Trans-Eurasian belt Development (TEPR)

[Kellemora]

Yes, at every street corner where there are traffic lights and walk crossings.
It is illegal to J-walk here in the US. J-walk means crossing the road in the middle where it is safer, and not at an unsafe busy intersection. The walk lights are supposed to make it safer to cross. But with the right turn on red, red light runners, and super short duration of the yellow and crossing lights. You still take a major chance crossing any road on foot.
Ironic how they enforce J-walking, but never bother to get the kids out of the streets they use as their personal and private playground.

[pilvikki]

I love people arguing over their right-of-way... on a bike or walking, or car versus truck versus train....

irrelevant!

the bigger vehicles wins, no matter what the rules and it won't do you much good since there are no degrees of dead.

and all that seems impossible to explain to so many kids playing in the streets!

[Kellemora]

He with the most mass usually wins, hi hi...

I witness one of the strangest accidents I had ever seen in my life. And ironically, no one was injured.

It happened on I-244 while I was up on the Olive Boulevard bridge waiting for the light to change.

The cops were chasing this small Ford Econoline delivery van. (Although a vehicle cannot outrun a radio, the cops still love to pursue a high speed chase endangering the lives of many.)

As he passed under the bridge, I turned to watch him come out from under the bridge on the other side.
Traffic was moving slow and all lanes were full, I would say they were all still doing around 45 mph though.

A small car with a low rear end, sorta like a Karman Ghia was behind a pick-em up truck.

The van was doing at least 80 or 90 mph and has he changed lanes to clear a box van, there was the Karman Ghia poking along. The van shot up and over the Karman Ghia and landed in the bed of the pick-em up truck.

Now where is the cop who was chasing him?
Don't know, he never came out from under the bridge.

The next day at work is when we learned no one in the car or either truck was injured.
However, the cop lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the last of a row of bridge piers in the median.
He had taken to the median to avoid traffic and loose gravel on the downhill slope drew his car into the pier.

It also came out he was chasing the van because he was clocked doing 43 mph in a 35 mph zone before turning on the highway. The driver of the van missed a court date over a ticket for double-parking while making a delivery, and was afraid he would be arrested and lose his job.

There never was any need for the police to chase the van. The van was known, a local business, and they had both his home and work address of file. Rather than chase the van and cause an accident involving three cars, and wrecking the police car, the cop could have went to the business who owned the van and waited for the driver to return to his point of origin. Or, the cop could have radioed ahead to a patrol car to form a road block on the highway to get him that way.
But no, they look forward to their high speed chases, and invoke them whenever possible.

[Icey]

That's exactly what they do over here Gary - meaning that police officers might give chase, but they radio ahead for stingers or other police vehicles to block off the offending vehicle. Even so, a few fatalities've occurred when a police car's given chase, but not that many. I think the feeling's one of: "Oh no, here we go again", as opposed to officers enjoying the chase out of boredom.

[Kellemora]

Laws up in the midwest are apparently different than those down south here.
Since I've never run from the coppers, I've never looked into them.
It may not apply everywhere down here either, and/or may depend on what the offense is.

Back home, if a cop was after you, they would follow until they caught you, within reason of course, even if they crossed city, town, or county boundary lines.
When I first moved down here, the first thing I noticed was a county Sheriff's car would stop at the county line, and not pursue beyond that point.
I then learned this was only true if they were over five miles from the county line when the pursuit started.
If they are like a mile from the county line, they can continue into into the next county for four miles before having to stop.
Now I think as long as they are in pursuit, they can continue the pursuit across many counties like back home.

If I had the time to look up what some of these laws are, I might find some interesting things.
Some of the lawyers known as ambulance chasers used to use some archaic laws which still remained on the books in several areas. Although obsolete, since they were still on the books, many a dark lawyer got their client off because of them.

A newer trick of passing a law stating all older laws were obsolete and non-enforceable got many cities into heap big trouble, because by doing so, laws they were enforcing were never renewed after the new cut-off date was established. So even more folks were getting off the hook for something.

Although it was years ago now. One of my relatives visiting another relative in another state, forget now if it was Arkansas or Alabama, I think Arkansas. He was in a minor fender bender, totally his fault too! He swung a corner too wide and clipped an oncoming car in an intersection. Normally his insurance company would cover the damage, and they probably did, but he got some type of ticket, and decided to fight the ticket. He had to appear in court three times before it was tossed out. He won! Because of an archaic law on the books, never over-ridden.
The driver of the car he hit was a female. According to the law, if a female was driving the car, a man must be walking or running in front of the car waving a red flag. Since it IS the Law, and there was no person waving a Red Flag, the judge had to let him go, hi hi...

[Icey]

I don't know whether our police cars chase into neighbouring counties or whether they radio ahead to the appropriate force, but in our particular neck of the woods, they use helicopters to police dangerous roads or anyone seen to be driving erratically, and maybe chase a car locally which might be stolen. The police vehicles usually manage to stop/catch up with other cars, but it's no game for the officers. It's often a dangerous job giving chase in a built-up area or along main roads where a driver might be weaving in and out of traffic to try and escape. They often crash before the police car gets to them. : (

[Kellemora]

The way things go around here, it is more likely the cop car will crash than the person fleeing.
Not speaking of every city, just our local one. 90% of the cops here could use a drivers ed class for sure.

[Icey]

That really surprises me, but I suppose it depends on how busy your local roads are. The police here do their best not to put any pedestrians or other drivers at risk, but sometimes, high-speed chases result in accidents.

[Kellemora]

The year and a half my southern belle frau lived in St. Louis County with me (back home), even she was AMAZED at how courteous the police were, and Admired their Safe Driving. It is one of the first things she commented on after moving up north with me.

Living in Knoxville, she had never seen cops who obeyed the law, knew how to drive, or did their jobs properly.
Seeing such insubordination by an officer of the law was a real CULTURAL SHOCK to me, when I first moved down here.
But I should have known after watching TV shows depicting the south, they are not as far fetched as I assumed.

[Icey]

You know, it's interesting to read about these differences - not just in your own country, but as opposed to ours. Each person has their own opinion of police officers, depending on their dealing with them, but I've always found ours fine - and courteous in the main. Sadly, with being inundated with unnecessary paperwork and having to follow instructions from superiors, many feel as though they can't get on and do the job they're paid to do. People sometimes moan that they're slow to arrive (or don't turn up at all), but I've never experienced that. It's a miracle they're able to do what they CAN do, considering how our forces've been cut down to the minimum. I think someone needs their head examining. Security's important, but we have less of it now than we've ever had.

[Kellemora]

Just to set the record straight Icey.
Almost all of our police back home were awesome. For me to complain about any of them would be most rare.
It is only after I moved south did I realize where those who lost their jobs back home ended up.
It truly is like the difference between night and day.
There may be one rotten apple amongst all of them back home.
But down here, there may only be one who is not a rotten apple out of the majority of them.
Referring mainly to local police.

[Icey]

Incredible! It makes you wonder how they get their jobs if they haven't got the right mentality for it.

[Kellemora]

I suppose different towns and cities are more relaxed than others on the qualifications.
Probably because the powers that be are just as lax, and most are without morals too.

[pilvikki]

had a conversation with someone about police presence. she said NY, NY was a great place to visit, there were cops everywhere and she'd never felt so safe in her life!

really?

when I spent 3 weeks in finland, I saw the cops once on the road I drove practically every day to the small city 20 km away. I let him go by me and he cheerfully waved a thank you.

I said i'd never felt so safe - as the crime rate obviously wasn't high enough to warrant a gazillion cops watching you....

[Kellemora]

I lived in an era when we still had Beat Cops.
You got to know them, and they knew you, your family, and often every one of your employees.

Even after most of them were Traffic Cops, in our little town anyhow, they were still required to park at one end of the strip malls or other store areas, and walk the sidewalks and talk to the shoppers, stick their head in the door of the shops, etc.

When we started placing two cops per patrol car, it worked out even better. The partner was dropped off a block away to start walking west for example, the driver drove a block west and parked, and he walked east on the other side of the road. When the partner reached the car, he would drive east to pick up the original driver. Then they moved on to the next block and did the same thing. Covered a lot of ground fast working as a team.
And you know something. It prevented many possible crimes too!

[Icey]

It's rare to see officers on the beat over here now, except for maybe on Friday and Saturday nights in town centres. They have to be around then because of drunken brawls when people spill out of bars and nightclubs, but even then, their presence isn't overly obvious because we just don't have enough officers on patrol.

[Kellemora]

Their Motto "To Serve and Protect" has not applied in a couple of decades now, if not longer in some areas.

It should be something more like "To Avoid Conflict and Blame Victims" these days.

They no longer Protect anyone from crime, they only make reports of crimes after-the-fact, and the buck stops there in most cases.

Sadly, it is only going to get worse too!

[Icey]

It's true that victims seem to get a raw deal, but over here, the tide's beginning to turn ever so slowly. Once upon a time, rape victims were almost accused of asking for it to happen - by their manner of dress, and being grilled with intrusive questions about their personal lives, etc., but now there's a lot more support for the victims, and perpetrators of these sort of crimes're being clamped down on heavily. The system's still got a long way to go, but it IS improving.

[Kellemora]

The entire world has gone crazy. It started slow and then accelerated to the point, almost every law is to protect the criminals and harass the victims.

[Icey]

All this Human Rights stuff's made a mess of things. People sometimes get away with crimes due to accusations which're deemed as racist or sexist. It's ridiculous. I agree that everyone has a right to a fair, impartial trial, whatever their colour or creed, age or sexual orientation, but the first thing some criminals do it to scream that they're being picked on because they're black, gay or some other feeble excuse. A crime's a crime, whoever committed it, and victims deserve to be treated respectfully, no matter what their background, social status, blah blah. The punishments should fit the crimes, and it doesn't matter whether a perpetrator's green, purple or pink - if they've done it, they should do the full time. Victims should be helped, and possibly compensated. The law's an ass, as we say over here.