Near the hour of the President s commute, they line the roads, one every couple hundred feet. At a given intersection they point their batons at a car and the drivers obediently pull over. Can t figure what the infractions are. My best guess is that they seem to have a quota of picking out at least one car of every group at a stoplight and wave them over. They resemble conversations between acquaintances, as if the cop is bored and just looking for an excuse to talk.
Some pairs even shake hands.
Other scenes have the cop leaning over the hood of the car examining papers or writing out a ticket. They are outfitted in bulky gray coats, military style hats and non-reflective, light gray bandoleer style straps. Occasionally, men in street clothes stand at intersections waving batons. It is as if they are traffic cops that overslept and didn t have time to dress or they were abducted off the street and impressed into temporary duty as traffic cops. More bad press for Turkmenistan.