How many of you have to drive through Speed Trap Towns, to get to your lake or favorite July 4th spot, with friends and family?
This has got to happen in other places in America. Is this phenomenon growing?
Its just insane. Yeah, like they give a rip about pubic safety, its all revenue to their hayseed community (uhmm, their police department or municipality, I mean) they have there. The older I get the more brazen the police are in laying down road blocks on country roads, or in small sub 400 population towns, getting Bubba on your ass, going through his cow town. Its their best business time of the year. I don’t drink and drive, at all, and I get more and more scared each year, where I just want to pull over and walk, for fear I don’t get busted for going 34 in their 30 MPH, 1.2 mile long town. I just want to stop the car, and signal the dude, running everybody down, and say, “hey dude, I can’t do it. I’m going to go 34? Okay. Give me a ticket. Thanks. My nerves are frayed.”
Yup, you gotta love how industrious these guys get.
When I lived in Chicago, Wisconsin didn’t have any sort of reciprocal agreement, so if you got a ticket there, neither IL Motor Vehicles nor your insurance company would find out, so it was about $45 (Bubba would run your MasterCard right there in the squad car) and you were on your way.
Oddly (!) they only seemed to stop the out of state drivers. I guess the fact that WI plates were piss yellow and IL were white made that easy for them…
It does seem like toll roads would be easier, but then the locals would have to pay as well.
Out of state drivers will generally pay quickly and not challenge the ticket, because they have to drive or travel back to challenge it. There’s a national database, so you can’t run from it, usually. So, you pay it from home, or there, and move on. That’s why they do that. Again, nothing at all to do with public safety really, moreso, with obtaining revenue.
Again, nothing at all to do with public safety really, moreso, with obtaining revenue.
What do you base this on? You’re generalizing pretty heavily here. I used to be a cop and wrote my share of tickets and never wrote a single one to “obtain revenue”. I’m sure it happens here and there, but you’re lumping alot of good guys in with silly statements like that. Never even made stops unless they were 15 over. That was the norm in my department.
I base that on my legislature (Arkansas) doing a study and confirming it. We now have a law forcing a municipality to show its tickets revenue, stream. I believe other states have done so as well.
And I’m referring to small town speed traps, not to a police officer in a larger metropolitan area who hands out tickets and is fair about it.
You are burying your head in the ground if you don’t think in many of these small towns during holidays its like a Christmas holiday in writing tickets, many of which towns, are no longer than 1 mile long. During the study, it was ADMITTED, they relied a significant part of their budget from traffic ticket revenue.
If those towns want people, or the local merchants and gas stations, to stop in your town from the larger cities, I think it would be a lot better for the police to quit whizzing around like Stormtroopers, or hiding like a coiled snake, trying to play “gotcha” with people coming through.
how about firemen holding up traffic, panhandling for change? I was held up for an hour and a half once. I’m all for supporting the fire dept, but c’mon! Why would I contribute to a town I don’t live in, am not vactioning in, and you just held me up for hours!!!
There are little towns in Oklahoma that actually post different speed limits about every 1/4 mile or so. It’s a revenue generator, surely, but these towns are so poor I have a hard time getting too worked up over it.
I think it would be a lot better for the police to quit whizzing around like Stormtroopers, or hiding like a coiled snake, trying to play “gotcha” with people coming through.
These are the silly generalizations I’m talking about. If you have a problem with the way a city conducts it’s business, stay out. If you have to pass through, drive the speed limit. It’s not that hard. But quit lumping all cops in with those few that get off on being in a position of power. Without out a doubt, they’re out there, but they are a small minority. Next time you get that urge to try and belittle cops with your namecalling, try finding one and telling them in person or look here http://www.odmp.org/ and read a little about the two officers who died yesterday “whizzing around like stormtroopers”.
I happen to live in Oklahoma, very close to one such city. It is about 1 or 2 miles total. It’s primary revenues are from nudie bars and traffic tickets. Over the years there have been numerous instances of the tiny hamlet having to issue refunds to folks for improperly ticketing via speed traps (signs nestled among trees and invisible from the road and sudden, drastic changes in posted limits) and uncalibrated radars. While I would never accuse all police officers of bad behavior, I have certainly witnessed my share of officers violating all sorts of traffic laws while “whizzing around like Stormtroopers”. I have also witnessed my share of noble, heroic acts by police officers. There seem to be plenty of both types.