Cops Directing Traffic

[x635 4,066]

Recently, I've noticed a growing trend that disgusts me.

Police Officers, who close roads for a variety of different reasons, are harrased by motorists.

I've personally been witnessing such activity, most recently at the Mount Kisco Parade, and today's closing of South Central Avenue in Greenburgh.

Just today, the poor cop(s) were sitting out rerouting traffic at a major intersection in the heat and humidity, sucking in the fumes all day while dodging dumb drivers. At different intervals, I noticed some of the following behaviors:

-A motorist yelling at a police officer, holding him personally accountable for the "uneccesary" road closure and asking for his name and supervisor.

-Motorists cutting through a parking lot to try and avoid the road closure or trying to squeeze past the roadblock while the officer was not looking

-Numerous Motorists stopping in the middle of an intersection with a large volume of traffic behind them to ask for directions.

-Motorists honking at the officers.

- A motorist cursing at an officers

-Motorists trying to negotiatewith the police officer to let them through

And the list goes on and on.

How has the public lost such respect for our Police Officers? I realize that motorists get frusterated, and I know some PO's can be rude at times ( I probaly would be too if I had to deals with some of these people just like we can we in the fire service). It disgusts me, and I hope something gets done about these idiots who make the cops job harder.

You see the road is closed, follow the directions of the officers and shutup.

In todays day of ample media coverage, cell phones, and other devices, and obvious significant storm damage, motorists should be more then prepared to handle situations such as road closures. Granted, we probaly could deploy better signage and more traffic personel such as DPW....but most personel are busy cleaning up the aftermath of the storm and not all manpower can be spent on traffic duties.

I give the Police Officers a ton of respect for dealing with stuff like this.

[x242Steve 1]

Today I officially lost all faith in my fellow motorists.

I had multiple PD units baby-sitting intersections for the entire 8-hour shift, due to a power outage in the West Side/Woodside area of town.

"Why weren't there temporary stop signs?", you ask.

Oh, they were there! I saw them myself at 0630 and at 1515 as I went to and from work. What wasn't there was anyone's common sense! If you are approaching a traffic signal that is OUT, don't you think you should stop to see who is coming in the other 2 or 3 directions?

[Jason762 2]

Today I officially lost all faith in my fellow motorists. 

I had multiple PD units baby-sitting intersections for the entire 8-hour shift, due to a power outage in the West Side/Woodside area of town.

"Why weren't there temporary stop signs?", you ask.

Oh, they were there!  I saw them myself at 0630 and at 1515 as I went to and from work.  What wasn't there was anyone's common sense!  If you are approaching a traffic signal that is OUT, don't you think you should stop to see who is coming in the other 2 or 3 directions?

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Steve,

It took you this long to lose faith in people??? It's Stamford, what do you expect. Everyones in a rush to go nowhere. At least no one's gotten shot in a couple of days...

[Guest tfd193]

There has been a change in society, people no longer care about their fellow american as they once did. In today's world, to the average person, there is only one person who matters and god forbid this one person be inconvenienced or something not go their way...and yes you guessed it the one person that matters is themself.

[mikelouf2 0]

They should pull the licence away from a****** that don;t know how to drive all

day i see people runing lights stop sgins pulling out in front of you stoping short

then when you are out there doing taffic they don;t listen and try to run you over

then maybe it will be less taffic on the road too

[IzzyEng4 427]

They should pull the licence away from a****** that don;t know how to drive all

day i see people runing lights  stop sgins pulling out in front of you  stoping short

then when you are out there doing taffic they don;t listen and try to run you over

then maybe it will be less taffic on the road too

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AMEN MIKE!!!!!!!!

Nothing is worse than that! We have a fatal on I-91 in North Haven, CT a few days ago and I fielded a countless number of, non-the-less 911 Calls asking why the road was closed!!!! between me and my No. Haven dispatch brother and sister dispatchers I was about ready to flip!!! Needless to say I told them "this is an emergency line, the question you are asking is not an emergency" and disconnected the call. Of course I had a few complaints about this but hey unless you'er in the accident or having some type of an emergency, this is not 311 or 411!

If a road is closed, so be it and the detours are set up so follow them. I guess a majority of people can only get home one way......................

[ONLOCATION 24]

Simply if u inconvienence people's lives at all.....YOU.....are Personally held accountable by these a*******. The Funny Part is they think u actually wanna sit there and do this PD or FD.

And Izzy the only knowing one way home thing is Completey True. I was at Mahopac's Parade and this Women was Screaming at the Carmel Cop about how she needs to Get to Brewster and this is the Only way she knows and that this is a Huge Problem....bla,blah,blah. He tuned her out so good it was hilarious.

[JBE 328]

This is what happens when you have people who suffer from the delusion that the world revolves around them. Self important (message board edit). Seems to me a reality check is due.

[Jared1979 19]

I agree with the previous post. However you do get a few cops who do a crappy job of directing traffic. Needless to say people have got to grow up and be adult about things like this. If you think the world revolves around your life you are greatly mistaken. We have no control when things like power outages and road closures occure, and for people to be yelling at a police officer over stuff like this is flat out immature.

[Remember585 815]

People suck, period.

[BedfordFire 7]

Back in the storms during January, we had a large tree on wires down over one of our main roads. The cop decided it was ok to leave the scene after he put up caution tape, several barricades, etc. However, the motorists passing through decided they didnt have the patience for a 30 second detour, and moved the barricades and tape aside. When the cops responded back to the scene and stopped traffic to move the barricades back (with lights flashing), the motorists still ignored him and sped by. It got so bad as to the point where he called our department for assistance to block the road with our rescue. All I can say is, why?

[Dr. Zuki 1]

Good posting and it's just part of the larger hostility found in many facets of life nowadays unfortunately. Construction crews have also been subject to cursing and thrown objects. Sadly, crude behavior is popular with too many in our society.

Check out any Adam Sandler movie for example.

Remember back in the day when nobody dared to ever saythe words SUCK or

F--- ????

Now you hear them in PG rated movies.....and even sometimes it's slipped into network television. Many of today's generation cannot say one sentence without cursing and feel there is nothing wrong with doing so either.

I believe you can be arrested for cursing at law enforcement officers.

Some kids from my clique did so in the early 1970's at a Bronxville cop and were all locked up for disorderly conduct or something similiar, car impounded---deservingly so !!!

Happy Weekend.

[sr71 1]

hey this is a major problem in my town we even have people who dont yield to our trucks and you even get idiots who drive in front and behind the rigs when were backing up inot the house!!

heres another one

i tapped the hydrant during a recient job and a cop pulled up and blocked the road so no one could bet in the way of the 5 inch line. some dick herad drives around the cop onto a lawn and gets stuck in the wet grass. ive never seen a cop go off on someone and he wrote at least 16 tickets

[Dr. Zuki 1]

P.S---and who taught today's kids that it's okay to put your feet up on everybody else's fine furnture ????

[CAM502 6]

Free speech motherf***ers....just kidding Zuki you are right about the cursing. Being not that old I actually had a converstion about that with a friend of mine who is 22. I told him not to curse around my neighbors kids and he looked at me and said "when did I curse?" He had no idea.

But back to the topic at hand. x635, If you gotta close a road for any reason, don't get PO'ed if someone stops and asks you for directions. Not everyone will know to make three lefts and turn around...

[ONLOCATION 24]

People suck, period.

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lol......yeah pretty much

[Billy 68]

Whatever happened to all those "good feelings" we had toward each other and police/firemen after 9/11? Remember that? Long gone and forgotten. Its like every man for himself out there!!

[OnTheWheel 43]

After reading the posts for quite some time now I finally agree with this one 1 million percent! And being "that guy" getting cursed at I can tell you it's no fun at all! 90 degrees, 8 hours PLUS on a post, VEST, no a/c, no bathroom, no water, its NO FUN! And especially when someone "lives just down there" for 20 years and has no clue on an alternate route to get home! They should hand out maps when you buy a house with alternate routes highlighted!

SO, thank you all for the support from all of us in blue!

And when I get the power to levitate 9 firetrucks and all the hoses attatched to same so that Joe Sh#thead can get home I'll let you all know!

PS-Wasn't sure where the post was going with the tree down and cop putting up tape and barricades and leaving, but its sometimes necessary to do a "quick fix" due to the large amount of calls we get during storms. And when the FD steps in and assits it makes our life easier to answer the calls for service (ie. raising peoples kids, medical aids for a sore throat etc.) so thanks again for that help!

Stay safe!

[Dr. Zuki 1]

Yonkers DPW ran out of barricades last night.......

[Guest]

firerescue,

I think the point with the cop who put up the baricade is that people actually have the gall to remove and ignore traffic devices put up for their safety.

[jfmuller 23]

I've always secretly wished that those that drove over flares so that they can ignore you and get by had a leaking Gas tank, never seems to workout though. You would think the Darwin system would remove them from the Gene pool.

I remember seeing one of those COP shows, or Worst drivers or something like that where the police had the road shutdown because of Water Main break. This yahoo decided that it was a little bit of water and the Police were making a big thing out of nothing. So around the cars, past the cop, through the barriers and into the 8ft puddle he went with his Van. Sunk and barely made it out on his own. (I think he had a dog too, would've felt bad for the Dog if he died from his masters stupidity.)

I was at a call where we had power lines down. We shut down the intersection and everyone tried racing through a gas station to get around us. Wondered who would be at fault if instead it was a bridge out. Even had one car squeeze through the small space between the Utility and curb and kept on going, drove over the down'd line and kept on going.

Fire Police have never received any respect or courtesy so now they are extending it to the Police. I'm always amazed at the threats they receive from people when I help out. They should assign two officers to every post, one to direct the other to write tickets. Maybe they feel well this Officer is busy so I can abuse him and he can't leave to give me a ticket.