(Photo: Fox 8)
Posted on 05/24/2012 10:00:14 AM PDT by from occupied ga
(Photo: Fox 8)
Last Monday, John Davis was reportedly exiting the I-90 in Cleveland, Ohio when he saw a pale, thin man in a wheelchair holding a sign that said something along the lines of, “Love Jesus, Please Help.”
Davis, who has a brother that is paralyzed, says he enjoys helping people, particularly since he knows how much his brother struggles.
(Related: Beck: The Left Uses ‘Political System X’ to Co-Opt the Homeless)
“Not only that, but he‘s needing some money or he wouldn’t be out there,” Davis remarked of the man in the wheelchair.
So, Davis recalled, he grabbed a couple of dollars and folded them, extending his arm out his window to give the bills to the man.
“He touched it. It hit the ground. At that point, he bent over and he picked it up,” Davis explained.
(Photo: Fox 8)
It was only a few seconds before police cruiser lights began flashing, and an officer reportedly told Davis he was being cited for littering.
“Are you serious?” Davis asked.
“I’m darn serious,” the officer allegedly responded, writing “Throw paper out window,” on the ticket, and in parenthesis, “money to panhandler.”
Watch John Davis’ account of the events, below:
Now, Fox 8 notes that Ohio does have a law that prohibits panhandling and giving money to panhandlers near a highway or street (including a berm, shoulder, treelawn or sidewalk), but that is not what the man was seemingly ticketed for.
When Davis protested, the officer reportedly told him to “take it up with the courts,” where he may have to pay $500, including associated court fees.
“I don’t mean any disrespect toward the police department at all, we need ‘em, but I just wish I didn’t have to pay this ticket,” Davis said.
Not only that, but he said this will undeniably curtail his future charitable givings towards the homeless.
“I’d like to do it again but I’m petrified I’m going to get a ticket.”
You know, if you just would follow the law (you probably smoke dope, too) you will never have this sort of problem.
\Free Republic police bootlick brigade
“I don’t mean any disrespect toward the police department at all”
Why not? It’s just this sort of attitude which grants unearned dignity to the crimes of the boys in blue, and makes everyone who complains appear to be crankish fringe racial or otherwise rabble-rousers and/or libertarian nuts. Join the nuts, and hold cops to the same standards as everyone else.
If they ticket you unjustly for “littering” it’s no different than a common thief picking your pocket for an equivalent amount.
.
“How can it be littering if money was ‘dropped’ but then picked up so there was nothing on the ground?”
Because, um...
” I have been pulled over and ticketed for going thru a yellow lite”
Since when is that a crime? I was under the impression red is the one that means “stop.” Is it time to go back to traffic school?
So long as we’re telling cop stories, I used to drive a lot at night (due to my shift) in a red somewhat sporty looking car when I was relatively young, so of course I was pulled over often. I also break laws all the time and especially never wear my seatbelt, but everyone does that so that’s neither here nor there. It gives you a certain freedom, knowing you’ll be pulled over endlessly no matter what you do. It frees you to argue with the cops without fear of pissing them off.
It became apparent that their number one goal was to catch drunk drivers, which I guess follows night driving like sunrise from dawn. What they might not have realized is that the reason they pulled me over was not because they had probable cause, or any more probable cause than for other cars. Nor was it because of my youth or probability of being drunk, though those were also present. It was chiefly because, and they’d have to admit, I drove a red somewhat sporty car.
They wouldn’t admit to that, but I felt it was my public duty to make them aware of their stupid prejudice. Perhaps in future when someone called them a dumb pig they’d think twice about batoning them across the face. They’d say to themselves, “If that kid was right about my anti-red bias, maybe this dirty Occupy Wall Streeter is right about my piggishness.”
And you've hit the essence of government. They're no different than common thieves. They just cloak themselves with moral authority, but they blew that away when they decided that all money belongs to the government and how much they allow you to keep is up to them.
It's a pure stretch of logic......but here goes.
Since the donor dropped the money THAT constituted littering, but HE did not pick it up -- the homeless guy did. So the donor completed the act of littering, while the homeless guy cleaned up the "litter".
Imagine if it was an aluminum can, instead of a dollar.
Told you it was a stretch, but that's about the only way I can see "littering".
I don’t have a horse in that race. Just sayin’ that the government in MA is run by democrats and anything that is run by democrats has one set of standards for most people and another for relatives and friends of those in power.
There ya go... Proof the US dollar is now considered garbage.
I used to drive a Miata (red!of course)-didn’t own it when I got pulled over, but I was driving a Mazda-zippy little semi-souped up 626, not tricked out or anything, but it did look nice. We had restored it-it was a 1990. Mazda’s are zippy anyway, so we didn’t do much too to the engine, but hubby did jazz it up a little for me.
I do not break the law unless I am unaware and I may go 5 miles over the speed limit, but only on the highway singing along to the radio. If I had my Miata still, living here in the country with the winding roads, I could not say that.I would be speeding daily and enjoying it and just pray I don’t hit a deer... but I am also older now too and tend to be more careful.
We think it was the kind of car; we live near a big run down city where small junk cars (Jap-scrap they call them) are souped up with Nitro etc and they do fly thru here...they LUV Mazdas, Hondas, Hyundais, Toyotas..and they race them. So, I could kind of understand a cop being cautious. But once he pulled me over and saw this sweet innocent face, you’d think that would be the end of it.
So, we took the Mazdas and the Hyundais off the road (we had 2 of each at the time) and I bought the ugliest, Granny lookin car I could think of: a big beige Buick Regal (sorry to all the Grannys out there).It even came with a matching set of cataract sunglasses (those big black ones that people wear who have cataracts) that were left in the car from the previous owner. I’m not kidding; so it was a legit senior-mobile.
As the rednecks say around here-”beige and fade baby!” And they were right... Haven’t been stopped since I bought it. KILLS me to drive it as it is not me-but my life is less nerve wracking. It will haul when you want it to, but it’s not the same.
My husband is 11 years younger than me and when he drives it, he looks like he’s either stolen it, has Grandma’s car for the weekend, or he’s test driving it after a tune-up.
I hate it, but it works....just missing my Zoom-Zoom.
SuZQ
I know...it’s a shame. I know not all cops are like that-the State Troopers are pretty good in this area because they have to be town police too and they don’t seem to bother with all that pettiness. And you can ask them a question, but the other cops, if you ask-like I did-where’s the stop sign? you’re threatened with arrest. It’s like the whole police dept are Barney Fife’s and are always on high alert! It’s kind of scary to us average law abiding citizens because they seem over-zealous, you don’t know what they are capable of. I may end up IN jail crosses your mind...so you just shut up and take it.
And that’s not right....
Me too-I was taught that you go thru a yellow light with caution-that’s what it used to be called-a “caution light” (in my drivers ed manual from the stone age)..but this cop tells me “it means you come to a stop because it will be red, not go speeding thru it like you did”....I wasn’t “speeding’, I was coming down a very steep hill and it was raining. I wasn’t speeding. I don’t speed. It’s a very small town, I was coming from the hospital visiting my father in law on a Tuesday night at 9pm after working all day...I was tired and when I’m tired I drive slowly.
Then he says-I saw you look right at me (he was in traffic at the red light) and then you “gunned it”. I told him I ALWAYS look both ways when I go thru an intersection, I don’t care if the light is green either-once again, that’s what/how I was taught. He told me we could continue the conversation around the corner (at the station) or I could take the ticket, for”careless driving thru an intersection”-it was $30 and be on my way. I just wanted to go home.
I would have gone to court and all of that, but my father in law was so sick, I just couldn’t deal with it.I will never forget it because I have never ever been arrested or anything like that, have never been in trouble of any kind....so this was so shocking to me-to be threatened with going to the station; it’s very scary-and they know it!
Too bad the good samaritan didn’t get the ossifers name. He deserves much notoriety.
Crime Man was my favorite super-hero. And his super-power was in fact littering.
“Do not question ME, Serf!”
“this cop tells me ‘it means you come to a stop because it will be red, not go speeding thru it like you did’...he says-I saw you look right at me (he was in traffic at the red light) and then you ‘gunned it’...’He told me we could continue the conversation around the corner (at the station) or I could take the ticket, for”careless driving thru an intersection’”
This is a major problem with law enforcement. As they said once on a tv show I watch, the cop on his beat is America’s last dictator. They can ignore you committing a felony or make one up when you weren’t doing anything, depending on their mood. This is so because you can’t write laws to cover every situation. Who’s to say what constitutes recklessness, exactly; when a swerve is just a swerve, or when it’s evidence of unfitness to drive? The guy we’ve trained to do so, that’s who.
It so happens that this guy is not objective, and in addition to personal pecadillos is entrusted with generating revenue for the outfit that pays him. So when he sees you go through a yellow light, does it really matter whether there’s any law against it? There’s a law against something, and he’ll use that, whatever it is, against you. He’ll do this either because he personally doesn’t like yellow-light driving, because he wants to get the city some money, or because he genuinely thinks what you did constitutes a crime of some kind. It hardly matters which.
Now, because police stations and courts are a pain in the neck, and because for no good reason whatsoever cops are taken at their word when diagnosing various subjective charges like “carelessness,” “disturbing the peace,” etc., most people passively accept the illegalization of everyday activities. It won’t ever stop, in my opinion.
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