The peculiarities of national driving - part 2 (an angry post)

Once more peculiarity of automotive culture in Armenia is the license plate game. It goes like this: if you want the police to leave you alone no matter how you drive, get the right license plate. Not a vanity plate that expresses your individuality, but a plate which is easy for the policemen to memorize. If you have any way of getting a diplomatic plate, even better - no one will dream of pulling you over. If not, at least make sure that the numbers and letters on your plates are well-known to every road policeman, law enforcement officer, local mafia and vendors.

The road police in Armenia is heartily despised by all drivers. Why? Because they deserve it. Once a law enforcement institution, it has gradually become a corrupt and lax body of people concerned only about personal profit and the whim of those at the top. (By the way, the rank of a traffic cop can be easily guessed by the size of his cheeks, stomack and his, pardon me, rear. The larger the butt, the higher the rank.) Instead of learning by heart the rules and regulations, they study the license plate numbers of the "important" people, so that in their continuous hunt for driver bribes they won't, even by mistake, stop anyone who is someone. God forbid! there were cases of policemen getting beaten up for pulling over people obviously in violation of the law, who were certain they are above the law.

On the other hand, a common driver can be pulled over on a slightest excuse, or even without, and can be threatened with a huge (by local standards) fine, just to eztract a bribe. When I asked our senior driver why he didn't argue with, or even take to the court the guy who pulled him over for no reason at all, he answered "I don't believe it will do any good. It is easier to give him 3 000 ($10) and go, than to pay a 30 000 ($100) fine".

Alltogether, it rather makes me miss the trim, proper and correct American cops. Sure, they too are human and some are not above abuse and corruption, but I haven't met those, except in the movies...