Posted on 06/03/2011 1:02:23 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
I'm still po'ed for getting a ticket 4 years ago. The a-hat even admitted I wasn't speeding when I passed in front of him. Excuse me, the speed limit dropped directly in front of him at the city limit which means I was going below the speed limit. Jerk. Didn't matter because that was a speed trap area so no way to get out of it. What about people who can't wear seatbelts? Some, like pregnant women, have problems with the lap strap. Some are short so the strap slices them across the neck. I'm not that short but mine shoulder strap comes straight across my neck and cuts into my neck leaving marks immediately and is so tight I can't breathe. It WILL decapitate me so how the heck am I supposed to wear it? What about people who clip their seatbelts with homemade or store bought devices? Will they get ticketed because they've made adjustments? One size does not fit all. Not everyone is a 6' 185 lb man.
I agree that seatbelts save lives. My parents emphasized that to my brothers and I for many years, and I'm doing the same with my kids. Regardless of the law.
HOWEVER, whether something makes sense is NOT the litmus test of whether it becomes law in a society governed as ours is (supposed to be). It also makes sense to eat 5 servings of vegetables every day, to not smoke and to exercise for 20-30 minutes every day. But no way in Hell can the government force you to do so on pain of a fine and/or jail time! Yes, wearing a seat belt makes sense, but it is NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DAMNED BUSINESS! This can be resolved via private decision-making very easily - insurance companies simply have to put a clause in their contracts that they will not pay for any personal injuries if the person in question wasn't wearing a seat belt. You don't like that idea, then you'll wear a belt even if you otherwise wouldn't. But keep the government out of it.
I am sick and tired of having every do-gooder in society, no matter how well-meaning, telling me and everyone else how to live - at the point of a gun. Because, make no mistake, if you fail to abide by the law, then ultimately you will end up either going to jail at gunpoint or being killed by some officers.
A well-meaning cop wants to get a kid's attention - fine with me. Pull the car over and give the kid a polite lecture, maybe show him a couple of pictures of what happens to people who aren't belted in an accident. Then let them go. Ticketing the kid - beyond the pale.
That's a very good reason to record the conversation. You know, it takes the officer a minute or two to check you out while sitting in his car. During that time, you should not only have your license, registration and insurance cards ready, but you should turn your cellphone to its "record" mode. Of course, that depends where you live as to its legality, but here in Texas I can record any conversation of which I'm a part without the permission or knowledge of the other party.
RECORD EVERY DEALING YOU HAVE WITH THE POLICE IF YOU CAN!
Once got caught up in one our infamous Traffic Check Points (Texas). The sign said to have your license in insurance card ready.
The cop that came up to my window tried to chew me out for not having mine ready..."I'm not taking my seat belt off until you are at my window!"
The cops were writing seat belt violations for those leaning over to get their insurance card out of the glove box.
The town called that night their "Fund Raiser".
Seatbelts save lives. It’s for the children. That’s why school buses have seatbelts.... uh, ooops, no they don’t.
Says the Philadelphia native now residing in Italy. The only areas of Texas leaning left are Travis County, Dallas County, Harris County and along the southern border. That leaves the rest of us conservatives firmly in the majority.
Your Honor:
Why do you always sign-off Colonel, USAFR..?
Do people lacking that title have no credibility?
You do that all the time.
That’s always confounded me; why don’t buses have seat belts?
It is one of the reasons I don’t take buses - don’t believe they’re as safe as they should be.
“My sense is that an adult can be held responsible for not seat-belting a child, but that is about it. An adult driver alone in a vehicle should not be mandated to use a seat belt as a legal requirement.”
My sense is that seat belt laws are busy work for cops, courts and judges.
“you people” will vote for anything that will make you feel safe.
I hate the village. What the hell happened to individuals making their own way in life?
LE, if I see you getting the crap beaten out of you by the side of the road I just keep on driving. If you wreak, I keep on driving. If you are broken down, I keep on driving. If you are bleeding on the ground and I don’t know why, I keep on driving.
LE you need us. But you don’t have any respect. What happens when the gubment destroys everybody and the economy? Who will be left to pay the bills? Who will be left to fleece?
Click it or Ticket? Needs to be executed with prejudice. If you love liberty you cannot support that.
If you are a Police Officer, and have taken your oath to the Constitution you cannot support it. The Deceleration of Independence, although not the Constitution talks about “The pursuit of life, liberty and happiness”. So get off our backs politicians, cops, and idiotic voters. We are running a dangerous course that leads no where good.
Nothing more dangerous and uncontrolled than a revolution. Nobody wants that. It is like a wild fire that consumes everything in it’s path. Stop now. Please. You have to stop before things spin out of control with reprisals and counter reprisals. It has to stop.
“Seat belts save lives”
Natural gas kills people every year. So do automobiles, swimming pools, electricity, airplanes, trains, lighters, marbles and paper clips.
This is not a perfect world. This world cannot be without risk. The question is whether or not you are willing to take on risk, or transfer it to others in the form of legislation and cops. You are willing to trade your freedom for the illusion of safety. That is on it’s face the act of a coward.
Nobody can guarantee your safety. Your momma cannot, your daddy cannot, Jesus can, but he won’t. In this world you are on your own.
So life here is tough and uncertain. In the brief time that I am here I choose Liberty over safety. You choose sniveling along begging for safety, and willing to bring guns, boots and tasers onto the heads of your fellow man to bring to yourself your sense of safety.
To hell with the village. To hell with the cowardly acts of do-gooders. Live free! Take your chances. Nothing is certain and that’s fine with me. I don’t want to ever have to explain myself to government (a proxy for you and do-gooder cowards) who vote to interfere in my life with guns, boots, and thugs. No thanks.
“This kid put it behind his head or under his arm (meaning it was completely ineffective as a seat restraint), AND was sticking his head out the window. Gimme a break. The only issue for the cop here was procedural: he should’ve ticketed 19-year-old aunt. And before anybody tells me this is a freedom issue, if you’re that jacked up about it, get your representative to change the law. Until then, it’s the law.”
Life Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. That is more important to me than my idiot neighbors who have never met a new law they won’t vote for.
I want LIBERTY! I am sick of being hassled by Union Thugs with guns, and the otherwise unemployable attorneys that make up city hall all over this stupid country. The more restrictive it gets the more irrelevant the laws and judges become. You are a municipal judge, and you and I have talked before.
I am sick and tired of cops and judges claiming that they are simply tools of the collective will.
The collective will is right now completely contrary to the deceleration of Independence. We could organize a new revolution, and we wouldn’t even have to craft a new document. It has already been written.
I WANT LIBERTY! I don’t want the streets crawling with cops, with wide discretionary powers and a code book so huge that no one person has ever read the damn thing.
I don’t see how in the hell anybody, who has ever read the Constitution, read Adams, Locke, Jefferson could be a cop, or a municipal judge. You have taken a vote to defend the Constitution of the United States, yet you can sit as a judge and give judgments supporting seat belt laws. I want FREEDOM not laws.
If they couldn’t find people willing to trade their humanity and self respect in exchange for a pay check these stupid laws would never be enforced. But people are always willing to take these jobs and crap all over the proverbial side walk.
I WANT FREEDOM. I DEMAND FREEDOM FROM LAWS AND TYRANNY! Give us back King George at least that tyrant was all the way on the other side of the Atlantic not my neighbors.
Lets take that stupid song “To Thee I Sing” you know the one “This land of liberty, to thee I sing”, lets throw it in the damn trash can and never ever sing it again.
My 1970 car has a lap belt only and I use it.
Anyone want to guess how often I get stopped?
Every day? (Just joking.)
I know what you mean. I have a Datsun 240Z (1972) and the chest strap can be detached easily from the lap belt. Whenever I get pulled over and reach for the glove compartment, it comes off.
Probably should replace it only it isn’t frayed or broken. I hate to replace good stuff.
DB:
I’ve seen enough of your posts to know that not only are you a lover of freedom, you are an opponent of activist judges. So am I.
The fellow Texas attorney who replied complained about laws that are void ab initio, but didn’t give an example of why the seat belt law is one such.
If we only obey those laws with which we agree, we are no different that the people about whom we complain so much on FR, unless we’re willing to accept the penalty for disobeying a validly passed statute, law or ordinance when we’re caught. I happen to think it’s ridiculous that a CDL holder can’t take the driver safety course to get rid of a speeding ticket, even if he was in his own car and isn’t currently employed as a commercial driver, but that’s the law. If enough CDL holders get together and lobby, it may change.
I think the process is as important as its result; otherwise, we would be a nation of men, not of laws.
And gaijin - I’m proud to carry a military rank, not because I earned it, but because it’s a privilege and an honor to be able to serve. I regret it offends you.
Please see my 74. And I hope y’all are getting more rain than we are here in Bexar County.
Please see my 74. And for the record, I’d’ve dismissed the ticket and asked the cop why he didn’t ticket the driver, which is what the law states.
Please see my 74.
He should have ticketed the Aunt, but he didn’t. That is the point. So we give the power of life and death to someone that stupid?
Says the Philadelphia native now residing in Italy.
Actually Allentown and am in Norfolk now. But the reason I am calling Texas out is because it is a good state and I want to keep it that way. Pennsylvania is practically a lost cause. I mean we went a bit redder this time but I still don’t think the blue is completely out of the state.
Scary, isn’t it? But that’s less an issue of the law than of the spotty standards for hiring peace officers, I think. Believe me, there were cops when I was a prosecutor who, when I saw their names on the citation, I knew I was going to have to seriously consider not prosecuting the offense. Fortunately (or unfortunately), that’s the prosecutor’s call, not the cop’s or the judge’s.
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