From the article:
2 A "speed trap" is illegal entrapment.
No. An officer can watch for traffic violations from a location where you can't see him or her. This is not entrapment.
1 If you cry, the court will go easier on you.
Sorry, but unlikely.
Many times I've heard people claim that it's not legal for police cars to hide and pick them up on radar or laser from a position of concealment or in the dark. Not true at all. I've also met many people--most women but a few sad, pathetic excuses for men--who cried the moment I walked up to them. It never did a thing to convince me not to write the ticket. In fact, I'd already made up my mind to write one about the time I turned my emergency equipment on, long before I knew who was in the car or what their emotional state was. I never cited people or declined to cite based on race, sex, ethnicity, crying, flirting, or anything else I saw when I got up to the car. I always based my decisions on the violation that I'd observed. That's the only fair and proper way to conduct business and most cops operate that way.
• Believe it or not, the road is not your personal ashtray; tossing a cigarette butt out your car window can get you a $75 littering citation.
People always acted surprised when I stopped them and issued citations for that. "I didn't litter! It was just a cigarette!" Wrong. It was litter, and smoldering litter, capable or starting a grass fire at that. But even properly extinguished, it's litter and I never had a problem handing out citations for it.
And then there are the excuses that people offer when they get to court. I know that my judges have heard most if not all of these. So have I.
Excuses that don't fly in traffic court
• Nobody ever stops at that stop sign.
• I was going fast because I had to go to the bathroom.
• There was nobody around.
• I went faster because the officer made me nervous.
• My speedometer was broken.
• I didn't know what the speed limit was.
• I thought school was out.
• It's a new car; I didn't realize how fast it goes.
• I got singled out because I drive a sports car.
• That officer was out to get me.
• There was a semi next to me and it blocked my view of the sign.
• My car can't even go that fast.
• Everyone else was going even faster.
• I was just going with the flow of traffic.
• I was late for traffic court
Nope. Never worked on my judges. Never kept me from issuing the ticket, either.
Bottom line, folks... Traffic tickets are expensive, both in fines and the associated insurance rate hikes. But traffic tickets are completely voluntary. You can't get one unless you decide to do something contrary to the posted law. And if you decide to gamble and try to get over, you might get away with it. Or you might get caught, and whatever happens after that is totally on you.
Around here the fine for tossing a lit or unlit cigarette out the window is $319.00. I love writing those.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe some of the things that don't fly in court. How the hell are you supposed to abide by the rules if.....
ReplyDeleteExcuses that don't fly in traffic court
• Nobody ever stops at that stop sign. - OK if this is true the person should still get a ticket, but this should also tell the court that the Police need to sit in this area and enforce the law more often. Wake Up someone is telling you this is a dangerous intersection and admitting that they just made it unsafer, or wait, was it another one of those BS signs that are there to slow traffic not to help keep other drivers safe for turns?
• I was going fast because I had to go to the bathroom. - Some people do have to go to the bathroom, some don't when they use this excuse. Who wants to use a dirty bathroom or crap or piss in their pants?
• There was nobody around. - If there is no one around then whats the harm to anyone besides them-self, if they have an accident they will still have to pay for the personal property that they damaged if any. So if they chose to speed let them speed!
• I went faster because the officer made me nervous. - Very true, if someone followed an officer the officer would pull to the side and get right back up on the persons ass and pull them over. SO YES IT GOES THE SAME WAY POPO's!
• My speedometer was broken. - Could also be true or a lie, but I know for a fact that my speedometer is 4MPH faster than what it says I'M going. However I have only found this out because of using an expensive GPS. If I hadn't had the luxury of owning one I'D get a BS ticket from a POPO that would not understand!
• I didn't know what the speed limit was. - Very true possibility too. Many places have illegal speed limit signs posted. Either not of the right size, not reflective, or maybe the sign was not even posted in the stretch of road they got pulled over on!
• I thought school was out. - They should know when schools out, signs usually post when it's out or flashing lights indicate school is letting out.
• It's a new car; I didn't realize how fast it goes. - This is so possible, and if in fact this is true, then the officer would know it. There is such thing as temporary tags. If you don't have them then, a) the car is not new or b) you did buy it over a month ago and you should know how it operates. However some people do have multiple cars. I know driving my truck feels slower than my car that sits lower to the ground. operating my motorcycle feels slower than operating my car. So if this excuse is given I'D sure understand completely.
• I got singled out because I drive a sports car. - Possible, Many police do like to go after the sports car in the event they go faster and they can nail you at a higher speed, or just maybe they will get lucky and nail you for driving like a moron.
• That officer was out to get me. - This one goes with the above plain and simple. Or if you drive a shitty looking car 100% true. If you have had a history of tickets 100% true.
• There was a semi next to me and it blocked my view of the sign. - This can be 100% true too. If you can't see the sign how the hell are you going to go the speed limit and nothing higher? This only applies if you are going under the federal maximum limit. If you are going 85MPH + then such excuse would be invalid.
• My car can't even go that fast. - This could be a lie or the truth, there have been many cases where people had to get their car tested and take the proof back to court to prove there was an error in the officers equipment. Most officers do not believe there equipment can make mistakes!
• Everyone else was going even faster. - Yeah this one again goes with the above.... Have a history, drive a sports car, drive a old piece of junk.. your being watched.
• I was just going with the flow of traffic. - Again goes with the above. However if they all did it, then this should prove that the officer is not doing his job and IS INFACT Profiling you! If others were doing it and he let them speed and not you... then he is allowing them to break the law and not you, how the hell is that fair or even safe for other drivers?
• I was late for traffic court - Good luck with this one!
Many people think the world is their personal ash tray,trash can etc. They deserve to be fined and made to clean the roads. As for speeding I never saw the need.I saw to many friends and family paying big fines and insurance premiums due to speed. STUPID!!!!
ReplyDeleteJason, Jason, Jason...
ReplyDeleteExcuses aside, if you're grown enough to get a drivers' license, you're theoretically grown enough to understand that obeying the laws isn't optional and that if/when you break them, whatever happens next is your fault. If you operate a motor vehicle on the public roads, it's your obligation and duty to do so in accordance with the laws, including the speed limit, and it doesn't matter if the car is new, or nice, or crummy, or if the speedometer is broken or if you have to go potty. You still have the responsibility for ensuring safe operation in compliance with the law.
And if you decide that you don't want to obey the laws...well, I've got plenty of friends out there who've got something for ya.
As an American you are forced to drive under the laws. You don't have a choice in obeying them right? Well if I made my own road because I didn't want to follow your traffic laws I couldn't it's not optional. I am not given the right to come and go as I please. Hell I don't even have the right to do illegal things in my own home. I'M forced to do what the government wants all the time. So some people like me say screw it. If i get caught I get caught....
ReplyDeleteAs far as laws they are about safety correct? Tell me how police responding to a call a high speeds is safe? Tell me how safe it is for a police car to go onto the wrong side of the road or even cross a median, or tell me how safe it is for a police car to sit on the side of the road or even ontop of an overpass to run radar or lidar? I bet you can't tell me those are safe. If laws are to protect then why do people make money on them when a violation occurs?
Oh while on the topic of safety the cheap seat belt violation will not even do crap. Say a seat belt violation is $10.00 are you saying that persons life is only worth $10.00? WAIT if they speed but have their seat belt on the speed violation does not get cut by $10.00 does it? NO you don't get a discount for being safe in one way but not the next. Its one of those things you are supposed to do because someone agreed to make it a law and your supposed to go along with it. I choose not to thanks!
Jason, I'm guessing that you are very young. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I suspect that as you grow older and gain some maturity based upon exposure to this world, you'll realize that America is a nation of laws, and that as a citizen, it's your duty to respect them unless and until you can change them--the political system allows this--or pay the consequences for breaking them.
ReplyDeleteAs for the police actions that seem to be the focus of much of your anger, the things that they do are things that they have been trained to do safely and most are watched by supervisors who care a great deal about safety and liability and will curtail anything that's really not safe. Police officers know how to drive fast or at odds with conventional traffic in an emergency as they are trained to do so. How much training have you had on such things? and I don't mean playing video games. Most officers have weeks or months of driver training on high-speed tracks and considerable experience on the job.
In sum, don't worry about what they're doing. They know what they're doing. You just focus on keeping Jason safe and out of traffic court and life will work out just fine for everyone.
OK we are going to talk about officers and how they play the system... First off Lets tell it like it is.... Police think they are above the law when it comes to traffic laws and even some other laws.
ReplyDeletePolice don't like to be video taped and it's even illegal in some states. Thankfully in my state it's not. Lets say it's a wonderful thing to turn the tables back on police running red lights, running stop signs, weaving over the lines, parking in no parking zones, parking in fire lanes. Lets just say most americans' sit back and let this happen, the government that protects us becomes corrupt because people end up thinking it's ok for police to do. Well I can tell you they are not. They are to follow the same traffic laws as everyone else. Problem is MOST police will give a free pass to their fellow officers if they see such an offense committed. Sorry but you are not doing your job that you were sworn to do. So why the hell should we sit back and let this happen. WE SHOULDNT!
I got pulled over just the other day to learn that I some how crossed the center line (for illegal lane usage). The funny thing was I was given a written warning for that violation.
I bring this up because you say Police are trained to drive like an angel and trained to operate their vehicle safely around corners, breaking high speeds ect right?
If this is so true why do I see police crossing over the center line the same as I was said to do at the posted speed limit? Who am I to call for this? Should I call the same department and say you have an officer that keeps crossing over the center line? They would laugh at me and even if in fact they did dispatch it out and I filed a complaint nothing would happen.
On this topic sir, if police were such good drivers then tell me this... If someone flees from police and some how in gods name the officer crashes, why is it the person that was eluding the officers fault. The officer was trained to do this right? So who's fault is it? If the eluding driver could do it why couldn't the officer? He's trained right?
In closing how about race car drivers, truckers, stunt people, people who which drive on the roads more than police, would you say they are exempt from traffic laws because they know how to drive in traffic better than you? I bet you won't even say yes to such a thing. Why because you think you are above the law. How about writing a few tickets to the doctors, nurses, fire fighters, elderly and police officers that happen to break the law too will ya.
You like to think I'M young, well I'D like to think you are old and losing your mind!
OK Jason, and this rant has what exactly to do with your obligation to obey the laws?
ReplyDeleteSo you suspect that police officers don't ticket other police officers. You want to know a secret? I didn't ticket other police officers that I stopped for minor traffic infractions. And you know what else? I didn't ticket a lot of other people that I stopped for minor traffic infractions, either. There's this thing called "discretion" that police officers and other responsible people are expected to exercise. Even the officer that pulled you over used some when he only gave you a warning instead of a ticket, so what are you whinging about, exactly?
All I'm hearing here is a lot of sour-graping from someone who probably has a few more points on his driver's license than the average driver does.
First off, I will apologize ahead of time if some of you need to take several courses in collegiate level Sociology in order to understand this.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when it comes to laws, its all about perception. What constitutes wrong and right is heavily dependent on the society. For example, in Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to consume a single drop of alcohol. Posession of a Bible or other non-Koran holy book is punishable by law. In the United States, that would be agreed on as being "wrong" for the Saudi's to impose such laws.
We've had laws in the past that were very opressive and unjust. One of the finest examles being the Jim Crow laws enacted after slavery was abolished in the South. Did the participants in the civil disobedience movement deserve to be arrested, bowled over by fire hoses, beaten, subjected to tear gas, attacked by police dogs and prosecuted for violating laws they perceived as unjust? Well... it depends on who you are, and when. In the 1960's it was not uncommon for many whites to state that the demonstrators deserved it because they had an obligation to follow the law. In today's society, such a belief would usually yield instant accusations of racism. Simply put, the law is only relevant if the constituents under it deem it to be relevant. As demonstrated by many events thoughout history, the law is not immune to social movements and revolution.
Heading into the current conversation on training, it is impossible to argue for either side of the argument as a blanket statment. The skillsets of officers vary widely depending on the location. In some areas, officer training is very good. In others, namely local municipalities, the training is very poor because there isn't a budget large enough to accommodate full scale driver and weapons training. The police academy locally has only a small firearm range, and a general parking lot for parking. It has no driver training course. My neighbor, who is a Sheriff Deputy with the county, was able to get through police academy with only a basic DMV style driving test, nothing advanced such as high speed cornering, low traction situations, spins, PIT and other advanced manuevers. The police academy he went to just never had the funds to do accomodate such programs. To get his firearm certifcation, all he had to do was hit targets at the equavilent of a passing grade in a scaled down army style marksmanship test, basically requiring hits upon 26/40 human sized targets at various ranges up to 50 meters. Not exactly something that I would consider amazing considering that the average CCW carrier here has to qualify under much tighter standards.
And all of that means what?
ReplyDeleteFact is, this is a nation of laws. Laws can be changed if they're not popular or if they're unconstitutional, but until they are changed, they have to be obeyed. There's no allowance for individuals to just decide that they don't like a particular law and therefore it doesn't apply to them.
Now "anonymous", you sound like one of those Libertarians. If so, you'll certainly agree with Thomas Jefferson, the idol of the Libertarians, and his belief that laws must be obeyed unless and until they have been changed through the legislature or the courts. And that concept is so simple that it doesn't require a (useless) Sociology degree or even a high school diploma to grasp it.
And Jason, sorry, but the whole "I hate the police/I'm jealous of the police..." thing just isn't worthy of continued dialogue. Some things will never be fair in the eyes of those who view themselves as victims of oppression. Can't help ya there. Try 1-800-DR-LAURA