Posted on 09/09/2011 11:28:52 AM PDT by flintsilver7
OK, so we've had a lot of rain recently in Northern Virginia. Yesterday into today accounted for about 8 inches, with another four inches earlier in the week. There is a small stream down the road which flooded badly, bringing down some trees around the bridge. It's marginally passable if you were to take one car at a time. In any case, the bridge is closed. Fairfax County Police, in their infinite wisdom, chose to block entry to the road at the nearest intersection. What they didn't consider was that they were blocking access to several hundred homes as well.
When I came upon an officer at this intersection, I asked him what I should do because I lived there. His very rude reply was to yell "the road's closed." Thanks, asshole, I can see that, so I replied "Yes, but I live here and I'm returning home." He then yelled, rudely again, "Can't you see the road's closed? Go up the road." I asked him where, saying again that I lived there and you can't just block almost 400 homes off without telling the residents where to go. I suggested a sign that said "local traffic only" or "residents only" and his response was "too bad."
Seriously, why does it seem like the only people who like cops have never had an experience with them? Are they all this obnoxious? (In my experience, yes, but that's another story.)
Ya really! The boot lickers are out in force on this thread.
Frankly, the vast majority of police are unfit for the job. How to deal w/ them? I think you did just fine until it came to the suggestions. Its clear the guy could care less. I wouldn’t have bothered. Ya did good keeping your cool. Ya need to go into the conversation w/ a right perspective. Police aren’t there for you, your protection, service etc. They represent the govt and as such feel free to crap on every one not of the Thin Skinned Line brotherhood.
CALL HIS BOSS~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Write a report- officers like this cannot be fired unless they have a paper trail!!!!!
I was rude to one person who suggested that I have an entitlement mentality because I wanted to return home. I am pretty sure that’s not out of the ordinary.
You act rude while complaining about someone being rude to you... Ironic.
smh.
Call the mayor or whatever.
I may not have been clear. The bridge is short, and it is closed from both sides. This would be obvious, since while there is no water there at this point trees are down and it wouldn’t really be safe for the average driver to cross. The problem is that in addition to closing the bridge, they blocked off entry to that road about a quarter-mile down at the nearest intersection. In that quarter mile, there are housing developments with several hundred homes. That’s where I live, and I wasn’t expecting to leave this morning when it was overcast and not raining with the road open to return when it was sunny and have the road closed.
I was rude to one person today, and two people deserved it. I’m human, not a saint.
I want everyone to know it was absolute mayhem with the severe thunderstorms yesterday afternoon - all over the wash metro area. There were people stuck in Tysons Corner for hours, Rt 7 flooded, multiple roads cloased, people were trying to use all possible alternatives - took hours to get home.
Sorry if you were inconvenienced, but given the unbelievable situation with moving water on all roadways, one man killed in Great Falls, another young boy swept away from his backyard - it was an emergency situation.
I agree with you. What’s with these damned fools who think they are entitled access to their homes, anyway?
That’s all true, I’m sure, but the OP was commenting more on the unprofessional attitude of the police officer he encountered.
I understand the situation was pretty intense yesterday. I wasn’t trying to go anywhere during the storm. I was simply trying to get home.
This, today, was not an emergency situation. It was a cop sitting in his car in front of a blocked residential road while a resident asked him where to go. It’s not like I was asking him for an alternative route while he was pulling a child from a submerged car. This is twelve hours after the fact and there is one apparently angry cop unnecessarily blocking a road unwilling to tell a resident how to get home.
I have never had a cop be technically rude but a couple of times I have noticed a clear edge in their tone. Both btw were the only two to give me a speeding ticket.
The first one was a North Carolina State Trooper. I was driving on Interstate 40 near Asheville, N.C. I had a Virginia license plate and I am certain that is why I got the ticket. He said I was doing 68 and that is exactly what I was doing. This was back in the time of the nationwide 55 mph speed limit. The only problem was if I had driven any slower I would have held up traffic. No one was driving 55 and a fair number were doing a bit faster than me.
The second time was a Georgia State Trooper near Valdosta. He said I was doing 78 in a 55 mph zone. He was simply lying. I was doing around 66 and my speedometer was an accurate one. I was speeding tho.
He used the right words but was really acting strange. He even had me take a breathalyzer (I don’t drink at all) and of course it read zero.
Still I have never run into one who was that rude.
Claiming the right to access one’s property, the exercise of which does not threaten to harm anyone or anything is a sense of entitlement?
Really?
I’m very pro-cop. My favorite uncle is a retired LEO. Removing the right of 400 households to access their property because a bridge beyond their property is out is foolish.
Welcome to the real world, where decency and professional behavior are considered a sign of weakness.
From your post, it would appear to anyone in the LEO community that you were dangerously close to questioning the badges authority, if he had determined that you had indeed done so, you would have been “Winning the Lottery” lucky if rude was the least you suffered at his hands.
Take this as a lesson, mr. badge is NOT your friend.
Make sure that you tell him that, next time. Cops really like it when people do that.
Gee, how surprising that people would be upset at a law enforcement officer, who started with a tough-first interaction.
I’ve never had a bad experience with dispatch. They’re always pretty good on the phone.
And??? What happened after that?
You left that little bit out at the beginning. So did dispatch inform the officer that you could get home?
I live in Fairfax County VA. Some of the County officers are jerks, most are not. From your original description of the situation, I'd assume that the guy may have been working all day in the rain with little rest. He probably didn't feel like Andy Taylor at the time, more like Barney Fife. Assuming dispatch later on told him to let you in, I'd say forget about it.
It probably depends on if it is the only road in. If there was another route, then it was just arguing to argue. If it was the only way in, and the cop said that, then that was pretty jackassy of him.
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