Yes, FLICKING is a hangin' offense!!! As bad as stealing a man's horse!
What evidence? The story from the angry, off-duty cop? How is an unauthorized ticket warranted?
"It's mildly irritating to be flipped off, but to be flicked off then I say the gloves come off! ;-)"
There are degrees of flicking off. If there is foreign matter attached to the end of your finger during the flicking incident then it rises to the level of assault and you are allowed to defend yourself. I think it's called the booger defense.
So it's okay for a cop to pull a gun on somebody on a freeway off-ramp if there's a traffic dispute? Sakes, the guy should have just kept driving and observed for a while to see if he was really being followed. If the driver behind wasn't trying to run the off-duty cop off the road, gunning his engine, or edging forward threateningly, the cop doesn't have a leg to stand on. He should have just taken down the guy's license plate and reported him later (or, as the police chief suggested, called a uniformed cop).
It's not okay for a cop to use his position to bully and threaten people because somebody behind him is flipping him off. I would expect a cop to act better than the average citizen out there.
The discipline is for the traffic ticket he wrote Parker Bell after the incident. Since Asmussen was off duty, Chief Jones says writing Bell the ticket went against department policy.
Nevertheless, the chief doesn't plan to drop the ticket against Parker Bell.
This makes a lot of sense. The cop is receiving disciplinary action for writing an unauthorized ticket, but that same ticket is going to stand. I'm curious as to what a judge would say about that.
If I were the judge for traffic court, I would chew the cop's ass and tell him he's damn lucky he's not facing charges for felony assault. (The way I see it, the cop was threatening to kill the other party for pulling his gun. Cops are trained to use minimum force necessary and do things to cool off a situation, not radically escalate the situation up to the line of using deadly force.)
"Hold muh badge and watch this..."
I stopped the agressive driving and the gestures about 20 years ago when people started shooting each other in California.
So I would never get into this kind of altercation.
That being said if the angry cop, from a civilian vehicle, in civilian clothes, brandishing a gun would have been killed by a legally armed Colorado citizen - he would have no one to blame. And a jury here would never find someone guilty even if he was flashing a badge.
I would imagine that the civilian will refrain from future aggressive driving tactics all the same.
I worked at a company years ago selling telecom gear. There was a short hothead sales man who routinely got into verbal altercations in traffic. He was out with his manager headed to a sales call, flipped off a fellow who pulled in front of him, then got stopped in a traffic jam behind the fellow he had just offended. The fellow in front got out, walked back, pulled a revolver and put it in his face then pulled the trigger. He said "You are dead". It was unloaded, but Mr Hothead promptly soiled himself. The manager told me it adjusted Mr Hothead's attitude.
Sheesh its only traffic!
Sounds like they're both jerks. Hard for me to be sympathetic for either of these losers, in fact, these are the kinds of folks who are causing all of the accidents and road rage incidents that have made our highways a battleground.
I commute in northern VA. If I drew down on every idiot driver on the roads I'd never make it to work... and it's only a ten mile commute.
A guy that can't control himself ends up crapping in his pants
put the state in your posts, there are a bunch of places named Aurora,,,LOL
"facing disciplinary action "
And not arrest and prosecution for Felony Menacing, a class 5 felony???
Colorado Revised Statute 18-3-206. Menacing.
(1) A person commits the crime of menacing if, by any threat or physical action, he or she knowingly places or attempts to place another person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury. Menacing is a class 3 misdemeanor, but, it is a class 5 felony if committed:
(a) By the use of a deadly weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to cause a person to reasonably believe that the article is a deadly weapon; or
(b) By the person representing verbally or otherwise that he or she is armed with a deadly weapon.
One more incident to prove there is a double standard between the people and the government.
""When I saw the gun, I was like: 'Oh my God - he's going to shoot him,'" Meadows said. "
If the driver had shot this stupid, power-trip cop, it would be a clear case of self-defense from a madman with a gun.
The VPC and Sarah Brady believe the only police officers should have guns because they are "professionals" and "specially trainsd".