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Posted on 05/16/2011 8:52:18 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Sucks to watch people who claim they are defenders of liberty falling all over themselves to excuse this also. (not you, obviously)
Where am I going wrong?
I agree with your comments. There are limits to what people should be expected to put up with. In general, people should abide by the traffic laws. If you’re traveling during rush hour and traffic is moving above the posted speed limit, it would cause a dangerous situation for you to slow down and impede traffic.
One can start a movement to get the city council to make changes to local speed or traffic related laws, if the police are out of line. I would support such an effort.
One of the hardest lessons in life, is the lesson that tells us that not everything in life will be fair. Even then, if something is so unfair that it reaches a Constitutional test, then it should be addressed at the local, state, or federal level.
We shouldn’t blindly follow any law. We do need to go about remedying that law in productive ways though. Setting yourself up to fail is not productive.
Sorry I’ve enver heard of a road that had to be driven at a certain speed to be safe.
I don’t drive a lot but I have a son who is very good on such things. He has an engineering type brain and is a top notch mechanic. He’s got a very good eye and great instincts.
I’ve learned over the years that when he says something is happening, it’s usually happening.
Perhaps they were set at a long interval before and then reset to a normal length when cameras were installed. But he says certain lights are definitely shorter.
By the way, since the day Obama got in he’s been telling me he’s a muslim who is going to destroy Israel and shake the heck out of the mideast.
If it were 5 miles over or 10 that would be one thing but for 1? Speed trap pure and simple. The state should make the city post signs at city limit that the city has been designated a speed trap. And your speedometer being off 1 or 2 mph is probable. I have three vehicles and GPS says one of the three is off by 2mph.
You think your going the speed limit and then in 30 days you get a nice gift from the city in the mail and you get to pay them a $50 prize for playing a game you believed you were not playing. But of course you were speeding and breaking the law so common sense and doing the right thing be damned, the law is the law Barney.
Cops who wonder why the public does not give a damn about them anymore need only read these articles, those where cops shoot peoples dogs, etc etc.
They are perceived as the praetorian guard for the state and big govt, and nothing else.
Cops should take a lesson from Walmart.
They should write the hell out of tickets but charge a reasonable fine.
Make it up in volume. Everyone will be happy.
Unfortunately, that IS the perception. Fact is, the SCOTUS has ruled that a properly trained peace officer properly using an electronic speed measurement device to confirm the officer’s prior perception that a vehicle was exceeding the posted or presumed speed limit is prima facie proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense occurred.
IOW, unless the defense can show the officer wasn’t qualified to operate the radar/lidar or he testifies badly (didn’t estimate the speed first by eye), the driver loses. That doesn’t mean innocent till proven guilty, because the State still has to prove every element of its case beyond a reasonable doubt - it’s just that the evidentiary presumptions are against the defense.
Sometimes in larger jurisdictions, just showing up and betting the officer won’t will get the prosecutor to dismiss. In smaller jurisdictions like mine, we just set the case for trial.
Colonel, USAFR
I don’t drive a lot but I have a son who is very good on such things.
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He’d have fun reading these discussion sites on clearance intervals.
http://knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/cops/opspublic.nsf/discussionDisplay?Open&id=F0977083E774B217852571CD007322B3&Group=Signals&tab=DISCUSSION
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/75766.html
If enough people looked into this and fought in court or wrote ‘letters to the editors’ or whatnot, more people would see red light cameras for what they really are “revenue generation devices” - they need to fix the intervals for safety - but that wouldn’t be revenue enhancing......
We are now fully in the leftist State.
We work for them! We are just the unwashed, illiterate masses who need to have their wallets emptied to fund their salaries and need to keep our mouths shut while they do the emptying.
To all these leftists twits, they are the only decent people and those of us who are not Government workers are just the cows needing to be milked.
I “sorta” (that’s a legal term, right?) get the speeding part. What about an illegal lane change or turn. There is no measurement instrument. Say there is a driver and a passenger who say there was no illegal lane change, but the cops says there was?
It’s the prosecution’s burden to prove each and every element of any offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Further, here in Texas, the Code of Criminal Procedure says the prosecutor’s job “is not to convict, but to ensure that justice is done”. It’s normally not the number of witnesses, but the weight given to each witness’ truthfulness, memory, etc., that a judge (in a bench trial) or jury will use to either convict or acquit.
I’ll tell you that for the prosecutor, the best thing since sliced bread in failure to yield or failure to stop cases has been digital video. It’s amazing how many people were just certain they’d stopped, but when they see themselves rolling through the intersection, they ask for deferred disposition or defensive driving.
Colonel, USAFR
i had a 'traffic school' instructor tell me point blank that most anything done in a car, and brought before a judge, was basically designed and codified to give the benefit of the doubt to the trustworthy leo, at the expense of the criminal/citizen...leos 'word' is gold, commoner, not so much...otherwise you wouldnt be before the judge, right ???
thanks again, i always get *something* from yer posts...
..and, there I have my answer. In all practicality, you're guilty as soon as the cop decides that you are.
I understand about the full stops too. I have been very conscious of my stops since a coworker got a $400 camera ticket. I stop until the car "settles" backwards, then proceed.
lol. in our car we don’t call them traffic cops, we call them tax collectors.
That’s not even close to what I said.
Take a smooth straight 4 lane street with no traffic. One that is engineered to be save for speeds up to 50mph.
Then slap on a 30 mph speed limit. That is an invitation to speed.
Yes, because out-of-staters are the ONLY ones who speed. Right.
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