Family Outraged After Cop Pulls Over Entire Funeral Procession for Driving Too Slow

[Garion_55]

Hollywood, CA — The CHP is under fire this week after one of their finest pulled over an entire funeral procession for driving too slow.

In an ostensible attempt to prevent a traffic problem caused by the procession, the CHP officer caused a far worse problem after having 100 cars stopped along the freeway.

The incident was captured on cell phone video as the family members were embarrassingly detained on the roadside during this somber time.

A uniformed officer was acting as an escort for the procession as the cars drove to Forest Lawn Cemetery when they were stopped by another officer, apparently drunk on power.

“I’m looking and I’m seeing the car my mom was in on the side of the freeway too. That was embarrassing,” said Rachel Behn-Humphrey.
Behn-Humphrey said the actions of the CHP cop were outrageous, and he showed no compassion.


Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/video-family-outraged-cop-pulls-entire-funeral-procession-driving-slow/#79tdjJCVOCebI4hu.99

[sendero]

1. This story is bereft of useful information..

... like so many of these kinds of stories. How fast was the procession going? What was the speed limit?

If they were driving less than half the speed limit, I'm on the cop's side.

[mike_c]

4. Seriously? Can't people slow down for a few minutes to show respect?

When I was young, I remember drivers routinely pulled over or stopped at intersections to let slow moving funeral processions pass by. It's only a few minutes out of life, and it helps the mourners stay in an unbroken procession. They're not there to cause inconvenience-- they're there to show respect and mourn someone's loss. What harm is there in slowing for a few minutes to let them pass?

[malaise]

5. Same here

Indeed early this afternoon, cops stopped a lane on a four way road to allow a funeral procession to pass. It's basic respect for the dead.

[yeoman6987]

7. 100 cars? No.

[Jackpine Radical]

52. OFFS! I've maybe been stopped by funeral processions like that

twice in my life. I certainly didn't begrudge the mourners the few moments they took to pass by.

On the other hand, it seems that twice a week I get stopped by one of the mile-long frack-sand trains that are plying all over northern Wisconsin these days, each pulled by 4 diesel locomotives. Those give me ample opportunity to meditate upon the uprush of anger I feel when I see them.

[yeoman6987]

55. Good for you. You are rare in that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

46. All lanes stop for funeral processions in my town.

One of the old timey things that are still observed down here in Mayberry.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. Thank you.

A few years ago, the patriarch of the local fishwrap passed, and his funeral had hundreds of up-and-comers in attendance. The cemetery was 14 miles from the funeral, and the family insisted that the procession not go over 7 miles an hour throughout the mostly 40-45 MPH zone because "solemn". Created a traffic nightmare in the middle of a weekday.

Edit - I don't mean to come across as callous, but there is a fine line that leads to self-importance and entitlement - and this crossed it...

[Caretha]

13. Have some compassion

you may need some one day.

Don't be a dick would be a good mantra for you.

[mythology]

18. The don't be a dick mantra applies to everybody

I've seen some ludicrously slow funeral processions and one funeral blockade that blocked the main street for 7 hours. That is utterly incompetent and interferes with the rest of society.

Included in my mantra of how to not be a dick, is don't impede traffic for no good reason. Of course your mantra of how to not be a dick apparently doesn't include calling people lower than pond scum, so your mileage may vary.

[Major Nikon]

24. Results...

On Sun May 17, 2015, 10:42 AM an alert was sent on the following post:

Have some compassion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6682750

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Indirectly, calls other person a dick

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sun May 17, 2015, 10:51 AM, and the Jury voted 2-5 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: While not language I would choose to use, it does not appear to cross a threshold deserving a hide.
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: It's within bounds given the context.
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

[Ruby the Liberal]

16. Did you just use a sock puppet to insult me?

LOL!

And this post, which I quote, after this one was hidden?

Fuck off.

If you do not have time to honor the deceased of a grieving family, you are lower than pond scum.

Go live your retro, hetro super important life elsewhere.


You are not a part of the family of humans. I hope I made that clear.

Look, I am sorry if you have had a negative experience in this regard - but exceptionalism is wrong. A brazillionaire's funeral locking down a major thoroughfare simply because the family thinks they are 'due' is beyond the pale.

Edit - I see this was hidden as well. I didn't send either alert, BTW - I would preferred that your comments had stood on their merits and am disappointed in the juries.

[TeeYiYi]

17. Wait, what?...

...Ruby, are you sendero?...
Did your sock puppet just get insulted by a sock puppet?...

TYY

On Edit: Nevermind. I just found the Caretha sock slam you were referring to. Crazy....and embarrassing for the DUer that dropped their sock drawer.

[cwydro]

34. Lol!

I think this might be the first time I saw what appears to be a sock in use!

[Nye Bevan]

45. Interesting, this Luminous Animal / Caretha relationship.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5772206

[MADem]

47. Is this a thing? I thought having a second account was grounds for PPR...?????

Gee, so now I know that when I see what some people call "swarms" that it isn't actually a swarm, it's one person fucking wit' ya...????

Why in hell would anyone want to do that? This is rather shocking to me--I always thought it was newbies who did this kind of stuff. Apparently whatever mechanisms the admins have in place to limit this kind of conduct aren't working.

It sure does explain some shit, though, particularly with regard to the "tone" of the site of late. Now I'm thinking this is WAY more common than I realized....and apparently, not just the "low post count" crowd.

It really devalues the site, IMO. Pity. This ain't the same place as back in the day. I guess nothing stays the same...oh, well.

[Jamastiene]

56. Exact same wording.

That really is odd.

[backscatter712]

29. What's insane is that the procession had a cop with them specifically to manage traffic issues.

So you think that having cooperated with law enforcement when they organized the procession, they'd be good.

But nooooooo, we had another cop that had to be a power-drunk prick.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

38. I don't believe it was a cop that was escorting the procession

The escort was hired by the funeral home, and didn't even have a valid driver's license.

[backscatter712]

39. The article said a uniformed officer was escorting the procession.

Do you have any links or evidence to indicate that was not a police officer?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

42. I've found nothing that said he was a police officer or wasn't a police officer

The link below says he was an "escort" hired by the funeral home.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/05/12/only-on-2-family-demands-explanation-after-chp-pulled-over-their-funeral-procession/

The funeral home who hired the procession escort told Nochlin they plan to fight the ticket in court.

The link below doesn't refer to him as an officer or a police officer, and it also states that no one was required to stop except for the escort.

I guess it's possible that a police officer would have an expired license, but I'd be surprised if another police officer would impound their vehicle for it.

http://ktla.com/2015/05/15/chp-officer-pulls-over-funeral-procession-on-the-10-freeway-for-traveling-too-slow/

Reached for comment on Saturday, a Highway Patrol official said the motorcycle driver who was leading the procession was pulled over after attempting to halt traffic in the No. 5 lane so that the motorcade could pass.

Although the officer initiated the traffic stop on the lead vehicle only, and indicated to other members of the procession that they could continue on, some of them chose to pull over as well, said Sgt. Jose Nunez, a CHP spokesman.

The motorcycle driver was cited for illegal lighting, and his vehicle was impounded because his driver’s license was not current, according to Nunez.

[kcr]

35. What possible information

could make a story about a cop pulling over a funeral procession for driving too slow make sense?

[sendero]

41. Someone said .....

... they were driving 7 mph. If that is so, they should have been pulled over.

In any decent sized city there might be over 100 funerals a day. If every one of them had a large procession driving at a snails pace, the entire city's traffic system would come to a halt.

I stand by my guess, that they were pulled over for creating a traffic nuisance.

I realize that many think that every random person passing on has the right to fuck up the day of thousands of people they have never met. Wouldnt' make one right or even ethically correct. That snarled traffic might prevent an EMS vehicle from saving someone's life after a traffic accident.

Knee jerk non-thinking reactions are not always "correct".

[jwirr]

48. Except that the policeman who was leading the procession is the one who set the speed.

[LanternWaste]

53. Simplistic answers and even more simplistic solutions

"If they were driving less than half the speed limit, I'm on the cop's side..."
Simplistic answers and even more simplistic solutions are all that are required for lowest common denominators.

On a completely unrelated note: Of course you're on the cops side... bless your little heart.

[rickford66]

2. "A uniformed officer was acting as an escort "

He would be determining their speed.

[Igel]

8. Their maximum speed.

Not their minimum speed. If he went at 30 mph and they went at 10, he'd quickly stop being their escort. Unless he had a grapple to reach back for the lead car he'd soon leave them behind.

It would also depend on where they were. Once in Phx there was a funeral procession. For miles it wasn't single file. Don't know why, but as highways merged the procession still sort of stayed in order but spread over three lanes. When it finally was coralled back to being single file there was a huge backup that tried to pass the procession, big enough that radio stations started to warn drivers to avoid the congestion. I went with the flow--but ran into a pretty hefty detour. I couldn't interrupt the procession, it was long, and when it came time for me to get to the correct lane in order to continue on "my" highway as the highways unmerged I couldn't change lanes without interrupting it or just stopping until they passed. Wound up going the long-way around and having to circle back. It wasn't a "few minutes." Perhaps had I been a native to Phoenix ...

Sometimes grief is too publicly self-absorbed.

Don't know enough facts about this, but many are just in a "the police are always wrong" mood.

[Initech]

37. Yeah I was going to say.... don't processions usually have police escorts?

When my uncle died we had one and that was in Michigan. I've seen several out here in Southern California that have had them.

[Journeyman]

3. When we buried my Grandmother, the procession was maybe two or so dozen cars. . .

There were two officers retained to guide us to the cemetery. They leap-frogged from traffic light to traffic light: one officer would stop traffic at an intersection while the other officer lead the procession. At the next light, the lead officer would stop traffic while the second officer raced from the rear to lead the procession again to the next intersection, where their roles again reversed.

I can't understand why only a single officer would be detailed to lead a procession of 100 cars. There should have been two. Or at the least, the CHP schmuck should have fallen in behind everyone and followed with his lights flashing, thus protecting both the procession and the other motorists on the road.

But I guess Officer Schmuck had other plans.

[drray23]

9. why am i not surprised about the ethnicity of the family ?

So I found a picture of the incident in this article. Surprise, they happen to be african american. So now we can add "going to a funeral while black" to the list of reasons while you might get pulled.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/cops-pull-over-100-car-funeral-procession-for-going-too-slow-and-this-la-family-is-outraged/

[tularetom]

10. Everybody screwed up here

The family should never have been permitted to have a 100 car funeral procession on a busy freeway.

But once it was allowed on there, the objective of the CHP should have been to get it the fuck off of there before somebody got hurt, not to pull it over and leave all those cars on the shoulder, with all the possibility of a collision with one of the stopped cars.

[jwirr]

49. Is there another way into Forest Lawn Cemetery?

[Xithras]

11. Unlike other states, California has no vehicle code exemptions for funeral processions.

This isn't always communicated well to drivers, and it fairly regularly leads to tickets when people in processions fail to yield, or run red lights. And if you're impeding traffic on a freeway, it will get you a ticket. CHP officers tend to be assholes about that sort of thing.

I remember my great uncle being shocked at my grandfathers funeral when other drivers continuously passed our procession. He'd erroneously thought that all 50 states require drivers to yield to a hearse. Not all 50.

[marym625]

15. I don't care if they were going so slowly

That someone could be walking along with them, deal with the delay

When I lived in Kentucky, a place I wouldn't want to be ever again, they did at least show great respect for funeral possessions. They pulled off the side of the road, a complete stop, and didn't move again until the entire possession had passed. And it didn't matter what direction. People going the opposite way did it too

I had never seen such respect. When my aunt died and we had to go nearly 30 miles to the Catholic cemetery, and every single car did this, it brought me to tears. The honor showed for a life they knew nothing about was a powerful gesture I will never forget

[Are_grits_groceries]

19. I live in SC and have seen that all my life.

If you are not on busier roads, it still happens a lot. I feel guilty if I don't pull over even if it's not possible.
I always thought it was one of the best gestures I have seen.

[marym625]

22. Same here

Since I saw what they do in the south, and started doing it myself, I feel guilty when I can't do it up here

[xmas74]

20. We do it in Missouri.

Side of the road, turn off your music, stop talking on cell phones and wait for the procession to pass. It's not uncommon in my area to see people step out of their vehicles, men removing their hats (usually ball caps) and everyone hanging their heads down while the procession is passing. It's a sign of respect.

[marym625]

23. Yes, I saw that too. The bowed heads, the removal of hats, etc

I can't understand anyone being upset about having to take a few minutes to give some respect

My grandmother's funeral procession was over 100 cars. We went on the expressway. No one even honked. That was in Chicago.

[kcr]

36. Same in TN. And the cops on motorcycles who would ride out ahead

and block off intersections. You knew a procession was coming when saw the cop on the motorcycle in the intersection. The roads are practically cleared.

[jwirr]

50. I have seen that also. Awesome.

[struggle4progress]

21. ... a Highway Patrol official said the motorcycle driver who was leading the procession

was pulled over after attempting to halt traffic in the No. 5 lane so that the motorcade could pass. Although the officer initiated the traffic stop on the lead vehicle only, and indicated to other members of the procession that they could continue on, some of them chose to pull over as well ... The motorcycle driver was cited for illegal lighting, and his vehicle was impounded because his driver’s license was not current ...
http://ktla.com/2015/05/15/chp-officer-pulls-over-funeral-procession-on-the-10-freeway-for-traveling-too-slow/

[SickOfTheOnePct]

25. I can't tell for certain from the story

but it appears that the motorcycle driver leading the procession wasn't even a police officer?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

26. Based on the story in the link below

The motorcycle escort (hired by the funeral home) had no authority to stop traffic on a freeway, as he was attempting to do. Surface streets yes, freeways, no.

And the family was told that they didn't have to stop, they could proceed on to the cemetery, but they chose not to.

I don't see anything wrong here on the part of the CHP officer.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/05/12/only-on-2-family-demands-explanation-after-chp-pulled-over-their-funeral-procession/

[Gothmog]

27. This officer needs to find another job

[SickOfTheOnePct]

30. Why?

If traffic isn't permitted to be stopped on freeways for funerals, then it isn't permitted to be stopped for funerals. The escort, who was stopped by CHP, was in the wrong here, not the CHP officer that stopped him.

[SheilaT]

28. On the freeway?

My first question is exactly how slowly were they going? And 100 cars? Even at highway speeds that's a lot of cars.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

31. Exactly

I grew up in the South, fairly small town, where we always pulled to the side of the road and stopped for funeral processions. Much harder to do in large cities.

[SheilaT]

43. Plus, how often did you have 100 cars in the funeral procession?

Not ever, is my guess.

It truly is one thing to pull over on streets in relatively small communities, but the tie-up of traffic can be an issue in larger cities, even without expecting to go very slowly on a freeway.

Someone in this thread talked about a funeral that tied up city streets for seven hours, which is beyond outrageous.

[Autumn]

32. That's rather a nasty thing to do.

[packman]

33. First funeral procession experience down South

on a 4 lane highway, came up to stopped cars - unexpected stopped cars. Why? A funeral procession on the OTHER SIDE of the 4 lane highway. Sorry, that is just stupid.

[backscatter712]

40. Sounds like what we had is a three alarm clusterfuck.

The funeral home arranged the procession, and had a couple of uniformed officers leading it.

You'd think that people in that line of work would coordinate with the rest of law enforcement to make sure the procession goes smoothly.

I'd say the cop that pulled the procession over had his head up his ass, and the the officers leading the procession also fucked up by failing to properly coordinate with law enforcement.

It was a dumbass attack everywhere you look.

[morningfog]

44. Stopped for being deceased while black.

[MBS]

51. LA freeways DO have a minimum speed

but surely there are exemptions for funerals??

(not to mention the constant traffic jams. .. )

[mercuryblues]

54. The way I see it

I don't care how slow they are going, I am not the guest of honor. I will gladly pull over or block an intersection for a few minutes to allow all the mourners to get to the cemetery.

I was in a funeral procession one time that was interrupted by an idiot. I was from out of state and had no clue where the cemetery was. Me and several other cars got to the cemetery 1/2 way into the graveside service.