3

I would not call the police if I saw someone's inspection was out, for the main reason that I'm not looking at everyone's inspections. It's not my job too.

I still fail to follow your logic, though. It's his job to enforce the law. He can't just turn his back on someone breaking the law no matter how trivial it may seem to people like you. If he did, he wouldn't have a job for very long. Whether or not you agree with them, laws are laws. If you want to break them, be my guest, nobody is stopping you.

[GunLawyer001]

I would not call the police if I saw someone's registration was out, for the main reason that I'm not looking at everyone's registrations. It's not my job too.

I still fail to follow your logic, though. It's his job to enforce the law. He can't just turn his back on someone breaking the law no matter how trivial it may seem to people like you. If he did, he wouldn't have a job for very long. Whether or not you agree with them, laws are laws. If you want to break them, be my guest, nobody is stopping you.

I believe the OP said it was an expired INSPECTION, not registration. There are 2 main reasons for an expired inspection; one is that the car's owner was negligent; the other is that the brakes or turn signals or some other important parts are so bad that it would cost too much to repair.

It's not a purely personal matter if the car speeding towards me at an intersection has functioning brakes, that's sort of important. Regardless, we have a system of laws, and anyone who elects not to disappear into the woods is obliged to participate and obey those laws, and vote or lobby to change the ones he doesn't like. Not just ignore them because of smoldering resentments from grade school.

[NEPAdestroyer]

I would not call the police if I saw someone's registration was out, for the main reason that I'm not looking at everyone's registrations. It's not my job too.

I still fail to follow your logic, though. It's his job to enforce the law. He can't just turn his back on someone breaking the law no matter how trivial it may seem to people like you. If he did, he wouldn't have a job for very long. Whether or not you agree with them, laws are laws. If you want to break them, be my guest, nobody is stopping you.

oh! what excatly do you mean "People like me"?

[Agent Smith]

I believe the OP said it was an expired INSPECTION, not registration. There are 2 main reasons for an expired inspection; one is that the car's owner was negligent; the other is that the brakes or turn signals or some other important parts are so bad that it would cost too much to repair.

It's not a purely personal matter if the car speeding towards me at an intersection has functioning brakes, that's sort of important. Regardless, we have a system of laws, and anyone who elects not to disappear into the woods is obliged to participate and obey those laws, and vote or lobby to change the ones he doesn't like. Not just ignore them because of smoldering resentments from grade school.

Oops, my mistake. I misread it. Thanks for the correction.

oh! what excatly do you mean "People like me"?

In your first post in this thread you stated, "futhermore people don't care about vehicle registration...", so I was merely referring to you and the "people" that you made reference to that appear to have no regard for laws that you deem unimportant.