The Political Whore

Having written extensively, along with CL reporter Alex Pickett, about the longtime problems plaguing the St. Petersburg Police Department’s morale, staffing, funding, etc. So the story that CL Senior Editor Eric Snider tells over on Blurbex about his encounter with one not-so-helpful cop this weekend shouldn’t have surprised me — but it did anyway. Seems Snider’s ride ended up with a flat tire on the way home from the stadium and he limped along trying to find a safe, well-lighted place to change his tire when he got pulled over:

I pulled into a side street. Police are gonna lend a hand, I thought. One of the officers asked me for license and registration. Turns out it’s illegal to drive on a flat tire, and it’ll get you a $141 fine in St. Petersburg. That’s what the policeman told me.

I explained that I was looking for a safer, better-lit spot to pull over, that I’d never changed the tire on the Prius and didn’t even know where the spare was, that I didn’t know it was illegal to drive on a flat but now that I thought about it, it made sense, that my wife was out of town and I didn’t have a AAA card.  This was all 100-percent true, but the cop at first seemed incredulous. I shrugged, as if to say, ‘What can I tell ya? I guess he decided to believe me.

“You gonna drive that car home?” he asked. Odd question, I thought; I told him no. He gave me a pass. I thanked him. Then I made a mistake. I should’ve asked him if he was heading toward Placido Bayou – protect and serve and all that. I didn’t think of it until several miles of walking later.

Yes, there was a time in America when a cop would stop and help you out, lend a hand or find a way to assist you, rather than roll up on you all bowed up and shit, spouting about how you are breaking the law by limping along in a Prius with a flat tire. Yes, it’s official: we have solved all the other crime problems in the city, we don’t need those neighborhood policing officers or such, and we are down to enforcing such laws as driving with a flat tire, spitting on the sidewalk and looking funny at a cop.

This is fucking outrageous, and if you live in the ‘Burg, you should be outraged, too. That is, if you are not already so used to it that you are numb.

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