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Old 03-27-2009, 11:53 AM   #242
molson
General Manager
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: The Mountains
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huckleberry View Post
Your inputs are defective because most officers would not detain you for 15+ minutes. This particular guy got unlucky with the officer he drew.

The funny thing about all this, and probably part of why I'm so adamant about it, is that in one of the two situations I describe above where I violated traffic laws and ran traffic lights late at night was in Austin, Texas when my wife went into labor with our firstborn. The moment her labor started her contractions were two minutes apart and her water broke shortly thereafter. We called our midwife (who delivered at the hospital then) and she said we needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Risk of infection, incredibly short labor, etc.

I got tailed by a cop for running the light at 38th street and Lamar in Austin. This light is maybe 2 blocks from the hospital. The cop turned onto 38th street to follow me. Never turned on his lights. As soon as I entered the emergency room portion of the parking lot, he stopped his car, watched me get my wife out, then pulled away.

That is how not to be an asshole police officer. It was 2:30 in the morning, nobody else was on the roads (well, I passed a motorcyclist before that) and I wasn't endangering anyone. I was responding prudently to an emergency situation. Just like Moats was.

I'm glad it worked out for you, but you defintitely took a risk with your wife's health. Probably a better risk than Moates did, since you were only 2 blocks from the hospital, as opposed to 1+ mile, and you had an actual medical emergency, and not just an emotional emergency.

If you make major decisions based on an assumption that everyone else will act perfectly and the way you expect them to, you're going to get burned.

Last edited by molson : 03-27-2009 at 11:53 AM.
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