I was supposed to go to a Magic Lantern show with my girlfriend tonight. Instead she became the third person that I know who has been pulled over by the police in Massachusetts (specifically Worcester) for the high crime of driving with a Maine temporary plate, and the first to be taken into the station for it.

For some reason the cops in Massachusetts have a hard time believing that any state would allow cardboard with the word Maine at the top and the word Temporary at the bottom and the numbers written in with magic marker.... Maine, for its part, can't understand why you would waste good metal on a plate that might only be used for two or three weeks, and is required to be released within four weeks.

The officer didn't even call it in, just had her car towed, took her in, and had her wait in the cell until the sergeant was available, about half an hour.

The sergeant for his part listened for about two minutes and asked the officer why he didn't call it in, because, yes, Maine does have handwritten cardboard temporary plates. And as protocol the entire exchange had been recorded, that she had shown him her license and registration, and that he decided to disbelieve her, and not bother to call it in.

Sarge then asked her if she wanted to file a complaint, and that she would be well within her rights to do so. She said yes, he took her statement, she signed it, he signed it, and Officer McIdiot signed it, the last under protest, but his own report confirmed that yes, he was an idiot...

All because the officer didn't want to follow procedure and call it in. His not wanting to make a five minute call cost my girlfriend two and a half hours, with the show that we were planning to see at eight. Plus he got a reprimand, because the standard policy was to call it in anyway. He went out of his way, and against policy, in order to give someone grief.

The state will be reimbursing her impound fees at the least, and Officer McStupid will be getting a reprimand on his file. Given that he was required to call it in, but didn't, and the behavior of the sergeant kind of showing that it wasn't the first time... I think that his department will likely have a vacancy sometime soon. Even after he signed his statement I gather that he was still making noises that he hadn't done anything wrong.

It really shouldn't be a surprise to the Mass cops - New Hampshire also has cardboard temp plates.

The Auld Grump

Yeah - not exactly rare - it would not surprise me if Mass. was the odd one out. Hell, I know that they are in New England, since I am pretty sure that Vermont does cardboard too. Maybe not Rhode Island?

There was no reason for him not to call it in - dispatch could have run it for him. And he was chewed out for it in the station. I do think that it could not have been his first booboo - otherwise the duty officer would have talked to him in private, rather than asking Jackie if she wanted to fill out a complaint, in front of whatever other officers were present in the room.

My guess is that McSillypants was bored and thought that catching a car thief was more exciting than calling in and finding out that the license was legit. Isn't this something that should be taught before the guy can even wear his badge?

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* One thing that I really don't understand - the car had recording equipment. He knew that he was being recorded. Why the heck did he break procedure if he knew that he was on camera?!!

Oh look, a webcomic dedicated to complaining about people!

Our Valued Customers - not safe for work....

The Auld Grump

ROFL...I needed that...Thanks.
Classic stuff ...but you bet NSFW

Heh, I think she's still hot.

Given that he was a young McIdiot (anyone who suspects that his name does in fact begin with 'Mc' would be right) and she is a mature creature (though eight years younger than me), I doubt that he saw her that way. He was most likely seeing visions of a quick bust on a stolen vehicle, and instead got busted himself for not following procedure.

Though I guess the matter isn't going to come up - he is no longer part of the police force. Jackie got a nice reply back from the department, this was his third strike (I gather that he was on some sort of probationary period, and was not yet a full hire). So, he is gone. *Pop!* Don't screw up until you are a full member of the force....

For the most part I have not had any problems with cops - I did get called aside once when I was carrying a large pistol case, and asked to show the cop what was inside... so, I opened the case and showed him my miniatures. He called me aside again a couple of weeks later, because he wanted me to show his partner what I did - his partner was a gamer.

On the other hand, for a long while the Portland Chief of Police was 'Media Mike' - a complete arsenoggin.Under his watch two policemen beat the snot out of a suspect, only to discover it wasn't even the person that they were looking for. Their actions cost the city a million dollars plus court costs. What does Media Mike do? He makes them officers of the year.

Later he got in trouble with the feds for leaking information about Atta to the press. Later a big drug bust was made in Portland by the DEA. When Mike accused them of leaving him out of the loop they answered that yes, they had - the last time Feds had given him sensitive information he had gone running to the press. He realy did not like being called on that.

He always wanted to be picked up by a bigger department, but for some reason it never happened....*

His replacement was Tim Burton - a very quiet man. Under his watch arrests dropped, but convictions rose. He connected us with AFIS, and withing six years he was picked up by a bigger department.

And unlike Media Mike he almost never appeared in the papers at all.

The Auld Grump

* He was also involved in the mess in Phillie when the police dropped a bomb on MOVE... in a residential neighborhood....

Today I wanted to shake three people until their brains rattled inside their heads.

One person owns an independent bookstore, she has a computer that is running wwaayy to slowly, so she asks her 'computer guy' (her brother) what she can do to speed it up.

He asks her what she does with the computer.

She tells him that it is 'only used to order books'.

So, he tells her that she doesn't need virus protection, and that having it is slowing her computer.

She removes the protection.
...
...
...
She has four employees - what do you think the odds are that of them at least one uses the internet for something other than ordering books?

Of the four employees, one does not even use it to order books, and leaves anything to do with the computer to the others. One used to be a technophobe, and used to own her own used bookstore, and as a result had a shed filled with old books that she wanted to sell. About seven years ago I told her about the wonderful world of EBay, and how a cheap computer could be used, with a cheap dial up connection, to rid herself of the unwanted books. Within three months her computer had paid for itself and she was hitting yard sales and flea markets looking for books to sell. She... is not a problem. (I am still proud of turning her around.) The third does only use it for ordering books, sometimes gets the ISBN wrong, and sometimes puts special orders on the shelf... if she used the computer more she would be a problem, but she doesn't.

The fourth plays on POGO, surfs the web, and when a handy box popped up offering a 'Free Virus Scan!!!' she clicked it. Guess what? Trojan. (A really nasty one called 'Internet Antivirus 2011' - one of those beauties that reloads itself if deleted. It is a pure bastard.) Freakin' scare ware.

The owner thought that she had gotten rid of the Trojan by uninstalling it....

And the fourth employee ( who, unfortunately is a friend of mine) didn't think of mentioning this to me until it is ten minutes of closing, when I could have actually done something to get rid of it.

Oi! I want to take the owner, the 'computer guy' and the fourth employee and bang their heads together. I swear to the gods technophobes turn off their common sense when working with computers. (And why I am so proud of Bonny, who has gone from technophobe to making the computer a part of her income and life, without losing a general distrust of strangers offering a 'Free Virus Scan!!!')

The Auld Grump