I’ve lifted this message from the body of an email sent by a friend of mine.  When I read of her ‘cop fear’, I had to confess that I have it too.  Just this week I was followed a short way by a Sherrif, and was so busy checking my speed and watching him in the rearview mirror that I’m lucky I didn’t wreck the car.

And this from someone who was breaking no laws and hasn’t had a traffic ticket in too many years to count.

Please contact my friend with any questions or comments, and thanks for taking a look.

Here’s Joy:

            I’m scared of cops and I shouldn’t be.  I am a law abiding citizen who hates to break any laws, disobey anyone, or even upset anyone.  I am the kind of person the cops are out there to protect so why do I cringe when I see one? 

            I once laughed at my husband, who gets nervous when he sees a patrol car.  I would tell him that we were not breaking any laws, so these men were our friends.  I don’t say that any more.  I’ve only had two encounters with cops.  Once, many years ago, as an extremely poor college student, I was pulled over for some reason. I’ve never quite understood what the reason was. .  I think it was failure to yield when a man had waved me through a stop sign.  I was eight months pregnant and crying too hard to ask the cop why he was slapping me with a fine that was two months groceries.  I was recently pulled over again.  I had had one of those days.  I was exhausted, and my mind was full of getting home and getting my five children to bed and I didn’t see the speed trap.  This time the money was a blow but not as bad.  I still ended up in tears after the very young looking cop told me I was endangering my beloved children.  It was not what an overwhelmed, hard working mom needed to hear that day. 

            Why does he get to lecture me?  Who put him in a position of authority over me?  I pay his salary….  Something is wrong with the system.  Why are the men we pay to protect us, harassing us?  These incidents did not make the roads safer.  I am not a danger to anyone.  I just made a couple mistakes because I’m human.  You have probably had a similar experience, where all the caution in the world didn’t stop you from making a mistake. 

            I don’t really blame the cops.  They are just doing their job.  The system is flawed.  We need to make a change so that cops spend their time doing what we pay them to do.  We need them making our world safer, not making us miserable.  My brother in law, who I think the world of, is actually a cop.  He was once seriously injured while out protecting an old lady.  He has been treated extremely poorly and there has been very little done to recompense him and his family for what they have gone through.  Perhaps if we could better the system, voters would change the laws to protect the cops as well.  Cops should know if they are hurt or killed taking care of us, that we’ll take care of them.  But it is hard for people to realize they need to take care of the men they feel afraid of.      Perhaps we could make it so those who have a clean driving record get a warning for first offense. Perhaps we need to ensure that the revenue generated goes to charities so there is no motivation for cities to encourage speeding tickets.  Perhaps we could lower the amount of tickets drastically.  Perhaps we could change the system so that when we see a cop, we would want to cheer for him, rather then turn quickly down another street.

            If you feel like I do, please send this on to as many people as you can.  If there are enough of us that feel this way, we’ll know it is something worth fighting for.  If you could let me know why you choose to pass this around or why you choose not too, I’d appreciate it.

gilkhil [at] cheerful (dot) com

Thanks for your help.