Courtesy

A friend introduced me to this forum and I wanted to get something off my chest.

I am in the United States Army. I have done three tours in Afganistan and one in Iraq. I got wounded in combat back in 2004 and got a purple heart for it. My rank is E-8 so I am no seasoned recruit. Anyway I was stopped by a Miami Dade motorcycle officer about two weeks ago and received a ticket for allegedly running a red light. I know I did not run the red light it was yellow and turned red when I cleared the intersection.

But that is not what I am writing about. This is what I wanted to get off my chest. I was in uniform on my way to my post at Southern Command and was very respectful towards this officer as I am respectful towards everybody. But this guy had me outside my car with 90 degree heat in a parking lot for 20 minutes running me to see if I had a criminal record.

Don't you guys give Military personnel breaks? I agree sometimes you get an idiot with an attitude that thinks since he is a soldier he is owed the world but I was respectful.

Also if I had a felony record I would not be wearing the uniform.

We should send all MDPD officers overseas and let them fight the war.

Stop your crying. You military guys coming home couldn't do our job with all the stress and restrictions imposed by courts and media and the public. Be happy you are state side again. An remember breaks are for brothers a.k.a. cops not you.

That's cold, but true. Fact is, cops and soldiers or other military personnel are not on par. Face it, military takes anyone with a pulse as of their 18th Bday. To be a cop, it's polygraph, medical, psych, background, neighborhood canvass, sometimes even a college education, and family visit. And then it's deal with being under the microscope of the Herald, a-hole citizens, supervisors who want this many tickets and that many arrests per week or day or month, and oh by the way be a constant professional and live a clean life off duty. I've seen how you guys live on base and shizznat. Like a bunch of drunken frat boys.

Some of you guys make good cops, and some definitely do not. I respect your courage, the things you are asked to do overseas, keeping each other safe out there, killing our enemies. Personally, you will always get all my respect. But also, the military is also full of a bunch of thuggy little tattooed shizzats whose demeanor is not exactly cop-friendly, are too dumb to go to college, and couldn't have gotten a job anywhere else besides Uncle Sam's Posse. So, tone down the attitude a little, humble yourselves before law enforcement, and everything is gonna be fine. Oh, and good luck finding a real job when your enlistment is over. You guys better hope these wars last forever, at least it's job security. Last I heard, they're not running out of Hajis.

That's cold, but true. Fact is, cops and soldiers or other military personnel are not on par. Face it, military takes anyone with a pulse as of their 18th Bday. To be a cop, it's polygraph, medical, psych, background, neighborhood canvass, sometimes even a college education, and family visit. And then it's deal with being under the microscope of the Herald, a-hole citizens, supervisors who want this many tickets and that many arrests per week or day or month, and oh by the way be a constant professional and live a clean life off duty. I've seen how you guys live on base and shizznat. Like a bunch of drunken frat boys.

Some of you guys make good cops, and some definitely do not. I respect your courage, the things you are asked to do overseas, keeping each other safe out there, killing our enemies. Personally, you will always get all my respect. But also, the military is also full of a bunch of thuggy little tattooed shizzats whose demeanor is not exactly cop-friendly, are too dumb to go to college, and couldn't have gotten a job anywhere else besides Uncle Sam's Posse. So, tone down the attitude a little, humble yourselves before law enforcement, and everything is gonna be fine. Oh, and good luck finding a real job when your enlistment is over. You guys better hope these wars last forever, at least it's job security. Last I heard, they're not running out of Hajis.

Dikwad, the original poster said that he was respectful and polite and by the way he writes, I believe him. He certainly has a lot more credibility that you do based on his posting and your thug-azz reply. I don't write every military person I stop but they don't all get breaks either. It all depends on how the individual represents himself and the nature of the violation. I do agree with you in that the military takes a lot of low-lifes but they also take people who will be future leaders of business and public service so you cannot cast one net over all of them. I guess the point is that they should get more benefit of the doubt than the typical violator. I will assume that they are of good character until I am shown that they are not by thug-type tattoos, gang music or the manner in which I am addressed. I remember that two deputies were murdered by a military guy up in the panhandle in 2009 so all things do need to be considered http://odmp.org/officer/19925-deputy...th-(skip)-york and http://odmp.org/officer/19924-deputy...n-(burt)-lopez.

Okaloosa County (FL) Sheriff's Office
2009 Apr 25
It happened around 1 p.m. Saturday when the two Okaloosa County deputies went to Shoal River Sporting Clays and Shooting Center in response to a domestic violence call, sheriff's officials said.

Deputies Burt Lopez and Deputy Warren "Skip" York were pronounced dead after being airlifted to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, about 45 miles away, the sheriff's office said. Officials identified their killer as Joshua Cartwright, 28, of Fort Walton Beach.

Authorities said Cartwright, a U.S. Army Reserve soldier, shot both deputies and took off toward neighboring Walton County, where Walton County deputies killed him after an exchange of gunfire at a roadblock.

"It must have been like 30 or 40 shots," witness Mark Illich told The Northwest Florida Daily News.

Illich said he saw one officer putting down spikes at the intersection and knew "something's about to happen."

Then, "(Cartwright's) truck, he started coming. And we saw him, and he seemed calm as a cucumber," Illich said.

Cartwright veered around the spike strip, and an officer opened fire at the back of his truck, Illich said.

The incident began shortly after 10 a.m. when the Fort Walton Beach Medical Center notified the sheriff's office that Cartwright's wife said she had been beaten by her husband, according to a timeline released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the sheriff's office.

The two deputies found Cartwright at the shooting range and began trying to arrest him shortly before 1 p.m., but they reported that he was refusing to cooperate.

At 12:51 p.m. dispatchers received a call that an officer had been hit and began their search for Cartwright, who had left the shooting range in his truck.

Deputies shot and killed Cartwright around 1:10 p.m.

Cartwright had been arrested in November on a charge of domestic battery against his wife, Elizabeth Marie Cartwright, 21. That charge was still pending.

According the sheriff's office incident report, the couple had argued in a store parking lot. Cartwright told deputies that "things got out of hand when he heard enough of her shouting at him," and that he pushed her in the face with his open hand.

The Daily News reported that Cartwright had worked as a bouncer at a Fort Walton Beach bar. The sheriff's office said Cartwright also served in the U.S. Army Reserves and the 2008 arrest report listed the Army Reserves as his employer.

Lopez and York were wearing bulletproof vests, said Michele Nicholson, spokeswoman for the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.

"We're experiencing a range of emotions, from heartache and disbelief to numbness, that these men were taken from our agency, their family and friends, and their communities," Nicholson said. "Our focus right now is to take care of their loved ones, and each other, and continue to serve the public, as we work through this latest devastating event."

The slain deputies, both 45, were retired from the U.S. Air Force, Nicholson said. Lopez had five children and York had a 10-year-old son, according to the Daily News.

It was the latest in a series of traumatic episodes for the department.

Another Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy was shot and killed in July following a standoff with a man who had barricaded himself inside a home.

A friend introduced me to this forum and I wanted to get something off my chest.

I am in the United States Army. I have done three tours in Afganistan and one in Iraq. I got wounded in combat back in 2004 and got a purple heart for it. My rank is E-8 so I am no seasoned recruit. Anyway I was stopped by a Miami Dade motorcycle officer about two weeks ago and received a ticket for allegedly running a red light. I know I did not run the red light it was yellow and turned red when I cleared the intersection.

But that is not what I am writing about. This is what I wanted to get off my chest. I was in uniform on my way to my post at Southern Command and was very respectful towards this officer as I am respectful towards everybody. But this guy had me outside my car with 90 degree heat in a parking lot for 20 minutes running me to see if I had a criminal record.

Don't you guys give Military personnel breaks? I agree sometimes you get an idiot with an attitude that thinks since he is a soldier he is owed the world but I was respectful.

Also if I had a felony record I would not be wearing the uniform.

hey E-8....some of wearing brown, have too completed several tours in iraq....your not the only one, oh I also have a purple heart...oh I'm also a motorcycle officer...... "20 minutes running me to see if i had a criminal record" you and I know the army allows LOTS OF NEW RECRUITS with lost of felonies..sorry if you felt offended, but I run everyone and their mother. sorry you feel that way and dont take any red lights.

Army Soldier; first of all please accept my my heart felt thanks for what you are doing and have done for our country....you have my utmost respect. Secondly let me apologize to you from all the real cops in the Miami area for how you were treated. Please keep in mind that most of us have some common sense and would not have written you for a minor traffic infraction or treated you with such disrespect. Please take some solace though in knowing it was only some "one in a thousand" goofy misguided traffic cop who wrote you up and not a true real policeman. Again, thank you for your service.

Hey old cop its time to retire if you have a bleeding heart. The way it traditionally goes is as follows. You don't write cops that is it. When did the military get this right. Unless of course they are MP's, or Coast Guard that do police work like us.

The main question that should be asked by anyone making their stance on why we should write military personnel tickets is this...."WHO THE FUK REALLY CARES???" What do you get out of writing a ticket? Court time? Here is the deal. . .if you pull someone over in a U.S. MILITARY UNIFORM, why not say, "have a nice day" and move on to the next violator? Is there a shortage of real shitbags in the county that you can pull over? I just don't get it. Some cops think that traffic fines go to their bonus or something.

Hey E-8, I agree with Old Cop...now if you were a ****, thats one thing...otherwise I apologize for the morons on this site and on the road.

Had a county motorman write my wife for 7 over. Years later I called him to get his son who was involved in alteration on the Beach. When he arrived, he could not believe that his son had not been 39ed. Hope after that he thought about his son when he stopped people in the law enforcement family. By the way, I have never wrote anyone in the military!