Quote:
Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch
I was on an Italian autostrada with a police car up ahead and two police in the road, one lugging a shed tyre, the other one with his hand up to slow/stop me. I came to a standstill about 20' away from the first one, watched the other one struggle with the tyre, eventually he was halfway across the next lane and the closest one waved me on so I stick it in gear and started to move. All of a sudden the same one jumps in front of me and starts shouting in Italian, I shout back in English he comes to my window and shouts more, I shout more - all the time my work colleague if sat next to me saying 'Tony, he's got a gun'.
Indignant, I was in the right and shouted more until the cop took a couple of steps back and pulled his gun. I stopped shouting. The other cop came over and thanked me for stopping and told me to drive. I didn't need telling twice.
After that we arrived at the 'Grotto di Frassasi' (fascinating caves) and got stuck on a German-language tour.  |
Your lucky you were not robbed, and at worse shot. Italian cops make NYC cops look like boy scouts. I say that from experience, most of them took corruption, and citizen disdain to a new level. But my experiences come in the south. (Messina)
I won't go into detail, but it involved an American 20 bill, and my cigarettes being lifted from my pocket, then being told in broken english to move on or go to jail. (He pointed at the road, said GO now, and strummed his hands on his batman belt, fingers gently kissing his firearm.
)
Good thing everything else was in the trunk with my luggage, or I would have been begging an embassy for the money to come back. Something tells me, they wanted more. I am just happy they didn't molest my old lady.
One hell of a welcome back to the land of my ancestors!
Italy is beautiful though, I would have stayed if they were not 1000 times as corrupt as we were, made me grateful for our jackbooted cops.
I agree though, laws should be known, and if new obscure laws are legislated, then they should inform, even if it costs money. After all, they will be recieving tons of revenue enforcing it, they should at least give us a chance to be law abiding, rather than entrapping us.