Re: 255HP JetSki's & The Clueless
Since I was the person who's reading skills were questioned, I'll simply say that I'm not surprised by the comment. Nor am I impressed or concerned. Somehow, the five post secondary level diplomas hanging on the wall next to me, make me feel like I kind of get it when it comes to comprehension.
So, here's what I comprehend. While you seemed to feel you were being polite, the first thing you did was to question the LEO's on why you were being singled out. And, while you may not have felt that you were argumentative, in most situations, such behavior will be viewed exactly as that. The next thing in your post was about your "HOT" wife and her temper. Although I'm not sure what her being attractive has to do with anything (unless it is merely an attempt to impress us all), I'll move on. Next, we have both you and your wife getting pissed off and having steam coming out your ears, with the LEOs, no doubt, sensing the hostility. This is another scenario that begs for a couple of unhappy LEO's, who were probably thinking you had something to hide. As for the business about being a licensed Captain, etc., do you have any idea how often LEO's are lied to? Start with trying to guess how many times a day.
In regard to the phone call, perhaps it was appropriate for it to happen at some point. That said, conducting the call during the boarding, with obvious hostility, is not what most people would call a smart thing to do. Given the demeanor of your posts here (including the one about being a big deal because you have a construction company with 45 people, to which some folks might chuckle because they have managed organizations with vastly more people than that, in individual departments), I suspect that you worsened your own situation. Cops are cops, it doesn't matter if they are from the local PD or DNR - they are taught to be agressive and to take control of a situation. Pissing them off is just fuel on the fire and that is why being cooperative is the smarter thing to do. If you felt that you were mistreated, the appropriate thing to do would have been to make the call after the event was over and both of you calmed down.
Sometimes LEOs do get out of line. That said, when you are approached by such folks, you never know what they have just been dealing with, or might have dealt with recently. For all you know, they may have retrieved the body of a child run over by some "go-fast boat" the day before, and may have been traumatized by the experience. I'm not going to get into a bunch of personal stories here, but I will say that recovering dead people isn't a whole lot of fun and, depending on a person's individual coping skills, can affect a his/her behavior for some time. I guess the point that I am making is that, LEOs or not, you are dealing with people, and that means you are dealing with the full range human behavior that goes with the person.
As I mentioned before, there is a very likely possibility that you will see these officers again. This is true because, even with your "buddies," you most likely won't get them fired, even if you try to. First of all, your friend the judge isn't going to risk his career over his wife's self impressed friends. In this era, if there is one thing the public hates, its people in a position of power trying to crap on "the little guy" just because they can. You can bet any attempt by a person in office to do that, would end up making both print and television news in a heartbeat. So, unless your judge buddy is a very stupid guy, you've gotten all of the "play" out of this that you are going to get.
I'll stick with my original take on this - next time use your smarts instead of your ego. Let the LEOs do what they feel they need to and be cooperative. Make idle conversation with them, be agreeable and be friendly. I would even suggest that you should have commiserated with them about the other "go-fast boat," and then thanked them for following up on the report. Had you and your wife done so, the whole thing most likely would have been over quickly.
As a parting comment, I'll simply repeat a bit of sage wisdom passed on to me my one of my mentors in business a very long time ago - its a lot easier to get people to do what you want them to do if they personally like you. Something to think about.
.
