Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Encounter with speeding lawman upsets lawful driver

I am a father of one 2-year-old son, and I have two nephews, 16 and 13. I live on Old Chapel Lane off of Huiet Road directly behind where the wreck occurred last Saturday.

I was on my way home with my son, heading west on Ga. Highway 54 from Fayetteville when a sheriff's car came up my bumper at a very high rate of speed. Not once did he turn on his lights or siren. It took me a second to get over. The officer then flew past me and up on the bumper of the next car. This happened again after that car got over.

After the officer had to slow down several times on the bumper of cars, I was able to catch up to him. The officer reached high speed again and turned onto Huiet Road. After turning the officer then stopped at the stop sign, and then went quickly down the road. About 100 yards after the stop sign is an extremely sharp turn in the road. The officer squalled his tires around the turn at a high rate of speed and disappeared out of sight.

About another 100 yards past this turn is the YMCA youth park. The officer showed no regard to the safety of any possible kids or other people who could be at the park or in the neighborhood. Still there were no lights on. The pavement ended and I followed the officer's trail down to the lake on Huiet Road.

I questioned the officer about not having any lights on and tailgating others on Hwy. 54. He stated, "You do not know why I am here, and you do not know when I can or can't put them on."

I said he should have the lights on because of the wreck that just recently happened on Hwy. 54 and because of the YMCA park. He snickered at me and I told him it was no laughing matter.

He then asked me, "Are you a cop? No, then you don't know what I'm allowed to do."

I simply told him that I was not gonna sit there and argue and I would take it up with the Sheriff's Department. Neither of us raised our voices or got out of line. I asked for his badge number and he told it to me.

I went to the Sheriff's Department and told them what had happened, and they told me very rudely and abruptly that I had better not come in there with stuff like that, and he was out on a official call.

Once again, I live on Old Chapel Lane, and it's not the first I have had words with the Fayetteville officers. Quite a few of them love to race down Old Chapel, along with other people. The lady at the end of my street at the corner of Huiet and Old Chapel has two sons, and one of them has M.S. I told both officers that, and it didn't seem to faze them at all.

The sad thing is the whole time I had my son with me. Now how can I teach them to respect police, when it's obvious they don't respect anyone but their own kind?

Where can I get an application for their job?

Name withheld