Posted on 02/24/2006 8:35:03 AM PST by LouAvul
A Tennessee judge gave a college student a driving lesson in court this week: don't correct the police.
Clay Palmer, a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, honked his car horn when he saw a policeman turn on blue flashers to pass through a red traffic light. The officer then turned the flashers off after moving through the intersection.
Palmer said officer Matthew Puglise then stopped his patrol car and issued him a ticket for honking his horn for no reason -- a violation of the city noise ordinance.
The charge was reduced to a warning Wednesday when he went before a judge who told him he acted wrongly.
"The horn blowing is not the real problem here, it's that you were trying to correct the police and they didn't need correcting," Judge Russell Bean said.
Palmer left traffic court saying he still believed officers were abusing their authority.
"I see this cop with his blue lights come screeching up beside me and I didn't know what was going on," Palmer said. "Before they got to the next light, I could see they turned their blue lights off."
Officer Puglise said he was helping fellow police track down a speeder when Palmer saw him pass through the red light.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Oh please, the cop got caught abusing his authority...I say good for the kid.
A friend of mine was pulled over and severely tongue-lashed for flashing his headlights on bright to tell the oncoming vehicle that his lights were on bright. The oncoming car was a policeman.
Judge Bean, eh?
Any relation to Judge ROY Bean?
The kid in the story is an idiot. At his age, he should know better.
wow
Yeah, don't cross the authority in our dictatorship, it's not allowed. i say good for the young man!
Even when they're wrong
Cops routinely abuse traffic laws unneccessarily and it is a danger to all, many times a cop turns his lights on for a donut run and ends up hitting someone.
Police are only supposed to use their lights in an emergency or in pursuit of a crime and any cop doing so for other reasons should be severly reprimanded.
I got stopped by the police once and was threatened with a ticket for "something" when I mentioned that his cruiser had a headlight out.
*************
Learns fast, doesn't he?
***Honkenese***
LOL!
Us peons should know better than to try and disparage our 'betters'.
It would have been better had the judge dismissed the charge and fined the officer if the officer coulnd not produce proof her was "helping" another office. I'm sure there was a record of te "help" somewhere.....NOT
Especially in Tennessee.
The cop just got word that Dunkin Donuts had a fresh batch ready.
I did that once, and the cop dropped to low beams without a problem.
It didn't concern you.
I can't stand it when people honk their horns for any reason that is not safety-related. I'm not prone to road rage, but unnecessary honking really ticks me off.
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