There’s a Noel Coward dance hall song called: “Alice is at it Againâ€. “Up the alley and down the lane, Alice is at it again†And it means just what you think it means. But here in Alabama when the state goes dizzy with power, we say: “Alabama is at it againâ€
And so they are. Next week, under the banner of “Take Back Our Highways†(whose highways?) they’re putting 200 extra State Troopers on the road. What a classic seen and unseen situation. Seen: 8 extra speeders brought to justice. Unseen: 40 more burglaries, 20 more mall hijackings, l5 muggings. Those extra speed detectors “normally work as investigators†No free lunch you know. If you’re going to divert resources to I-565 looking for speeders, you’re bound to miss lots of illegal action on the back roads.
Wow, if there was ever a weekend to knock over the Loosahatchie State Bank or settle that feud with your trespassing neighbor, this is it. And as compensation the State’s going to grab a few dozen drivers cruising at 72 instead of 70. Alabama is at it again!!
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Fortunately, state troopers aren’t too bright, and I know all of their little hideouts along my route to work.
On the other hand, your numbers are backward. Troopers will ticket far more speeders than they would have otherwise arrested robbers, etc. Traffic citations are easy work, which is why the government loves them. Catching robbers and murders, well, that’s hard.
It also doesn’t generate revenue.
Every time my State faces a fiscal crunch there just happens to be more State Troopers etc out on the highways. But it’s just a coincidence; I’ve been assured by various John Q Laws that they don’t target for revenue. Which leads to the next concept regarding our fearless leaders and the armored folk they use to persuade us – if the say it, they think we believe it. Being pliable in the face of Force doesn’t make us stupid.
The most frustrating aspect, of course, given the dynamic between those who choose to lead (by force) and those they apethetically let them, is if you plead your case that highway speeding is really not a crime (perhaps a vice perhaps, not a crime) then you come off as a bit of a loony to the lumpen masses. Pleading the facts that there is little broadcast risk by speeding, that it hardly treated as a crime even by the enforcers, that it is haphazzardly applied, and it really is just a revenue stream for the government falls on deaf ears. The government says you are bad, so you are, and if try and plead a rational case, you’re just “rationalizing” your immorality.
Oh well…..If we’re not going to kick off revolution over 40-50% taxes, invasion of our privacy, whisking away of our equity at the drop of a hat, I doubt there’s going to be much headway made against the selective assessments made at random on a divided citizenry for the dire behavior of speeding.
I say make them prove that it is all about safety and not $$$ by making them donate the revenue to charity.
This is what I believe prosports do.
I can just imagine thier arguments against this proposal.
donate to ‘charity’? pfft. you know where that money will really go.
it’s bad enough having a fat, inept bureaucracy inefficiently noodling at the trough.
now imagine what would happen to enforcement of moneymaker offences like this, once the money starts finding its way into private interests via ‘charities’.
there won’t be a flick of an eyelash left on this earth that didn’t warrant some kind of fine.
It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who thinks that speed limits are immoral. I just can’t decide which is worse, the “representatives” that create the oppressive laws or the armed thugs that enforce them on helpless citizens/victims. What baffles me further is the way that people praise their oppressors. Last weekend a saw some cops being treated like kings and could not help but to be disgusted. Next time I get a ticket I would ask for a jury trial, but unfortunately most people accept every rule the government makes as “good.”
Speed limits per se are not immoral. Government-owned roads are.
Over a decade ago I speculated state governments desperate for revenue would implement holiday traffic inforcement policies for such occasions as memorial day, labor day & thanks-giving day: all weeks when most Americans have at least 1 extra day added to their week ends; my idea was that to justify simply robbing the citizenry a state government could announce, ex post facto if necessary, a policy on traffic inforcement for such weeks. Even though there are more cops extant at those times they can not catch every violator so to collect the difference between the revenue actually generated & that lost by cops’ inability to catch all violators, the imputed deficit would be divided by a mean fine of $100 & notice mailed to the requisite number of randomly chosen citizens licensed to drive with instructions to pay the imputed fine within 2 weeks or face vehicle forfeiture, operator license revocation & further fining in the form of assessment for the cost of forced inrolment in safe driver & drunk driving classes. Payment of imputed fines would even be required of people who could prove they did not drive on the given dates; not just ignorance of the law but innocence itself would be no excuse. Truth is no defence & demanding the state prove mens rea is grounds for being charged with imperiling public safety by impugning the integrity of the state & competence of its agents. THOSE imputed violators would be billed also for mental health screening of reactionary dissidence in case they have any other problematic convictions.
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