So I'm driving down the interstate today and jump into the passing lane between two cars: the first a Honda CRV and the second a Crown Vic. I was only going 9 or so over and the Crown Vic wasn't really closing the gap when I jumped in the lane...

All of a sudden the Crown Vic is passing me on the LEFT, where there is NO room to pass. I kinda hop over a half lane in reaction and almost sideswipe another vehicle in the process. The Crown Vic settles in the lane in front of me and it's not a Police Interceptor and there are no markings. It has a regular civilian license plate. But I see the 3 antennae. Great.

Doesn't stop me from throwing my hands up and asking "what the fuck are you doing" out loud. Apparently he was watching in the rearview because immediately slammed on his brakes. We went from 75 to 50 in a split second and there was NO one in front of him. I instinctively flicked him off like any other idiot driver. Oops.

I went around to see who this joker was and he wasn't in uniform or anything. He was just a white guy with a moustache and goatee probably around 35 years old. I mouthed the words "what the fuck are you doing" and he slowed down to get behind me a little (to check out my plate?) but he never got immediately behind me. He shot me a dirty look and talked on a radio for a bit but never pulled me over. He stayed on my wing for a bit then just got back in the passing lane and we went on our merry ways.


The question: If he was a cop I'd be sitting in jail by now, right? Pretty much every reaction I had to his horrible and dangerous driving was wrong but could he have called in my plate and put an APB or something out on my car? Do you think cops are gonna show up at my doorstep later this week or something or would I had to have been cited on the spot?

I know I was a jerk but for a "public servant" this was one of the worst displays of douchebaggery I've ever seen (since NPO enforcement in Raleigh).

Do I have anything to worry about? Should I just head to a po-lice station and see if they have anything against me?

Thanks!

6/11/2008 2:41:23 PM

You should be shot on sight for actually typing "po-lice"

6/11/2008 2:44:47 PM

WARNA BROTHA

6/11/2008 2:47:21 PM

ahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

6/11/2008 2:54:40 PM

are cops even allowed to have goatees?

im thinking that if he really was a cop, he would have pulled you over. you were speeding, and you flicked him off. at the very least i'd expect ya to get hit with a speeding or reckless or something like that

6/11/2008 3:03:12 PM

I am of the opinion that if this dude was a real cop your ass would have been pulled over.

6/11/2008 3:07:48 PM

surplus interceptors ftw/l/douche

6/11/2008 3:13:06 PM

Quote :

"surplus interceptors ftw/l/douche"

yeah thats what im thinking. he did everything he could to look like a cop, without breaking any laws.

6/11/2008 3:16:22 PM

just because he's a douche doesn't automatically make him the fuzz.... correlation /= causation.

6/11/2008 3:16:26 PM

he wasn't acting like a douche

he was acting like a cop

6/11/2008 3:21:20 PM

Was it raleighboy?

6/11/2008 3:25:55 PM

Quote :

"Crown Vic is passing me on the LEFT, where there is NO room to pass."

Quote :

"slammed on his brakes. We went from 75 to 50 in a split second and there was NO one in front of him. "

^^ douchebaggery regardless of title

6/11/2008 3:37:02 PM

cops don't brake check other people. You should have swerved AT him when the dick passed you on the shoulder of the road.

6/11/2008 3:41:14 PM

*HP would have taken care of this with the quickness.

"Guy passed me on the left nearly causing an accident. He then slammed on the brakes in an attempt to cause an accident. Now he is following me and I fear I am in danger."

Regardless of whether he was a cop you would have been better off for having done it.

If he was a cop you could file a complaint. Nothing may have come of it, but it's unlikely this was the first time he has pulled this kind of crap and the more complaints the more seriously they will be taken.

If he wasn't a cop then he damn well deserved a ticket or three.

6/11/2008 3:42:45 PM

I would have stayed in the same lane at the beginning. if he hits you, it's his problem.

6/11/2008 3:43:13 PM

^its never worth that and it becomes just as much his problem as yours. If I can avoid being hit im going to avoid being hit. Trying to "hold your ground" for what, ego purposes? so you can say "see what you did, this is your fault"? None of that is worth the hassle of dealing with an accident if you can avoid it.

Half the time you get screwed if you cant prove it was his fault anyways.

[Edited on June 11, 2008 at 4:19 PM. Reason : ]

6/11/2008 4:17:50 PM

^

6/11/2008 4:25:29 PM

^^ I agree. I'd rather "lose" the confrontation than end up dead, injured, or at best carless because I was too cool to move over.

6/11/2008 4:26:29 PM

he shifted over and almost caused a wreck with the car that was in the lane beside him. how in the fuck is that better than holding your ground against someone who could have been found at fault if he decided he was going to squeeze his car through anyway? Hitting the car beside him would have most likely resulted in a wreck involving all 3 cars, and he would have been found at fault.

6/11/2008 5:47:28 PM

If it was a cop you will receive a phone call sometime soon. 100 MPH flyby past off duty cop. FTL

6/11/2008 10:04:28 PM

^^ he didnt hit the other person, so that pretty much answers your question.

6/12/2008 7:09:43 AM

and also, depending on how he got hit, if he got hit on the outside there is a good chance he would be hitting a car in the lane next to him to the right anyways.

6/12/2008 8:01:53 AM

Quote :

"^^ he didnt hit the other person, so that pretty much answers your question. "

it wasn't a question, and he still almost hit the other person. he might not be so lucky next time.

6/12/2008 8:09:52 AM

Sounds like a small-dicked asshole in a "I wish I was a cop" cruiser.

Everybody's already said that, though.

Strange crazy random shit happens on the highway sometimes, just tell it as a story one day when you can't find anything interesting to talk about.

6/12/2008 8:16:31 AM

^^ you did ask a question

^ and truth. one time on 64 really late at night I saw something walking along the side of the road and I couldnt tell what the heck it was. ( in the dark about 100 yards ahead of me) This big gray looking thing...almost looked like a guy with a huge blanket on his shoulders. As I got closer I could see it was a guy with this big flowing gray/white robe and hood with a tall pointy dark gray hat and a huge walking stick. As I got about <50 yards away he turns around and looks at me and its an old guy with long white hair and a white beard down to about his waist. I wish I had a picture because it was akin to seeing Ian Mckellen's Gandalf walking along 64 in the middle of the night.

[Edited on June 12, 2008 at 9:38 AM. Reason : ]

6/12/2008 9:38:15 AM

it was rhetorical. if you think moving over was the correct thing to do, then don't ever work in the DC / NoVa area. You'll encounter a few people who drive like that every week, and they'll take your sliding over as an invitation to let them back in the lane.

[Edited on June 12, 2008 at 12:57 PM. Reason : drive defensively. it's the first rule of driver's ed.]

6/12/2008 12:56:37 PM

im pretty sure there are just as many people that do that on a regular basis in charlotte (and raleigh too for that matter). It was a pretty regular occurrence driving in Charlotte for me. Reading his original post though, the car made no attempt to merge into his lane, only was passing him on the left, and in that case I would hold my ground. But if he started swerving into my lane that would be a different story.

6/12/2008 1:17:12 PM

Quote :

"the car made no attempt to merge into his lane, only was passing him on the left"

he wasn't even in a lane though. You know that at some point he's going to try to get back into the left lane, and he might make an attempt to do so before he clears a car based on him either running out of pavement or coming up on a piece of road debris.

also, it does sound like the crown vic started merging over when he started sliding over in the lane.

6/12/2008 2:13:00 PM

i've had someone try to wreck me before and if it happened again i'd probably push them into a fucking concrete pillar

6/12/2008 2:13:37 PM

Quote :

"Was it raleighboy?"

when i first read "crown-vic" i thought for sure this thread was by him.

6/12/2008 2:32:21 PM

Quote :

"You should have swerved AT him when the dick passed you on the shoulder of the road."

Yeah, probably so but I didn't feel like wrecking my Jaguar and being late to work just to prove a point.

6/12/2008 2:48:59 PM

all it takes is a 8" shift in your car to make the other person hit the brakes out of reflex. No one suggested bumping him.

then again, the jokes on you for driving a Jaguar. If you're worried about getting to work on time, maybe you should consider owning a car that doesn't have a horrible track record for breaking down.

6/12/2008 5:08:46 PM

If this thread stays in the lounge for more than 24 more hours I shall lose all respect for the lounge.

6/12/2008 5:34:38 PM

If they were in law enforcement, Phil, they would have pulled your ass. My step dad was in law enforcement and there is no way that you would have gotten away with cursing, flicking him off, AND breaking the law. One or the other, he may have decided that he didn't have time to deal with your ass, but he wouldn't have let it all slide. This guy was probably just a tool.

6/12/2008 10:00:12 PM

if the guy was a cop, you should have called other law enforcement agents immediately to come deal with it.

6/13/2008 8:54:17 AM

I would have had I not already flicked him off...

6/13/2008 5:19:31 PM

I don't believe that's a crime

6/13/2008 5:28:29 PM

freedom of speech

6/14/2008 9:06:36 AM

Quote :

"are cops even allowed to have goatees?"

Detectives in movies have them all the time.

6/14/2008 10:02:28 AM

most of the cops in rpd look like wanna-be marines

6/14/2008 10:08:18 AM

^^^^I thought it was considered assault?

6/15/2008 11:07:26 PM

You can flick anyone off. It is allowed under free speech, as long as you do not add any sexual reference to it.

6/16/2008 1:52:47 AM

Quote :

"if you think moving over was the correct thing to do, then don't ever work in the DC / NoVa area. You'll encounter a few people who drive like that every week, and they'll take your sliding over as an invitation to let them back in the lane."

Amen. I live in NoVa and I have to deal with that shit every day.

6/16/2008 10:24:32 AM

Oh boy here goes...

I dont think he was a cop or he would have stopped you. Antennas on a crown vic dont mean shit. If there are clear white (LED lights which are new) lights or blue tinted (old) lights in the car then its a cop. EVERY UNMARKED CAR HAS THESE NOW, THEY CANT DETACH. If you look hard enough you can find them. And yes flicking a cop off is against the law, its under disorderly conduct and you can try the free speech thing but it wont work. Just like when people cuss in a public place being heard by two or more people its a misdemeanor (most of the time by city ordinance).

But to answer your question if you have anything to worry about Id say no. You are worried about being charged after the fact if I understand u right. The only thing(retroactively) he could have done if he was a cop was run your tag and get the registered owners information. But he would have to prove he knew it was the registered owner committing the crime and then he would have to go to a magistrate to take out warrants. If he was a cop and put a BOLO (APB) on your car saying you did what you did then you still couldnt be pulled by another cop unless they had RS to do so.(coudlnt be stopped just because there is a lookout on you) If you had a BOLO on your vehicle saying your car was involved in an armed robbery then that is different, they could do an ivestigative stop. But for what you did you are fine. if he was a cop he wouldnt have passed you illegally without lights and siren and he wouldnt have left the area without at least stopping and talking to you. You were dealing with a poser my good man.

6/24/2008 7:44:05 PM

You were dealing with a poser my good man.

6/24/2008 7:59:13 PM