Police on the scene, you know what I mean...

I was driving back from the gym tonight. Pull onto Charles towards Cold Spring and I see two black clad figures walk into the road in front of me. Then I relize they are cops.

I've seen the side street they were coming out of being used as a speed trap, so I thought I was about to get a ticket. But instead I saw a rather odd scene- cop car blocking the side street. On the corner were a couple people holding "say no to the BGE rate hike" signs. Then six motorcycle cops pull out of the side street. They pull out in formation, then the cops in the road motion for me to go.

And of course they were going my way - I had to follow six cops on Harleys down Charles, then Cold Spring. I passed them on Cold Spring, but then they got behind me on 83 South - but by then I had a little distance in front of them.

It was sort of surreal being around six cops on motorcycles. I always feel uncomfortable around cops, like I could be arrested at any point for something. I'm not sure why - the most illegal thing I probably do is run eMule and Bittorrent. I've gotten a grand total of one speeding ticket in the 8 years I've been driving, and that was in Virginia. But yet every time I see a cop car, I start driving slower and wonder if he's looking at me, even though I'm not actually doing anything illegal - and when the cop finally turns and goes in another direction, I always feel relief, as if I've gotten away with something.

I guess part of it is that traffic laws, especially speed enforcement, seem to be written in such a way that chances are everyone is violating some sort of law at some point in their daily commute, plus what I pay in insurance is stupid high as it is (because I am a 25 year old male who lives in the middle of a city) and I don't want it to go any higher . And part of it is that I have a general fear of authority - which is odd, because I'm pretty much a law-and-order, follow-the-rules kind of guy.