Not making a difference since 2006. Blog motto: Always be sincere whether you mean it or not.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Note to Governor Patrick, there appears to be a flaw in the State Police examination process!!

Your Excellency,

Last evening, July 2, 2008 at 8:27 Pm two Massachusetts State Policeman were stopped at the light at the intersection of Route 148 and Route 20. When the light turned green they lingered. I beeped my horn after the one in the right lane left. Instead of moving, the fellow in the cruiser in front of me jumped out and yelled, “Are you beeping at me?”

I do hope this is an anomaly and the fellow slipped through the cracks as It can only have been moi who beeped. If the examination system is allowing this to happen, I am worried.

The fellow excoriated me for not being patient as they were on police business. He said someone had been beaten up using the past tense. How his not moving along after he had finished speaking with the other officer helped the victim's situation is an excellent question, but he seemed not to be in a question answering mood.

I did mention I paid his salary, he told me not to go there implying he makes so much that I hardly covered his pay. Duh. His powers of cognition leave one to wonder if he might be overpaid.

As he walked back to the cruiser, I asked his badge number, but he ignored me. Not behavior one would expect from a public servant. No matter, his plate was either 894 or 984.

As he drove off, he did not put on his left turn signal. Not merely bad form to add to bad manners, but a ticketable offense. As the man who enforces the law should be held to the same or higher standard, I hope you will look into this.

To be fair, I’ve met many very professional state troopers and have been generally treated fairly. The bad apples need to be made aware they work for the citizens.

Thank you, Governor, for your attention.

Un Citoyen

3 comments:

Black Sea said...

Well, at least the guy didn't bash you in the head with a flashlight and throw you into the back of the cruiser.

You may remember that some time ago I blogged at length about an Officer Kevin Leonpacher, of the Atlanta Police Department, who had been accused by a somewhat aged British historian of having roughed him up during an altercation over a jaywalking incident.

I, at some length, traced the shifting journalistic perspectives on this case, holding open the possibility that Officer Leonpacher had been wrongly accused, which in fact he may have been.

Anyway, while living back in Atlanta last year, I asked a guy I know who's an APD cop if he was familiar with this incident and the officer in question.

Without answering explicitly, he implied pretty clearly that Officer Leonpacher has a lot of axes to grind, and is rather a nasty piece of work.

Oh well . . . it's always interesting to know someone on the inside.

Richard said...

I do remember Officer Leonpacher and your comment about Colby Cosh. I was wondering about that.

As someone with a dirt peasantry ancestry, one cannot escape some class resentment. I am usually sympathetic to the constabulary from that point of view.. They do seem to become a separate class after graduation from the academy.

I suspect Mr. Cosh thinks himself part of a class as well and jumped to conclusion based on that.

Anyway, I picked my spots on this one. I was taking my daughter to a friends and she was in the back seat. It was on my turf. Massachusetts, and I yield to no one in my lampooning the Peoples' Republic, is not Arkansas.

In the back of the lad's mind was probably the question, "could I blow my pension if I hassle this guy?" Politics is a blood sport here and everybody knows someone.

Still, I wouldn't try it in Dorchester.

Independent Accountant said...

Some cops are all right, some are not. I once saw a cop on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA run a red light. I caught up with him about two blocks later and rolled down my window to complain. In the passenger's seat of the cop car was a sergeant. He asks me what to do. I said write the driver a ticket. The sergeant laughed and they drove off.