Travel /
Poles as tourists in foreign countries [93]
he is often the master and master of our fate, it has always been like that here, but on the other hand he can break the rules when he deems it necessary.
Is it not the same everywhere?
In my 20s, living in America and driving around a lot, I would get stopped by police quite often because I was an idiot. However, I probably only paid 2 tickets in my whole life. I used the skills developed with Russian traffic police, to similarly avoid problems with American cops.
Here are my tips:
1) It really goes a long way, to spend a little bit of time memorizing military (state troopers) and police ranks. When you address someone as "trooper", "sergeant", "lieutenant", rather than just "officer" or even worse... "hey" - the treatment is immediately different.
2) Don't interrupt them, even if what they are laying out is orthogonal to the truth.
3) Apologize for causing extra work (because that's what they really hate)
4) Be absolutely honest about why you f*cked up (because more than anything they hate lies, since everybody is lying to them 24/7)
Nobody likes law enforcement, nobody likes the taxman, nobody likes bureacrats - and they are all perfectly aware of this. They pay "the people" back with the same kindness. So if you treat them at least a little bit like a figure of authority with a minimum modicum of respect, then the results are usually magical. If you talk to them, as if you are talking to an animated pig - then the results are predictable.
So yes, talk to humans as "humans", and not as pigs.