The trooper activated her emergency lights and attempted to pull over the car, but the report claims the car sped ahead weaving in and out of traffic. The trooper noted that at time, the car reached speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour.
When the trooper was finally able to pull the car over at mile marker 50.5. She approached the car with her gun drawn and noticed that the driver was a City of Miami police officer in full uniform. The officer, identified as Fausto Lopez, 35, told the trooper that en route to an off-duty detail and he had to be there by 7:00 a.m.
Considering the officer was cited for reckless driving it’s hard for me to include it in the count. That’s exactly what it was. That said one should be leading by example, and how often have we been pulled over for speeding and heard the officer ask where we were headed in such a hurry.
Given my incident which was a poor judgement call in inclement weather and the fact they initially stuck me with two felonies it’s easy to say he’s getting off light. The FHP officer didn’t care that he was a police officer which I must say I am quite happy about. Currently the officer is also under review by his department for the action.
I’m counting it for the fact that he didn’t end up in jail and have to wait to see a judge. If that had been any standard citizen they would have been sleeping in the pokey awaiting the judge. For that reason I’m willing to include it in the count.
Update: As pointed out by Jake below, there is a long list of charges this
incidence also qualifies for that were ignored and skipped. Two he
easily qualified for is attempting to allude and failure to yield. The
reckless charge is probably the weakest of the bunch. It’s a solid count no matter how you slice it.
State Sponsored Criminal Count 161: Officer John Doe*
Because obviously this guy was a dumb ass, I mean at least flip your lights on and make it appear that you’re on your way to a call!
via Donovan Dion
*As always if you know or discover the officers name, please contact me.
TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms.
Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.
Considering that any non-only-one would also be up on charges of eluding (which, in Virginia at least, would likely be a felony at those speeds), failure to yield, and any other charges the arresting officer could possibly stretch to reasonably (or unreasonably) cover the situation, I don’t see that the simple reckless driving charge (probably only a misdemeanor) is anything more than a gentle slap on the wrist. This deserves to be in the count, no question.
Good point. I hadn’t considered the eluding or failure to yield.
Oh, and don’t forget the littering charge – you shouldn’t have left your teeth just lying in the street like that, y’know.