Sunday night the Tech Team and other geeks traveled to Concord to watch the extended edition DVD of The Two Towers (I highly recommend watching it). I drove to show off my new Prius and on the way back, just as we were getting on I-89, we are pulled over by the cops. I knew that I hadn’t run the red light to get on the freeway since I was so busy fiddling with the Prius’ touchscreen (!) that Erin had to inform me that the light was green. So…maybe they just wanted to check out the car of the year?
Turns out we looked a bit young to be driving such a nice car :). And since there had been reports of “yutes” messing around with cars and maybe stealing some on the road we JUST had been on, they pulled us over. After checking out four driver’s licenses from four different states (with none being New Hampshire), the cops let us go. Though, I did get a chance to show off the Prius to the friendly police officers.
All of this begs the question: were the real “bad guys” getting away while the cops were taking 15 minutes to clear us? After making a snap judgment about us on the road that we might be criminals, is it that much worse to make a more informed judgment that we’re not criminals after the cops pull us over? I’m sure they we’re going by the book; but does the book make us safer?
Food for thought while you’re filling your stomachs this Thanksgiving.