I moved from what I thought was a really corrupt county- Montgomery County MD to Fairfax, this website is so hot.

So like what should a newbie here know about the cops and the legal system. In Montgomery you could get arrested for drunk driving and in court say you were in a counseling program and everything would be dropped. Cops hated it but that is the way the judges played. No one ACTUALLY serves any time in Mont. Co.

So what is the deal over here. Cops cool out here or are they assholes?

-Red.

They're assholes! Sorry man, you screwed up.

Yeah, you're pretty screwed with the cops around here - UNLESS you know them. If you have a connection then things can work out well... there is a great "good ol' boy" system alive and well in fairfax. As for the courts - it just depends. Ususally they hear the same thing over and over so, there isn't much give. Basically the judges don't care - but if you get a good attorney who knows the prosecutors then, again, the good ol' boy system goes into effect. Good luck!

Virginia doesn't joke around about DUI or any other sort of driving infractions. That's all there is to it.

Are you planning on breaking the law son?

Officer Delaney,
Why must you be such a condescending ass? Seriously, in one small sentence you managed to talk down to him and the use of "son" is a cliche that implies inferiority. He simply asked about the police in this area. I think you have made it clear that your ego is fed by every powertrip you take, and your face for every donut-trip as well. I understand the natural draw of a position with power draws those with a distinct psychological profile. Those are exactly the people that should not be allowed to control others. I guess what I'm trying to say is, go kill yourself.


unfairfax [at] adaptivetime [dot] com

is officer delaney a real cop or just someone who likes to dress up as one at gay bars

Rstid, what were you doing in a gay bar.

I love it when folks derail a pertinant thread with one-liners...
from personal experince I've found that the closer you get to DC the shittier the cops get (this is of course a broad generalization). there are a few reasonable cops in Ashburn that I have dealt with. I have only ever had really bad experiences with the law in Leesburg and Fairfax City.

> So like what should a newbie here know about the
> cops and the legal system. In Montgomery you
> could get arrested for drunk driving and in court
> say you were in a counseling program and
> everything would be dropped. Cops hated it but
> that is the way the judges played. No one
> ACTUALLY serves any time in Mont. Co.

RedRonin -
Similar but not quite. If it's your first offense you will be given suspended jail time that will be dismissed if you complete an ASAP (Alcohol Safety Action Program) course. Usually if you had a BAC of .20 or higher ASAP will refer you to ADS for even more intensive treatment. While in ASAP you must attend two AA meetings a week as well as submit to random breathalyzers and urine based drug screenings. The charges aren't "dropped" as in off your record, you are just forced to complete the ASAP class in lieu of jail time. If you mess up ASAP you will probably goto jail.

hellchild -
Congratulations! Your post was #1,000 in Fairfax General! What a milestone. I'm so proud *sniff*

hellchild Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love it when folks derail a pertinant thread
> with one-liners...
> from personal experince I've found that the closer
> you get to DC the shittier the cops get (this is
> of course a broad generalization). there are a few
> reasonable cops in Ashburn that I have dealt with.
> I have only ever had really bad experiences with
> the law in Leesburg and Fairfax City.

A long time ago I was lost in DC (a 17 year old white kid driving around a station wagon in south east. It was fantastic.) and the cops wouldn't help me at all. They kinda stared and shrugged.

I <3 DC.

you're lucky, I always get searched when I come into contact with SE DC cops...

You drive drunk = you get fucked.

A friend of mine got thrown in jail for 8 months for evading the police, and he wasn't even drunk.

Ha you guys make me laugh. . .

For starter. . .I am girl. (Konichiwa)

Second - I've have two interactions with Fairfax cops
A) Officer Stelly (er Stully?) very nice cop. Fine example. Decent guy.
B) Officer Teidman (District 8) don't ask him questions about anything or some how you become the *criminal* and he becomes the New York accented mean ole'bastard from hell. He nearly intimidated me to the point of tears and refused to give back my license. Mind you I just walked up to him to ask a question. Unfortunately he must have been having a bad day and took it out on me. Or at least that is what I would like to believe. . .

According to Tiedman - "you have no rights" in Fairfax county.

So with those experiences in mind. . . Are most of them bad or most of them nice guys?

You guys knock me out. Obviously the folks that believe they are above the law will think the cops are assholes. That's because they don't think they should live in a world with laws that their parents believe in. Anyway, just like any job, you will find good and reasonable cops and you will find cops who don't care. That's like going to Target and expecting to get good customer satisfaction all the time. It just doesn't happen. You know, maybe when you came accross that cop in a bad mood, he just left the scene of bad incident. Maybe a baby was just killed or his buddy got hurt. You never know what has happened during the day for a cop. It could be a good day ruined by some punk who thinks he shouldn't be given a ticket. So the next time he runs into you, and you're being a prick already, he's not in the mood. Next time you run into a cop, whether by chance or because you supposedly broke the law, be nice. You have a better chance of getting out a ticket or going to jail, if you're nice. It won't happen all the time, but it could happen. And rtcpenguin, your friend should have gotten more time for running from the police. He could've killed himself or someone esle. And I bet if he had stopped when he was supposed too, he'd most likely not be in jail. You and your friend are the idiots here. Don't think of yourself, think about what your friend could have done.

Just consider the population, or at least the better-off portion of the population that has influence in each county. That will tell you everything.

In montgomery county, at least in and around Bethesda, they're all a bunch of baby-boomer liberals. "Leave me alone, keep the government out of my bedroom and personal life" types. More focused on being good citizens themselves than in what other people do (for the most part, and often very misquided in actions). In fairfax county, most are fairly fascist in their attitudes -- being overly concerned with the behavior of their neighbors, and less about themselves being good citizens.

The police are a reflection of the society they serve, for the most part. Plus, I think fcpd is seen as a waystation to a federal police job, namely FBI or Secret Service. So yea, it attracts more of the control-freak personalities. The ones that believe they know the best way for everyone to behave, and want the power to make sure they all do behave that way.

In montgomery county, if you are driving a "newer" car, and aren't being extremely stupid, the police generally ignore you. Plus, there are a lot of lawyers in MC, and the cops probably hear all kinds of legal threats all day, which keeps them in check, to some extent.

In fairfax county, they probably do discriminate, meaning they probably target minorities and less-expensive vehicles, but they are equal opportunity, over all. I think the idea is to try to have every life in Fairfax touched by the police so that everyone understands who holds the power, who's calling the shots. Plus, most of the mid-level beauracrats live in VA, so you know the cops hear a lot of "do you know who I AM?!?" remarks when they pull people over. More confrontational encounters leads them to not cut anyone much slack. Which is why being nice and professional when encountering a ffx county cop can be beneficial to the outcome. They're used to all the self-important pompous bastards around here giving them serious attitude. At least, I worked retail in High School, and I can tell you that most people have very inacurate view of their own importance. They think because they are the assistant associate vice chairman for agriculture, or whatever, or have a salary that where they came from is astronomical but around here is median, that they're special, important, whatever. (I used to tell these morons that unless they made over $350,000, then around here, they're just middle class. And that at the moment, they're displaying their lower class roots. Usually tripped them up enough to quiet them down, or occassionally truly set them off, which meant they'd have to spend 45 minutes talking to the police for becoming belligerent and threatening)

SWweeman,
It sounds that you take the attitude of the police themselves. Perhaps if you experienced the justice of this county as I have, you would understand. However, this isn't possible. I personally have done nothing extreme to be ticketed. It has more to do with when you are driving. I have only gotten tickets between 10pm and 3am. Mine have been for speeding. How fast? No faster than people drive durring the day. So, the question asks, why. The answer is that the younger of the population are the makeup of the nighttime drivers. This means there is little impact on political matters, thus they can fuck you over as much as they desire. Secondly, if they ticketed durring the day, traffic would be backed up for hours and hours. Thirdly, they are only out every once in a while because if they were out all the time, people would obey the speed limit. The problem with this is that they would lose their endless source of money. If you disagree, you have not seen the world for what it is. If you choose to claim they are saving lives from drunk drivers, that is bullshit. I saw a nice PSA by M.A.D.D. that said "every year 17000 people die from drunk drivers. The numbers are staggering." Seriously, 17000 is not staggering... I can count that high. In fact, it's practically nothing considering how many people die from anything else. Much more people die from just driving without drinking. Stupid campain. You need to look into the true motives of society instead of listening to what society tells you. In the case of Fairfax County(and especially City) police, they are very egotistical and selfrighteous.

>"baby was just killed or his buddy got hurt."
If a baby gets killed, it's instantly on the 5 o'clock news. Don't here much about that. If his fellow officer gets hurt, that is on the news for days. So... your ideas are... fanciful.


> "It could be a good day ruined by some punk who thinks he shouldn't be given a ticket."
why do you assume I'm a punk or I even deserve the ticket?


> "So the next time he runs into you, and you're being a prick already[...]"
I am most certainly not a prick nor act as one. You are being very narrowminded


> "[...]he's not in the mood."
Excuse me?! if I'm "not in the mood" at work, I don't act like a jerk to people who indeed act like idiots or even jerks. I would be fired... but I guess the police are above that.


> "Next time you run into a cop, whether by chance or because you supposedly broke the law, be nice."
Respect is earned, not given blindly. In my book, they are lacking in respect.


> "He could've killed himself..."
Who are you to decide that people cannot kill themselves. I believe it is a very fundamental right but people like you take that right away. Thanks.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Classic Judge making Judgements:

"Uh, I will have to go with what the officer say's over you" bullshit.

Yeah, but "your Honor, the police department is hiring the mentally disabled and dishonorable types"

Uh, you do know this, right? So where is 'the Honor' in 'your Honor'?

Uh, Duh, uh?

And then the innocent must suffer punishment because you and your police officer's have no real honor?

We are supposed to accept punishment because of the mentally disabled or simply dishonest police officer's?

And tell us what? It's O.K. in the name of your sick version of justice?

Or what? A person can allow their precious time needed to simply survive, filing endless appeals after appeals that may or may not come to a just fruition?

Being 'just' is a big word. Like the word respect. Like for respect for any given persons time.

Your 'Honor'.

uh, i'll have to go with what .. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Classic Judge making Judgements:
>
> "Uh, I will have to go with what the officer say's
> over you" bullshit.
>
> Yeah, but "your Honor, the police department is
> hiring the mentally disabled and dishonorable
> types"
>
> Uh, you do know this, right? So where is 'the
> Honor' in 'your Honor'?
>
> Uh, Duh, uh?
>
> And then the innocent must suffer punishment
> because you and your police officer's have no real
> honor?
>
> We are supposed to accept punishment because of
> the mentally disabled or simply dishonest police
> officer's?
>
> And tell us what? It's O.K. in the name of your
> sick version of justice?
>
> Or what? A person can allow their precious time
> needed to simply survive, filing endless appeals
> after appeals that may or may not come to a just
> fruition?
>
> Being 'just' is a big word. Like the word
> respect. Like for respect for any given persons
> time.
>
> Your 'Honor'.


I guess we all know how your court date went.

And based upon your statement...we all know you did nothing wrong at all to have this said court date.

Oh well. Life goes on.

Don't drive drunk, irrespective of where you live.

It's plain stupid.

Colleen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't drive drunk, irrespective of where you
> live.
>
> It's plain stupid.


unless you have to. Sometimes it can take forever for a cab to show up.

In the 90's I was driving through Vienna (Blake Lane area) and got a speeding ticket there. The radar was hidden on a hill back up off to the right of the road where there was lots of cover (large recycling dumpsters). When I went down to the FFC Courthouse to pay the fine, the parking lot was full of middle-to elderly aged women in Caddies, also in line. It was toward the end of the month, and I figured that they must have some sort of a procedure in place when they have to fulfill their quota where they can nab'em by the thousands off of deceptively quiet-looking back roads. Mine occurred in the middle of the day, and Blake Lane, a divided road near the Metro station, was practically deserted, so they must have filled their traps full of hapless cluelass speeding "sardines" in no time! So, if you live in Fairfax, you can never let your guard down--they WILL get you!

@FFCTrafficCourt: Well...if you simply drive the speed limit then there's nothing to "get your guard up" about and they'll NEVER get you.