The Reason They're Called Pigs.

So this weekend my family had a reunion at East Canyon Resort, which is just outside of Park City. Tyson and Hallie weren't able to leave for the reunion until late Thursday, so our parents went earlier and left us a car to drive. We kept the same car arrangements for the way home. We needed to get onto I-15 from I-84 so we took the Riverdale exit to do so. Because of all of the construction we had to go down the road and turn around in order to get to the exit we needed.

We had no idea where to turn around so we followed a car into a parking lot, turned around and following their lead we turned left out of the parking lot. As soon as we turned onto the road, a policeman pulled us over, he would not let us stop on the side of the road and pointed us into the on-ramp of the freeway. Not the one we needed, but the one we had just left. Right from the start he was a total jerk. He walked up to the window and asked for the usual stuff. Tyson had forgotten his license so he explained this to the officer which made him even more rude. And since we were in our parents car we had to search a bit and couldn't find the proof of insurance. I told him who it was through and what our representatives name was. But he just got pissed and said "It doesn't matter that it's your parents car, you are driving it so it's your fault that you don't have the proof of insurance. It's required by law to have proof of insurance with you." Which was said in a very rude tone. He took our information back to the car and took about fifteen minutes before he came back. He gave us a ticket for everything. Tyson could have been nicer, but he wasn't rude by any means. He said something like "Oh thanks, that's so nice of you" and the cop started threatening to take Tyson to jail. I tried to tell the cop that we didn't mean to disobey traffic signs, but that we didn't see it and I tried to ask where it was. I couldn't get three words out without him interrupting. The cop then began yelling at us saying "It doesn't matter that you didn't see it, it's the law! What don't you understand about following the law?!" To which I would attempt to respond, but he would interrupt over and over and over. Now keep in mind that all we did was turn left out of a parking lot. And we had a seven year old kid in the car with us. Way to be a public servant. Finally he let us go. As soon as we started driving, my sister started bawling her eyes out. She was TERRIFIED of the cop because he was so rude and yelled and threatened. She hasn't stopped mentioning it and how scary it was for her. So my mom and I went back to the parking lot to see where the sign was.

Now there is a sign painted on the road, which was practically worn off, plus there were cars in front of us, so we couldn't see it. As for the sign that the cop was talking about... See it anywhere? We didn't either.

It took us about five minutes to find it. See that sign behind the white car? Yeah. The sign was posted ACROSS THE BUSY STREET. And it was turned so it looked like it was meant for the road on that side of the street, but that someone had bumped it so it was kind of facing the parking lot. If there was a car turning right onto the busy road from that side street, it completely hid the sign. Now I understand that we broke the law, but the cop wouldn't let us speak AT ALL. He never did tell us that this was the sign he was talking about. We had to find it. If we ever tried to ask where it was, he would get even more upset. This cop was a royal jerk. The thing that bothers me the most is how upset Hallie was. Imagine if you are 7 years old and your big brother gets pulled over for violating a minor traffic control device. Then imagine if the cop insults him in front of you, starts yelling, and threatens over and over to take your big brother to jail while your brother is trying to ask about the sign. We haven't decided whether or not to fight the ticket, we DID break the law, even though we don't feel it was properly displayed. I guess it will depend on whether or not we can make it down to court. But we will be calling the Mayor to file a formal complaint about how this policeman handled the entire situation. It's cops like him that make people lose respect for the law and the enforcers of the law.