Posted on 06/02/2005 4:36:19 AM PDT by TrailofTears
MD State Police are using "night vision goggles" to go after seat belt violators.
(Excerpt) Read more at wmal.com ...
It's just business. It's called "Enhancement of revenue streams".
It certainly looks that way and it infuriates me as well.
But remember, the cops are doing what the officials that WE ELECT tell them to do. It's not the cops that make the laws. It's the elected officials that have proven that they can't be trusted.
Or the day when I receive a speeding ticket for the elapsed time between toll booth A and toll booth B, automatically generated by my SunPass transponder unit.
And Redcoats were just enforcing the will of the King. Those elected leaders MAY face the music someday, but if the citizenry gets fed up with the crap, the "enforcers" are the ones the people will stretch. Rulers rarely get their due.
If I were there, though your statement regarding elections is true, I wouldn't want to be the one to tell the mob that they voted their way into this mess. You are welcome to if you like.
Excellent analysis. They have forgotten their role to protect citizens against crime and have become nothing more than revenue makers for the State in the form of tickets. I laugh at the thought that the police actually believe they are better serving their communities by going after those hardened criminals who (agast) don't have their seatbelts on!!!
If people don't wish to use a stupid seatbelt for themselves or a helmet, than who cares. They only care about the tickets and being able to claim success in "saving" lives in the news.
HOw are the roads less safe when fewer people are wearing seatbelts. There might be an increase in the chance of injury in an accident for those who don't wear seatbelts, but that does not mean the roads are less safe. If you are driving at night and wearing your seatbelt is the road less safe because folks in other cars are nor? There was a study done a few years back that showed that people who have air bags in their car are not as cautious as those that do not. Why? Beacuse with the extra safety device people think they are more protected and do not exercise the care in driving that they would without the air bags.
Amen.
One it ain't about safety or every school or city bus would have seat belts.....aka shaking down kids for their milk money ain't profitable as well as fining city run transportation. As to this Night Vision use I have to ask every veteran who has actually used NVG's. What happens to your NVG's when ya look directly at headlights or any kind of light with em ?:o)
Most amplification types of night vision devices have a shut off to protect the electronics when a bright light such as an explosion or flare etc goes off. If these NVG's are surplus from Uncle Sugars WOD/HLS aid packages to LEO's then they "WILL NOT" work in a busy street or highway environment with headlights or street lights.
If they have such a system that is newest generation of night vision and will work in such a condition as busy streets or highways with bright headlights , business and house lighting then the cost far outweighs the predicted profit and return for the socialist state in the form of revenue ...........just my opinion of course.
AND no Eastward travel until the sun rises to a 30 degree angle, no Westward travel after the sun lowers to a 30 degree angle!
Let's be safe ... for the children!
Burn that report!
These stops have little risk, hence the growing popularity with som leos.
How long before nanny gooberment decides that ordinary citizens are not allowed to own night-vision equipment?
How does my not wearing a seatbelt (assuming I don't) make the roads less safe?
I have a night vision moncule that works in the city, cost me a $125 including shipping.
Ask these people for the answer.
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/23dsp/html/dspr.html
DEPARTMENT OF STATE POLICE
CHIEF OF STAFF
Maj. William M. Pallozzi, Chief of Staff (410) 653-4567
e-mail: bpallozzi@mdsp.org
TRAFFIC OPERATIONS
Lt. Mark J. Carter, Commander (410) 799-4548
AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY ENFORCEMENT DIVISION
Capt. Jeffrey R. Gahler, Commander (410) 424-3760
e-mail: jgahler@mdsp.org
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS SECTION
Det. Sgt. Linda Stascavage, Commander (410) 290-0780
e-mail: cid@mdsp.org
© Copyright May 02, 2005 Maryland State Archives
Well you can be the test. See if the new stuff (yours)will allow ya to look down a street at on coming traffic at night and still work or ya can see the seatbelts......all I know is what the PVS 7B's and older PVS-5 goggles and the PVS 4 NV Scope would do when a bright light hit it......
Let me know if ya will.......
Most of what i encounter in the DC area from the police departments has only to do with revenue gathering or "us verses them" mindset in the police department.
I do feeding on the streets of Washington, DC, usually in evening and mostly in vicinity of public housing. Right down from the capitol area on Penn.Ave SE a couple years ago i was doing some feeding when i observed the following.
There were several businesses that had hired a homeless man to clean the light snow that was coming down off of their sidewalk. I knew this man, as i had fed him soup and sandwiches on many occasions. He lived in abandoned buildings in the vicinity. (This are is very near 8th street SE and I street, the headquarters of the USMC.
As i watched him clean the sidewalk a pair of "DC's finest" came over and began to question the man about where he got his shovel to move the snow. He replied that he had gotten it from one of the storeowners, and that he would be allowed to keep it and to make money with it if he kept the sidewalk clean of snow and ice.
The police immediately grew suspicious and started questioning him and harrassing him telling him that they though he had stolen it from one of the houses nearby. He kept pleading with them to ask the people that gave it to him, but they chose instead to make him quit what he was doing and they impounded the shovel.
I was kind of enraged and began to ask the police what they were up to. They told me to just shut up and mind my own business. I explained to them that this man was actually now gainfully employed and somewhat sober, doing a job that the city should have been doing, and they had no business stopping him. I told them that he would only end up begging again if they drove him away from there. They told me that it was none of my business and that i should shut up.
I replied to them, We are two blocks from Arthur Caper Housing project. Why don't you guys go over there and arrest some of the guys out on the streets selling crack, and leave this hopeless guy alone. I told them that they were bullies and cowards for their refusal to attack real crime and decision to harrass this poor guy who was struggling to make a little change so that he could crawl back into his abandoned building with a little cheap wine.
It is incidents like this that have proven to me that for the most part police will do anything that they want, whenever they want, and there is little accountablility. We need to be "watching the watchers." Plato's Republic is a nightmare of "guardianship" over the rights of the rest of us. I think most police agencies are happy to create a police state right around our heads if we let them.
We need to do more than resist. We need to become activists and make them toe the line.
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