I have been to traffic school before. 6 or 7 years ago my wife and I went so we could get a 10% reduction on our auto insurance. It's boring. They don't tell you much that you can't read in the little booklet the DMV hands out. It's boring.
This school was also boring and, to my surprise, the "teacher" was the same cop who gave me the speeding ticket. Now I don't have anything against this cop. He was OK with me and I was speeding. But this "class" was not what I would consider a traditional traffic school.
Why? In my ever so humble opinion:
- There is no certification that is recognized by anyone except the city that "forgives" the ticket.
- There was no receipt, diploma, attendance certificate. Nothing to prove you went to "school."
- The class set the agenda by telling the teacher what they wanted to talk about.
- I think it is a revenue generator for the city and that the city is using it's authority not only to issue traffic violations but also to forgive them.... for a fee that is disguised as a traffic school (good for me since I was ticked for speeding).
What I did get out of the class besides having my ticket forgiven (if I'm good for 6 months) was to hear what most of the police allow for speeding in town.... 10 mph over unless you're doing something else beside just speeding like being careless or road rage... stuff like that. They also told us where they spend most of their time. Explained how their laser speed detector worked. Of course a few war stories about accidents and deaths.
Although I thought the whole thing was a rip off, on the other hand it allowed me to get my ticket deferred so that part was worth it to me (I didn't have to go, I elected to go). The "education" from the school was missing.
New Subject..... I would like to comment about the police in general. I observed a few of my friends from high school who joined the Denver police. In every case they changed their attitudes toward the "civilians" and their circle of friends became ONLY other police officers.
So what's wrong with this you may ask. These people have a lot of power. What they do is largely dependent on their judgement. I think the longer police are in the job they become segregated from the general population. I can't blame them, they deal with the low life, scum bag, violent and what ever people day in and day out. They can't trust these people because if they do they will probably get hurt in a physical sense. After being exposed to this environment day in and day out the only trust they can allow themselves is with their peers in law enforcement (and hopefully with their spouses and kids). The general population, the civilians, can't relate to what these people go through in their day to day dealings with criminals and a lot of the "law breakers."
Another thing to consider. Cops arrest people, give tickets, sometimes have to be a bit pushy. Sooner or later the people who have been arrested, jailed, imprisoned, fined... whatever, are back out on the streets. Do you think some of these pillars of society wouldn't like to see the guy who they blame for getting caught bleed a little? Maybe bleed a lot!
I've talked to some of these guys (never talked about this to a female cop) and some understand what I'm saying and agree. Others think I'm all wet and don't know what I'm talking about. That may be so. But if you are not a cop I'll bet you best friend isn't one either and if you are a cop I'll bet your best friend is one too. I'll even go a little farther and say, if you are a cop you probably don't have friends that aren't cops.
So, if your a cop and would like to discuss this lets meet for a burger and coke.... bet you sit with your back to the wall;-)
FWIW.....
No comments:
Post a Comment