Bad Driving Rant #3: Cops Who Speed

Hypocrisy, much? Gah.

I had to go out of town for work the other day to pick up some equipment, so I spent pretty much my entire day on the interstate. Seeing as it's the end of the month and the states need to make their ticket quotas, the troopers were out in full force with their speed traps.

Likewise, I counted no less than six individual instances were I was easily out-paced by a cop by at least 10mph, when I was right at the speed limit, or even a little above.

Keep in mind, obviously, I'm not talking about police vehicles on their way to a scene or an arrest with their lights and sirens on. No, no...just cruising down the road like the rest of us.

I was reminded of a specific instance a few years ago when I was coming back from vacation, and got pulled over for speeding. The cop gave me a hard time, but at least let me go with just a warning. As we pulled back into traffic, he immediately sped up and passed me, and I watched as he weaved in and out of the three lanes of interstate traffic, and finally turned left into the emergency vehicle turn-around ahead of us. I figured he had just gotten a call, and was on his way to an accident or some such thing. Nope. As I past, he had already set up a new speed trap (maybe I'm being a little self-important, but was it to try to nab me again?). Given the fact that we both pulled out into traffic at the same time just a few minutes earlier, you can imagine how fast he must have been going in order to get that far ahead of me in such a short period of time. Not to mention, again, the driving maneuvers that would have been categorized as "reckless" had anyone other than him done them.

There was also the time when I was driving back to college for the first time on my own; I had just gotten a new car, and it was my first real 'road trip' of any length. I reached part of the highway where there was construction and each direction was reduced to one lane of traffic. As I entered the work zone, a cop drove up behind me and road my ass the entire mile and a half of construction. I was, obviously, both freaking out AND doing the exact work zone speed limit - because you know that if I had sped up in order to appease his need to speed, he would have pulled me over for that fat $250 ticket. (Who cares about the tailgating?)

Oh, and what about that time in high school (I kid you not) when I watched a cop car speed past my parents' car...and turn into the Dunkin' Donuts? Seriously, it happened.