Good cop, bad cop

One of my biggest pet peeves is when somebody is downright rude for no reason other than the fact that perhaps it makes him feel good. And when I encounter an individual like that, it really bothers me. Shame on that person, for there is a special place in hell for people like you.

There has been extensive road construction going on on a nearby road in town, and today I came upon it for the umpteenth time. I had to stop to let the cars in the opposite direction go through, after which time I was given the hand signal to proceed. Well, apparently I proceeded a little too fast, and was given the "slow down" signal. So I slowed down. The next officer motioned for me to slow as well, but he must have felt like reprimanding me anyway, because he yelled for me to stop. So I stopped. I rolled down the passenger side window and Officer X approached my car.

"That's way too fast to be going in a construction zone," he barked at me. "Do you understand that?" Like I was some kind of idiot driver.

"Well, officer, since I got the message clearly from the first officer and since you didn't stutter, yes, I got it." "Yes," I said flatly before proceeding on.

Now, here's the thing that really irritated me. It wasn't the fact that I was stopped to be told to slow down. If I was going too fast, then I certainly deserved to be reminded I was in a construction zone. But it was his surly manner about it all that bothered me, and had he simply said, "Please slow it down in a construction zone", I would have responded with a sincere, "Sorry officer, will do." But because he chose to be an a$$ about the whole thing, I wasn't about to let it go.

Instead of heading home as I had planned, I detoured and looped around so that I'd have to drive past the officer who was probably angry he got stuck on traffic duty again. This time, there was a truck in front of me and we were stopped. When we were allowed to pass, I drove at a snail's pace. Of course, I wanted to make sure I was going slow enough through the construction zone.

The first officer had a puzzled look on his face, obviously wondering why I was not moving along fast enough, as was the disgruntled one, Officer X. When he recognized me, he started clapping. So I clapped back, so proud of myself for doing it right this time.

So, why would Officer X feel the need to be rude to me? Well, perhaps he really was disappointed to be stuck on traffic duty, but given his size, he wouldn't be much help doing much of anything else, like chasing down bad guys. Too many donuts being on the force for twenty odd years will do that to you. At least he wasn't stuck behind a desk.

Or maybe he wanted to show off to the first officer, show him who was boss because clearly, that officer motioning for me to slow down wasn't enough or Officer X wouldn't have felt the need to stop and bark at me.

Now, he probably was thinking the same things about me in his head as I was thinking about him as I drove past both times, but perhaps after the second time, he might have considered his actions and decided he didn't have to be so blatantly rude. Or not.

Did I mention the very spot where they are doing this construction is right in front of where I work? Maybe tomorrow I'll walk to work and when I have to go past the construction zone, I'll be sure to walk very slowly, because I'd probably be reprimanded if I ran past it.