I don’t taunt cops as I recognize that their proximity raises my chances of death by leaps and bounds. I’m polite, but clear. I use my words. I don’t need or want a cop’s morality lesson for fucken honking a horn or going eight or ten miles an hour over the speed limit, and I’m certainly not going to sit in or on my idling vehicle and listen to a sermon. The cop in the video was correct in stating that he wasn’t the authority, so his blathering about road rage or phones or taking a VIP phonecall or whateverthefuck his tiny little mind comes up with is beside the point. In the context of the video: Write the fucken ticket, Johnny Law, and I will happily take it to court and have a judge throw it out because [reasons].
I’ve done that maybe twice before–one cop wrote me a ticket and fucked off accordingly. The other cop simply told me to ‘slow it down’ and moved on.
Fair point. I’m still willing to take that chance. He’s a cop, so if he needs to take a phonecall, or text someone, or reload his donut machine, he can pull his dipshit ass over to the side of the road and get out of the flow of traffic–he’s making that roadway unsafe, not the M/C rider.
Once upon a time I was on the Long Island Expressway, when already-nasty traffic got supremely nasty because an accident cut three lanes down to one. I’m in the middle lane, just around the point where people can figure out that only the left lane is really moving (at about a car-length per minute) and that they’ll need to get over.
A little bit behind me, in that left lane, is an elderly woman in a big boat of a car who is not paying particularly close attention, which periodically creates a gap in front of her big enough for a car in my lane to sneak in. Every time this happens–at least three or four times while I watched–she leans on the horn. And I don’t mean a little annoyed series of toots, I mean a sustained, punitive blast of about a minute. She’s also gesticulating with her free hand.
So I’m watching all this unfold, steeling myself for my inevitable confrontation with Grandma Honker. The next car in front of me takes its turn, and sure enough, HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK. Except this time the driver gets out. It’s a big guy. He glares at her. HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK. He says something. HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK. He starts walking towards her, and now I can see that he’s holding out a badge. HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK HONK HONK HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK.
At this point I kind of had to merge in front of their stopped cars. I would have given anything to see how that played out. My guess is a series of bluffs about tickets drowned out by HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNK.
That cop is kind of a weenie by cop standards. He looks like the other cops probably rattail him in the locker room. But the biker was full of shit about “dodging potholes.”
I hope you’re wrong, but again, I’m willing to take that chance. And again, I’m not impolite in doing this–I’m abundantly clear and brief. Write the ticket, OR, arrest me, OR let me go. In any case, skip the butthurt Dad-chat.
Nothing about avalanches. Honestly if a horn were going to cause one, then that snows probably coming down anyway. There does seem to be some room for interpretation in Colorado law regarding horns.
224. Horns or warning devices. (1) Every motor vehicle, when operated upon a highway, shall be equipped with a horn in good working order and capable of emitting sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than two hundred feet, but no horn or other warning device shall emit an unreasonably loud or harsh sound, 21 except as provided in section 213(1) in the case of authorized emergency vehicles or as provided in section 222. The driver of a motor vehicle, when reasonably necessary to ensure safe operation, shall give audible warning with the horn but shall not otherwise use such horn when upon a highway.
When I moved here the convention was that you honk to greet friends on the street or in other vehicles, any other time might land you in a fight. That has devolved over the years; I rather miss the quiet.
Someone else posted that it looks like the law says you can’t use your horn unless it’s a dangerous situation. One thing that is definitely illegal in Denver, however, is texting while driving. Too bad cop entitlement trumps the law.
