Fucking with 5-0

Yeah, so having learned little or nothing from the warning ticket I was written last week, I seem to be courting disaster by seeking confrontation/interaction with the police officers of our fair city.

On Thursday, I pulled up behind a cop car in Cambridge. We were both pulling on to Cambridge Ave actually, and he didn't signal. So, of course, I rode up next to him, and asked, "Hey, if you don't use your turn signals, why would anyone else?"

A conversation ensued. Sort of.

He told me I was a jerk and that I should worry about myself, to which I replied, "I do worry about myself, which is why I'm asking the question."

That didn't go over so well, but I didn't get arrested. I will say that I maintained a respectful tone of voice during the whole exchange. I apologized if he felt I was asking an unreasonable question. I think he just acted like an asshole cause he knew I was right. Either that, or he was an asshole.

Then, yesterday, on my way home, I had a cop step out in front of me in Boston. I slowed down. Apparently he hadn't seen me, probably cause he didn't look. I followed behind him for 10 or 15 yards, at which point he glanced over his shoulder and said, "Oh, sorry," and stepped out of the way.

I said, "Hey, you've got a gun. I figured I'd let you go first." He smiled and said, "Don't make me use it," but he was laughing and clearly wasn't flustered. Nor did he feel it necessary to let me know that he was a cop and that I shouldn't be talking to him. A nice guy.

I rode on.

But again, it all has me thinking about the way the city works, who is in charge, why we've given them the power and whether or not they deserve it. Is there any better way? I still see it as sort of a free for all. With all our laws, even simple things like traffic laws, there seems to be little black and white, little rhyme or reason. Or perhaps I just have trouble with the gray of it. Maybe I'm just not intuiting what I ought to be doing, how I ought to behave.

So I'll just keep pedaling. I'll just keep climbing the hills and coasting the turns and hoping not to get crushed.