As I was driving down Southside Boulevard, I saw a police car pulled over on the other side of the road. I assumed the officer was writing a ticket, and I noted his location so that I wouldn't be surprised on my way back from my destination. About a minute later, southbound on Southside just past Beach, a black BMW sedan and a large, white pickup truck sped past me. The truck got next to the car at a stop light, and I can tell there's some trash talking going on, so I stayed back a little ways. When the light turned green, the truck was being used by its driver to intimidate the sedan driver. I don't know the whole history, and it's entirely possible the car was initially at fault, but a sedan is like a knife in a gun fight when a jacked-up pickup wants to rumble.
I finished my task and headed back up Southside Boulevard, deciding to stop where the friendly officers had parked their cruisers. (There were two now, but the ticket-recipent was gone.) I parked my vehicle and approached the cops. One came towards me and seemed semi-confrontational. He asked what I wanted. I just told him what I saw, expecting him to say he'd call it in or at least be on the lookout for the vehicle. I'm pretty sure I had given him a decent description of the vehicle and driver. Instead of doing ANYTHING, he told me that I should call the non-emergency phone number when I see something like what I saw so that dispatch can tell the officers, or 911 if it's an emergency. Wait, what? I was literally describing the event and actors directly to a patrol officer who was patroling the exact street on which it happened. It wasn't an emergency, even at the moment I saw it, but I figured my description was enough to at least pull the clown involved over if he drove by the cops. Or at least tail him for a while as is standard intimidation procedure. If nothing else, I was expecting the cop to try to imply he might do something.
Basically, if you see something, don't bother to say something directly to a JSO police officer. Call it in so that it can be documented and then headquarters can decide if it's worth pursuing. Or just don't bother.
