I don’t need anything to say he’s a “bad cop”. That’s pretty apparent that’s he a bad cop. I have followed this since it happened and I’ve read a couple of dozen articles, and seen various cuts of the video. So don’t sit there and tell me I’m making something up. I’m not, there are good, logical reasons to believe this was a speed trap.
There’s more in the video you’re all missing. I’ll give you some links to other folks’ opinions on the subject and you can see why I said “speed trap”. The man also questions the signs... and guess what, there was a temporary sign up.
The space of 200 yards the speed dropped from 70 to 40 mph. You can see the officer pulled DIRECTLY into the front of the sign and there was no way the man could have seen the sign being blocked by the cop car. There wasn’t any sort of construction... so why was the sign there again? For construction that didn’t exist?
Sounds a lot like a speed trap to me.
The point here folks is that there are others who have seen the area and believed this to be a “temporary sign”, that was put up for the day. One of the links I put below has almost the entire stop, NOT just the short segment most people are seeing and saying “The cop was right”. The man got out of his car at the officers request and he was trying to point to a sign and question it’s existence.... The man ALSO stopped immediately, there was no high speed chase, and from all I could here the whole time the man was being completely reasonable with the cop - up til the point he said he wasn’t going to sign the ticket.
As far as the officer being a “bad cop” he had a piss poor attitude. That is sufficient to me to say he’s a “bad cop”. I’m sure he has other things on his record probably similar complaints against him, and this is one way to HIDE that fact since it won’t go to court that way.
As far as a “speed trap” - I can’t say it WAS for certain, as I was not there, but other folks have looked it over and I’m repeating some things others have stated about the situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an anti-cop person. To quote an old cliche, “some of my best friends are cops” - and many of them that looked over the video said the cop was in the wrong as well. At least one that JUST watched the video with me wanted to know where the construction zone was in relation to the sign. Different states have different laws about that, but temporary signs in most regions are put out by the department of transportation for the state (or county depending on the work). There is usually a set distance according to the guy who was just in my office. He should know, he’s a state trooper...
Here is what most people are seeing:
http://www.kutv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=33fb7027-f63d-4414-9a9f-f815f4d4f302
Here’s more blogs on the story as well as some longer videos:
http://steven-war-ran.blogspot.com/2007/11/utah-state-police-taser-speed-trap.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqtxSM-73_E
http://www.spike.com/video/2914254
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=14704
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/02/13/speeding-ticket-taser-utah/2
blah,blah,blah.
If Mr. Massey, who was properly being ticketed for speeding, had signed the ticket, none of this would have happened.
By refusing to sign the ticket, by arguing repeatedly with the officer, what was he thinking he would accomplish?
They put cameras in stores, and have store detectives that watch for shoplifters.
Since they do this in the stores, where these crimes occur, are they money grabbing, out of control store detectives who set up ‘traps’ for poor innocent shoplifters?
If this was a speed ‘trap’, what makes it OK to violate the posted speed limit?
Oh, I forgot. Mr. Massey is terminally blind, so he couldn’t see the first speed limit sign, nor the red flags, nor the loose gravel sign, nor the POLICE CAR IN FRONT OF HIM.
At some construction work, they have a guy holding up a temporary STOP sign. Know what happens if you run through it?
In which one of those videos does Mr. Massey take responsibility for speeding (he admitted doing 61mph), even if he did not see the signs, and sign the ticket, after which he drives away with wife and child, into the sunset?