Apparently, the five-o in Chattanooga, Tennessee have a new nemesis. College student Clay Palmer decided he would honk his horn in protest when he witnessed a police car moving through a red light with it’s flashers on and no obvious emergency. For this admirable stand in the face of injustice, he received a nice, shiny ticket for a noise violation.

Now, I never claimed to be the brightest crayon in the tool shed, but I know enough about real life to know when to shut the #$@% up! Obviously, Clay is not from the Chris Rock school of police interaction. Still, we’ve all seen this happen. Traffic is awful and some cop comes along with his lights on long enough to make through the intersection. What gives him the right? Unless there is some pressing emergency, he should have to wait there obeying this electronic demigod like the rest of us. No one is above the law… right?

The best part of this case was the judge’s comment “The horn blowing is not the real problem here, it’s that you were trying to correct the police and they didn’t need correcting”. Wait, wasn’t Clay in court for a noise violation? Never mind…

The real point here is if you have a flashing light, a badge, and a gun, you can pretty much do whatever you want, and all of your friends will back you. Luckily for Clay, his charge was reduced to a warning.