So… Some background information. I originally posted this in c/mildly interesting
Greece has been plagued by corruption for ages and trust in authorities is minimal. Greek news notoriously writes about system exploitations, power abuse and corruption. The police has been a key feature to demonstrate this. Recently they have also focused on police giving celebrities rides in police cars
All in all Greeks seem to be tired of the authorities not doing their job and abusing the power and means that they have been assigned
Is that the worst scandal they can come up with?
Okay, but was it for their home, a friend, their boss, a government office or workspace? Was any harm really done? Was the fridge really unsecured during transport?
It always amazes me how little the context of what a group with a bad rep is willing to act on matters when they think they’ve found an excuse to look like they hold themselves accountable with transparency.
Accountability and transparency should be so much more than a scapegoat, a couple paragraphs, and a picture that doesn’t even show the whole fridge/vehicle.
Some harm was probably done to that rear suspension lol
Nah, a fridge isn’t that heavy.
400lbs is a lot of weight to have poorly distributed directly over the very tail end of a car. Sure, a car can easily handle 2 200lb people sitting in the rear of it with little issue, but their weight is in an expected place and well dispersed. Having half of a 400lb fridge sticking out of a trunk where it is largely unsupported means that a great deal more stress than just 400lbs is ultimately coming down on that part of the suspension
The average payload of a small sedan like that is about 850lbs, which would include the driver. So while were probably talking 600lbs-700lbs of payload between the driver, the added equipment weight for police modifications, and the fridge, that number also assumes normal distribution of weight within the vehicle. Im no engineer, but I would bet that having the weight of the fridge (which is the bulk of it) sticking out of the car halfway is probably pushing the sedan beyond tolerance for weight in some ways. But I could be wrong
First, 400 pounds is a pretty beefy fridge, most basic units are a lot lighter. 400 pounds is coincidentally the top end of the average weight search AI gave me too, the lower end being 200 pounds. I’ve moved a few fridges over the decades, they’d have been hard pressed to get a 400 pounder wedged in there like that.
Second, a fridge is mostly empty space. The weight is certainly not distributed throughout. If they put the heavy end (usually where the compressor is) hanging out the back, they probably wouldn’t have made it very far anyway before the thing ejected itself. They are primarily difficult to move because they are bulky and lack safe handholds for lifting.
Third, police modifications adding weight would necessarily require modifications improving the suspension. It would be pretty bad design if putting three 200+ adults in the rear of a police wagon were enough to make the vehicle unsafe.
This is all a pretty dumb thing to argue about. After all, I agree that the cop in this case was an idiot. That’s mostly because storing a fridge on its side is a dumb move, but also because I do actually believe that storing it as we see in the photo would be bad for the car too. Fridges have lots of sharp edges, plenty of opportunity to destroy the interior, shatter a window, or cause an accident. I just don’t think weight or its distribution is the problem.
The only hint is the source under the cropped pic “[TikTok]”. It should be easy to find as their search engine is better than anything google or microsoft can come up with, but it seems it’s no longer possible to use without signing into an account, so, 🤷
Hopefully someone else can find and link it
That’s all it takes?
A suspension seems a little harsh for this offense.
Hopefully they freeze his pay.
Narrowly avoided a downvote by way of a decent pun. Upvote for the username.
jodblesamen🙏
No, no. It’s fine.
A fine that’s more than what a truck rental would have cost is probably appropriate. Plus the cost of any damage found.
This sort of apologism is how you end up with corrupt police forces.
