New York City Cops, They Ain't Too Smart
We sophisticated New Yorkers know that the law is relative; it is what the police officer makes of it. Some situations call for harshness beyond the letter of the law, i.e. riding a bicycle, being black, while others call for leniency, i.e. the professional courtesy of letting fellow officers go without a ticket in traffic stops.
So imagine NYPD officer John McNeeley's surprise when he was pulled over in Kansas, and felt compelled to write a letter of complaint.
"I pulled over, gave the officer my driver's license and my NYPD identification card. I was polite and I did everything I was supposed to do," McNeeley wrote in the letter. "About five minutes later, he brought back a summons to me and thanked me for my cooperation. I was dumbfounded. I then tried to ask him why a cop would write another cop a ticket. He would not answer."
Why, oh why, you jackbooted Kansas Highway Patrolthug?
Gary Warner of Kansas Highway Patrol predictably plays dumb, even giving the ol' "Us simple Kansas folks don't have a malleable, nuanced view of the law". But if any officer from his department makes a wrong turn and ends up on the Van Wyck, Officer McNeeley will have the last word.
"... I just hope that one day that I get the opportunity to pull over a Kansas Highway Patrolman who is visiting our city, and let him or her know what their fellow officer did to me."
And as all New Yorkers know, "let him or her know" means, at the very least, a beatdown.
