My first Finnish police road block
I’ve been driving in Finland for over four years now and the other day I finally hit my first police road block and was stopped and breathalyzed. I was nervous and anxious, my heart was pounding, yet I’ve done nothing wrong.
At first I was thinking to myself “fuck the po-lice!”, but once in four years ain’t bad, I could have been driving drunk every day for four years and never got caught. The officer was polite and even switched to English after I complimented him on his blue leather, full body jumpsuit that made him look like a white Eddie Murphy Delirious.
“These figures, however, are just readings from the screening breathalysers. The more accurate results achieved by blood testing and with precision meters are usually considerably lower”, reveals Chief Inspector Heikki Seppä from the Helsinki Traffic and Special Police reveals.
The screening meters used by the police in the field work are not 100% reliable. The readings they give are too high if the person being tested has just had a drink.
My girlfriend thought I was an ass for disrespecting an officer of the law, and I’m sure most Finns would think the same. But you need to understand that I dealt with American cops for 23 years. American cops in general are corrupt and have this “out to get you attitude”. In the states it’s an “us” vs. “them” attitude between the people and the police. My parents never once did anything illegal except maybe go over the speed limit on occasion, and they disliked and distrusted the police.
A few kids in my high school became cops. In high school these same kids were picked on, made fun of, given no respect. Now they got that badge and that gun and they become they bullies, respect is given to them out of fear. There are alot of good cops out there but they’re overshadowed by the bad ones. All too many times Americans hear stories about cops raiding the wrong house, shooting an innocent guy, singling out blacks and other minorities, ignoring the real crime and going after the easy targets, or locking some kid up for smoking pot. And every American has experienced the asshole cop treating you like a terrorist as he writes you a speeding ticket.
So when you hear us foreigners talk bad about the cops (I’d bet Russians share my same phobia), think of us like battered women who’ll never be able to trust a man again cause she was beaten by her husband for years on end. Maybe after 23 years in Finland I’ll finally become comfortable with the police.
