Whaddaya mean that’s not what ’safe driving’ means?!………Okay, maybe that’s stretching a point. But when you get stopped for a traffic violation, you look in your mirror, and you see the officer striding up with that BOHICA look in his eye - have you fought off the urge to crack wise? C’mon, I know you really, really wish you had it in you to make the donut joke just this once. How many traffic violators - every day folks like you and me - who have been caught speeding, or running a red light, or rolling a stop sign, DO give in to that urge? Given the millions of traffic tickets and citations handed out over the past hundred years, my guess is hundreds of thousands of donut blasts have been dropped on traffic cops. And what’s the one common thread among all those ticketed drivers? They think the cop deserved it.

So what is it about traffic cops that turns respectable souls (that’s you and me) into venomous detractors of law enforcement - at least for an hour or a day or two? Here’s my take: we hate getting caught cheating. WELL - it’s damn embarrassing, and a total stranger who nabbed you red-handed is about to give you a souvenir for your lapse in driver awareness that could cost you hundreds, even thousands of dollars through increased insurance premiums. Even if the police officer’s a true pro and doesn’t lay any attitude or guilt on you, aren’t we experts at feeling stupid and wishing he’d go catch some real criminals? We can spool up all on our own, no further assistance required thank you officer, and find that Blue Meanie responsible for trashing what had been a wonderful life up to that point.

So how to avoid a potential stay at the Crowbar Hotel for unloading all your life’s regrets on a traffic cop who just wants to give you  a simple ticket and get on to the next scoff law? Ok, maybe that’s a little dramatic - although some of you have managed to escalate a routine traffic stop into a brawl. But to avoid giving the police a reason to pile on (issuing a mitt full of terribly minor but horribly expensive F.U. charges), try counting to 10 - maybe just to 3 for some of us - and stuff your ego into the glove box!!

That Suit outside your window has ALL the power. It makes our job here at WTL a lot tougher when the officer has detailed notes on what a brutal attitude you had. SO, let go, give it over - just for a few minutes - because that way you’ve given your traffic court gunslingers from Web Traffic Law some critical leverage to use on the prosecutors - an awesome client to defend!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Life in the Fish Bowl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.