In North Carolina we gots us a situation. Yes we do.
Seems a Sheriff over there has got hisself a Cor-vette for catchin' speeders and other evil doers who might do evil near his jurisdiction.
It's allegedly been taken from an evil dryg dealer, but the sheriff isn't exactly thrilled to be asked questions about his new toy resource managemant.
Ya'll make the jump...ya hear?
No... really. Not making this up.
It will hit 198 MPH on racing tracks.
Its tires have to be replaced every 10,000 miles and aren't cheap. $1500 or so per set of four.
At 505 horsepower, one can assume that it is not all that focused on fuel economy.
They want to use it to enforce the speed limit. Is there not something just wrong with this picture?
Sheriff Harrison, the public official responsible for acquiring this thing, gets testy when asked where he got it:
"You’re not going to force me to talk about anything, you understand?" the sheriff said by telephone late Tuesday, his voice raised. "I’ve got a schedule to run. I don’t sell papers."
Harrison said he was upset by an N&O reporter calling county commissioners for comment about the Corvette before he was ready to hold a media conference about it.
*****
A request filed early Tuesday seeking public records related to the vehicle’s acquisition was not granted.
"I can get those to you at my convenience and at a time allowed by law," Harrison said. "We’ll get you public records when I get time to get the public records to you."
Translation: "Shut up, boy. Don't be askin' no quarstions 'bout my new toy resource management and acquistional protocols. I'll let ya know what ya need to know...when I think ya need to know it. Don't hold your breath. Now git, lib-rul."
Why cops have to have all manner of friggin' toys to do a simple job remains beyond my grasp.
More about Kit the new car:
Raleigh resident and 2007 Corvette
owner Gary Buchanan said he spotted deputies using the Z06 to pull over speeders on Interstate 40.
"It had blue lights in the back and blue lights in the front," Buchanan said. "It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Something like that is so extreme. I mean, if my wife was out driving and this thing came up behind her and the lights started going off, man, she'd be scared to death."
Buchanan and others criticized the department's use of such a pricey car.
Joking aside, this is a monster of a vehicle. The people quoted above go on to point out that people who drive these sorts of things need to know what they are doing.
Translation: its a potential threat to the community at large if deputies elect to go hot-dogging, which is EXACTLY what is going to happen.
Z06 passing car doing 100 MPH
This is a sterling example of unbelievably poor judgment from important public officials.
Irresponsible.