[TKDietz]

I was in an accident once where had I have been wearing a seat belt i would have been killed or at least seriously injured. We were "T-boned" by a car coming at a high rate of speed. i was in the passengers seat and saw the car coming and new it was going to hit us. I jumped on top of the driver. The car was about half its original width after the wreck. The passenger's seat was partly on top of the driver's seat and the passenger side door was smashed down on the passenger's seat about half way across it, right where I had been sitting. Had I have been strapped to that seat I would have been crushed.

I know that most of the time you are better off in a wreck if you are wearing a seat belt, but not always. I do always wear a seat belt when I'm on a long trip or driving on mountain roads, but rarely in town. I hate the seat belt laws. It is my business if I wear a seat belt and no one else's. I have tons of insurance, and a considerable amount of assets. They say "click it or ticket." I say take your ticket and stick it. We don't even have helmet laws in my state and they harass people about seat belts? Some yahoo cop can pull me over on his two wheeled death trap motorcycle and write me a ticket for not wearing my seat belt? I'll wear my seat belt when I feel like I should be wearing it, and anyone who doesn't like that can kiss my rear end.

These laws that allow cops to pull you over for not wearing a seat belt are favorites of cops really for one reason. With those laws it's easier for them to pull over whoever they want to pull over and shake them down. It makes it easier for them to harass people, search them for drugs, whatever. Cops and prosecutors love laws like these. "Freedom loving people" should hate laws like these. Give the government an inch and they'll take a mile. These types of laws and others along the same vein are the way governments incrementally steal our freedom a little bit at a time and eventually subject us to living in a police state where no one is safe from their tyrannical intrusions. That may seem overly dramatic, but that's the way I feel. I've been working in the criminal justice system a lot of years and I'm not liking the way I'm seeing things change. More and more we have law enforcement working undercover, even the game and fish and park rangers are getting in on it, spying on their fellow Americans. More and more we're seeing the use of paid and/or coerced "confidential informants" who will say and do whatever they have to say or do to make their money or save their own butts. And more and more we are seeing legislators and courts make it easier for law enforcement to stop people, search them, and generally intrude in their quiet enjoyment of life. Our incarceration rate has shot up to the point in the last few decades that it is the absolute highest of any nation in the world, several times higher than it ever was at any point in our nation's history prior to 1979. Politicians keep passing more and more laws criminalizing more and more conduct, increasing punishments, turning misdemeanors into felonies, and on and on and on. Police keep getting more and more militarized, with the motto "to protect and serve" just becoming a quaint memory of bygone days. Things are changing, and not for the better.

[OldEagle]

I have been in two serious accidents with no seatbelt. In both cases with a seatbelt I would have been seriously injured or killed. I wear a seatbelt now because of the law of averages and the law period.
Not to hijack the thread, but about handicap parking, I have been told that you cannot be ticketed in a handicap zone on private property, as in Walmart parking lot as opposed to a space on the street or the courthouse lot. Is that correct? Also the design of the logo has to meet certain specifications to be valid.

[NoCurrentFreeperByThatName]

It is my business if I wear a seat belt and no one else's. I have tons of insurance, and a considerable amount of assets. They say "click it or ticket." I say take your ticket and stick it. We don't even have helmet laws in my state and they harass people about seat belts? Some yahoo cop can pull me over on his two wheeled death trap motorcycle and write me a ticket for not wearing my seat belt? I'll wear my seat belt when I feel like I should be wearing it, and anyone who doesn't like that can kiss my rear end.

Great post. You summed it up perfectly for me.

[CSM]

"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." ('Atlas Shrugged' 1957)