To get annoyed with a policeman

[AitchGee]

I was stopped on the way back from collecting my boys from school, a trip of no more than about a mile. I pulled into our local supermarket, bought some gooey delights and left. Unbeknown to me, the local police had set up some sort of sunny-day sting on all the shoppers.

They stopped me. Pain in the butt, but what the hey, it's a job. So I answered a few banal questions, nothing was wrong, everything was in order.... Then it came "Sir, when did you have a drink last?" I replied that I had been drinking all afternoon. He asked me to blow into his pipe. I asked him what was wrong with drinking Vimto. Obviously I blew Zero

What got my goat was that as I haven't touched a single drop of alcohol since Dec 28th 2003 and gave up smoking some 12 months back, I could smell the distinctive odour of alcohol on his breadth as he was talking to me.

I asked him why he suspected me of driving under the influence of alcohol, he wouldn't respond. I asked him to tell me how many measures of alcohol he had consumed prior to picking on random shoppers (generally women). He suggested that I should mind my own business and be on my way.

I had my kids with me, so decided to slink away fuming. Suggesting that I may have been drinking alcohol, after all the effort abstaining over the years, I consider as an insult.

Get the fuck over yourself!!!

troll

Oddly, I got breathalysed this morning. The police were doing random stops - about one in every two cars travelling down a particular road. Didn't bother me in the slightest, particularly given the fact that the woman in front of me failed the test and had two small kids in the car with her....

"Oddly, I got breathalysed this morning. The police were doing random stops - about one in every two cars travelling down a particular road. Didn't bother me in the slightest, particularly given the fact that the woman in front of me failed the test and had two small kids in the car with her..."

Going back to my previous comment...... Did the children get hurt? or were you just guessing that the RISK of them being hurt was greater after having consumed alcohol? So people end up in prisons up and down the country as a result of "societies" view that driving whilst under the influence, then driving whilst banned is such a crime that it warrants a draconian penalty. I would prefer to see people who create victims be dealt with severely. You know the ones, muggers, thieves, killers, burglars etc etc

AitchGee you sound like a smartarse, the man was just doing his job. Honestly YABU and you were most definitely in the wrong for telling him you'd been drinking all afternoon. I usually try to look at AIBU from both sides but you don't have anything in your OP that leads me to believe that the policeman was annoying, you were actually annoying.

fuck me, is this thread still going!

Seems so, with your assistance DuelingFanjo

LOL @Moonferret

Seems that there is a plethora of the frustrated having their non-sequiturs heard.

Aitchgee - do you really not understand that drink driving creates victims - often dead ones?

Are you for real OP?

If you smelt drink on his breath you should have rung the police and reported it immediately. Either he had been drinking, and would be pulled in immediately and discplined, or has a serious hygeine problem. Either way it needs to be dealt with. Drunk and in authority is not a good combination.

The pull would either have been random or because your driving gave concern. Or because he likes pulling over women. If he said it was random it's checkable. His mangers can check who else he pulled over. Lots of women aged 20-30, hardly any male pensioners? Time for a warning and anti-discrimination course. If he says it's because your driving alerted him you can ask what, specifically, and complain. Some managers will dig and check other pulls.

Think his manager will cover for him? The entire middle layer of police, inspectors and superintendents exist to inspect the constables, keep them in line, not to investigate crime. Read that in a book by an embittered ex-PC and saw it on The Bill.

Ah well if you saw it on The Bill then it MUST be true.

danniclare - the OP is a man

Hope that Helps.

P.S. - The Bill is fiction - hope that helps too.

OP - if you think it's draconian to ban drink drivers then tough. I don't want them on the roads and neither do the vasy majority of people.

'orry OP, it was late, should have read you post properly.

Personally I don't want drunks on the road. Or druggies. Or the uninsured. But that's another story. And believe me, my police friends don't have any time for abuse of power or being on a downward spiral.

What do you mean, The Bill is fiction? You'll be telling me Midsomer ... oh, no, surely not, it can't be????