Here’s a video taken from inside a car driven by a speed limit enforcer who continues to speed (and drive on the shoulder and narrowly misses hitting several other vehicles) long after the speeder he was chasing has disappeared.
Before the pursuit even begins, the enforcer of the speed limit can be seen aggressively tailgating other vehicles, rolling up on their bumpers without his lights or siren on, bullying them out of his path. He finally does turn them on and passes one vehicle on the left shoulder in a construction zone bounded by concrete barriers.
It is not clear why the speed limit forcer is driving this way because the pursuit of the motorcycle has not yet even begun – because there is no motorcycle in sight, yet. We hear (on the video) the sound of the speed limit enforcer’s speeding vehicle, its V8 engine roaring as the speed limit enforcer reaches very high speeds, passing startled other-drivers who have split-seconds to react – to get out of his way. The speed enforcer drives this way for about a minute, reaching what appear to be speeds of 100 MPH or more – speeds deemed reckless by the law in many if not all states when anyone other than a speed limit enforcer drives that fast.
It’s an interestingly dissonant thing. If – as we are told – “speed kills” then it kills generally. There cannot be exceptions to it – just as there cannot be exception to the law of gravity. If anyone jumps out of an airplane (without a parachute) they will be killed. But it is evident that “speed” does not “kill” when a speed limiter enforcer speeds.
Well, at least this time.
His reckless driving, on the other hand, almost did.
The distinction is important. Speed is just another way of describing velocity. It does not – as such “kill.” If it did, we’d all be dead given how speedily the Earth rotates on its axis and then around the sun, etc. Traffic moves safely at very high speeds – well in excess of 100 MPH – on the unlimited speed stretches of the German Autobahn, which has a lower fatality rate than American highways.
Speed can – and does – kill when it is combined with recklessness, as displayed in this video. That kind of driving would get you in trouble – with the law – in Germany. But not because of the speed. Over there, they take safe driving – rather than speeding – seriously, in that they understand the difference between the two. Drivers may drive at extremely high speed but they may not (legally) bully or tailgate or recklessly pass on the shoulder, with inches of clearance to spare. If a traffic cop sees someone driving in that manner, they’l get pulled over.
But not for “speeding.”
Anyhow, the speed limit enforcer eventually catches up to the motorcycle. Its rider is not doing anything reckless, in terms of what can be seen in the video. When he notices there is an enforcer behind him, he departs at high speed. This is not considered to be unreasonable behavior when we see it displayed by a prey animal being pursued by a predator and the dynamic here is essentially the same. The motorcycle rider decides it’s time to go – and does. In seconds, it is clear that the motorcycle is much speedier than the speed limit enforcer’s car and that the latter has no chance of catching up or even keeping pace.
Yet the pursuit continues. Long after the prey is gone.
There is a long stretch of speeding – by the speed limit enforcer – after the bike is out of sight. More rolling up aggressively on other traffic and bullying it out of the way; more passing on the left shoulder, with started drivers given no time to get out of the way of the speeding and recklessly driving enforcer of the speed limit. Who continues to speed and drive recklessly for some time – just because he can. Well, we can also. But the difference is we’ll be stopped – by guns drawn and get on the ground, now! enforcers of the speed limit . . . while speeding speed limit enforcers rarely are.
The enforcer eventually gives up the chase – but not the speeding. He exist the highway he’d been on and continues to drive at speeds that appear to be well above the speed limit – as evident by his passing of traffic that is going slower and presumably at or at least close to the speed limit.
Probably because the speeding speed limit enforcer’s blood was up.
Try telling that in court to a judge after you get pulled over for speeding. It will not, as the saying goes fly. Nor your argument that your speeding wasn’t reckless. Because – for us – speeding at the speeds seen in the video is prima facie “reckless.” Which means all that’s necessary to establish guilt – of “reckless” driving – is the fact that you you or I were speeding at a certain speed. Put another way, it is no defense – for us – to demand that the accusing officer adduce evidence beyond just the speed we were driving to establish that our driving was “reckless.”
The speeding by itself is sufficient – in our case.
But why is it insufficient in the case – on video – of an officer who is both a speeder and an objectively reckless driver? Well, because those who enforce speed limits are not bound by either speed limit or reckless driving laws.
Which tells us very plainly that it is not “speed” that’s at issue or even reckless driving for that matter. It is a question of who’s allowed – which is another way of saying who’s in charge?
And we all know the answers to those questions.
. . .
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A little while back a plainclothes Michigan State Police “stakeout team” blew a stop sign and t-boned a driver who had the right-of-way.
The first thing these “piggies” did was to yank the driver out of his car and handcuff him, showing absolutely no regard for possible injuries inflicted by the “piggies”.
They almost got away with it, save for a nearby building-mounted video camera which recorded the whole incident.
The video made the local media circuit, the so-called reporters giving no credence to the fact that the “piggies” were in the wrong. The story pretty much disappeared after the initial release of the video.
I hope the driver got a nice settlement check from the state…
This little piggy would have been far better off if he had bothered to stop any of the clueless idiots blocking the left lane that don’t even respond by yielding to flashing lights and a siren. That is actually far more dangerous than the “speeder” who successfully navigated his way through the maze of rolling chicanes erected by the clueless “drivers” that clog the roads daily.
On second thought, it would have been far better if this little piggy had simply stayed home and not chosen to terrorize the citizenry as a “job”.
But let’s be honest, we all know this is not about public safety.
Shun all cops and their family.
This was a stupid move. Cop’s mental trigger fired and game on.
If it were really all about safety, or even revenue generation, as soon as the dash cam recorded the license plate the chase should have been done. Send a letter, revoke the license. We’ll see you in court.
A few years ago I drove the Pennsylvania turnpike, post paper tickets and toll takers. The exit toll plaza didn’t want my money, oh no. It wanted my license plate. A few months later I got an invoice from the turnpike commission for something around $55. Not getting into the discussion over if that was a fair price for driving 40 miles of potholed highway or not, just that the bill had a picture of my license plate with a time stamp. I suppose I could claim it wasn’t me driving, but I’m sure the law is set up to bill the vehicle owner, not the driver.
Of course I’m describing a panopticon of motorways. Most of the tools are in place already, with dense networks of cameras leading back to the DOT operations centers. It would only take allowing police departments and state patrol offices access to the cameras, and probably some realignment to focus on license plates, to make it possible for remote speed enforcement. I’m not a constitutional lawyer but it seems if the various enforcement agencies can access all your mobile phone’s metadata, what’s to really prevent them from going after data they already collect?
Where are “our” representatives in government on this issue?
Cops are cops because they get off on being able to do things YOU lowly peasants can’t. They get off on being “special” an being “exempt” and having power.
I have the greatest admiration for cops who actually solve crimes and arrest true scumbags like rapists and kiddy-diddlers and home invaders. But the fact is that a very large number of them simply regard EVERYONE without a badge as a scumbag.
I took a couple of criminal justice classes as an undergrad forty years ago, and the instructor, who was a cop (a decent one it seemed) talked about cop psychology, and how cops tend to get the attitude that there are two types of people: “cops and assholes.” Direct quote from his lecture.
And that was long before the post-9/11 militarized police state we have today.
Criminal justice is an oxymoron
Wife and I went out to eat last night. Coming back home, we were traveling south from Prince Frederick around 9 – 9:30pm on Route 4, which is a 2-lane highway. Lots of snow, very dark, not many people on the road, and I know there’s always a hungry road pirate hiding around hoping to shake someone down.
I didn’t wanna be their mark, so I was driving with cruise control at 62mph in the right-hand lane. Then some dude turns right onto Route 4 from an intersection, plops his retarded ass right in front of me doing like 30mph or something stupid. He should have waited for me to pass.
OK, fine, nobody else nearby, I’ll just move over into the left lane and pass him then, after I have enough margin, I’ll get back in the right lane.
Well then, I look in my rear view, and quite a distance, some fucker is coming up FAST!! Must have been at least 75mph or more likely 80+. OK, so I better get over back into the right lane.
And that’s when the dumb ass that plopped in front of me finally found his gas pedal, but just was keeping pace right behind me, where I wasn’t yet comfortable getting in from of him.
So I have a choice here. Speed up to get enough margin on the right, or slow way the hell down while someone is barreling up on my ass to get behind the slow fuck on my right. If it wasn’t those particular circumstances, I normally would have temporary hit the gas enough to get ahead of the guy on the right to let the guy on the left pass.
But as I’m thinking about this, time ran out. Fucker was right up on my ass. I was thinking “fuck you, I’ll get over as soon as I can!” Then, inexplicably the dumb ass on the right slowed WAY down. OK, cool, I move over.
What do you know?! Calvert County Sheriff’s Department in one of those huge (not Explorer) SUVs passes us. “Fuck! GOOD THING I didn’t punch it around that fucker on the right”, I told my wife.
Sheriff zooms off way the fuck out of site. That is until, we get around a bend and there he is at a stop light waiting to turn left across Route 4. No lights, no siren, no hurry, all the sudden. And, of course, he’s WAY the hell over the limit line at the stop light, like almost the full length of that huge SUV.
“I guess they don’t require officers to know how the fuck to drive or the laws just don’t apply to them”, I told my wife. But “thankfully”, no porcine were inconvenienced (much) and were kept safe… from having to follow traffic laws.
Im also guessing many of these officers are taking steroids for their “physique”. Roid rage is real.
That’s a really good point, RS, that I never considered.
It’s a good thing that the rider escaped as it’s likely that cop would have run him over or shot him. Safety first……..
The AGW’s behavior is reprehensible. No action will follow. He’ll be praised as a hero by those who back the blue. The sheep will sing “bahhh bahhh bahhh” to the costumed dire wolf.
And then there’s the EP community…we’ll sing “Don’t murder me, I beg of you, don’t murder me. Please, don’t murder me.” (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uejAhCMzK20).
‘Do not panic buy!‘ urges the city of Las Vegas, as the CalNev pipeline is shut down by the Los Angeles fires.
Alert citizens hit the pumps, filling up not only their cars but their jerry cans too:
https://x.com/JspecTheHost/status/1877570550433812567
Malibu gas station
On ‘Face The Nation’
California magic
A tan so tragic
— Sonic Youth, Malibu Gas Station