Priller
Well-known member
I'm not discounting the seriousness of the infractions, nor am I saying cops don't have a right to be upset if they see flagrant risk-taking.
But paramedics and firefighters (especially paramedics, who don't enjoy the same sort of fetishistic glorification that cops and firefighters do in some circles) see just as much if not more of that stuff, and they're not out there on social media being all d**kish and smug, even if they are at fault.
These posts aren't for people who might commit an infraction. Having some weird puffed-up self-congratulatory BS posted isn't going to deter anyone who might be the subject of one of them. These posts are for everyone else who likes to get outraged at this stuff, mostly old farts (I'm speaking as someone verging on old farthood), and it's exactly why they spend so much time and effort doing it.
And I don't even mind them posting about people they have busted, really. What makes it annoying to me is the joy they take in it, and the jokes ("Nobody says, 'It's a great day for a bike push!'" Har har har). As Mark Richardson puts it much better than myself, we don't know the whole story here, and lots of us who are wiser and more financially stable now weren't in our late teens and early twenties. There but for the grace of God, etc...