[robowombat]

The problem here in Louisiana is that there are towns, such as Washington, Louisiana (I strongly encourage all to avoid this place and be very careful on the interstate as soon as you see a Washington exit sign. The local cops troll the interstate for ‘traffic violations’.) where the attitude in the courts is ‘we don't care about no stinking video cam. You are guilty pay up. A well off attorney deliberately did what others wouldn't over a matter of $600. He fought the town and in the end the appellate judiciary pretty much upheld the lower court. The ‘guilty because we say so’ mentality based on this being a Roman Law state instead of a Common Law state is deeply ingrained. I think NM is also partially Roman Law due to its long history as part of the Spanish Empire.

[cuban leaf]

I remember a musician talking about the police hating people who own “old ryder vans” for some reason in his state. He told of being stopped at a weigh station coming back from a gig and, to cut to the chase, the cop was goint to ticket him for a burned out marker light. The marker light in question was right there in front of them both, glowing happily.

The guy said there was noting wrong with the light. The cop said, I can write you up for a burned out marker light or I can take your truck into the inspection building and we’ll see what else we can find.

He signed the ticket and went on his way.

Cops are the modern highwaymen.

[cuban leaf]

Louisiana is one of very few US states I’ve never driven in. And now that I live in KY (most of my life was in Washington state), there was a risk I would go there. I’ll avoid it and MS.

On a side note, I discovered that small towns ripping people off in Georgia got so bad that they passed a law preventing small towns from writing tickets for going less than ten over. Or something like that.

It was about four decades ago that I abandoned my child’s view of the US as a “post-scary-world” country. It still is. You just hope you don’t come across the scary part - and carry in your car where you can.