As an avid motorcyclist, I find myself particularly concerned with the cell phone yammerers. I think there should be a new law, of at least a free pass - if your bullet passes through the side glass on their car, their phone, and then their ear - you get off scott free. The kids and the dog in the back of the minivan will be fine - they are surrounded by airbags.
As far as cops yammering on their cells, and otherwise behaving in ways or driving in ways for which they would stop us or ticket us - at what point do they begin to understand the
PR ramifications of all of this? There is a great deal of resentment and disrespect towards cops in our society; surely they must understand that issues like this bring a good deal of it upon them.
Take the population of this very BBS for example. I think it's fair to say that the folks who frequent it are for the most part successful and well educated. Maybe Porsche or BMW ownership, as kind of the gateway to this forum, pretty much ensures that. Even amongst a population such as this, who presumably have little contact with the police (with the possible exception of when we are driving), we see a manifest lack of respect, or dare I say disdain, for the police.
Why is that? Is it "us", a bunch of stuck up, self important, spoiled brats who just don't like authority, who feel it is somehow our right to be left alone when we play with our toys? Are we unique in the professional world with this attitude? Or is it "them", and their behaviors we personally observe and read about every day? I lean towards the latter, but readily acknowledge some degree of the former must play a part.
At least until I bring this up at work... At work - where I am surrounded by some pretty serious uber geeks (my fellow engineers), many of whom have no interest in fast cars. I see the same lack of respect for law enforcement. From people who would never have any occasion to have any contact with them whatsoever. When I mentioned the topic of this thread at work today, each and every one of them chimed in regarding how little regard they have for cops as a whole, and how they have noted this very behavior themselves. So maybe it's not just us...
I just have to wonder what the average cop thinks of all of this. Do they blow it off, telling themselves it just comes with the job, and nothing they could ever do would please us? Are they really as blind to this issue as they appear?