Over zealous Highway Patrolman, or reckless driver?

[str8shooter]

Do you think this teenager deserved this?

http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/....1.1&sflg=1
http://community.myfoxny.com/blogs/J...1_Traffic_Stop
http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/H...d=1.1.1&sflg=1

ETA: a second link, first is getting overloaded, but seeing the video helps.
ETA: a third link with the video, hopefully this will continue to work for a while.

I don't even know if the speeding tickets he received are mathematically possible in city driving, but if someone can go from a stop sign to 60 mph 3 times in less than a mile with couple corners and turns in the middle, he had to be flying.

Obviously we don't know the whole story, but why would a responsible HP follow and observe someone driving like this for almost a mile letting him rack up the violations before finally pulling him over?

IMHO, this HP needs a time out. He's got a bug up his ass about something and is taking it out on this kid.

What do you think?

[Brown-Bear]

Page is temporarily unavailable. So I'll comment based on Shooters perception.

Unacceptable on the officers part. I used a similar defense to avoid a reckless driving offense in my eraly 20's. The officer pulled me over for doing....I think it was something like 58 in a 35, which somehow in VA in reckless driving. He said I cleared a stop sign and then sped up to 58 in the time it took him to pull me over. I stopped for him less that 1/10th of a mile from the stop sign. He told the judge that he did "clock" me on radar, instead he "paced" me. Which means he floowed and kept the same pace ai was driving. When the judge asked me what I had to say, I said " well you honor, I can't say for sure how fast I was driving. But I guess he would have had to speed up to 58 to catch me in a tenth of a mile, seeing as how he was sitting still when I passed him". I mean if he caught me in 1/10th of a mile, and I passed him while he was stopped, his cruiser must be the Millenium falcon.

[ithinkimamedic]

Well... Interesting predicament. There are many points about this news report (3rd was only I could get to work) that bother me.

First I'll touch on the incident itself. Since none of us were there we do not know the whole truth. I look at it like this though. Regarding the number of citations, if he did indeed violate all of those laws then he deserves the tickets. End of story. Excessive... maybe a little but from everything I've heard about Staten Island from friends at FDNY there are ALOT of driving problems up there that need to be corrected. This is how they are trying to fix them and help change peoples driving habits.

Now the news story. Being in Emergency services I know I drive WAY to fast in my personal vehicle. I have also come to the realization that I am no one special because of my job and that if I were to (and have) get a ticket for speeding I more than likely deserve it. The fact that his Father is FDNY and that the kid just became an EMT is irrelivent and if the officer would have taken that into account it would have just shown a bias. I personally hate people who try to hide behind emergency services as a profession (or vol) as an excuse to drive like some dickhead. IT'S NOT! I am required to obey all traffic laws just the same as everyone else when I'm in my car! Hell even if I'm in the ambulance or chase truck I'm not legally allowed to speed, yes folks, even with the red lights on. sorry... // rant off//

Should the kid have got the book thrown at him? If you do the crime (and get busted), you do the time. For the news report, well that's a different can of worms.

My point is that everyone should try to be a safe as they can while driving! Don't make my job any harder than it already can be, buckle up and slow down.

Thanks for listen to (well...reading) my rant... it's excessive but when have I been know to 1/2 ass something.

Cheers,
josh

[PA Rifleman]

Might be interesting to run a few bait cars* through with video recording gear to see of the Manhattan HP takes the bait. Your basic "gotcha" setup - replay in court for all to see: no violation but ticket anyway. What say you now Judge?

Their system is so heavily weighted on their side, I'd be nothing less than amazed if there wasn't some abuse. Never can tell, maybe they are running a clean operation. I'd be nice if they had visible oversight to prove it, though.


* Vehicles specifically chosen to set off "profiling" alarms but not driving unlawfully. Examples could include Porsche cars, Ferraris, etc.