Two assholes meet in the road. You won’t believe what happens next!
I started identifying with the cop, but if him doing his job is so important then he should have written a ticket or gotten back in his car. His time and effort accomplished nothing.
Phone or no phone, the intersection wasn’t clear to travel.
Honking is not road rage. The horn is a crude means of communication, and this cop is off is his nut to be so riled by it.
Wait, so police officers need to talk on their phones while driving to do their jobs? What happened to their radios?
These guys are both jerks and I feel the poorer for having spent any time watching that asshole contest.
It doesn’t seem like he was honking to get him to go. As he stated in the video, it seems like he was honking to get his attention and tell him to hang up, as a horn blast can mean many things. Immediately after the second honk, he gestures and says “hang up the phone” - not “go” or “come on” or anything. The cop immediately jumping to “that’s road rage” as a distraction from his own fuckup, while totally ignoring everything the cyclist is communicating to him, is just terrible policing. Not only that, but he keeps escalating with his threats, even with the cyclist apologizing many times. Bullies will be bullies.
Right? Also, how the hell is the cyclist supposed to know it’s a cop until he gets out? Isn’t that the purpose of an undercover?
Can we just mark this one “Christ, what an asshole” and move on?
The officer should have pulled off the road to make/take a call, irrespective of whether it was official business.
But yes:
Fair point. Which makes them both jerks: it’s not a driver’s role to tell other road users how to behave (even if they need it).
I don’t care if you’re a cop or a teenager driving for the first time: you need to make a phone call, pull over and park. Road’s for driving.
I’m guessing the cyclist is white.
The biker was an asshole. I understand you’re sitting on an oven, but I don’t go just because the person behind me thinks it’s clear. It’s not a red light, but a yield sign. I’m a little more timid than a lot of drivers, albeit not unreasonably so, and that’s something that needs to be tolerated- phone or no phone. If I’m the one who’s insurance goes up if I misjudge the timing, then I’m the one who decides when I’m going to merge or cross opposing traffic. Not the person behind me who often can’t see as much of the intersection as I can.
Now this is why the cop was an asshole:
If the call was so important, you don’t have time to engage someone who honked at you. Anyone who gets out of their vehicle to address another driver when there had been no accident loses moral high ground. If he did something ticketable, write the ticket and act fucking professional. Don’t make up a story of how you were on the phone for urgent police business.
I’m not clear on why folks here regard the biker as an asshole. When I see someone in traffic, talking on their phone, and obviously inattentive to their driving, that person is endangering my life (especially if I’m on a motorcycle.) Isn’t “Hey, watch out, you’re endangering me!” exactly the one universally-approved use of a horn?
As for the intersection being clear or not clear… it looks to me like the yield sign is at the entrance to a roundabout, in which case everyone will be turning right into the near lane, and the near lane is clear.
@eraserbones, I also am not clear on why folks here regard the biker as an asshole. In fact, in most - if not all - jurisdictions, talking on the phone while driving is ticketable while honking and gesturing “hang up!” is not. In some places, even hands-free is illegal.
OK, fair point but:
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You are not the phone police. People can generally talk on a phone and drive at the same time.
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Honking, as you pointed out, can be interpreted a variety of ways and will often trigger aggressiveness and defensiveness on the person being honked at.
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Hand gesture can’t always been seen or read correctly.
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Fair point the cop made things worse. If I where him I would make my statement and go, I don’t have time to talk to idiots when I am driving (plenty of time for it on BB - I keed! I keed!)
I confess I didn’t watch the whole thing so I don’t know how bad it got. But if I were the cyclist I would have defused the situation with an apology/explanation (in the segment I saw, he didn’t apologize, though it appears he did later.)
I very rarely honk at people. usually its at a green light and someone is still sitting there. I would never honk at someone because they are on the phone. YMMV. Even if this guy wasn’t a cop, he could just be an asshole. And we have seen many a road rage video vs motorcycles on this website alone.
Christ! What an asshole.
The cop is in the position of power here and was just about crossing the line.
- In the state I live, it is illegal to talk/text on the phone while driving. Now, there is an exception for emergency personnel, but the car is unmarked, so there is no way to know that until he exits the car.
2&3) Absolutely.
- Yeah. If he had just come out and been like “look man, I’m a cop on a call” and accepted the apology, they could have both walked away, and I’m sure the cyclist would have been a bit more cautious in the future. Also, the biker does mention later that the “intersection was clear” which is incorrect. I failed at watching the whole thing when I responded as well.
I wish there was a better way to communicate with people in other cars besides honking. 
But you have to recognize how the cop effortlessly takes his assholeness to the next level. He holds up traffic for at least one other vehicle while interleaving threats with proclamations of public duty.
When will civilians finally understand that the world revolves around people with guns?
