Prosecuting Traffic Offenders — Whatever the Cost
Let’s say you are driving to work, and eating an apple in your right hand. Now let’s say, that at some point during your drive, you make a turn — maybe you can hold the apple while turning the wheel with both hands, maybe you only use one hand, let’s not speculate. Now let’s consider some questions…
- Are you guilty of “not been in full control of [your] car” ? … possibly.
- If a police officer feels you were not in full control of your car, should he cite you? … probably.
- If you contest said traffic citation, does the government have a responsibility to the public interest to prosecute you? … sure.
- Should the prosecution expend time/effort/money to present video evidence from a patrol car, a police helicopter, and a police plane? … um, well … i dunno about that.
- Should said video evidence be obtained of an empty intersection, long after the incident, without documentign anything about your driving on that particular day, or anyother day — just what the route you were driving that day looks like? … fuck no, whose lame ass idea is that?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Northumbria Police.
The taxpayers of Northumbria are lucky that someone has some common sense: the woman being prosecuted stoped contesting the charges when she found out the public had already footed an estimated court cost of £10,000, and that her appeal would cost another £10,000 … all to collect £160 in fines.
January 26th, 2005 at 5:13 am
Isn’t it incredible how the government is able to waste ever larger amounts of our money in ways we would never even think of!
Exactly why everything that can be privatized should be.
January 26th, 2005 at 7:19 am
Well, not until you figure out how to internalize the costs of businesses that would take a common resource (like clean water, healthy forests, and clear skies) and destroy them for all in order to extract profits for themselves. Until you do that, you don’t have a real free market, and the privatization you advocate is just kleptocracy.
January 27th, 2005 at 5:10 am
Ah, but even that control can be privatized. What we need is more ways to make boycotts work.
January 27th, 2005 at 8:57 am
Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
Everything the government does wastes money. It’s like trying to carry water in a hoola-hoop. Do a google search on “government waste” if you don’t believe me.
Just because Americans pay lower taxes than socialist countries in Europe doesn’t mean that their taxes aren’t just as wasted.
There is no reason we should have to pay the taxes we do. In my opinion, all our taxes, federal state and local, shouldn’t ever add up to be more than 10% of our incomes.
The alternatives to the problems of Big Brotherizing everything aren’t all Republicrat ideas, though most of them are and include many of the following:
Private gun ownership privatizes the police.
Trial-by-jury privatizes the judicial system.
Health insurance privatizes health care.
The Salvation Army privatizes the Welfare State.
Insurance privatizes Social Security.
Freedom of Speech privatizes the media and, as you at lies.com are no doubt thankful for everyday though I’m not sure to whom, the internet.
Scholarships privatize our government’s so-called “higher” education.
Vouchers would privatize this failure we call public eduacation given half a chance, and then maybe cops like these wouldn’t be so darn stupid!
January 27th, 2005 at 11:43 am
hmm … are my posts being blocked? if the site administrator (whom i believe is “jbc”0 asks me to quit hanging around his site i’ll leave. it’s his site after all not mine. though that would be rather cowardly and intolerant.
January 27th, 2005 at 11:50 am
Patriot: jbc has been tweaking the Comment moderation filtering a lot to try and cut down the spam. I can see your longer-ish comment from earlier this morning in the queue, but i can’t approve it (nor do i know why it was flaged) … hopefully jbc can chime in (and apporove that comment)
January 27th, 2005 at 11:52 am
ok here’s something like what i tried to type the first time again. I was rather proud of that post.
Everything the government does wastes money. Trying to do something cheaply and federally is like trying to carry water in a hoola hoop. Do a Google search on “government waste” and you’ll quickly see what i mean.
Even though americans have lower taxes than the socialist countries in europe doesn’t have anything to do with the obvious fact that taxes are too high. In my opinion, local state and federal taxes should never add up to more than 10 or 15 percent of our incomes, no matter how rich we are.
Privitization is good. Most everything needs to be privatized. First of all i want the government out of the sports and arts buisness. If private capital can’t be found for something, then the something probably isn’t worth having anyway. ie stem cell research.
here are some examples how of great privitization is:
private gun ownership privatizes law & order.
juries privatize courts.
insurance privatizes social security.
charity privatizes welfare.
scholarships privatize our government’s so-called “higher learning.”
not advocating and demonstrating condoms in schools would privatize sexuality.
vouchers would privatize education given half the chance, so that maybe these cops wouldn’t have been so darn stupid!
January 27th, 2005 at 11:53 am
ok sorry, just delete the extra one i just spouted off – sorry to be a nusiance …. oh wait maybe thats what im here to do in the first place.
January 27th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Is that the moral of this story Patriot? Government is wasteful? Hmmm….how about:
All police are badge heavy bullies.
Brits don’t have kitchens and have to eat everything in their cars.
Airplanes are mostly used for silly purposes and should be banned.
Personally, I believe this story and your response generally confirms my belief that Conservatives think mostly in stereotypes and are therefore quite incapable of rational analysis.
January 28th, 2005 at 5:16 am
Well it would, wouldn’t it. interpreting the data thru one’s preconcieved notion, ie that people who disagree with you are stupid, is quite likely to confirm your preconcieved conclusion. Logic, however, doesn’t work like that although you wouldn’t learn that from a college evolutionist.
conservatives may think in stereotypes sometimes – you seem to think that this flies in the face of logic.
That is because in today’s society we are trained to believe that not everything is as it appears. While it is true that not everything is as it appears, it is NOT true that everything is not as it appears. There are a great many things in this world that are exactly as they appear, as anyone from Texas who has ever stepped in a cowpie can tell you.
January 31st, 2005 at 5:29 am
And we’ve been stepping in some huge political cowpies lately, and not just Democrat ones.
February 1st, 2005 at 5:23 am
You know of course that I accept the more obvious moral to the story: ie Big Brother should not be allowed to put a telescreen in your car to ensure that you do not eat apples while you drive, but I think the great lengths that have been gone to for prosecuting this person is what really sets this story apart and puts it more into the government waste category.