Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Now that I am truly gone, I can speak freely... and I did.

herohog wrote:I am SO glad that I am out of VA and away from it's spineless, LAZY, LYING and derelict-in-their-duty State Cops! It seems that they would rather wright you up for Reckless Driving rather than do ANY investigation at all or to open his lazy eyes and ears. It cost me $2000 for a good lawyer to cover my butt when one of these slime ticketed ME and ONLY me when I was REAR-ENDED by an aggressive tail-gater! When it got to court, the judge threw the case out in a matter of seconds. The damage it did to my view of the state and its officers is irreparable and has allowed the criminal to get off Scott free due to this officer's negligence!

Heck yeah I am still POed...

Seem's to me Herohog that you paint all of the State Police in Va. with a very wide paint brush. No one from this board was there to see or hear how you were acting out or yelling at the Trooper. If as you say you were not at fault then you could have had the other person issued a summons at the accident sight or at the closest State Police Station that is your right to do.
Bill

HK91762mm wrote:Oh heck--I asked some of you here about the cops in VA before I move -! this is why I asked ==>>>

Heres what they did to my brother in NY
Hes a banker and a hobby musical instrument maker .
Hes at a party and some scumbag puts a drug in his drink On the way home the genesee county sheriffs get him[impaired driving ] and toss him in the klink= he suffers brain damage as they should have taken him to the hospital -- Oh yea the drug was a powerful schizophrenia drug. He still has problems .
He was screwwed over by NY so bad They treated him as a drug /impaired driver and ran him through the Court cost him 10 Grand in lawyers and fees..
He should have been treated as an assault victim instead of a drunk driver ,,BUT hey that would not pay the state big money..

He received no justice and as a result sold his business -His home and when dad died he sold the home they lived in and moved mom and himself to Alabama . where he says life is another day in paradise !
this gestapo policing here is part of the reason I'm out of NY also. were near buffalo..

Sorry, but you are another person that was not there when it happend. How was the Sheriff's Deputy supposed to know the diffrence between your brother just drinking and or being slipped a drug. He is a Cop not a Doctor and he will do as he was trained to do. Did your brother ever get a blood or hair follicle test after his arrest to prove or disprove the drug's in his system. And last but not least a question - why should they have taken a drunk driver to the Hospital when he showed no outward sign of injury. I understand that you are upset about this but don't place the blame on the Deputy. Place it on the person that slipped him the drug.
Bill

HK91762mm wrote:Oh heck--I asked some of you here about the cops in VA before I move -! this is why I asked ==>>>

Heres what they did to my brother in NY
Hes a banker and a hobby musical instrument maker .
Hes at a party and some scumbag puts a drug in his drink On the way home the genesee county sheriffs get him[impaired driving ] and toss him in the klink= he suffers brain damage as they should have taken him to the hospital -- Oh yea the drug was a powerful schizophrenia drug. He still has problems .
He was screwwed over by NY so bad They treated him as a drug /impaired driver and ran him through the Court cost him 10 Grand in lawyers and fees..
He should have been treated as an assault victim instead of a drunk driver ,,BUT hey that would not pay the state big money..

He received no justice and as a result sold his business -His home and when dad died he sold the home they lived in and moved mom and himself to Alabama . where he says life is another day in paradise !
this gestapo policing here is part of the reason I'm out of NY also. were near buffalo..

Buffalo was pronounced dead over twenty years ago. What took you so long?Buffalo is the cleveland of western new york.....

SgtBill wrote:

HK91762mm wrote:Oh heck--I asked some of you here about the cops in VA before I move -! this is why I asked ==>>>

Heres what they did to my brother in NY
Hes a banker and a hobby musical instrument maker .
Hes at a party and some scumbag puts a drug in his drink On the way home the genesee county sheriffs get him[impaired driving ] and toss him in the klink= he suffers brain damage as they should have taken him to the hospital -- Oh yea the drug was a powerful schizophrenia drug. He still has problems .
He was screwwed over by NY so bad They treated him as a drug /impaired driver and ran him through the Court cost him 10 Grand in lawyers and fees..
He should have been treated as an assault victim instead of a drunk driver ,,BUT hey that would not pay the state big money..

He received no justice and as a result sold his business -His home and when dad died he sold the home they lived in and moved mom and himself to Alabama . where he says life is another day in paradise !
this gestapo policing here is part of the reason I'm out of NY also. were near buffalo..

Sorry, but you are another person that was not there when it happend. How was the Sheriff's Deputy supposed to know the diffrence between your brother just drinking and or being slipped a drug. He is a Cop not a Doctor and he will do as he was trained to do. Did your brother ever get a blood or hair follicle test after his arrest to prove or disprove the drug's in his system. And last but not least a question - why should they have taken a drunk driver to the Hospital when he showed no outward sign of injury. I understand that you are upset about this but don't place the blame on the Deputy. Place it on the person that slipped him the drug.
Bill

Thats right bill, but in his defense, Erie county sheriffs deputies are known for their corruption.

From my own experience, I have seen an upswing in State Troopers on the interstates, generally pulling out of state cars because they KNOW they're not gonna fight the tickets, they're gonna PAY them, or ignore them, and get a warrant, thereby MO'MONEY!

I have some LEO's as friends, and the one thing they express the most distaste is traffic enforcement. Even doing accident work is a PITA to them, because most of the time it's a fender bender. On the true bad accidents, it's a tragedy, and it affects them greatly. I feel for the street level officers, I have no empathy, patience, or respect for SOME of the upper level "political" police officers, and chiefs. One, or two exceptions.

But... most agree, the highways were designed to go 80 MPH when cars were quite a bit unsafe. Today? With all the safety features, it makes no sense, not to up the limit BACK to 80 MPH.

Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

The fact is I was VERY polite and never raised my voice and was 100% cooperative. I found out he lied after the fact and if you think someone who lied is going to come on here and tell you the truth just because you asked, you are a fool. After this incident happened, I did some research and discovered that this was SOP for them in this state... and it's even worse in the Northern end of the state! Don't take my word for it, Google VA+"Reckless Driving" and you will see. I didn't get mad until I found all of this out AFTER the wreck. Also, look at this on the face of it: I get REAR-ENDED by a TAILGATING driver. Here in Louisiana, it would be a no-brainer, the person who rear-ends someone is toast! (unless there are serious extenuating circumstances)

Yes, I know not ALL of these officers are as bad as Trooper Zenzen BUT, as I said above, research shows that this is a trend, not an exception to the rule. I know and have several friends who are peace (Louisiana) officers (Sheriff, Sheriff's deputies, Police officers, Campus Police Chief) and I know that not all cops are bad. I just had the misfortune to run into one of the bad ones and discovered, through research, that this was NOT a remote, random, event but a part of a pattern of abuse. We have a problem just like it in LA with the cops patrolling the interstates, especially the I-10 corridor in South Louisiana.

Reverenddel wrote:From my own experience, I have seen an upswing in State Troopers on the interstates, generally pulling out of state cars because they KNOW they're not gonna fight the tickets, they're gonna PAY them, or ignore them, and get a warrant, thereby MO'MONEY!

I have some LEO's as friends, and the one thing they express the most distaste is traffic enforcement. Even doing accident work is a PITA to them, because most of the time it's a fender bender. On the true bad accidents, it's a tragedy, and it affects them greatly. I feel for the street level officers, I have no empathy, patience, or respect for SOME of the upper level "political" police officers, and chiefs. One, or two exceptions.

But... most agree, the highways were designed to go 80 MPH when cars were quite a bit unsafe. Today? With all the safety features, it makes no sense, not to up the limit BACK to 80 MPH.

Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

For the record I'm with Sgt Bill. You all sure paint with a broad brush. I frequently drive up and down I95 and I85, and have lived in VA for years. I rarely drive the speed limit, but I almost never drive recklessly which is a helluva lot more than I can say for some truckers and a lot of car drivers. The only time I was stopped by a State Trooper was when I was doing 100MPH or more on the toll road out to rte 28. Why was I driving so fast? Because I was being stupid because I was going to be late for work! What did the officer do? He gave me a verbal warning and sent me on my way, when by rights I guess he could have arrested me. Other than that I have never been stopped or ticketed by a VA State trooper. So like Sgt Bill I'm always suspicious of these stories that are wholly one-sided (That's not to say that Troopers aren't out of control, some are and we have seen enough to know that). I just don't think we need smear State Troopers for the actions of a few.

I'll bet every last one of you, I know i have seen it, have been driving oh maybe 10 or so MPH over the speed limit or however traffic was flowing, and suddenly out of nowhere cutting in and out zooms by some character yapping on a cell phone, or racing his buds. I don't know how many times I have seen that same nut ball pulled over a few miles up the road. My reaction to that is YESSSSSSSS!

I agree with you that most modern cars are very capable of moving safely at 80 or more MPH. However, the safety of the car at speed is not the problem. The skill, temperament, maturity and proficiency of the driver are the real problems. High speed demands high attention and a degree of skill that we do not require of anyone to get a driver's license. The fact is VA interstates are damn dangerous primarily due to driver's who don't know what the hell they are doing behind the wheel of car. If you regularly drive that span of I85 I think it is just before where it intersects with I66 with the mix of trucks and cars, you know what I mean!

Gat6
The past is not just about the past, it's about the future

gatlingun6 wrote:The fact is VA interstates are damn dangerous primarily due to drivers who don't know what the hell they are doing behind the wheel of car.

The fact is that VA's interstates are damn dangerous is primarily because they are a veritable rat warren of always-under-construction segments and ridiculously confusing interchanges and sometimes-HOV lanes.

Compound that with a number of areas whose populations contain large numbers of transient military who don't have a chance to learn the local roads before being unleashed on the rest of us unsuspecting folks and you have a recipe for frequent minor disaster.

Reverenddel wrote:But... most agree, the highways were designed to go 80 MPH when cars were quite a bit unsafe. Today? With all the safety features, it makes no sense, not to up the limit BACK to 80 MPH.

The speed limits were put in place to save gas, not safety. Statistically, even with todays safer cars, once you are traveling a certain speed the probability of surviving it don't change. Think of it this way, if are in a headon collision at 200mph vice 150mph, it doesn't make much difference. The forces invovled greatly exceed the available materials.

The govenment crash tests are done at 35mph. The Insurance Institutue for Highway Saftey (IIHS) does theirs at 40mph. The number one complaint against IIHS from car manufacturers is that the tests are too violent (hence, why so many cars often get bad ratings from them until recently). 5mph makes a differance at these speeds. If speed limits existed for safety, they would have been set much lower. At least if statistics had anything to say about it.

Even with todays better cars, once you reach highway speeds it become irrelavent how fast you are going if you hit something directly. The only reason we survive these accidents as often as we do is because we shed a lot of speed (braking, sliding, gravel pits, etc.) before hitting something solid.

Research is indicating that speed deltas are more hazardous than absolute speed.

The two biggest problems with raising the speed limits are:
1. Semi-Trucks - Speed deltas
2. Quality of the asphalt - Ability to control vehicles

It makes more sense to ship stuff by train, but we have destroyed that industry so I don't see how we could get the large semis off of the road. The average asphalt thickness in the US is 6" while the autobahn is 24".

I'm all for solving these problems and raising the limit much higher than 80mph.

gunderwood wrote:The average asphalt thickness in the US is 6" while the autobahn is 24".

On parts of Military Highway in Norfolk it is over four feet (4') thick.

I know. I watched them lay it.

wylde007 wrote:

gunderwood wrote:The average asphalt thickness in the US is 6" while the autobahn is 24".

On parts of Military Highway in Norfolk it is over four feet (4') thick.

I know. I watched them lay it.

Thickness is only one measure of quality. Perhaps if our politicians quit spending the gas tax funds on everything but the roads...

gunderwood wrote:

wylde007 wrote:

gunderwood wrote:The average asphalt thickness in the US is 6" while the autobahn is 24".

On parts of Military Highway in Norfolk it is over four feet (4') thick.

I know. I watched them lay it.

Thickness is only one measure of quality. Perhaps if our politicians quit spending the gas tax funds on everything, but the roads...

LOL. I saw sections of I 40 in Arkansas where it looked like they were trying to level the road by filling in the valleys between the hills with asphalt.

WRW wrote:LOL. I saw sections of I 40 in Arkansas where it looked like they were trying to level the road by filling in the valleys between the hills with asphalt.

We have a winner!

I do have to say this, VA's roads are not that bad. Yes, Richmond's roads suck, at least the interstate does, but compared to my home state of Louisiana? No contest! LA has been rated as having the worst roads in the entire US! VA's roads are very clean as well, not so much in Louisiana.

Find a better state in which to live than Virginia and move there. Your happiness will be guaranteed. Find a nation with a justice system more fair than that of the United States of America and move there. You'll be ecstatic until the end of time.

gatorbait wrote:Find a better state in which to live than Virginia and move there. Your happiness will be guaranteed. Find a nation with a justice system more fair than that of the United States of America and move there. You'll be ecstatic until the end of time.

No argument on the country and darned little on the state. VA is beautiful and most of the people are first rate. The roads aren't that bad and there are worse police to be found in several other states I can easily name. On that, we agree 100%.

gatorbait wrote:Find a better state in which to live than Virginia and move there. Your happiness will be guaranteed. Find a nation with a justice system more fair than that of the United States of America and move there. You'll be ecstatic until the end of time.

Complaining is unpatriotic.

If you don't like how things are here, citizen, perhaps you would prefer the camps?

[quote="Diomed"}Complaining is unpatriotic.

If you don't like how things are here, citizen, perhaps you would prefer the camps?[/quote]
No kidding? Sooooo, you think the 1st Amendment isn't applicable to someone who has something to say YOU don't like and THEY should leave? Look in a mirror please.

My God, I can't believe how personally some people are taking this! Get a grip folks!

herohog wrote:

Diomed wrote:Complaining is unpatriotic.

If you don't like how things are here, citizen, perhaps you would prefer the camps?

No kidding? Sooooo, you think the 1st Amendment isn't applicable to someone who has something to say YOU don't like and THEY should leave? Look in a mirror please.

My God, I can't believe how personally some people are taking this! Get a grip folks!

I think he was joking.

herohog wrote:

gatorbait wrote:Find a better state in which to live than Virginia and move there. Your happiness will be guaranteed. Find a nation with a justice system more fair than that of the United States of America and move there. You'll be ecstatic until the end of time.

No argument on the country and darned little on the state. VA is beautiful and most of the people are first rate. The roads aren't that bad and there are worse police to be found in several other states I can easily name. On that, we agree 100%.

Where would you go? Europe is a mess (remember we are following them towards socialism) and few countries have any real gun rights there. Canada, while better than Europe, still is tougher on guns and has a messed up justice system too (just different). Mexico and most of South America, if your idea of justice is $100 bribes these are probably ideal. Gun rights are a little iffy if you run short on US dollars. Most of Asia wouldn't let you within 10 miles of their coast with the arsenal I'm sure you have. Your wife and girls will probably have some issues with Middle East justice. Besides, that isn't the safest place for American's right now. Africa more or less lets everyone have guns, problem is they don't seem to have any real justice "system" at all.

Yes, I'm generalizing and not every country is bad on these two issues as I summarized, but who is better than the USA on these two issues? I realize we may be the healthiest cancer patient and that isn't much to brag about, but seriously, where are you going?