crazyarab 6 Report post Posted January 30, 2009 (edited) *Wait, wait, I know what you are thinking "WHOLY crap Atta that's a long post" and you would be right so feel free to ignore it but I rekin it's a pretty interesting wee encounter I had while visiting Kuwait last year and with all this police talk I could not resist sharing.* A friend and I are out and about on the streets of Kuwait, where the petrol is cheaper than water, the roads are 5 lanes by 5 lanes, the speed limit is virtually non existent and ferraris, lambos and most importantly.. Bimmers are everywhere you look. Holiday has been brilliant, we are on our way home looking forward to the dinner my mates mum has prepared and the flight back to NZ the next day. We are literally 100m from our apartment block when we cross a cop car with damage to it's side mirror and front right... a tad banged up (with 2 cops in it). They look at us very suspiciously and it felt really awkward however we knew we did nothing wrong so we didn't think twice and continued heading home. We are just about to park up under our building when sure enough they U turn and pull us over. We look at each other fairly confused but figure it must be a routine check or something. Mr police man #1 & #2 get out and come up next to the car and the usual "license & reg please" so my mate gives him the papers (which also state that he is Palestinian). #1 looks at #2 and they have this look in their eye as if they hit the jackpot, instantly their attitude changes for the worse and they start being aggressive. *Very strict tone* "You guys were driving down "X street" 5 minutes ago correct!"... we look at each other again as we were no where near that area and naturally reply "no sir!?". They start vigorously inspecting the vehicle from the outside and find a minor scratch (hardly noticeable) in the driver side door. "Yes here it is #2 it was them!", they yell at us again "You where the guys that side swiped us on "X street" and tried to get away.. here look at the door it's proof!" Now I am thinking to myself, holy sh*t.. hit and run on cops is no minor offense especially in middle east... They tell my mate to step out of the car, I try to get out also and #2 shouts "Don't move, stay in the car!" naturally by now I am shitting my pants confused to f**k what is going on. My mate tries to reason with them further and pulls out his phone to try and contact is old man. #1 & #2 snatch the phone, man handle him and literally throw him in the back seat of their car. #1 takes the keys of our car and hops in with me and they start proceeding to the police station... I start trying to reason with #1 explaining we had nothing to do with this and it was a huge mistake, he tells me to shut up and asks for my ID. I have a slight moment of brilliance and give him my NZ drivers license and explain that I am visiting from NZ (omitting the fact that I am not actually an NZ citizen and in fact hold a Jordanian passport). Immediately he backs off and starts showing me a whole lot more respect and changes his tone, however we are still on our way to the police station and I am telling him that my mate and I have a flight early in the morning which we can't miss... he is like "Don't worry sir, you had nothing to do with this.. your friend however.. we will see if he will make this flight (in a very sarcastic tone)". Now, a quick brief. The significants of the "Palestinian/Jordanian" vs NZ/US/British (western) and of course Kuwaiti is that anyone not from those later countries pretty much have 0 rights (unless they have some serious connections) and will get stuck for anything the cops want.. seems like they wanted some scape goats for some accident they did so they would not get their faces kicked in by their superiors. Basically, flat out corruption... the cops will get away with murder as long as the people they are dealing with are not "hooked up" (in which the cops, even the good ones doing their jobs will get their asses handed to them if they so much pull them up). Now, back to the story right. We getting carted off to the police station, my mate is nearly in tears when luckily by pure coincidence my mates father and brother pass us at the traffic lights and spot my mate banging and screaming in the back seat trying to catch their attention. Mates brother starts seeing red, U turns and follows us cutting them off forcing them to stop also literally a few hundred meters from the police station. Everyone gets out and cops start explaining that we hit them and run etc... my mates father believes them and starts yelling his lungs out at my mate while he is viciously denying the accusation.. at this stage he is in tears understandably so. Mates father realizes that the cops are talking sh*t after some discussion and by this time my mates brother is nearly about to hit cop #2. Turns out that my mates dad is very close friends with the police chief and calls him up and passes him onto them, by this time their faces turn white and start to apologize for the situation trying to back track. And hence, we narrowly missed a close call (probably a good old beating for my mate as he tell us the guy was threatening him big time while they were in the car). At the end of the day, in the back of my head I always knew we would be fine because my mate holds a British passport and we have quite a few connections back home but imagine how many people don't... and have to go through this sh*t 100% innocent!? So.. my point here is we really should appreciate the minimal (non existent) corruption we have here in the police force where the worst we have to deal with is a "bit of an attitude" and perhaps the odd lost license if you are really naughty . I am not saying we should tolerate everything, sure there are cases where some cops "powertrip" and thats wrong but damn do we have it good compared to many countries around the world where corruption is rampant. I for one don't agree with many methods adopted here by the force, but at the end of the day it applies to everyone... even the prime minister and thats what matters in my view. So, in other words look on the bright side. It could be worse... much worse ! Edited January 30, 2009 by crazyarab Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cale 36 Report post Posted January 30, 2009 Wow! Largest post in Bimmersport history? What a surreal event that must have been. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
crazyarab 6 Report post Posted January 30, 2009 (edited) Wow! Largest post in Bimmersport history? lol, I hope not.. would feel like such a geek What a surreal event that must have been. It was 100 times worse when you are so used to NZ and far removed from this sort of corruption, hell there was a few split seconds there between us where we even doubted ourselves... it was pretty crazy. Edited January 30, 2009 by crazyarab Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
drifty325i 0 Report post Posted January 30, 2009 Mate thats very interesting , very dodge!! I cant imagine some of the things they get away with over there Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
