Letter: On “Predatory Policing”
Dear Editor, As related to your stories about “predatory policing,” the police departmenYou must Subscribe or log in to read the rest of this content.
Dear Editor, As related to your stories about “predatory policing,” the police departmenYou must Subscribe or log in to read the rest of this content.
26 comments
They could up the hiring standards, nationwide. As it is, they look for people below-average intelligence.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
Actually, if you read the article, it says the average IQ for those hired is about 104, or slightly above average.
I do agree that the policy is severely stupid, though.
My standard warning applies here – introduce actual facts and common sense on this discussion board AT YOUR OWN RISK.
My memory is telling me that when the seat belt laws were proposed, they were ONLY enacted because the promise was made that not wearing one WOULD NOT be a stoppable offense. There’s a legal term for ’stoppable offense’ that someone should post here because I can’t remember it.
I recall when them thar seatbelt laws came into effect, I was in grad school and married to my first wife. We were comin’ back from Floridy and our son was about 2. As you might remember, keeping a 2 year old in a car seat is a real bugger. Well we gets off I-26 onto I-77 (backs then it only went I think to Garners Ferry). I’m still in Lexington County, zipping along around 70 mph, so not really speeding. Cop comes along side, just after little Jr. gets out of the car seat, and promptly looks out the window and starts waiving to the cop. On goes the lights. I got a 5 over the speed limit, since that was cheaper than the seatbelt law since it was also out of a car seat law.
Rocky I love when you tell these stories.You are the best fiction writer at Fits.
I’m touching myself while thinking of you.
You’re correct. In most states it started out that way and then one by one they changed the law.
You are right, Shifty. Initially, seat belt violations were not a “primary”, but a “secondary” enforcement violation. That means if all you were doing that was “wrong” was not wearing your seatbelt, the cop couldn’t stop you and ticket you for that. If you were speeding, ran a red light, changed lanes improperly, etc, and were not belted in, the cop could stop you for the primary violation and ticket you for the seatbelt, the primary, either, neither, or both violations. Of course, the hand-wringers and nanny-government proponents could not let that stand and they changed it about ten or so years ago.
for one reason only == $ $ $ $ $
Yep!!!!
If $$$$$4 were the reason then the fine would be much more than $25. The law was passed because it has been proven that safety belts save lives and reduce serious injuries in collisions. This results in lower insurance premiums and healthcare cost for everyone.
My standard warning applies here – introduce actual facts and common sense on this discussion board AT YOUR OWN RISK.
How dare you try to keep idiotic rednecks from killing or maiming themselves on publicly funded roads. Heartless bastard.
Yes! Socialism works!
Technocrats know what’s best and we shall nudge the people into compliance.
The $25.00 fine for the seat belt is just the justification for the stop, to see what else they can find. Look at the high drug use localities (rural ones primarily) throughout the state, and you will also see much higher than average seat belt ticket issuance. Once they have you pulled over, it is really easy for them to justify a search for whatever else you may be in illegal possession of.
The severity of the offence is a direct relationship between the number of tickets needed to meet the quota and last doughnut. LOL
an integral part of this entire discussion needs to be the setting of speed limits, no turn on red signs, etc. The people setting the limits, sign placements, etc. should have no financial “dog in the fight,” else it just magnifies the abuse.
There are countless small towns in SC that have quite a bit of road (road only) annexed just to have traffic ticket jurisdiction, for revenue purposes. Many of these same roads have speed limits that are unnecessarily low, or fluctuate quite a bit, just to give the local’s reason to write predatory tickets and feed the towns cash coffers.
Blackville, SC comes to mind
Do the math. A State Trooper (only works traffic) works 84 hours every two weeks or 168 hours every month. If he spends 8 hours in court then he has 160 hours a month to enforce traffic law. If it takes 5 minutes to write a ticket or a warning and he writes 100 of each every month then that is 1000 minutes or 16.6 (we will call it 17) hours a month out of 160 hours that he is actually working. WTF is he doing the other 143 hours a month that he is collecting our tax dollars? We all know they frequently write more than one ticket and a warning to the same people so they are actually working far less than 17 hours a month.
As Mike at the Beach would say, introduce actual facts and common sense on this discussion board AT YOUR OWN RISK.
In all fairness to the Troopers, they work a lot of wrecks. LOTS of wrecks. Depending on the nature of those wrecks, number of vehicles involved, number and severity of injuries, and other factors, a wreck call may take as little time as 30-45 minutes to complete (very rare) to quite a few hours before EMS, (Coroner?”), wreckers, and other services respond snd clear and traffic flow is restored. THEN the paperwork begins. Believe me, they earn the meager pay they receive.
I have always believed in the use of seat belts. That being said , the govt. should have no right to require their use. Kinda like helmet laws on motorcycles. The gene pool will be taken care of without govt. interference.
Yeah. Great idea, other than you and I end up paying for a lifetime of Medicaid and/or Medicare, the shortfall in their SSA disability (including spouse & children) when the guys not wearing the helmet or buckling up end up vegetables and live another 50 years.
Bill has no clue what he’s talking about. Telling people ‘good job’ for taking dangerous drivers off the road is bad??? There are NO quotas there, just an ‘atta boy’ for hard work. Bill Allen, are you a drunk?
“There are NO quotas there”
Another lying cop. No one here is surprised.
I predict there will be yet another schism in the once GOP between the Libertarians and the law and order, my cop is always right, Republicans over ‘predatory policing’.
One day, the Libertarian RINOs may actually be put out by the Real Republicans and have to run under their own name.