They tell us that cops hiding in roadside cutouts and behind billboards running radar traps is for our “safety.” That this cuts down on “speeding” – which they insist is “unsafe.” If that’s so, how come they don’t like Waze – the app that lets drivers know about radar traps? After all, people slow down when they know there’s a radar trap up ahead. Isn’t that what the cops say they want?
Of course not.
Well, it is what they say they want. What they really want, of course, is your money. More finely, the city or county or state that hires these enforcers wants your money and the cops are hired to take it. The “speeding” and “safety” stuff is just the drapery they use to keep people from seeing the truth.
Think not?
Well, then why not park the cop cars out in the open, where everyone who’s looking can see them? That would slow people down – but it would result in less “revenue” being collected.
Why do they paint their cars grayscale colors and use “fade” graphics that can only be seen when you’re close up rather than far away? The answer is obvious. It is because they want to trap you, in order to mulct you. Not to prevent you from doing the thing they say is “unsafe.” Which, as an important aside, they do in order to catch up to you – which gives the lie to the whole “speeding” is “unsafe” thing, doesn’t it? Because if it is, then it always is – including when a cop does it.
This segues over to the latest news about Flock – the AI camera system that is being used to herd us like the sheep the people behind Flock consider us to be. They insist we’re being Flocked to – here it comes – keep us safe. Only sheep believe this, of course. It is of a piece with believing that we’re going to get a $5k check from the federal government after the midterms – assuming the Republicans win control of both houses of Congress.
Anyhow, if getting Flocked is for our “safety,” why does Flock object to FlockSurveillance.org – which lets the sheep know exactly where Flock “safety” cameras are located? Why would it object to “sharing” this information with the sheep? If it’s for “safety,” what harm could there be in this?
Flock objects strenuously.
It sent a threat letter to the site’s owner, Joshua Michael, demanding he take the site down – ostensibly over his use of the “Flock” name. Obviously, it has nothing to do with that and everything to do with Michael publishing the exact locations of Flocks cameras. Why would Flock object so strenuously to that? Well, for the same reason cops object strenuously to Waze – and also to ordinary motorists flashing their lights at cars coming the other way – to warn them about the cop down the road who’s running a radar trap. You’d think the cop would be pleased. After all, the flashing of the lights results in the “speeder” slowing down – and isn’t that what this is all about? 
Sure. Right. Just like this catastrophically stupid war with Iran is all about making sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. There are sheep who believe that, too.
Michaels did more than just let the sheep know where the Flock cameras are. He also published details about Flock’s use of drone telemetry, cop car locations in real time (like Waze) and even individual cop body camera telemetry. He was able to gain access to all of this, according to news reports, via a security key exposed publicly on Flock’s systems, granting full access to the entire FlockOS system.
Oh, the humanity!
More like they can see – to crib a line from the documentary, They Live. The wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper played a construction worker who stumbled on a box of what looked like cheap sunglasses. When he tried one on, he could see – the truth behind the lies. That’s what Michaels did – and that’s why Flock went after him and forced him to close down FlockSurveillance.org. 
The excuse, of course, is that he “hacked” Flock’s info. But – wait – why would Flock object to this info being made public? What has Flock got to worry about – if it has nothing to hide? Flock has reasons for hiding – just like the cop hiding behind the billboard up ahead.
Flock went after Michaels for exactly the same reason that cops will “speed” to catch up to a driver who flashed his lights at oncoming traffic, to warn them about the radar trap up ahead. It has as much to do with “safety” as the so-called “ticket” you got for “speeding” – issued by a cop who “sped” to catch up to you – has to do with “safety.”
By now, hearing that word ought to immediately trigger a kind of instinctive reaction (per the Reichsmarschall) to release the safety catch on one’s pistol.
. . .
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Are most cops lazy?
Yes, they are.
It is their own self-interest, being “captains of their own ships” (cars) while on duty and the discretion to “look the other way” when observing true criminal activity while harassing honest people for statute “crimes” such as speeding or improper lane changes.
The “qualified immunity” that cops possess further affects their behavior as “they can do no wrong”. It is a “get out of jail free” card for cops.
Being trained in israeli military “command and control” tactics is also a problem as “we are all Palestinians now”…
The easiest person for a cop to to harass is the honest person during a traffic stop. Very rarely do traffic stops result in difficulties for police officers. The infraction is noted and recorded and the traffic ticket is issued without incident. The municipality’s coffers get a boost.
Traffic ticket “quota systems” exist in just about every police department. Failure to write a (statistical) proper number of traffic tickets usually results in a cop’s superiors wanting to know why…and to be “encouraged” to write more tickets.
Police on a regular beat KNOW where the criminal activity is taking place and purposely turn a “blind eye” to the criminal activities as the chance of getting into an altercation with armed individuals and groups who are willing to fight back is a distinct possibility.
The goal of every police officer is to make it to retirement and collect a lucrative pension while starting another career. The police mantra: “To Protect and Serve” rings hollow.
Investigating and curtailing criminal activity is simply “not worth the effort” as the chance of injury or even death is a possibility.
Think if hear govt and their apparatchiks use the word safe one more time I’m gonna puke. Every damn thing they shove down our throats and up our asses is dressed up as for our safety. TSA gate rape, digital ID, vaccines, foreign invasions, surveillance cameras, permits (certain I’m missing several other examples). Just never got those safe warm fuzzies. Always more like existential threat. If they could be more like the mafia I would have less contempt. Like the govt, the mob wants your stuff and says so. At least they don’t play pretend.
I don’t hate cops. I hate assholes. Cops are assholes!
Well-said, sir!
What’s hilarious is watching a police chase video where some oblivious fool in the left lane can’t be bothered to pay attention to what’s coming up from behind or move over when the cops have lights and sirens blaring.
At that point I say call off the chase. You’ve found your true menace to society.
Cops exist to serve the interests of their DIRECT EMPLOYER, NOT necessarily the PEOPLE they’re ostensibly “protecting and serving”. E.G., their PRIMARY mission is to EARN REVENUE. If they can get it from folks that live ELSEWHERE, so their victims can’t easily vote out that bullshit, then it’s ideal…for THEM. Or, they prey upon their own residents, but at least that has to be tempered, lest the outrage boil over. Of course, they ALSO can be and have been used to suppress said “outrage”, witness the number of times the Pigs harass critics.
Heaven help these “heroes” that they actually deal with those usually considered “public enemies”, why, they might get “hoit” (hurt)!
AGW who crossed the double yellow and offed himslf on my front bumper back in ’89 was “chasing speeders.”
Enough said.
Add in the two tiered ‘justice’ system. Daughter allegedly rolled a stop sign leaving her quiet zero traffic neighborhood street & got ticketed. Meanwhile the known drug gang members visiting our otherwise small college town buzz around with impunity, speeding down Main in their s**tbox cars blacked out windows including the windshield, no front plate, etc. Gang shooting at the fast food place a couple years ago just blocks from their house, grandson walking home was within 1/2 block of that one. “Equity policing” here in WA really means whitey is fair game while our diverse imports get a pass.
PS: I bitch about the window tints, loud mufflers, missing plates – does that directly affect or harm me? No, but either enforce the laws truly equally, or get rid of them. Pinching whitey for no harm silly s**t while diversejose’ sails on with impunity is wearing thin. Further insult we pay a voter approved extra surcharge on our sales tax in this county for a gang control unit. Fat good that’s doing.
Safety is an illusion. Life is a terminal disease. And cops are a significant factor in that.
While I fundamentally agree with Eric’s treatise, I do have my own real world observation that runs counter to it: I used to drive Kenilworth Ave/DC 295 when I worked in DC. It’s essentially a freeway, with posted speed limits of 45 and 55mph in different places. Well, back in the day, early morning commuters (such as me) were routinely doing 70+. But there would be choke points in the road, either a curve or some small obstruction which would cause the traffic to pile up. Eh, an annoyance for sure, but pretty much a daily occurrence. Then the speed cameras were installed, and at first they flashed so much it was like a disco! I, myself, got a letter for the “mandatory donation” to the city’s coffers. After a few weeks of all those commuters getting tickets, speed slowed down to 55. This had the very beneficial effect of smoothing out the traffic pace, which could not be unnoticed. I was a direct recipient of that. YMMV
So what you’re saying is that you have no ability to self regulate your own driving behavior and that you need the State to regulate your behavior for you.
Baaaaaah – good sheep.
“Serve and Protect” is really “Harass and Profit”.
Actually, that should be “Harass and Collect.”
If the law spent more time cracking down on those damn clovers who drive 10-25 mph below the speed limit on an open road on a clear day for obstructing the flow of traffic, the incidents of accidents would greatly be reduced. But they would rather issue fines than to actually have to put in some effort to assure a good steady flow of traffic.
H Allen.
If the road has a minimum speed limit posted and someone drives below that speed they could be charged but there’s no fun in a low speed pursuit. High speed pursuits are a lot more fun and you get to tell everyone afterwords that you’re a hero for nabbing that speeder.
Afterward not afterwords. Spell check let me down. 🙁
Decades ago there were “minimum speed” signs on the freeways, it was a ridiculously low 45 MPH here in WA, but it at least was a posted.
I’ve said before – back in the early 70s drove 101 down the Oregon coast. The shockingly logical “BASIC SPEED 55” posted on that route. On a clear dry day you wouldn’t get hassled for 60-65 on that scenic winding route.
Imagine the money the LEO’s could bring in if they pulled over such left-lane luggers who refuse to pass, and refuse to move over to the slow lane? Now, much easier catching the speeders is their objective. I surmise the slow pokes in the left lane are not enough to thrill them too much.