Originally published at: Man attempts to get police cars to race but they aren't having it | Boing Boing
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I thought traditionally you drop your tube top to signal the start of the race.
Has The Simpsons taught me nothing?
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When I was a teenager my buddy and I were taking a drive around town late at night. We came to a stop light and a sacramento pd or sheriff came to the stoplight next to us. A few seconds later a 2nd cop car pulled up behind him. The 2nd cop car started honking his horn at the first and then the first at the 2nd. One of them blipped his siren and then the 2nd car started inching up to the front car. He kept moving up until his push bar came in contact with the lead car and then he started pushing him into the intersection. They both put on their sirens and kept bumping into each other until the light turned green.
Once green, they both sped off to presumably beat up some minorities. My buddy and I looked at each other and said “did that just happen?”
It was pretty damn funny but ACAB…
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Yeah, as I looked at the guy pointing his finger at the cop cars, it crossed my mind (not lightly) that if he wasn’t white, that could have been a highly different outcome.
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My dad was a Missouri State Highway Patrolman until his retirement ca 10 years ago. One day when we were sitting at a light on a hill in our personal truck, one of his coworkers pulled up behind in a patrol car. When the light turned, dad dropped the brake, but delayed the clutch so he rolled back, nearly hitting the patrol car. The officer was mad as hell, but my dad just laughed his ass off. Once he saw who it was, it was all fun and games, but it made me wonder what his reaction would have been if it was a citizen.
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I suspect this was UK (or continental Europe) so whilst your thesis is correct it is usually far less likely in those places (esp. as UK cps are not routinely armed).
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Is it sad that this makes me happy? Because yeah.
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i agree. i don’t think there are many US jurisdictions that use BMWs for cop cars. we buy 'Merican round here. APCs when we can get 'em.
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I also understand that German cars are significantly cheaper in mainland Europe than here in the US. (If that’s not true, I’ve been told wrong, and there’s a different excuse for all those Mercedes & BMW’s being used as Taxis in Munich)
I don’t know exactly how expensive cars in the US are but my understanding is, that cars in Europe are a lot more expensive than in the US. And the prejudice is, that US are a lot less technically sophisticated than in Europe (although I have no expertise to say if that is true).
A quick search (by no means research) shows the cheapest BMW you can get in Germany is 26.850 € (32667 $). A Volkswagen 16790 € (20427 $). And we are talking their smallest cars with no extras, probably not even AC.
And you wouldn’t take the cheapest cars without any extras at all.
The average price for a new car in the US is 37876 $ (31131 €) in Germany 36300 € (44164 $). Which is for cars of any manufacturer no matter if German or not.
I just googled that a new Mercedes Taxi E-Klasse costs about 33800 € (41122 $) before tax
(I did not include the link because I did not want to advertise some company that sells Taxis).
I don’t know if you consider 40 Grand cheap for a taxi but I guess Taxis have a different standing in Germany. You expect a Taxi to be clean, in great shape, again talking without any expertise beyond what I see in movies.
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It is.
UK police drive all sorts of things, depending on where they’re working. More 4x4’s in the countryside, fast estates (‘station wagons’) for the motorway cops, and little city cars for the city. I’m guessing BMW do good fleet deals for the cops, because they seem to have a lot of them.
I generally just expect a taxi to be a Skoda
The X5s tend to be the armed units, but not always.
I once thought a police car was trying to race me. I was mistaken, that’s not what he was trying to do at all.
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I guessed it was, but the police liveries could have been from other European countries and I could not make out any licence plates to confirm one way or the other. Pretty sure you are correct though.
Indeed, it may have been the Croydon IKEA (which I am personally familiar with, but only during opening hours and I suspect my own vehicle would get laughed off the lot if I turned up when these guys were at it…) as per this story…
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Huh. I live near there and often hear cars (and/or bikes) speeding late at night but had no idea this was going on.
I would say it’s not a particularly residential area but there are literally houses on the way in to Valley Park.
Arseholes.
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I know it well, too (used to live about a mile away in West Croydon, off Canterbury Road) and I reckon there are maybe 150 dwellings sandwiched between all the industrial estate barns and the tramline, about a third of which are probably adjacent to the entrance to IKEA’s car park. I bet they get the full brunt of the noise and disruption.
I always thought it was a weird place to build houses and the only advantage of living there is that IKEA, B&Q and the multi-screen cinema (and its accompanying fast food joints) are within walking distance. Not much of an advantage really. I guess it is the cinema and drive-throughs that stops the car park entrance being locked off after dark to put an end to this nonsense.
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The houses look like relatively new builds too so I doubt they were there first. It was probably the current trend of “there’s a plot of land; let’s build some houses/flats, whether it’s a good idea or not”. It’s the ones right on the roundabout at the entrance I really don’t understand. I guess it’s convenient for the tram though.
IIRC they have been there pretty much as long as a fair chunk of the park. I (think I) recall going to IKEA not so very long after it opened and the building work for the houses had started. But it was many years ago and the memory is tricky. (Certainly over 21 years, so I guess the houses are at least that old, but memory may be playing tricks.)
I would not be surprised if the council mandated some homes when granting planning permission for some of those barns, or the IKEA conversion
Coolish fact for others - the Croydon IKEA is in a converted power station.
That’s why the road is called Ampere Way (as is the tram stop).
