> You deserve the hassle that you got. You brought it all
> on yourself because you didn't give the cop the respect
> he deserves for doing his job.

1) He got exactly what he deserves. No, scratch that - he got 1/10th of what he deserves. What treatment would I get if I went downtown with guns and started interrogating people like this? We know the answer.

2) Drug dealers, prostitutes, hitmen, and bank robbers are "just doing their job" too. What's the difference? The difference is that hitmen and bank robbers - like cops - are violating people's rights and should be stopped, while drug dealers and prostitutes - unlike cops - are minding their own business and should be left alone.

3) Since when is displaying a lack of respect for police, a legitimate law enforcement issue? When did opinions and harsh words become a crime? This is the stuff of dictatorships, or at least out-of-control police. Not the stuff of a free country.

People like these are destroying America. People like you are accomplices to that destruction.

> If you have given just a little respect they would have
> probably just given you a warning.

Respect has to be earned, and they have not earned it. Instead they extort submission from us. You have a very twisted understanding of what real respect is, and how it is gained. They don't want respect, they just want fear and obedience.

> There are reasons for laws

And many of them bad reasons which do not serve the public good or respect the public's rights.

> you agree to abide by them when you drive a car on the
> road. Don't like'em don't drive.

Bullshit! I OWN the public roads same as every other citizen does. By using them I agree to SHARE them, which I do, but that does NOT mean that I agree to every petty random bullshit rule and restriction that some politician declared back in Sacramento decades ago.

If you want to play god, do it on your own private property.

> The reason that the law states that every car should have
> a plate on the front and the back is so that if you are
> observed breaking a law your car can be identified.

The reason the US Constitution acknowledges that we all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is because politicians will inevitably write unjust laws which self-serving judges and control-freak police will be all to happy to enforce upon innocent people.

My rights come before the convenience of police. If they find it too hard to DO THEIR JOB, which is to serve and protect the public's safety, freedom, and peace, without violating and attacking that same safety, freedom, and peace, then they are unfit for public service and should seek employment elsewhere.

> It seems like you just want to be able to break any law
> you feel like and then give the cops a hassle when they
> call you on it.

Only unjust laws that violate the Constitution and our rights. But that concept appears lost on you.

> And then you complain afterwards...

Damn right Im gonna complain! It's called standing up for one's rights! Oh, Im sorry, is that unamerican now? Shut up and take your beating like a good little sheep?

Tyrants love to encourage silence.

> Grow up, give some respect and you might get some back.

You just dont get it. When police learn to show the public the respect we deserve as their employers, as innocent Americans, and as the people they are supposed to be serving and protecting, then they will earn and receive respect from me in return.

When police learn to do their real jobs, and use their power only for legitimate reasons, then you can demand respect for them.

But when they go out of their way to initiate and provoke unnecessary conflict, and then escalate that conflict because they can't stand being criticized, in short when the police act like children, then they deserve to be treated like children.

You don't see me treating ordinary citizens like this. Guess why? Because ordinary citizens behave themselves and leave others alone.

I don't block intersections trying to sneak under a red light. I stop for pedestrians. I even back up when I'm not moving anyway and another car just needs a gap to cut across. I hold doors open for strangers, I buy an occasional sandwich for a panhandler or tip a musician playing downtown, I stop when I can for people broken down on the side of the road. I thank the coffee girl, and I stand to the right on escalators in case someone else wants to walk past me.

So I AM polite, and I AM civil, and I AM reasonable.

Until some testosterone case with a gun, a free car, a siren, and flashing red lights decides to interrupt my travel for no GOOD reason with the unspoken but very well established threat of violence if I don't "comply".

And if he can't behave like a professional public servant and take criticism without further flexing his muscles and abusing his power in personal pursuit of this docile submission that you sickly regard as "respect", then he needs to take that up with me OFF-DUTY.

Real men don't hide behind badges.

-Van