So now that Ive had some time to cool off I want to throw this out there for public opinions.

Last Thursday morning I was getting ready for work. My Mom had already gone up to the hospital to see my grandma and she called to tell me that she wasnt doing well and that they didnt expect her to live much longer so I needed to come up there and be with the family. So I changed clothes and headed for the hospital. Im on my way and just a mile or so before the hospital I pass a Benton police officer sitting in a parking lot. I was doing 5 under the posted limit due to the utility truck in front of me. The cop whips out and runs up behind me, tailgates me and finally after a bit flips on his lights. I pull over on the next side street due to there not being a shoulder. As I always do anytime Im stopped by any form of LEO I roll down my drivers window, turn the truck off, and place both hands on the wheel in plain sight.

He gets out and walks up to my window and says "Know why I pulled you over?" I said "No sir I dont." He says "Your windows are to dark." "Where are you going?" I explained that I was going to Saline Memorial Hospital to see my Grandma and be with my family. He said "Why are you doing that?" Even though I was getting slightly pissed that he was being so intrusive about my business I kept my cool and explained that she has Stage 4 Metastatic Cancer, has been in and out of the hospital the past month, isnt doing well and isnt expected to live much longer.

He told me to give him my license, registration and proof of insurance so I did. He continued to be an *** asking me all sorts of questions, telling me that my truck was illegal, blah blah blah. I continued to address him as sir and was as polite as possible. As pissed off as I was and as much as I wanted to chew his *** I kept my cool because I was more concerned with getting to my family. He finally went back to his car and came back with his ticket book and started to fill out a ticket for window tint. He got out his meter and put it on the glass after he had me roll it up a little and it was below the legal limit. My tint may be illegal (his meter showed 10% darker than allowed) but Ive never had even the pickiest of cops say a word about it.

As he is filling out the ticket he talks a bunch of trash about how he could have my vehicle impounded for being modified but failed to tell me one modification that was illegal other than tint. He finally gives me my ticket, says a few more BS lines and says "Get the hell out of here."

The ticket I could care less about, its already been thrown out by his superiors because Im good friends with them and I work on their vehicles. What pisses me off is his attitude. I know alot of cops wonder why people take this attitude towards them and its guys like him. This guy has had a history of harassing people and being an *** over stupid stuff. My Uncle was a Little Rock cop for 32 years and I have quite a few friends in the field so I have alot of respect for the job they do.

It just pisses me off to see my tax dollars pay someone to be an *** to the public. Its guys like him that harass people for no reason but yet when they are truly needed they almost refuse to do their job. This guy is butt buddies with the mayor so he isnt going to get fired. I just dont understand harassing someone over window tint. Ive heard all the BS lines "Officer safety, we cant see what youre doing in your car, yadda yadda BS." I could understand if I was driving like a maniac and found after a stop to have a criminal record, tons of tickets or whatever. Fine, if thats the case then throw the book at me. If youre a by the book cop, fine, write me up for everything Im doing wrong, but it doesnt require being an ***.

There are tons of people out there doing much more horrible things than me driving with my windows 10% below the legal limit. Whats the point of harassing people over it? When the wheels got stolen off my buddies truck in his yard we saw the guy who did it leaving the scene because he woke us up as he was loading the last wheel in his truck and leaving. When we called the PD (different PD than my friends work at) we were told, "Someone will be there to file a report later if not tomorrow morning." We explained that we knew the make, model, color, license plate number and so on. They told us the same thing again.

We said screw that and did some calling around because we all knew we had seen the truck around town and found out who it was. We found out where he lived and went there and sure enough he had pulled in right in front of us. We called the cops and told them where we were, that the evidence was in the back of the guys truck, and that if they didnt want to work a murder scene it would be best to come arrest him. Finally they did come arrest him and we took my buddies wheels back after they documented everything at the scene.

My question is this: Why is it that when something is stolen, or something happens to good, honest, hard working people and we call 911, that we are given the "Sorry we'll come file a report and keep an eye out for them." line if its not a life or death situation? Typical response, "We dont have time to spend looking for a set of stolen wheels or whatever everytime that happens." BS. If youve got time to harass me for 30 minutes over window tint then you have more than enough time to track these folks down.

I understand that at the end of the day my tint was illegal and still is. I dont care. If you want to ticket me for it, do so, but dont harass me and talk to me like Im trash. I had legal tint on my 2 door Yukon and it was broken into 3 times and I dont leave anything in plain sight in my vehicles. After I finally had it tinted with 15% on the front 2 and 5% on the back hatch and both rear side windows, it never got broken into for the next 2 years I owned it. My truck is tinted illegally and has never been broken into (knock on wood). Same with my old Trans Am WS6. If my darker window tint keeps some scumbag from breaking into my truck because he cant look and see whats inside with ease, then itll stay. It may not really make a difference to a criminal but it makes me feel better about MY property. After all if MY property is broken into or stolen there isnt anything that will be done other than filing a report because some and I say SOME LEOs feel they dont have time for that kind of stuff.

So again, if Im not doing anything wrong, why harass me about it? Both my criminal and driving records are perfect. Im not a crack dealer, I dont rape kids, I dont break into houses and steal, Im not a meth head, I dont drink and drive, so why harass me over a mundane issue?

Do I care about the safety of the police officers that truly do care for the citizens and want to do right by them? ABSOLUTELY, but, if a cop like the one who stopped me Thursday morning stops someone else who has a warrant or what have you and he is that much of a dick to them and they beat him like a rented mule, do I care? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It may be wrong but you get what you give. Do I want to see him killed? No of course not. But if someone gets sick of his attitude and whips his a$$ he had it coming. I understand that being in law enforcement is a very high stress job but doesnt it make sense to try to stay as calm and polite as possible to keep the party you are dealing with calm as well? I understand that not everyone a cop deals with is rational and those instances call for different measures, but there is no point in treating the people who pay your salary and are honest, good people like trash.

If you have an opinion, feel free to voice it, but do so in a mature manner. Ive maturely voiced my opinion on the matter. If you dont like what Ive said or are offended, thats fine, but dont clutter my thread with your a$$hattery. If you cant, PM me. Once again, if you have a problem with what Ive said and would like to voice an opinion in this thread, do so maturely.

MODS: If this gets out of hand feel free to lock it down.

 

I totally agree with you man. I dont get how the honest working man gets messed with so much. I got pulled over 6 months ago for having a "suspecious" truck that required backup from an additional cop car which took all of 5 minutes to get there but yet my buddy gets jumped by 3 dudes and it take the cops 1 hour to come file a report. Im not saying all cops are bad cause i know a few cool ones but how long is it gonna be till peolple dont call the cops and handle stuff themselves.

 

I'm most likely looking into police department as my job once college is out. And from this story i would say that was just unnecessary. Yeah your tint is illegal but to act like an "***" thats uncalled for. What the hell was he talking about he could impound your truck?

For the example of your friends wheels. Thats the reason why i want to become one, so i can go after dipshits like that. The scumbags that really need to be taken care of. Personally if i was that cop, you gave a detailed reason for going to the hospital which would have told me you were telling the truth and i would have told you to get on your way and gave two ***** less about your "tint".

 

Its sad some cops get power happy like this and take advantage of people like this. Im lucky Ive never had to deal with a cop like this.

 

A similar story to yours caused me to remove the tint from all of my vehicles. There's one or two "tint cops" in my town, they are just power-tripping jerks. Threatened me with a mis-demeanor if he caught me driving with my kids in the car, with the windows tinted. Said he'd impound the car, take me to jail, yadda, yadda........

Cops like that give law enforcement a bad rap. When you get nervous driving, just because there's a police car following you in traffic, or parked on the side of the road, something is wrong with the system. They are supposed to be there for the good of the public, "To serve & protect" is the phrase I remember hearing. Not too sure what happened to that.

 

I have many friends that are LEO of some kind, I have tons of connections with LEO;s officials due to my line of work, but I still run into the occasion douchebag... not everyone in life is cool... some people are just dicks, including police officers.

Ive had some of the coolest cops pull me over for stupid ****, where they SHOULD have impounded my car, but the guy let me go, because i was cool and honest with him from the start.
And then I had a guy pull me over in a felony style stop - "driver, throw your keys out the window, reach outside and open your door... walk backwards and kneel down on the ground..." His excuse was he transposed my lic plate, but i was cool about it, until he started to be a dick making a scene - told him he had the wrong guy, told me to shut the **** up, etc... the watch commander came on scene and chewed his ***, the chief of police got involved who is a 30+ year close family friend and wrote him up for it.

So youre gonna have ******** in all walks of life, and people have good and bad days - who knows, maybe this guy found out his wife was ******* his brother and he walked in on them the day before? (one can only hope lol)
But **** him, karma is a bitch, and no one is immune to it.

BUT in all fairness, if youre gonna break the law, no matter how trivial it may seem, you open yourself up to BS... tint laws and other BS laws are just reasons to pull people over and further investigate them, any officer will tell you that. And many a criminal have been busted for big things over a simple traffic violation... drugs busts, parole violators, outstanding warrants, etc...

 

There are bad examples in almost every field. There is a Chick-fil-a right by my house but I choose to drive an extra 5 minutes to another one because I have gotten better service there. Same with auto parts stores, or pretty much anywhere I spend money.

The only problem with it being law enforcement is you aren't choosing to engage, you have to pull over when they light you up, you can't just wait for the next one. I have gotten very lucky upon occasion (73 in a 35 got a verbal warning) and I have had the book thrown at me (spent the night in lock up for 82 in a 45) and my attitude was the exact same in both situations. The best you can do is be as respectful and polite as possible and wish for the best as far as tickets/traffic stops go, just keep in mind if you drive something that attracts attention you already have an officers "indicators" going of and he/she is going to be on edge. Window tint is the number one thing that freaks out a cop when they pullover a car... no questions asked. One of my best friends is a trooper and says it's like walking up on death.

As far as the theft and crime in progress issue, I have had several personal issues with that. I have had 3 (yes 3 for ***** sake, 4 if you count the 4 wheeler in the back of the truck stolen the first time) cars stolen in Atlanta and I watched one of them drive away (had Spintech mufflers on it, heard it crank up). They did my last stolen vehicle report over the damn phone. It all has to do with resources and priorities. I know that in Metro Atlanta there are people murdered almost every day and that we lead the country in police involved shootings, so a stolen car is low on the list for the cops around me. I can't stand the fact that people have gotten away with things that I have worked hard to buy and own without so much as a second glance.

In today's world crime has become so easy and the punishment so insignificant that there really isn't much of a deterrent, especially to younger kids. I have taken it upon myself to protect my family and my property. I have a carry permit and anywhere that is legal to do so I take at least 2 firearms with me. It won't stop anyone from taking something completely but for me it's piece of mind. I hate that is has come to that, but I see no other way. As far as legality is concerned law enforcement is not responsible for individual's safety or security, they are responsible for the general public's safety and security which leaves a lot of leeway for officer discretion. There are a lot of letter of the law guys and a lot of spirit of the law guys and any time you have an encounter you get what you get.

If I was in your situation I would have done the same thing and felt the same way about it, to be honest there is nothing you can do. You could potentially complain, but in the long run that won't get you anywhere. You could call a supervisor, but you would have been there all damn night and probably gotten a lot harder time on principal. My honest suggestion is if it really bothers you to a point where you can't handle it (which isn't where you are, you handled it just fine in my opinion) you need to put legal tint on your windows and not bring attention to yourself. Otherwise, take the good with the bad like everything else in life and move on, hell at least the ticket got thrown out...

Damn that was a lot more than I planned on typing....

 

^^This is very true also. I got pulled over for 110 mph in a 45. The officer was VERY nice to me, I think he got a rush chasing me down. He ticketed me for a "reasonable & prudent" speed violation, 2 point ticket with a $100 fine. Proceeded to tell me to "excercise my rights" in court. He didn't show up, so it all went away.

 

those are some tough stories guys. Cops around my lil town are pretty laid back usually. My buddy was leaving a near by town on the way home one night and he was in one of those moods were you just feel like hitting the interstate and goin 110( yall know what im saying lol) he came to a stop light after a few miles of it and a tahoe was behind him (under cover leo) and they left the light he got on it again and the tahoe stayed with him so he got cocky and kept it floored. For about 10 more miles they were doing 100mph at least with the tahoe behind him.

they finally get into town and start slowing down 60-50-45-35-ect. so they are rolling thru town when 4 city cops swoop in from all directions and he gets pulled over! He said he thought he **** his pants lmao! so there ends up being 4 leo's in the tahoe and they all creep up and ask why he was going so fast( by this time he starts shooting the **** with them because he is thinking "im going to jail for sure") he says "well i was trying to stay ahead of you" cop-"yea i was having a lil trouble keeping up with this thing"(lol its a 4.6 02 f150) buddy says"you had trouble keeping up with this lil 4.6!? by this time the cops are all joking around and stuff...so he ends up just getting "you need to slow it down son" im guessing that the cops were like "lets call backup and scare the **** out of this guy" thats our theory anyway lol

so all in all some cops are good some are bad but you just got to deal with it because there isnt much you can do

 

Nick your wrong about that, there is lots you can do. Cops are required to act in a nature according to the oath they took when they first became cops. If you feel harassed at all you tell that officer that you would like to see his superior officer immediately on the scene and that you would like his badge number and make it clear that you will not talk to anyone but his superior, they usually either let you go or call their superior officer who is usually pissed to have to come out. Explain to his CO that you were being harassed for whatever reason and that you will gladly take the ticket (but don't admit any wrong doing) and that you'd like to be on your way. The magic words to say to any cop who is harassing you is "am I being detained or am I free to go". Once you say those words he has to make up his mind on what he's gonna do and will be forced into arresting you or letting you off with a warning or a ticket.