So we're driving home from a party at my brother-in-law's house. It's ~1am and we've exited off the freeway, about 1 mile from our house. I see a car just pulled over by the police. This, in and of itself, is becoming a more frequent occurrence I am happy to say. Police presence on the streets has greatly increased lately. I don't necessarily feel safer, but feel that people might just be held more accountable for their driving infractions. [I don't feel safer because I didn't feel unsafe to start.] Of course, there are drawbacks to an increased police presence, resulting in yet another parking ticket for me the other day. 40 Euros later...
Anyway, back to this evening. The car has just been pulled over and the driver gets out, heading towards the police car. He's gesturing and obviously not happy about being pulled over (who knows what the reason was for him being stopped). I mentioned to Vasilis that in the States he'd probably get shot if he did something like that. But the police were gesturing/arguing back. This is what happens in traffic conflicts here. One can obviously be in the wrong, whether in an accident or near accident, but the rule is to take the offensive. Never give an inch and certainly don't admit wrongdoing. At least not at first. I hadn't thought about them taking this stance with the police though!
Having said that, there are always exceptions to the rule. Thankfully for us. Not too long ago, Vasilis was rear-ended just a few blocks from home. The woman who hit him was driving a loaner, as she had messed up her own car which was then in the shop. She arranged for her fix-it guy (the technical term, I believe) to fix our car and bill it to her. Although it sounded a bit dicey at first, it did work out that way. I took the car in, got a loaner myself (the same car that hit us, of course) and our car was fixed up quite nicely.
Regardless of the local custom, if I ever get pulled over, I am still American enough to stay in my car until told otherwise. Of course, I have yet to get a Greek drivers license, so subservience will probably serve me best in that situation (and a little bit of feigned innocence as well...)
