Five years later; what happened 4-19-2006
4/20/2006 2:23 AM
5 Years ago today
Introduction:
It was 5 years ago that I had an incident with the police on April 19th 2001. The police officer would charge me with an offense while I was being a witness to an accident, I would get charged with saying something that someone else said. On the anniversary of this event 5 years later I would have another run in with the law.
Lying and Cursing Police
Chapter 1
The start of my day
I was tired, the day before I had spent some extra time at the house, the house I am trying to maintain while sorting out the last crisis with my wife and family as a result of the effects of the first run in with the lying police. I tried hard to clear my name of the first attempt of defamation and libel along with the dereliction of duty and the games that the officer was playing 5 years ago.
My children were extremely tired from the games that they played on Easter weekend, my daughter had procrastinated putting off the majority of her homework for the last minute, she had nearly pulled an all-nighter, preparing 9th grade reports and when I got home from work that Tuesday evening picking up the children at the house that they ran away from to take them to the housing situation that their mother happened to fall into a rental unit provided by her employer.
I had taken notice to the dandelion weeds that were growing in my back yard, so I quickly grabbed a large screw driver and pulled out of the ground about 4 handfuls of dandelions. I also noticed that I was getting infested with the woodborer bee’s they are starting to destroy what house I do have, this problem is one that must be eradicated right along with the problem of police officers that will lie to present others in a bad light.
While extricating the pesky insects my daughter came out and offered me a hand, we spent some time together doing something somewhat constructive. The exercise was good but we were running late getting back to my wife who also had to work late that night.
It was about 8:00 PM and my wife was having a problem with one of her co-workers that was trying to frame her as this woman has abused other people as well. From what I understand of my wife’s situation, they sent one of the technicians home because she seemed to be suffering from an illness that made this technician appear jaundice. My wife knowing that she could ask for assistance from other staff employees at a sister company several miles away, called for help to cover the loss of this employee and the request was granted. The substitute technician explained to my wife the problems she had with the abusive employee who decided to do the same exact things to my wife as the abuser had done to the substitute technician years ago. It was the same thing happening all over again with the abuser and a different victim, this time my wife.
About two hours had passed and my wife decided she was going to bed. I went to the internet to do my regular thing before I went to bed; I spent a little more time on the net than I anticipated, before I went to bed my self.
In the morning I laid in bed wanting for more sleep, I usually get up shave brush my teeth, and shower, I looked at my clock and decided another 5 or 10 minutes in bed, ok so I won’t take a shower, I’ll pass on the shower but do the rest of my morning routine, then rush to grab my computer because my printer is in the old house that I want the family to move back into. I noticed that on my way to work I had taken a little too much time getting ready and called my dispatcher to let him know that I was on my way into work, and I would be there shortly. When I got to work I did my pretrip as required by law, and an issue that I had with a leaky tire was taken to the mechanics to be repaired. I finally found the hole where the tire had been punctured by a nail and was finally leaking bad enough that the nail hole could be identified. I found the problem the day before and knowing where the problem was I knew that it would only take just a few minutes to repair as the problem is on a machine carried by the truck, a forklift used to make my deliveries.
At 6:30 AM I was leaving the company yard to make two small deliveries, and on my way to the first delivery while on route I stopped at the local convenience store for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. On my way out of the store parking lot I completed my turn as a crane truck had slowed up to allow me out onto the highway and I forgot to drop the lift axle. As you will read in my report the load was right on the verge of being too heavy not to use the lift axle or light enough that the lift axle would not be required. I drove into and out of town where my wife rents her house, listening to some very interesting news on the radio, and the truck I was driving felt just fine, not heavy, I was driving deliberate, controlled and not fast, and then.
Chapter 2
Flashing lights
I looked behind me to see flashing lights and a police car driving in the middle of the road. I pulled over to allow the police car to pass; the officer pulled his car in behind my truck. He hopped out of his car and started coming toward me in my truck, leaving his car half way into the lane of traffic. I started to climb out of my truck and from the back of my truck he told me to climb back in and remain in my seat. I sat right back down in my seat and he approached and asked for my credentials, drivers license and medical card, then he asked for the registration and insurance cards for the truck. Then he asked about a log book, I looked at him dumbfounded. I don’t carry a log book, I replied, I have a daily pretrip inspection book I offered and he took my pretrip inspection book asking me if I had done my pretrip inspection this morning? I answered that yes, indeed I had done my pretrip inspection. He then asked one more question, he wanted to know how much a cube of block weighed and he commented that he saw two cubes of block. I told him that I thought a cube of block was about 1,600 to 1,800 lbs. After the comments about the log book I wasn’t going to correct the man about how many cubes of blocks I had on the truck, it was only 6, but if he saw two, no big deal.
He sat in his car for a little while and then came back to me in the truck that I was driving he asked me to pull into a private parking lot just up the road a lot that the officer considered level and flat. The lot actually banked to the left or sloped away from the building to the street out front. The fact that he was telling me to pull into a flat parking lot and as a driver that knew he had forgot to set the lift axle the officer was giving all of the indications that he had pulled me over for a lift axle violation.
While sitting in my truck now positioned in front of this store and the officer now pulled up behind me I decided to go back and offer the weight of my vehicle to talk to the officer and resolve this matter in a more direct fashion, I had just noticed that my load not being a full load might fall with in the guidelines of the law. I called dispatch to run the numbers and calculate the overall weight of my truck. We had just weighed each individual piece of product in our yard so doing this calculation is possible before we even start loading the trucks. So I walked back to the officer in his vehicle and offered to give him the weight of the truck. He replied that I couldn’t do that; we couldn’t possibly give him the weight of the vehicle; he said that as if he doubted our ability to calculate the overall weight of the vehicle. There was a sarcastic tone to his voice. At that moment a car nearly rear ended another car out on the highway I turned to the officer and said look I have to drive around that all the time. It was a situation nearly like that where I lost a lot of money because I was the witness to an accident and charged with something that someone else said. I told the officer that I lost my church membership, nearly lost my marriage, and that I was in the system and won a verdict against my landlord. With that I added and showed the officer the keys to the truck I had in hand, that if he writes me a citation I will quit my job, I can’t afford to pay anymore into the system. At this the officer looked up at me and cursed, he said “F*** You and your attitude, I’ll scale this truck if I want to and I’ll hold you up and do a thorough safety inspection of your truck from top to bottom. He got out of his car and told me F***er get back into your truck. He followed me to the cab of my truck and climbed up on top of my truck to look over my load.
Chapter 3
Getting cursed at
When I saw the anger of the officer, I immediately called into dispatch and reported that we had a problem that this was not a good situation. We have troubles, I needed the weight of this truck, and I pressed hard for my dispatcher to calculate the weight of the truck which he did for me, he figured that the truck weighed in the area of 60,000 61,000 pounds total gross weight.
As with my previous experience with the police I was concerned with the attitude of this police officer. Something wasn’t right, 5 years ago I didn’t have a cell phone but now I pay for that provided service. I called 911, there was no reason for the over reaction of the officer, I was explaining that his actions would have consequences, I wasn’t being aggressive. I was stating the fact that my financial situation doesn’t allow me to have this kind of error and that I’m on the verge of financial ruin, I’ve had a negative cash flow situation that I’ve been complaining about for quite some time now, at least the last three months.
So I called 911 and started to explain to the dispatcher what was happening, I was asked for my telephone number which I gave indicating that I was using a cell phone. While on the phone with the 911 the officer came back down off of the top of my truck and started to lecture me for coming back to his vehicle. I held the phone, with 911 still on the line, down by my knees leaning down to hear clearly what he officer was saying and give him my full attention. I heard 911 hang up on me. The officer went back to his vehicle. I checked for sure and in deed 911 had disconnected our conversation. (I just might need a copy of that recording)
A short while later the next police vehicle arrives at the scene of this incident this vehicle is carrying the portable scales and the officers set out the scales in front of the contact axles. With all of the scales positioned the 1st officer comes back to me and asks me to verify that all of the scales appear to be zeroed. I looked around the vehicle at each and every scale and in deed they all appeared to read 0. Then I was asked to climb into the truck and pull the truck forward stopping on the scales. After pulling the truck onto the scales I climbed back down to record for myself the readings of each axle. I took the left front tire reading and the 1st officer who had gone back to his vehicle had come forward and again upset asked me if I had called 911 and telling me to get back into the cab of my truck. He told me that he and the other officer would record the readings on the scales and after they had their readings then I would be allowed to record what the scales registered. I told him that yes I did call 911 and when I was seated back in my truck he asked me why did I do that? I leaned down to him and explained that he had cursed at me that is why I called 911. After recording the weights on the scales the 1st officer came back to me and told me that now I could record the weights. After recording the weights I went to the officer’s vehicle still concerned and certain that I was going to get a ticket, and I was prepared to call my dispatcher and tell them to find another way to make this delivery because I was done. (I’m tired of all the little games the police play…) The officer was adding up his numbers and mentioned to me that 58,400 pounds was the target weight for a truck with twin screws, (a truck with two differentials.) I was told to once again go back to the cab of my truck and wait.
It was about 40 minutes later I had a phone call from dispatch, in between weighing the truck and getting back into the truck, my dispatcher left a message that I didn’t listen to until much later in the day. The officer came back to me and explained the weights, I was polite yes sir and so forth, he said that while the truck was just a little over the maximum allowed weight with the 3% that is allowed there was no reason to cite me for any weight violation, he started to mention something about my axle weights, and then in the middle of that thought he mentioned that he pulled me over for safety reasons. He wanted everyone to do the right thing, for safety’s sake. He said that the scales are not a revenue source for the township. I said that I understood that and that it was a mistake on my part for not using the lift axle. He said I was free to go and reminded me to use the lift axle. He then recorded the information off of the door of the vehicle that I drive.
Chapter 4
What I didn’t know
Later in the day my dispatcher would have a private conversation with me, he told me that after leaving the scene of the incident the officer that had pulled me over had called him and complained about me stating that I had an anger issue. The officer complained that I aggressively got out of my truck when I was first pulled over, and I was handed a warning report from work that stated, -Specifically- “Hostile behavior towards Police Officer when stopped for possible lift axle violation. Officer stated that Gary exited the cab of the truck with a confrontational attitude before the officer even stated why he was pulled over. The next such offense of this nature will result in termination of employment.”
I was asked to read the warning report and then listen to the information that he, my dispatcher was given. He recounted what the officer had told him, and then asked me to explain what had happened. When it was my turn to explain I couldn’t stop laughing at how the officer distorted the events. The officer did tell the truth in the middle of his lies; he stated that I confronted him before he told me why I was pulled over. There was plenty of time for the officer to tell me why he pulled me over from the time that he asked for my credentials and when he came back to my truck after checking out my credentials, I even waited patiently after being asked to move my truck into the parking lot, I certainly didn’t rush right out of my truck but waited and waited all the while not knowing what to tell my dispatcher who wanted to know what was going on. The customer was waiting for his delivery and I didn’t know why I was stopped, it was my best guess that the officer had stopped me for a lift axle violation. In waiting for me to explain my dispatcher became concerned; at that moment in time he didn’t understand what I experienced and my mild giggling needed to pass. I took a moment before explaining what I had experienced. My dispatcher told me this was a very serious problem nothing to laugh at, he told me how the officer thought maybe I should consider some therapy for anger management. My dispatcher told me that the officer stated that I gave the 911 dispatcher a hard time.
My dispatcher and I talked briefly about the first event and I reminded him that it was exactly 5 years ago when that happened. I explained what had happened this day my dispatcher mentioned how maybe I should let go of what happened 5 years ago. I tried to share with him that the issue isn’t as he sees it, that I’ve had a lot of people tell me to let go, and how the problem isn’t about letting go but maybe defining what they mean by letting go? The problem is a part of my history, I can’t change what happened to me, but maybe I can make it transparent so that it doesn’t happen again.
We talked briefly about his experiences and how in comparison the experiences that we share are quite different and yet in a strange way they are uniquely similar. We walked back to the office with two versions of events that took place that day. One version was from the officer and one version was from me. My dispatcher agreed that in deed there were two conflicting stories, and asked that I would record everything. On a personal note; I view this as another form of police harassment to tarnish my character and defame me. There is a clear threat to my job and I certainly understand the concerns of everyone involved.
Imagine if, as the officer implied that everyone would do everything properly, the Truck drivers would never fail to properly use the lift axle, not one straight stretch of highway would that axle ever be up and it would never be down tearing up the equipment on any sharp turns. Another aspect is that the police would never harass the drivers; they, the police, would never lie or get angry and they would specifically state their intentions when they pull over a vehicle for what ever offenses they feel were violated.
Signed
Gary
posted by Gary @ 4:49 AM
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