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In bad economy, drivers buckling under traffic tickets
St. Pete Times ^ | Monday, May 16, 2011 | By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer

Posted on 05/16/2011 8:52:18 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin

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To: DeaconBenjamin

I can’t believe the number of taxation by entrapment supporters there are on this thread.

Traffic tickets have never been about safety. They are 100% about revenue. Want to increase revenue.... stop patrolling the highway. Put these cops to work on real police work or fire them. The gas expense you save alone having these fools drive up and down the highway will more than make up any reduction in revenue.


101 posted on 05/16/2011 10:05:50 AM PDT by wilco200 (11/4/08 - The Day America Jumped the Shark)
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To: DoughtyOne

The article addresses speeding in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, FL.

The article is BS -as are many of the posts-from-the-hip on this thread.

Citing one guilty case and an officer’s leniency does not explain why people are not paying their traffic fines. This is the real message of this article. People are blowing off the law, not paying fines and driving after their license is revoked. This is what is represented by the gross gaps in fine receipts. The article otoh seems to be saying “be nice and pay those fines”. It’s ridiculous.

I live here and have received 4 citations over the past year from both counties. Total cost about $1800. I had none in 3 years, then 4 within 10 months with no change in my driving route, hours or speeds. Nearly all of my tickets were speed traps. Some speed traps were recent creations, like the Veterans’ Expressway to JFK blvd and others were ones I didn’t know of.

Basically, how it goes in these counties is they do some road work, remove the old, higher speed limit signs and after the work replace them with a single lower speed limit sign placed on an entrance ramp to an elevated roadway (the Veterans Expressway trap) or far back on the road after merging in from a higher speed limit road. After several months they finally properly posted the Veterans Expressway 50mph limit (down from 65) following complaints.

They also now target the commuters when they used to mostly leave them alone. Commuters are now prey to be culled for revenue as apparently it’s deemed they will pay the fines to be able to work.

It’s about revenue and people are not paying in these counties in increasing numbers. They are ignoring the law. It’s a very bad precident essentially saying the state and LEOs are preying upon the public and, in increasing numbers, the public does not recognize the legality and or validity of the law or its judgement. But this is not an issue somehow because Ms. Smith cries and is not given a ticket.


102 posted on 05/16/2011 10:08:51 AM PDT by Justa
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To: subterfuge
Why not just make all the fines for all traffic violations a million $$$? All of our government’s woes are solved!!!

Don't give them any new ideas.

103 posted on 05/16/2011 10:10:19 AM PDT by softwarecreator (You say you want a revolution, well, you know ... we'd all love to see the plan.)
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To: Mr.Unique

Yeah, you have a good point, I’ll give you that.


104 posted on 05/16/2011 10:11:31 AM PDT by softwarecreator (You say you want a revolution, well, you know ... we'd all love to see the plan.)
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To: DeaconBenjamin

I live in this area. IMHO, they have shortened the yellow lights in order to force people to run the red at the cameras. I have seen so many people screech to a halt in an intersection to avoid running the red.

Those red light cameras are going to kill someone - I’m sure they have already. They are violent intrusions on American freedoms.

The old folks in FL love them, because they snarl up the traffic driving 10 miles below the speed limit on all the roads, and they don’t want their taxes raised.


105 posted on 05/16/2011 10:13:06 AM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
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To: DeaconBenjamin

What used to be a minor $20 ticket is now 200+ and also makes you mandatory insurance rate skyrocket for years to come. Oppression takes many forms.


106 posted on 05/16/2011 10:14:13 AM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah, so shall it be again.")
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To: RFEngineer

Special dispensations? .........


107 posted on 05/16/2011 10:16:37 AM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: DeaconBenjamin

“Traffic cops like to say it’s about public safety, not the money”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA...ROTFLMFAO


108 posted on 05/16/2011 10:16:58 AM PDT by Paddyboy
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To: driftdiver


Best in Show for this thread!
109 posted on 05/16/2011 10:17:13 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (One of these days, Alice....one of these days.....POW!! Right in the kisser!!!!)
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To: I still care

“The old folks in FL love them, because they snarl up the traffic driving 10 miles below the speed limit on all the roads”

Always in the left lane as well.


110 posted on 05/16/2011 10:18:22 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: MsLady

It takes money to tighten that belt.

Three extra ‘workers’ to pull on the end of it; another two extra to anchor the other end, and a sixth extra to cinch the buckle.

And that can only happen after an outside consultant has been hired; three studies completed; and a PR campaign implimented; and a Cost Containment Management Theam has been hired.

Saving money is a very costly operation, IF you’re the government.


111 posted on 05/16/2011 10:19:22 AM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Made in America, by proud American citizens, in 1946.)
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To: Slump Tester

I look at cops now no different than I do the rude sob’s at the DMV.

I used to actually give a damn when I heard about cops getting injured in the line of duty - now I just turn the channel.

They earned the general hatred the public has for them, and its only going to get worse.

Where I live - these bs artists w badges never walk the beat, never treat the taxpayer with respect, and just ride around in the car on their cell phone busting chops and giving out ridiculous tickets.


112 posted on 05/16/2011 10:19:39 AM PDT by GlockThe Vote (F U B O ! ! !)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

You clubbed a baby seal!@!!


113 posted on 05/16/2011 10:19:39 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Justa

I agree that the sympathy for that motorist, was overplayed.

Grown-ups realize that you have to follow the rules, even if you don’t like them. As for the local police agencies playing games to increase revenues, that is wrong too.

I agree with regard to disregard for the law, and the need to comply with the court’s rulings related to fines.

It is interesting that citizens have now figured out that they can live at least temporarily by the same laws the illegal aliens have lived by for decades, totally ignoring our justice system.

The problem is, bench warrants are a very rude awakening, and a lot of people are in for the shock of their lives in the months and years to come.


114 posted on 05/16/2011 10:24:05 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Tell me you haven't asked yourself what mistake Obama made, that wound up causing Laden's death?)
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To: Fee
"LEO and politicians with common sense..."


An oxymoron if ever I saw one.
115 posted on 05/16/2011 10:25:15 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (One of these days, Alice....one of these days.....POW!! Right in the kisser!!!!)
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To: GlockThe Vote
I look at cops now no different than I do the rude sob’s at the DMV.

I used to actually give a damn when I heard about cops getting injured in the line of duty - now I just turn the channel.

They earned the general hatred the public has for them, and its only going to get worse.

Where I live - these bs artists w badges never walk the beat, never treat the taxpayer with respect, and just ride around in the car on their cell phone busting chops and giving out ridiculous tickets.


Its a shame, as I too, feel the same way nowadays.
116 posted on 05/16/2011 10:31:03 AM PDT by ratzoe (damn, I miss Barbara Olson)
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To: CaptainPhilFan

Cops and judges NEED to be PO’d...frequently.

Its high time these thugs with badges and imbeciles in robes understand WHO they work for.


117 posted on 05/16/2011 10:31:03 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (One of these days, Alice....one of these days.....POW!! Right in the kisser!!!!)
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To: momtothree
The entire police situation in this country is dangerously out of hand. Every police entity in this country, DHS, ATF, FBI, ICE, State Police, Sheriff, etc, etc, ect, work hand in hand in the name of national security. Every agency's mission is morphed into a quasi-police all for one and one for all. DHS is running stings for pedophiles and god knows what else, ATF is running guns to the Mexicans to see where they end up. They all have access to computer databases on the citizenry! Paranoid? You damn right!

What was it that we hated about the USSR? Neighbors spying on neighbors? Kids spying on parents? Fear to voice your opinion? Think about what we detested about their police state and transpose what we have now and where we are going, in the name of National Security!

Mike

118 posted on 05/16/2011 10:31:09 AM PDT by MichaelP (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools ~HS)
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To: DeaconBenjamin
In bad economy, drivers buckling under traffic tickets

bad economy??? what bad economy? the media keeps saying everything is fine...(rolling eyes)

119 posted on 05/16/2011 10:31:47 AM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: GlockThe Vote
Cops are like doritos - they'll make more.

They're also the same folks who will be coming to confiscate our guns someday.

120 posted on 05/16/2011 10:33:04 AM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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