When a Police car double parks with the flashers and snazzy lights flashing and blinking, what’s the first thought that comes into your head? Is it gee, I wonder what is going on? Is someone hurt? Is there a fire? Is there a holdup in progress?

Well that sure sounds like a good reason to find a Cop Car double parked, blocking the only lane of a two way, one lane in each direction road. But, the sad truth is, more often then not, there’s a doughnut that needs to be arrested or a slice of pizza that’s going for a ride "downtown".

Such was the case today, during a miserable rainstorm, with roads having limited visibility. Can you say abuse of power? Well I can. How long will these Un-Civil Servants use their badges for personal reasons and pontificate the law to us poor folks. It’s just another case of our friend Officer Duplicity not marching to the same drumbeat that his handgun requires of the public.

Did anyone know that when making a right turn onto a one way street, where the street is perhaps 5 lanes wide, you are required to make your turn into the rightmost lane? Well, after 35 years of driving, and not knowing this, I found out, the hard way.

I was making such a right turn off of 23rd Street onto 6th Avenue in Manhattan one day. There were cabs clustering at the corner, so I went around them, thinking that they are an obstacle and that I am going around an obstacle. Well, there was one of NY’s Finest waiting on the far right middle of the block. We both made I contact and instead of pointing to me and telling me to not make that turn, which he clearing had time for, he waited for me to complete the turn and then flagged me over.

Once again, we see our tax dollars for training this misfit were well spent. He uses his skills to accumulate cash for the City. Doing what I like to refer to as "Legal Extortion". Is it any wonder why we love our protectors so much? Who exactly was being protected here?

So, I used to drive to school in Manhattan and sometimes, quite often really, there was absolutely no place to park. Not being the only driver that made the trip to school via car, other motorists were of course confronted with the same issue. What came to be the adopted policy, was that a few lines of cars would double park several blocks from the school and the drivers would hurry to class and upon completion, return to their respective cars and shove off. It seemed all well and good.

You could even watch the Police cars drive through these blocks of double parked cars, totally ignoring them. But, comes the end of month, with a quota to be filled, the carefully cultivated double parked lines of cars would be ticketed and the officer would easily meet their month’s quota. Hey you break the rules, you gotta pay, right?!

You know, the ticket wouldn’t be that terrible; after all, when you double park, it is a traffic violation, if not for the duplicity of the situation. If a Policeman needed to run in to arrest some illegally manufactured dunkin doughnut, double parking is the order of the day and the law is not relevant. Doughnut vs. Education – what wins? You tell me.

Somewhere in Queens, there is an expressway called the Clearview Expressway. On entering this road one day, due to traffic volume being unusually dense, the next exit ramp was backing up to the entrance ramp I was using to enter the road. About 1/4 mile back I saw the next car in the lane I switched to. Of course, as I switched the car sped up.

Unfortunately for me, this speeding car had a Police car tailgating it, and when the car that had sped up realized I had already changed lanes, it slammed on it’s brakes and guess who else almost slammed into the car he was tailgating. Well, that meant I had to be pulled over. After all, I made our Uncivil servant realize that tailgating and all the associated laws of physics apply to him as well.

What a discovery?! I have to admit. After telling me he could ticket the heck out of me, he let me go with a warning. He must have still been dazed by the event, with a pucker mark on his car seat, but thanks anyway.