Suppose I am in my car following right behind a truck for approx. 30 miles. The truck is driving 85MPH in a 65MPH zone. A state trooper pulls me over for speeding, but he doesn't pull the truck over and instead lets that driver keep going. I was just following the truck and obviously the truck was the first person to break the law (I was just following), but the officer doesn't charge the truck driver with a crime. Do you think the officer is just being a racist? Why didn't he catch the truck? If he let the truck go, then he should have let me go too! If not, that's discrimination.
This type of thing happens all the time, why do you think the cops would just selectively pull people over??
2007-10-02 08:06:31 · 10 answers · asked by Eleanor Roosevelt 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
fairly smart: Say for example, a gang of kids come over and beat me up, but no one is ever charged with a crime. But if I get a gang of friends together and we go beat someone up, we get charged with murder. That's not very fair at all. Shouldn't we be let go because of the precedent? Really, that's discrimination.
2007-10-02 08:30:36 · update #1
If you were not speeding, he wouldn't have given you a ticket. If you hadn't been speeding, you would not have been on the tail of that truck very long...are you a lawyer in training? That isn't even one they woud try to fix!
2007-10-02 08:11:00 · answer #1 · answered by fairly smart 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's not a matter of selectivly pulling people over. He likely registered the speed of the other truck and thought you were the perputrator.
However, if you were following a truck that was speeding and you weren't speeding, it's not likely that you would have stayed behind the truck for much of any length of time.
A similar thing happend to me a few years ago. We were traveling down the interstate and were being passed by a truck on our right that was speeding. The police officer was on the left side of the road and most have clocked the speed of the truck that was passing us, the truck took the next exit leaving us trodging down the road. And the officer pulled us over and wrote my wife a ticket. No worries though the judge dismissed it, you see the ticket showed the speed as 89 mph, the truck we were had a speed ometer that only went up to 80 and it was really hard to get the truck to go that fast.
2007-10-02 15:14:18 · answer #2 · answered by nafsllib 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, your question title is a lie. If you were following right behind that speeding truck for 30 miles you were peeding too, not just following. He may have pulled you over because he can only stop one of you and you were the first one he came to.
"Just following" LOL - it's still a crime to speed while following somebody else that's speeding.
2007-10-02 15:11:21 · answer #3 · answered by Michael C 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Speeding is speeding the law doesn't care. There is no such defense that hold up in court that you can claim to follow the flow of the traffic... Just cause jimmy jumps off bridge doesn't mean you should. Why he picked you over truck was probably over no reasoning whatsoever.. sometimes when brothers and sisters fight it's not who started the fight who gets in trouble it's who's throwing the punches when mom enters the room.
2007-10-02 15:17:45 · answer #4 · answered by bugjjo 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
How do you want the officer to pull both of you over at the same time? After he pulled you over, how is he going to give you a ticket and then miraculously find he truck driver and give him a ticket too? You're dreaming. You got caught, so pay the ticket.
2007-10-02 15:37:11 · answer #5 · answered by Mariner 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
There are many reasons as to why the officer choose your vehicle to pull over. You may have been following too closely, you may have not been wearing your seat belt, your inspection or license was expired....etc. But in the end when I was asked this very same question while at a traffic stop I simply responded in this manner:
I asked the motorist " Have you ever been fishing?"
Of course the motorist said,"Yes" in as a sarcastic tone as possible.
My next question was, "Did you catch them all?"
When he responded "NO", He understood the capacity of the situation.. There is no way that you can catch them all. Eventually if you swim in murky waters you might be the one who gets hooked.
Drive safely
2007-10-02 15:25:26 · answer #6 · answered by mike c 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It's not discrimination. You were doing something wrong; therefore, he has the right to pull you over and give you a ticket. If you were not doing anything wrong, then you would have the right to complain.
Next time, don't speed and you won't have any complaints.
2007-10-02 15:10:34 · answer #7 · answered by Jazzy, I Miss U Love! 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It may be discrimination but it is not unlawful discrimination. The officer obviously cannot pull over both vehicles so he chooses one. Unless you can show an improper reason that he selected you over the truck (e.g. race, religion etc.) then you have no defense.
2007-10-02 15:09:51 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
It doesn't matter why he pulled you over instead of the truck. You were committing the infraction (speeding), and he was warranted in pulling you and citing you.
2007-10-02 15:10:19 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
You were speeding and got a ticket. What is there to question?
No gray area here, just excuses.
2007-10-02 15:41:17 · answer #10 · answered by Jax Cop 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋