You missed my point. I am not saying people should be treated differently. I am saying that people who are not doing anything wrong have no reason to fear or be suspicious of police.
I disagree. Anybody who is not being interrogated by the police has no reason to fear or be suspicious. But if you're in an interrogation room, or discussing details of some crime that occurred, then that is a different matter.
Don't get me wrong, I do say hello to the local beat officers and they all know my house. But the day they come around asking some questions, is the day I refer them to my attorney. The problem is, they are under no obligation to tell you the truth. So when they start up a friendly "chat", you have no way of knowing the pretenses under which they are talking to you. Maybe your nosy neighbor figures that since you make your own alcohol, you're probably a meth head too and so she pointed her finger at you when the cops came asking. Now, of course, the cops aren't going to tell you that somebody mentioned your name... they're just going to stop by for a friendly chat...
It's one thing to wave and say hello, talk about the local baseball team and the weather. It's another thing to say, "Oh? There was a robbery on thursday night? You want to know where I was? Well gee... I guess I was at home with SWMBO, we were watching TV... I went down to the gas station around... blah blah blah"
Nobody is saying you can't be friendly to the police. Go ahead and say hello. Offer them a cup of coffee if the situation arises. But that's where you draw the line.
And that, while misunderstandings and bad things do happen, 99.999% of police are doing a great job that most people would not be able to handle.
Well, as long as it's so uncommon, I guess you wouldn't mind being part of the 0.001 percent then?
By the way, if you weren't speed in your accident, you probably could have just told the officer, yes I was going 65 with the cruise control on.
Are you crazy? Have you ever driven the Dan Ryan through downtown Chicago on a Friday night??!!!! If you think I'm going to set cruise control at the posted limit of 50mph, you are crazier than I am. You see, there isn't a lane for traveling 50mph on the Dan Ryan. The right lane is for people doing 70. The shoulder. Yes. On the right hand shoulder, you can probably do 50, but then I'd be guilty of driving on the shoulder. Despite what the law requires, the safest speed to travel is the speed of the traffic around you.
I know speeding is different, but that's my point. Because I am no longer doing anything wrong, I feel fine saying hello to my local police and asking how their day is going. If I were still a young hooligan who had things to hide from the police all the time, I would probably still be yelling nasty names at him/her having to do with various pork products.
Wait.. so do you still speed or don't you? You say you aren't doing anything wrong, but then you say it's different. So are you justifying speeding? Or are you saying you don't do it?
Again, nobody is talking about calling anybody any names. I don't know where you got that idea from.
