While driving to work this morning, over an hour away, I was driving down the highway and noticed a police officer behind me. The police officer was tail gating me and in an attempt to not get rear-ended I switched lanes. Watching the police officer fly buy I was suddenly struck with rage. How are police officers able to drive like maniacs, but if a civilian were to drive over the speed limit, sometimes only five miles over, they are pulled over and issued a ticket and must pay a fee of ridiculous amounts.
This is not the only time I have had this happen. I was cruising along down a regularly traveled road when a police officer started tail gating me. I didn't even know where he had come he was so fast. He finally passed me and must have been going 80mph in a 55mph zone. Now, I'm not one to always follow the speed limit, in fact I rarely ever follow the speed limit. However, I am a cautious and courteous driver and if police officers expect drivers to follow the speed limit and drive safely shouldn't police officers watch their driving if only to set an example for the rest of us on the road? We are to rely on these trained professionals to protect us and to be the authority, but is it right for them to abuse that authority? No, it's not.
Another way police officers abuse their authority is by turning on their sirens so they can cut through the intersection. This in turn can cause an accident if there a turning lane has a green light and the drivers are unsure of where the blaring sirens are coming from. We as regular citizens can't do this, we don't all have sirens on our vehicles, but police officers shouldn't abuse the powers the law has granted to them. If police officers don't uphold the law, then why should citizens?
