soundscream
Member
Oh I'm sure if I was the one pulled over I wouldn't have got that deal. Homophobic comments make me think he wouldn't be to keen on black guys.
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Police Officer threatens to impound car if driver doesn't buy fundraiser tickets
- Thread starter DrForester
- Start date
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Oh I'm sure if I was the one pulled over I wouldn't have got that deal. Homophobic comments make me think he wouldn't be to keen on black guys.
Byakuya769
Member
I doubt he was obligated to impound the car, could have just written a ticket for improper registration. Looking like a developing country with this...
quickwhips
Member
Unions stop this from happening. Unions are why cops are always on payed leave instead of fired. Bet union in American.
Monocle
Member
Let's be honest, those wipers were total flamers. An embarrassment to their community. I don't care if you want to act like some fruitcake in the privacy of your own garage, but if you're driving around in broad daylight on my roads? Don't mince around wiping windows while being pink.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
What is the union doing exactly to protect them? Providing legal counsel or something?
I got pulled over in Philly last year for an expired registration (forgot about it). The cop gave me a ticket ($160) but said I could go, and then just asked me to take care of it when I got home.
Tertullian
Member
Delightful fellow.
quickwhips
Member
They have rules that they can't be fired or anything until investigation is complete and must be put on paid leave or desk duty. It's classic for most police in america.
Byakuya769
Member
Thought so. What a piece of shit bully.
FTFY
Manmademan
Member
He is.
http://www.phila.gov/pac/PDF/CB2_Live_Stop_Program.pdf
Odd as it sounds, this cop was letting this dude off easy.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
It's really a shame the FOP is so powerful that Ramsey can't properly clean up the department.
Byakuya769
Member
😡 not always sunny in Philadelphia.
Manmademan
Member
I worked for a car rental company for a couple of years out of college. Our cars got impounded all the time, usually from unauthorized drivers cruising around in them.
Getting your car out of the philly impound is a goddamned nightmare even if you HAVE the money. That dude should have bought ten tickets, then prayed to whatever god he believes in that he didn't have to burn a day running all over the city between impound yards on top of hundreds of dollars in fines.
StopMakingSense
Member
Christ, in LA that's just a fixit ticket.
It was most certainly extortion and nothing about what that officer did was okay, buuut the driver got off easy. I assume the cops will impound the car if it's not registered. The driver was lucky to get off, even though the cop wasn't doing his job and extorting money.
Pointing out that this is better than the car being impounded is indirectly endorsing the act. The driver didn't get off easy because the transaction wasn't legal and came with no legal protection. The act makes the public more susceptible to abuse for being poor and the driver could now be a target for local cops upset one of their own got caught.
But hey, he saved some money!
Manmademan
Member
Live Stop has been around for maybe a decade or so. Massive pain in the ass. Note that only the traffic court has the authority to release your car.
Here is what we had to do to get vehicles out when they got impounded-
1.) send a lawyer down to traffic court for a day to explain the situation and obtain the paperwork to have our vehicle released.
2.) after obtaining the necessary paperwork to get the car out, run down to an office on columbus boulevard (the southeast part of the city) to actually PAY the fine to get the car out. There was always a nasty line here.
3.) The car isn't actually kept here! It's at one of god knows how many random impound yards spread across the city. You'll have to make your way to one of those. More than once the car I needed was clear across the other side of the city.
4.) arrive at impound yard. show paperwork showing release was authorized and you paid to get the car out (god knows how many hundreds of dollars for this). Good news! you can have your car...as long as no other cars are blocking it in. What's that? a piece of shit 94 honda civic is in front of it? You'll have to wait several hours while we call a tow truck to move that car so you can get yours.
This is literally a multi-day affair, and I had lawyers and a second car to run all over the city. Can you imagine how bad this is for someone who has neither one? This dude was getting an astronomical break by this cop. Plenty of people just say "fuck it" and let the city have the car because the expense getting it out of impound exceeds the value of the car.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
The city/state enacted it because people driving without insurance was so rampant. Insurance rates in the city were like double outside the city because there were so many uninsured drivers getting into accidents. To fight it they basically said "if you are pulled over and are driving illegally your car is impounded." It's actually done a lot to lower insurance premiums and reduce the amounts of accidents that involve illegal/uninsured motorists. It was a damn plague before and I am all for the program.
That said? The major problem I have is that it's really easy to forget that you need to renew your registration. I am late on it almost every year. They only send you one letter in the mail notifying you that it needs to be renewed and it's well in advance. I inevitably set aside the letter and completely forget. Obviously that's on me, but what I really want is an auto-renew option. Let me simply give you a credit card and you bill it once a year and renew my registration automatically. It would have saved me a big ticket and almost getting impounded myself. Luckily the cop was nice and said "You're only a block from home so I'll let you run home and renew rather than impounding your car."
The city also needs to fix the ridiculous runaround of the impound system, as manmade points out.
Angelus Errare
Banned
StopMakingSense
Member
Yeah, I meant it solely for the driving with expired tags. At least registration is only 36 dollars in PA. Still that's fucking ridiculous.
So you are cool with police extorting people? How about I pull you over, and, instead of issuing you a ticket, I tell you to just pay me 50% of the cost of the ticket which I put directly in my wallet?
And the $30 Italian meal is included for free this time!!
Because he thinks the vehicle being unregistered allows him to shitlord up the heee-oooouuusssseeeeee. Oh, why doesn't this surprise me...
LostCaress
Member
I don't know how it's even legal to sell those tickets during normal police work.
SuperBanana
Banned
Wow, he really makes a strong case of supporting the police. I can't imagine why those tickets aren't just flying out the door.
lmao!
Poe's law? Please?
You... did see the police officer extort a man, right?
That's totally different?!
Look, if a police officer would say "you either donate your money to a beneficial thing OR pay a fee in the same amount", I don't have a problem with it. It just means you can direct where your money goes. I'd turn a blind eye to that.
Don't get me wrong, the police officer here is still a douche, tho.
Amazing number of people completely missing the point. He didn't let the guy off with anything. He extorted him. Forget car registration. Put it out of your mind. It could have been jaywalking or any other petty offense you can think of. He also called him a faggot AFTER discovering the pink wipers were a testament to his mother's cancer.
Next person to post "cop did him a favor " can join the international Get Bent club for bad citizens.
Next person to post "cop did him a favor " can join the international Get Bent club for bad citizens.
It's okay. The better informed pick up the slack for those people. Sometimes you just have to drag them kicking and screaming into the light or they just follow along like sheep. Either way it gets done.
TheOohChild
Member
That is a pretty sweet deal for the driver. You get off with a slap on the wrist, and you get to expose an asshole cop.
That money doesn't go to the city, didn't get recorded anywhere, and didn't necessarily go to the fundraiser since those could have been free tickets. Why should cops raise money for private, self-serving funds when no other part of the government lets you direct your money?
crazygambit
Member
This isn't really any better. It's still extortion, just better phrased. Like "hey, you can buy these tickets to this fundraiser from me, but it's totally your choice. It's not like if you don't I'll impound your car or anything. No strings attached, I promise!".
Slippery, slope and all that. We really don't want police officers stopping people to "offer" them to buy tickets for stuff.
The ultimatum is crappy no matter how you spin it.
Give him a desk job until everyone forgets about it. He should be kept on the force because North Philly deserves less. And it's nice how the officer is all about a charity that benefits the police, but is all "lol, f****t" regarding a colour/symbol used for breast cancer. Such a pleasant guy.
Give him a desk job until everyone forgets about it. He should be kept on the force because North Philly deserves less. And it's nice how the officer is all about a charity that benefits the police, but is all "lol, f****t" regarding a colour/symbol used for breast cancer. Such a pleasant guy.
MidgarBlowedUp
Member
In a sane world, you would not get your car impounded for that anyway. You would get a warning or a small fine and a reminder. In America it's just a pay day for the state.
BronsonLee
Member
This has been getting a lot of local news play the past few days. People aren't very stoked about it. This is bad, just like that cop who gave some girl an uppercut on Puerto Rican Day because she sprayed silly string on him
Ramsey has been pretty solid in terms of trying to get problem cops the fuck out of his department. Unions and courts aren't helping at all, though. More often than not, he goes for termination.
Ramsey has been pretty solid in terms of trying to get problem cops the fuck out of his department. Unions and courts aren't helping at all, though. More often than not, he goes for termination.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
I don't think so. If he makes it clear at the start that he's only getting a warning, then I wouldn't have any issue with him asking the driver to buy a fundraiser ticket. It's no longer blackmail, because there's no consequence for saying "no".
meltingparappa
Member
Gets shown a video of someone being extorted to buy a ticket. Immediately fires back that no single person was ever extorted to buy their ticket.Fundraising guy said:
What.
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