DOT, CHP HARRASSING TRUCKERS

You need to go back to 1980’s to understand what is taking place today. Back in the early 80’s the laws, regulations and rules that law enforcement had been operating under changed dramatically. With the additional changes made after 9/11, law enforcement is no longer a community service oriented agency. It is now a for profit corporation. Don’t think so, look at the changes to the forfeiture laws, the fact that any property can be seized with no charges or judgements filed. I have been told by several known LEO’s that the primary function of their job is to find a way to put any one they come into contact with in jail. To get you into the legal system and keep you in that system. It’s all about the money.

 

I can say that I have done both. Retired after 26 years as a police officer and drove a truck a lot of the past 4 years and yes as an officer I never liked being referred to as a hero. It was a profession I did in an effort to make a difference in the world for the better. Anyone doing that job for the recognition is in it for the wrong reasons... Both truck driving and policing are difficult jobs and both should be respected and neither get the respect that they deserve.
When it comes to stress I can say from my experience that policing was much more stressful..it messes with your mind the things you see and experience. Trucking has abundant frustration but stress..its a different kind... And yes I have white knuckled 80000 lbs though the snow and ice, battled the winds etc through wyoming, thru the mountains of the PNW. Etc.

 

Definitely there is a difference in the stress - At least you know in your heart (despite what your brain might grumble at you at any given moment) that the WEATHER isn't actively trying to kill you with intent. It just is being weather.

Cops facing bad guys, OK, yes, the bad guy with a gun PROBABLY is working with the intent to kill you, or at least run you off so they can get away with whatever they just did.

My problem is the cops that aren't interested in ACTUALLY going after crimes that have victims - people getting their Amazon $hite stolen from their porch, armed robbery, muggings in truck stop parking lots (I was a victim of this, had LOTS of cash taken off me forcibly)... Cops collectively have done JACK $HITE where I have been a victim. Now see what they HAVE done to me, in addition to my experience in CT:

Riding my motorcycle and minding my own business, a South Carolina small town small dick whips around and pulls me over, accuses me of speeding (wasn't), accuses me of "altering" the VIN plate on my bike (b/c it happened to be located where it could get rubbed by my boot and he couldn't easily read it), accuses me of BEING A RESIDENT OF SC WITHOUT A LICENCE when he was HOLDING MY VALID LICENSE FROM GEORGIA IN HIS HAND - and in his view I "was a resident" of SC simply b/c I was standing on the side of the road and in that state?... And then the best, informs me that since I "am a resident of SC" and "don't have a SC license" and "don't have SC insurance"... I'm now getting ARRESTED and my bike impounded, b/c in SC they arrest people without insurance! WHAT THE EVERLUVINFUKKK????? Oh yeah, and this was at 3:45pm on a Friday, so I got to sit in the tank with 5 other people UNTIL MONDAY AFTERNOON with NO TOILET PAPER. Even the people at the jail were confused and asking me why was I there - I told them to ask Barney effing Fife, he was the jackwagon that decided to lock me up for nothing.

Over $1000 for the tickets(which couldn't be paid until Monday afternoon, and had to be IN CASH), plus another $400 to get my bike back... And I come to find out that the judge was a "fishin buddy" with the pig that did all this. When I FINALLY got a court date over 2 months later, they are going in alphabetical order, and called me AFTER some guy named Zimmer. (my last name doesn't start with Z). Made me intentionally wait until after close to 60 people had gone before. I show the judge my Georgia license, my Georgia insurance, my GEORGIA RENT BILL... And he says "the officer says you were in SC operating as an uninsured and unlicensed resident - Found guilty, you've already paid, you are "free" to go".

THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HATE COPS. I'm still looking to see if I have a "kick me" sign on my back, but DANG. The best interaction with a cop is NONE. I have NEVER had any assistance from one when I needed it, but they are HAPPY to help themselves to my wallet any time they feel a bit needy.

 

Most people dont hate cops. Most people dont hate truck drivers. I had a few bad experiences with the police before I became one myself . I also had some bad experiences with truck drivers but I dont go around saying that is why people hate truck drivers. Both professions have bad apples.

 

The police force and the trucking industry are just microcosms of the society at large ( as are any other group). Meaning there are both good and bad people in any particular sector. So it really pains me and makes me cringe when you refer to the police as "pigs" as you have in this thread. I just don't see it as helpful to your cause of enlightening in any way. IMHO

That said I think we are evolving toward a police state, and that is for sure worrisome.

 

Both professions have bad apples, no doubt about it. I certainly don't blame all cops or all truckers for the knuckleheads that do give the industries a bad name.

But I don't know that there is a truckers benevolence agency out there, looking to protect the bad ones and defend them in all things.

The difference is that a trucker is a working stiff, just trying to do the job day to day. Truckers are closer to plumbers or carpenters in that respect, where cops are an entirely different level B/C of the power they have - the power to arrest people and lock them up, and the power to basically say anything they want and have it taken as always the truth. Abuse of power should NEVER be tolerated by anyone, and that is the primary failure of the police forces in recent years - they have turned a blind eye to the abuses of the few, and allowed the situations to fester. Or worse, encouraged it b/c the department benefits by the seizures or (in the case of Connecticut) apparently the police forces receive kickbacks from the tow operators for every vehicle that is seized and impounded. This leads to ENCOURAGING abuse of power.

If the good cops didn't like what the bad cops are doing when they are abusing the badge... Why aren't the good cops saying something about it / trying to put a stop to it, instead of just being a faceless part of that blue wall?

FYI - a minor correction to your post Swine Hauler - I didn't refer to "cops" in the plural as pigs. I referred to THE ONE PARTICULAR individual that abused his badge, arrested me for "being a south carolina resident" which I have NEVER BEEN, and STOLE FROM ME both my money and my time and dignity. I stand behind my statement. THAT ONE is a PIG. Are all cops that way? No. And not all cops are pigs. But that one in particular earns the name.

Filing a complaint or a lawsuit is pointless, because of the obvious corruption I experienced. I truly feel sorry for the people who ARE residents of SC in that area, because there is no justice to be found there.

 

A follow-up thought to this. For anyone that has been lucky enough to never experience police brutality or corruption, I am happy for you and hope that you never do. Perhaps it is that God never gives us more than we can truly handle, and my family may be able to handle more. I certainly don't wish my experiences on anyone.

My sister attended college in Savannah a few years ago. While stopped and waiting in traffic to make a left turn on a 4 lane non-divided road way (no center turn lane), she suddenly had the left front end of her SUV impacted and nearly torn off by another driver who had gone around her in oncoming traffic to drive around her stopped vehicle. This was around 8pm on a Friday. The SCMPD (city police) show up, and the officer goes and checks on the drivers - being very calm and professional (bordering on flirting) to the driver of the other car, a young woman of the same race as this officer. He then proceeds to SCREAM HIS HEAD OFF at my sister, demanding to know why she caused this accident, and while she is hyperventilating in shock and fear, screaming at her to continuously breathe out into a breathalyzer (which was useless as you can't do that while hyperventilating) yet never tests the woman that has only front end damage to her car while most of the damage to my sister's car is the fender and front wheel that is crushed into the hood.

Thankfully a friend of mine happened to be in the area and witnessed this entire incident (after the accident) and videoed much of it - a friend of my sister's happened to also be in the area and was taking pictures of the damage to the cars, and the cop flew into a rage at him, going as far as to handcuff him and put him in the back of the police car - he was eventually released from the car without being charged, but seriously now. The cop NEVER alcohol tested the woman who caused the wreck, while she could be seen on the video to be visibly unstable on her feet while walking around, and the cop was verbally abusive to everyone OTHER than her. She was allowed to drive her (still functional) vehicle away, while the cop only was prevented from impounding my sister's immobile car b/c my friend thankfully took responsibility for it at the scene and got a tow truck on the way. If the cops call for a tow, it is automatically an impound, I learned that in an accident years ago.

The corruption in the SCMPD is so bad that it has been in the news, so again - filing a complaint even with the video evidence, it went nowhere. Why do the good cops not rail against the bad ones?

 

If you haven't called the SC state Police or the SC AG, then it's your fault for not proceeding. You could own that jurisdiction if what you have laid out is true.

 

A lot of small towns here in SC target out of state motorists. It’s really bad in the small towns heading toward Myrtle Beach.

 

Getting harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys these days. In the old westerns the good guys wore white, and the bad guys wore a mask.