The officer advised dispatch that he was not actively pursuing the vehicle. The officer stopped accelerating but left his emergency lights on since he was still traveling over the posted speed limit.

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- Dave

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My husband was a cop for 15 years. I have never heard of taping your husband’s card to the back of your license. I do tend to drive faster than the speed limit, and sometimes I get a warning, and sometimes I get a ticket, just like everyone else. Last year, I got pulled over for driving 7 over on an interstate, and not only did I get a ticket, but the trooper piled on a second ticket for my husband, because he was sleeping in the back seat without his seatbelt on.

The trooper asked why we were traveling through his state, and I explained that we were on our way home from visiting a cop who had been shot in the line of duty, and had been having a hard time after retirement, so we had gone to help out his family. My husband had been totally disabled in the line of duty, as well, and was sleeping in the back seat because his brain injury makes it very difficult to travel. We were not aware that seat belts were required in the back seat in that state. The trooper came back a few minutes later, with our tickets and information on where to send the payment.

20 or 30 years ago, things were very different. It has gotten much harder to be a cop, and there is much less support for cops when something goes wrong, even if it wasn’t the cop’s fault. Suicide rates have skyrocketed, yet the rumors persist that cops can get away with anything and are unaccountable.

In 2009, I attended the funeral of a 36 year old former cop. It was the first of 13 cop funerals/visitations that I attended in the span of a year. When that cop was 24, his leg was severed when he was hit by a drunk driver. He spent 12 years begging for proper treatment for his leg, and was in constant, severe pain. He never got the help he needed, and died as a result of complications of his injury. Not only was the person who kept him from getting medical care not disciplined in any way, that same city employee has spent more than 7 years delaying and denying care for my husband.

In 2010, my husband had a life-threatening reaction to medication. We needed to see a specialist to make sure that his meds were appropriate, so it wouldn’t happen again. It took 6 months before the city would let him see the specialist.

Yes, we have an attorney, and no, we can’t sue. In MN, once you file for work comp, you are forbidden to sue. While Mpls is one of the worst I have heard of so far, there are some other horrendous situations that I have learned about in other parts of the country. The cop world is a very private one, so very little of it makes the news, but even when cops are willing to pull aside the curtain and talk about what is happening, the media tends not to care. Bob Collins from MPR did a story about us in 2010. Another cop contacted several other reporters and suggested that they talk to us, and was told that there was no story there. Meanwhile, rumors fill the gap in information.

I don’t know anything about the Apple Valley cop, so I won’t weigh in on that.

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That said, I don’t give police officers the benefit of the doubt because I hold them to a high standard. One that I see them failing all the time. Speeding or driving excessively slow (dicking with traffic), not using their turn indicators. Swerving on the road due to distracted driving as they play with their computer. Oh, how about entering private property in the middle of the night to wake up someone and tell them their garage door is open.

And still, I appreciate the good things they do, and hope they can find a way to improve.

Anytime an officer is exceeding the speed limit or driving erratically they should at a minimum have their lights on, and I prefer them to also have their siren on. The risk to other drivers is high even if they have everything on, but with it off the risk is too high.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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I gotta go tape my emergency info to the back of my driver’s license.

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You sure you weren’t behind him in the back seat, your car behind you getting towed?

lefty

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bb

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He formed the first fire department in Pennsylvania so it goes without saying that he would have friends and relatives in law enforcement.

And the five & dime guy lives on. He currently resides in Lakeville, but I’m quite confident this is not him.

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Once you figure that out, maybe you’ll have some integrity again.

If only that were all it takes.

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Once you figure that out, maybe you’ll have some integrity again.

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I really need to figure out the bug in the leaderboard too. Bleh.

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The fact that he won’t dispute his belief in Bigfoot is enough for me.

For a guy who wants us to believe he has friends and relatives that are police officers makes me wonder if they are too happy to have him on their side.

Also, I had always assumed that this was the Ben Franklin of five and dime store fame, not the electricity guy.

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