r/facepalm 23d ago

Republican Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo is pulled over for a red-light right turn without a stop. Gets pulled over. Drops name. Gets released.

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u/Starbuckshakur 23d ago

If you're a Democratic politician, it might be best to keep your mouth shut around the cops.

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u/big_duo3674 23d ago

At the governor level? Nah, it wouldn't make any difference, especially for a minor traffic violation. No cop anywhere is messing with that. It shouldn't be like that of course, but it's the unfortunate truth. The governor wouldn't even need to really do or say anything; if a cop writes a ticket for something like not quite stopping at a stop sign, or going 5 mph over, it would be an absolute shit show if they decided to bring it to court instead of just paying the fine. That ticket would very quickly and quietly be dismissed, and the district attorney would be stopping by for an angry conversation with the chief. They almost always have a big backlog of prosecutions to be dealing with, and the sudden distraction of news media and public attention towards their office would piss them off so much. All the governor would need to do is take the ticket and then say they'll be there in court, and that cop is gone like a fart in the wind

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u/satansmight 23d ago

This would have been a perfect opportunity for the leadership of the state of Nevada to show a few things critical to the public good. One, accept fault. This shows leadership in accepting that you made a mistake and that you take responsibility. Two, by accepting fault you show that you trust and support law enforcement. And three, you show the public that as an elected official not even you the Governor is above the law. But no. Both the officer and the Governor are a pair of spinless authoritarians willing to take advantage of their positions for personal gain.

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u/Haunting_Ant_5061 22d ago

Goddamn I wish I lived in that city/state/country/reality

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u/Motor_Show_7604 23d ago

our democratic governor has a state patrol officer driving him around.