>>You seem to have a very very bad experience with cops.

I don't know of anyone who would describe their experiences with cops as "pleasant."

I would. I've had six or seven interactions with the police in the last eight years or so, and they were all pleasant. Well, except for one guy who yelled at me to slow down, but that wasn't really an interaction.

Well, there is a right way to interact with the police, and many wrong ways.

E.g. pull over (waaaay over. Much farther than you think is plausible), hands visible at all times, very slow movements, eye contact, dome lights on, shoulder muscles relaxed, etc. Most people do ~0 of these things unless they have been coached.

Failing to do these things, esp. while being young/male/profiled socioeconomic group, can drastically change one's experience with the law.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/A-Speeders-Guide-Avoiding-Tickets/dp/0...

I've been driving for close to 20 years and never have been pulled over. Equating dealing with cops to dealing with the TSA is moronic.

So you never actually had any experience with cops.

I don't see how that invalidates what I said.

I've had experiences with police, but not from driving. You are forced to interact with the TSA when flying, but you aren't forced to interact with the police when driving. Is it that hard to understand how that makes his entire post pointless? It's like complaining about how you have to interact with the FBI every time you fly because you make jokes about bombs.

I have had numerous positive or neutral experiences with cops, and a few bad ones (including numerous tickets and getting arrested, but in all cases I earned those bad experiences). Overall, I would much much rather have cops than not have cops.

I mean in terms of dealing with them a lot. I do agree they are not pleasant.

The safest speed to go is the flow of traffic. Sometimes that's 15-20 miles per hour over the speed limit. It's rare that cops ticket safe drivers for speeding, but it happens (IME, about once every 5 years). Tickets themselves weren't a big deal if you're a good driver who gets unlucky occasionally, until insurance got involved and started hiking up the prices. Depending on your state and insurance policy, a $100 speeding ticket can end up costing $1,000 or more.

"Police oppression" might be a bit farther than I'd go, because I rarely get speeding tickets. But the speed limits are under-posted and you can get a nasty insurance hit even while driving safely.

You say you are driving 15-20 miles per hour over the speed limit and then wonder why you are getting tickets and higher insurance...

Even if "but everyone else is doing it" was an excuse, that defeats the argument about excessive law enforcement. If anything there obviously isn't enough law enforcement.