Here, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, an interesting commercial has been making its electronic rounds. It starts with various police officers telling me that X amount of people were killed in Maryland last year because they weren’t wearing their seatbelts and, because of this, if you are pulled over and not wearing your seatbelt, you WILL get a ticket.
At the end of this public service announcement, there stand about 75 of Anne Arundel’s finest out in a field yelling with vigor, “No excuses!” and in unison point their fingers threateningly at the camera, “No exceptions!” Fade to black.
First, if anyone out there can find me a copy of this commercial, I will pay good money for it. Its comedic value is priceless. I really want to meet the marketing genius who thought this crap up. Hmmm, let’s see…let’s get a bunch of officers on the screen (with one way mirrored sunglasses) and have them growl threats at the public. Yeah, yeah. Then, we’ll get a horde of them together and have them point menacingly at the camera while chanting no excuses, no exceptions, no excuses no exceptions. Good stuff that.
This reminds me of a real life experience of mine. When I was stationed in Monterey, California, a girl of about 12 years of age was abducted about three blocks from where I lived. Her remains were found 5 months later and, as far as I know, the culprit(s) is still at large. The thing is, after her abduction and even after the discovery of her body, speeding tickets, traffic fines, tickets for not wearing a seatbelt, etc, increased about ten-fold on Fort Ord.
The public backlash from this grew so intense that we were ordered not to say stuff like “Hey, don’t you have a little girl to find or something?” to the police officers as they handed out these tickets.
I guess it hurt their feelings or something.
People feel the same way all over the country. When pulled over for any number of countless violations, I’m sure one of their first thoughts are “Hey, don’t you guys have a murderer or rapist to catch or something?”
And that’s just the point. They do, but it’s much easier to harass you, dear citizen. After all, you are not as dangerous as a murderer or rapist. You’re just a poor schmuck that didn’t wear his seatbelt.
