Have you heard the one about the guy who floors it through a speed trap and leads local traffic cops on a chase down the highway in middle of the night?! The punch line of this exceedingly funny joke - as everyone now knows - is the dude behind the wheel was an off-duty RCMP officer, one who has been praised in the past for keeping roads safe from dangerous drivers.
Gotcha! Ha, ha, ha.
In further thigh-slapping developments, none of the officers on duty that night saw fit to hand their comedian colleague a ticket or impound his vehicle - consequences apparently only handed out to the great unwashed.
The disturbing episode serves to highlight that treatment handed out to police officers by their own is different than that received by other mortals.
While other speed demons have their rides promptly seized and their antics publicized, no such indignities befell this officer until a tipster decided to leak the news.
Even information in court was scant, lacking details of the car chase, exactly how fast the car was going, and why no ticket was handed out that night. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
In the end, the misdeed here essentially amounted to a speeding ticket. But we expect more from those supposed to enforce the law.
In court, the officer's lawyer told the judge his client has "already apologized to everyone involved."
We beg to differ.
An officer who was truly sorry would have shown up in person and apologized to the public whose laws he deliberately flouted.
