Correcting Police Officers

I read this article today and it motivated me to write the following to the Judge:


From: "Sean Kirby"
To: bean_r@mail.chattanooga.gov
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 13:47:26 -0500
Subject: Correcting Police Officers
I just finished reading an article which featured you, a police officer and a student. And I am appalled at the following quote:

"The horn blowing is not the real problem here, it's that you were trying to correct the police and they didn't need correcting,"

You are partially correct, the horn blowing is not the real problem here, the real problem is the police officer using his flashers to run a red light.
It is this kind of thinking that give police officers God complexes. There always needs to be checks and balances and this is one of those times. How can you say it is ok for a police officer to run a traffic light, when if an ordinary citizen were to do it they would receive a citation?

It says in the article the officer needed to run the light in order to help a fellow officer catch a speeder. What happened when the student blew his horn? Did the speeder, the other officer was chasing, also hear the horn and think it was him? And thinking it was for him, did the speeder pull over to see what the student was beeping at, allowing the other officer to catch up and give the speeder a citation? I don't think so.

It is the police officers duty to server and protect it's citizens, not run lights they don't feel like waiting for and feeling the are above the law. Please don't forget the tax payers are the ones who pay your and their salaries. Before you say that no harm can come from the officer using his lights to go through a light, let me tell you this story.

My brother was killed by a HazMat vehicle. The HazMat vehicle decided to take a drive, the call they were going to got cancelled, they didn't feel like stopping at a stop sign so they turned on their lights and ran the stop sign. My brother happened to be crossing the intersection at the same time. The car flew into a telephone pole, hitting the pole ten feet from the ground. This impact killed my brother and another passenger along with seriously injuring 2 other passengers. A investigation was launched and found my brother did everything correctly, but because the HazMat drivers were bored that day 2 people died.

This is why it is important that police officers, ambulance drivers, HazMat drivers and Firefighters do NOT abuse there power and stick to the law when possible.

I realize that this email most likely won't be read, but I had to at least try to inform you why the arrogance you displayed is WRONG.

--sean.