Las Vegas Metro Police Suck (Continued)

The immense parking garage behind Caesar’s Palace.

In the rear view we could see three police officers huddled around my documents, handing them back and forth, one of them pointing at the truck; none of them watching the traffic violations occurring right in front of them; none of them attempting to direct traffic.  Horns honking, illegal lane changes and probably lots of cars making illegal turns on yellow arrows, while they looked for anything that might be amiss on the documents in their possession.  Since when does it take three uniformed police officers on dirt bikes to write a traffic citation to an older gentlemen, his wife and two older daughters who obviously pose no threat whatsoever to the public safety?  I lit my cigarette back up and managed a few puffs before we saw him head back towards the window.

He handed me a clipboard with a citation attached and said that by signing it I wasn’t admitting guilt, only that I agree to appear in court on the date of August 30th.  He made it clear that it was voluntary.  That I did not have to appear.  The ticket, of course, states the opposite, in red, that if I don’t show up, it will be constituted as a separate offense.  I signed the damn ticket and was curtly given the pink copy.  He asked me if I had any questions.

“Yeah, do you know where the parking garage is for Caesar’s Palace?” I asked.

His response, in his rude, abusive, blunt, course, impolite, insulting, impertinent tone, was “It’s farther down.”

The traffic citation clearly, (well not clearly, it took me a while to decipher the correct statute), states that the violation that occurred was relative to NRS484B.3o7.  He, and, of course, it is impossible to make out the officer’s name, cited NRS484B.377.  I checked the statutes.  There is no 377.  NRS484B goes to .367 dealing with school zones.  Here is an excerpt from the correct statute: “(b) The vehicular traffic in question had already completely entered the intersection before the red signal was exhibited. For the purposes of this paragraph, a vehicle shall be considered to have “completely entered” an intersection when all portions of the vehicle have crossed the limit line or other point of demarcation behind which vehicular traffic must stop when a red signal is displayed.”  This is precisely what happened.  The officer’s response to my statement that the light was yellow when I entered the intersection, “That’s what the courts are for.”

There is no amount on the citation, so I have no idea how much more I’m going to have to donate to the Las Vegas economy.  A quick check online says that the fine could be as high as $1,000.  If that’s the case, they’re going to have to come and get it.

My daughter discussed the incident later with an Uber driver.  His first response was that he couldn’t believe I’d been pulled over for that.  Everyone does it, he said.  Then he asked if the truck had out-of-state plates.  When my daughter told him yes, he said that was why I was pulled over.  They know you won’t be here to answer the complaint, they won’t have to go to court, and the whole issue will be handled by a default judgement sent to my address with the amount due on the citation.

Here’s my problem.  A police officer’s job is to “Serve and Protect.”  I appreciate that.  But they are also, in the case of traffic and other minor offenses, a customer service representative of the community where they work.  As with any business, a customer may have only one contact, ever, with the business, and it is through that representative.  The customer’s whole impression of that company is going to be made through the interaction with that company’s representative, in this case, the police officer.  Thus, through his mistreatment of the events, I now believe that the entire Las Vegas Metro Police Department SUCKS.  It’s probably not true, but it’s the basis for the problems throughout the country.  Why can’t a police officer be friendly, helpful, courteous when they are interacting with the public?  Why isn’t it absolutely required?  We are the ones paying them to serve and protect us after all.

I have been stopped for traffic violations five times in 47 years of driving.  I have never been given a warning ticket.  I am never rude, discourteous, disrespectful, or a smart-ass to the police officer.  Yet not one has decided that maybe I should let this one go.  In the Las Vegas case, it was questionable as to whether the entire vehicle had crossed the limit line when the light changed to red.  And what exactly was I supposed to do?  How could I back up out of the intersection?  My only choice was to continue through the intersection.  The police officer had a choice to consider a lot of variables and let the citation go.  He chose not to.

So there you have it.  The reason why the Las Vegas Metro Police suck.  I’ll let you know how much running a red light in Las Vegas costs me.

I thought this was interesting.  Look who owns most of the casinos on the Strip:

a map with the latest projects overlaid on a satelite image. reflecting the accurate placement of hotel and cando projects. Redevelopment, entertainment, medica, arts and other zones.

Las Vegas Metro Police Suck

Yeah, I know, not a good time to be writing a disparaging story about police, but I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.   Two days after this incident in Las Vegas, in which the Las Vegas Metro Police truly sucked,  five police officers were gunned down in Dallas by a crazed sniper. 

 “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore,” is often the misquote attributed to Peter Finch in the movie “Network” which premiered on November 27, 1976.  What he actually said in the movie several times, in increasing volume, after he asked everyone who was listening to his telecast to go to their windows and shout it out, was “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”  The quote is used a lot, especially when discussing election issues.

I was on vacation and Las Vegas was on the itinerary for two days.  It was stifling hot as expected and I was already wondering what possessed me to travel to Las Vegas in July.   We were staying at the Oasis RV Resort.  Of course, “resort” is always a bit of an overstatement when linked with the initials RV, but it’s a pretty nice place and a short distance from the Las Vegas Strip.  We’ve stayed there before and it’s decidedly cheaper than staying in any hotel in the city.  We arrived from Williams, AZ around 2:30 pm.  After setting up the trailer and taking Domino to the Pet Resort, also a considerable overstatement of luxury accommodations for dogs and cats, we decided to head out to the Strip to donate some money to the local economy.  Believe it or not, we were traveling with two of our older daughters and were having a pretty good time thus far.

We were told that the Oasis RV Resort has an agreement with Caesar’s Palace for parking.  It really doesn’t matter, because you can park anywhere, and we didn’t really get any benefit from parking, or attempting, I should say, to park at Caesar’s.  If you’ve never been to Las Vegas, Caesar’s Palace is enormous, and starts at the corner of Las Vegas Blvd (The Strip) and Flamingo Road.  After much discussion amongst us, we decided we needed to turn left on Flamingo Road to access the parking garage which we knew had to be in the back of the casino.  I was able to manuever into the left turning lane in the usual bumper to bumper traffic on the Strip, and began following the cars in a left turn with the green arrow.  As I entered the intersection, which is six lanes in either direction, two turning lanes and four traffic lanes, the light turned yellow, then very quickly red.  I had no choice but to continue with another car on my left, through the intersection.  I did not impede traffic.  No horns were honked from oncoming traffic that hadn’t even started to move yet.  No pedestrians were in danger of being run over as I slowly moved through the intersection.  We are talking, bumper to bumper traffic.  No way to speed through the intersection.

This is the intersection where I turned.  Las Vegas Blvd is on the right.  You can see the bus turnout on the left just past the pedestrian walkway.

Within seconds, and I have no idea where they were hiding, I was surrounded by three Yamaha XT250 MX bikes with sirens and lights.  I’m not kidding about the surrounded part.  They came off the sidewalk, and were in the back and on both sides of the truck.  I immediately pulled over into the bus lane and was greeted at the window by an LVPD officer in a Star Wars helmet, still on his dirt bike, who told me to pull forward.  I immediately did so, and he parked his bike in the traffic lane causing an also immediate backup of traffic on Flamingo Road, and strolled up to the open window with the helmet under his left arm.

“You ran a red light.  Put out the cigarette.  License.”  Rude, abusive, blunt, course, impolite, insulting, impertinent.  I handed him my license which I had already pulled out of my back pocket before he arrived at the window.  I’ve seen too many videos of issues being raised reaching for something in a traffic stop.  He looked at it.  “Insurance.  Registration.”  My wife handed me the documents and I handed them to him through the window.  He walked off.  (TO BE CONTINUED.)