Law Enforcement

Have you ever been driving along minding your own business when some jerk cuts you off or flies past at the speed of light and you thought to yourself "Man, I wish there was a cop around to see that"? Today my wish came true.

There is a road I take on my way home from work everyday. At one point it ends and you have to turn right or left. Everyday but Wednesday I turn left. It is a well traveled road. So often traffic backs up for about a half to a full mile. Today was a mile. When I got to the back up I looked in my rearview mirror to see if the lady behind me on her cell phone was going to stop. She did. However, I noticed the peeved look on her face that she had to stop with the rest of us mortals. It didn't take long for her to see that the shoulder is wide enough for her to drive down, so she did just that.

As most drivers know a shoulder marked with a solid white line is for emergency parking only. Or in this roads case, it is commonly used for the many bicycles that travel our roadways.

So my satisfaction came about 3/4 of a mile later when I noticed the motorcycle officer that had a couple of cars pulled to the side of the road. Among them was our friend on the cell phone. She did not look happy. It got better. As I sat and watched the officer writing up each car I noticed him pointing at cars coming down the shoulder and waving them in for a little visit. He was a busy man. He was pulling over every single car that was using the shoulder as their personal lane. Sweet justice.

I mentioned earlier that I turn left everyday but Wednesday. On Wednesdays I do turn right, and I do wait until the road divides to pull forward. Not because I am heading to church and think that God is watching and will strike me down, but because I would hate to hit a bicyclist or a guy changing his tire because I was in a hurry.

Please don't think of me as a saint behind the wheel. I am not. I, like most, get that sick feeling in my stomach as a pass an officer at a speed greater than that which is posted. You know what I mean.

Sometimes in life we need to slow down and obey those little rules we think are silly. It would have saved this lady a few bucks and actually got her to her destination a little sooner.

God bless our law enforcement friends.