Blowing Smoke on "A Tradition of Service"
On the northbound Golden State Freeway north of Dodger Stadium, I was at a dead stop in the fast lane when, in the next lane over, I saw the driver of a black truck roll down his window and flick out his burning cigarette butt. That, in turn, had me burning -- we'd gone through red-alert fire days here recently -- and I rolled down my window and called out across the few feet between us that it's a crime to throw a lighted cigarette onto the road, and that the CHP would cite him if they saw him. The driver, a 30-something fellow with sleek dark hair, driving an equally sleek dark Ford F-150 truck, smiled cockily and informed me that they'd never ticket him -- he's a sheriff's deputy. Swell -- an idiot with powers of arrest. Had he never seen a Southern California fire eat up houses and acreage, all started from some roadside embers? I have -- I've covered them. And he's a lawman, and he didn't know the damn law, or care? It's a misdemeanor to throw a lighted cigarette or cigar or a burning match from a vehicle -- even from a sleek, dark Ford truck, even by a sheriff's deputy. The fine can be a thousand dollars. If I'd had powers of arrest, I'd have used them right then and there. He pulled slightly ahead in the traffic scrum. I wrote down the numbers on his license plate, which, sure enough, was framed by one of those KMA metal frames, code for ''I've got a law enforcement connection and you don't, nyah nyah.'' When I got back to the office, I called the press office of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department, the department whose motto is "A Tradition of Service.'' Look, I said, here's one of your guys -- or at least he says he's one of your guys -- breaking the law, and bragging about it. Well, the fellow said, with a shrug in his voice, when you have 9,000 deputies, you're bound to have some jerks. I agreed, using a stronger word. Don't you want his license plate? I asked. Check on the guy, at least rap his knuckles for not only ignoring the law and boasting about getting away with it? Not allowed to, the LASO fellow told me. You could call the CHP but they didn't see it, so they probably couldn't do anything. So he was going to get away with it, I thought. Let me say one thing, the voice on the phone told me. I perked up. Maybe Deputy F-150 could get what was coming to him after all? You shouldn't take chances like that, he advised me -- talking to strange drivers like that. Could be dangerous. Around here, you never know who it might be -- maybe some gangbanger, somebody with a gun. Yeah, I thought. Or some jerk of a sheriff's deputy with an attitude and a Zippo.
In New York, they have lots of unwritten rules--don't walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk, don't take up more than half a step on the escalator, among many others. People from out of town who don't know these rules think it's the New Yorkers that are being rude when someone yells at 'em.
But you're an Angeleno, Pat. You know good and well that in LA, we only have one rule: No vehicle to vehicle communication.
That means no smiling, no gesturing, no using the horn, no yelling and especially no talking.
So a cop almost burned down the Getty and half the Valley? ...You spoke to someone in traffic!
Have you no sense of decency?
Posted by: Ken Shultz | March 02, 2007 at 12:16 PM
Get a life, maybe you could burn up a little of that excess energy mentoring mayor villaragu
Posted by: Hardball | March 02, 2007 at 11:13 AM
Smokers seem to think the world is their own personal ashtray. I used to fume over the act of throwing cigarette butts also. However being a firefighter has taught me to look on the bright side. The fact that the law enforcement community will not enforce this most basic of laws just provides firefighters with job security. Afterall, the one thing cops and firefighters have in common is they both want to be firefighters.
Posted by: C Cooper | March 01, 2007 at 07:14 PM
Maybe instead of going after one of 9,000 deputies you can challenge your local representative to do a community clean up, get the LASD involved and set an example.
Posted by: Louie Garcia | March 01, 2007 at 01:53 PM
Don't be such a goddamned whiner. He threw a cigarette butt on the freeway pavement? Who the hell cares? You must have a lot of time on your hands.
Posted by: Anti-Whiner | March 01, 2007 at 12:51 PM
While I was teaching my two teenagers to drive, one of the biggest aggravations was watching police cruisers perform rolling stops and not using their turn signals. Kind of hard to impress on a kid the need to drive carefully and according to the law, when even the cops don't always do it.
Posted by: JimBob | March 01, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Dear Patt,
I would like to apologize for my people (smokers), some do not know how to act in public.
Posted by: Edward Padgett | March 01, 2007 at 09:19 AM
So what was his license number?
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | March 01, 2007 at 08:04 AM
I have seen some idiot cops as well.
In fact, there are way too many of them.
Years ago I was driving in New York State, and was pulled over by a cop.
I was speeding.
He talked to me like a "bad ass" kind of guy.
Someone from across the street who knew me came out and told the cop not to give me a ticket, and that I was a good person.
"If you give him a ticket, I will have it quashed. I know the chief", she said.
"Well", said the cop. "He is not a good person in my book."
I did not get the ticket.
Years later, someone was blowing up sections of railroad tracks in southern New York State.
Dynamite was being used.
This had so many people on edge.
When the person was finally caught, it was that same cop who had pulled me over.
At his trial, many cops spoke on his behalf and said what a good cop he was.
I think they went light on him in the end.
I have dealt with idiot cops in New York, New Hampshire, Alabama, and California.
I left out a few other places, but what the heck.
I have seen cops say and do some stupid things.
They all seem to stick up for each other too, no matter what.
In your case, I think it is appalling that someone (cop or not) would throw a lit cigarette out of a window.
The best way to expose people like that is to make it public news.
Show their crimes for everyone to see.
Next time, have your phone camera ready.
You never know when the next cop will drive by.
George Vreeland Hill
Posted by: George Vreeland Hill | February 28, 2007 at 09:05 PM