Posted on 06/02/2005 8:20:41 AM PDT by tgslTakoma
Edited on 06/02/2005 8:25:19 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Rockville, Md. (AP) - Maryland State Police are using a military tool in the battle against seat belt violators.
They're using night vision goggles to find people who don't buckle up after dark. Police say 40 percent of drivers don't use their seat belts at night, making the roads much more dangerous after sunset. Police in Maryland are among 13,000 agencies nationwide that are now using the goggles.
With the goggles, Police say they can see inside cars at a distance, allowing them to nail violators who might otherwise go undetected.
The new strategy is paying off. At a seat belt enforcement operation Wednesday night on Rockville Pike, officers issued at least 44 tickets for seat belt violations.
One suspects that there's been a rash of people who've crashed through windshields at high rates of speed, thus endangering lookers-on and other motorists. This, of course, has made the "roads much more dangerous after sunset." :)
I doubt it. Sounds like a money maker.
All this complaining about the seat belt laws will make it much worse.
They will now try to make it a federal offense punishable by death.
This will be considered road terrorism.
Common...stop it now I tell ya.
Could someone tell me how not using seat belt's after dark makes the roads more dangerous?? This is plan and simple back door tax collection
>>>Police say 40 percent of drivers don't use their seat belts at night, making the roads much more dangerous after sunset. >>>
Dangerous for whom? The non-seatbelt wearers? If someone wants to take a chance with their life, why should the police be used for safety patrol? This is a joke, it's about being able to generate more revenue by seat belt tickets.
It's legalized theft, and highway robbery. It's also lazy -- instead of spending time on patrol, they pull people over for these minor infractions and go fishing.
Where I live, there is a cop on the interstate that hides behind a bridge column and catches people speeding before they even have a chance to brake. If it was really about getting people to slow down, he'd sit out in the open. Instead, he gets one speeder out of many.
I can't even imagine it if he had night vision goggles.
"You WILL respect my Auth-hor-it-tie!
I've been looking for a reason to drop GEICO, and find another insurance company.
Thanks for the info.
Meanwhile, in downtown Rockville, some woman is being raped, a small boy was just kidnapped, and drug deal #435 just ended with the transaction of $5,300 from the illegal alien to the stranger from Syria.
Citizens are simply criminals who have yet to be convicted.
This is not a debate about the pros and cons of the value of seat belts. It is about presenting an issue as innocuous, insignificant and an expansion of choice; then over time, converting it into repressive totalitarian mandatory money-making enterprise.
The seat belt hysteria began in the mid 50s. I am not sure who originally presented the idea, but at the time the proposal was limited to requiring auto manufacturers to install seat belts in all cars, for the sole benefit of allowing people who valued the ability to enjoy the increased protection.
That clearly is not what we are enjoying now.
I have become convinced, 50 years later that, if a "law" were passed requiring law enforcement to shoot every 12th driver to reduce traffic congestion, most of them would go right ahead and enforce "the law". I reject in the strongest terms, that mentality.
I am searching for a way to recruit people across the country to review the original debates for a simple idea that evolved from a provision of choice, to a mandatory revenue requirement. I am certain that assurances were made initially that it would never become mandatory. Unfortunately, that "self-destruct" provision in the original law was overlooked. Citizens naively failed to protect themselves from, if not the immediate lies of the proponents, the certain perversion of "good intentions" transformed into onerous requirements by subsequent politicians and othe controlling types.
The State, so far as I know, has no obligation to rescue me from bad choices. It should not. Allowing that idiot idea is the only way for the state to argue that "the public" good is best served by fascist tactics.
(Look up the characteristics of a fascist state; the real thing. This concept is not hyperbole or exaggeration. That is in fact the main argument of any fascist state.)
It would be a pleasant surprise if enough people would be outraged to keep the requirements of having seat belts made available, but permanently to prohibit their mandatory use by any jurisdiction under the guise of protecting me.
People are too stupid to make that choice for themselves?
Can they point to one unbiased study that proves wearing a seatbelt makes the roads safer? I know it makes the driver wearing the belt safer during a crash.....but has no effect on the road or the way people drive.
I wonder if the equipment was bought with the funds to control terrorism?
Okay...I don't buckle when I'm driving alone. I do however wear the belt slung over my left shoulder...should they look in the window.
Police State Ping
Purely revenue enhancement!
You haven't been paying attention. First of all, law enforcement employees are not the sharpest tools in the drawer; they will enforce anything.
Secondly, have you not noticed the "1984" doublespeak of the last 20 years? The controllers and the parasites can make the most outrageous and non-sensical statements, and are never challenged.
Don't ask questions!
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