Driving out of town this morning I had to make a decision; gym or go home and try out my shoulder on the rowing machine. It has been giving trouble lately and I had a sneeky suspicion that it was due to the gym workout. I knew if I went to they gym I wouldn’t be able to resist doing more exercise than using the rowing machine there and I wanted to isolate the problem. So home it was. An unfortunate decision.
The police were at the Groombridge intersection on College Road waiting to catch those not stopping at the stop sign. I made a point of stopping and then they waved me over.
Bullshit! I thought.
“Did you see the stop sign?” the officer asked.
“Yes, and I stopped at it!” I replied heatedly.
I realised that I was trapped. My word against his. I had no witnesses and he knew it. I couldn’t lose my temper, I couldn’t accuse him of lying. So I launched into full-blown psychological warfare.
“You know this means that I can never help any ZRP officer I see needing help?”
“You must not say that, you made a mistake” he countered.
“No I did not, I know when my vehicle is stopped now I insist you write me a ticket” I demanded.
“I need the money” he asked.
“You must find the change” (usually a problem) I replied and unfortunately pulled out a $50 note instead of a $100. Damn for making his life easier.
He duly found the change for the $20 fine and passed the form over for signing. I scrawled something that did not resemble my signature (like it was going to make a difference!).
“How can I respect the ZRP now?” I asked.
“But you must not say that” he replied looking genuinely hurt – or so I fancied.
I drove off resisting the temptation to spin the wheels.
The above exchange is heavily abridged. It went back and forth for about 10 minutes.
The ZRP attract much contempt for their complete lack of professionalism. They have been told to collect their own wages as the government is broke so the emphasis is on easy fine collection and real traffic policing, such as catching motorists driving dangerously, is neglected. How they will ever gain a measure of respect with the general public is difficult to see.
There are another 2 police who man a very informal road “block” on the road into town. I see them there most days. I am hoping they will pull me over as there have to be at least 3 police officers at any official road block so I can legally tell them to get lost. We’ll see!
Zimbabwe Absurdity 
Reblogged this on Tribulations and Freedom.
It is truly a shame when corruption becomes first nature of a police force meant to enforce the law of the land , but that being said when we realize that a tail will always follow a head i can see where they get their corruption from . and when leaders are showing the way what can we expect from their employees
I had a long discussion with a friend on what to do about this. Start by paying regularly and well for sure but when corruption is so pervasive in a society it will take a long time to get it under control. And like you say, the clean up will have to start at the top so the tail will follow. We hope…
Reblogged this on Frontiers Academy .
I thought you had a Gopro? Maybe a cheaper version connected to the net in case of confiscation!
I have a mobius camera, relatively cheap and very configurable, e.g. endless looping when the card is full, auto power off etc. Can be used as evidence or a threat of evidence. Plus posting bad driving on youtube can become addictive, especially with abundant examples in Zim. But, yes, what to do when they confiscate the cam? Have a dummy cam on hand to do a quick switch if necessary?