Stricter Seat Belt Law Goes Into Effect In Mississippi (Good Law or Just Big Brother)

WREG ^ | 5-26-06 | Melissa Moon

[WKB]

Southaven - Not wearing a seatbelt will soon be enough to get you pulled over by police or state troopers in Mississippi. Saturday the state's new primary offense seat belt law goes into effect.

Right now the Mississippi has a secondary offense seat belt law. That means officers need another reason, like speeding, to pull you over. It's only after you pulled over that officers are allowed to ticket you for not buckling up.

Law enforcement officers can also pull a driver over if they notice that his front seat passenger or anyone in the vehicle is not wearing a seat belt.

Law enforcement officers throughout the mid south plan to beef up their patrols over the long holiday weekend. Troopers in Mississippi plan to set up road blocks in several parts of the state to check for seat belt use.

Mississippi is the 23rd state where officers can pull over a driver for not wear a seat belt. Tennessee passed a primary seat belt law back in 2004.

The new law in Mississippi carries a maximum fine of 25 dollars per vehicle.

[metesky]

Quite a list of strawmen there, Skippy.

These are the arguments of a gullible boob who yearns for governmental control over every aspect of society.

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." - William Pitt

If you're happy and you know it, clank your chains...

[the OlLine Rebel]

I repeat:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1638790/posts?page=35#35

[the OlLine Rebel]

You're kidding me....MA doesn't have that already? This is truly shocking! CT had it 11 years ago! How can its ultra-lib neighbor not have same?

(OK, you meant it killed a BILL - not a LAW - which is less exciting. Don't worry, it will be passed some day.)

[TKDietz]

I was in an accident once where had I have been wearing a seat belt i would have been killed or at least seriously injured. We were "T-boned" by a car coming at a high rate of speed. i was in the passengers seat and saw the car coming and new it was going to hit us. I jumped on top of the driver. The car was about half its original width after the wreck. The passenger's seat was partly on top of the driver's seat and the passenger side door was smashed down on the passenger's seat about half way across it, right where I had been sitting. Had I have been strapped to that seat I would have been crushed.

I know that most of the time you are better off in a wreck if you are wearing a seat belt, but not always. I do always wear a seat belt when I'm on a long trip or driving on mountain roads, but rarely in town. I hate the seat belt laws. It is my business if I wear a seat belt and no one else's. I have tons of insurance, and a considerable amount of assets. They say "click it or ticket." I say take your ticket and stick it. We don't even have helmet laws in my state and they harass people about seat belts? Some yahoo cop can pull me over on his two wheeled death trap motorcycle and write me a ticket for not wearing my seat belt? I'll wear my seat belt when I feel like I should be wearing it, and anyone who doesn't like that can kiss my rear end.

These laws that allow cops to pull you over for not wearing a seat belt are favorites of cops really for one reason. With those laws it's easier for them to pull over whoever they want to pull over and shake them down. It makes it easier for them to harass people, search them for drugs, whatever. Cops and prosecutors love laws like these. "Freedom loving people" should hate laws like these. Give the government an inch and they'll take a mile. These types of laws and others along the same vein are the way governments incrementally steal our freedom a little bit at a time and eventually subject us to living in a police state where no one is safe from their tyrannical intrusions. That may seem overly dramatic, but that's the way I feel. I've been working in the criminal justice system a lot of years and I'm not liking the way I'm seeing things change. More and more we have law enforcement working undercover, even the game and fish and park rangers are getting in on it, spying on their fellow Americans. More and more we're seeing the use of paid and/or coerced "confidential informants" who will say and do whatever they have to say or do to make their money or save their own butts. And more and more we are seeing legislators and courts make it easier for law enforcement to stop people, search them, and generally intrude in their quiet enjoyment of life. Our incarceration rate has shot up to the point in the last few decades that it is the absolute highest of any nation in the world, several times higher than it ever was at any point in our nation's history prior to 1979. Politicians keep passing more and more laws criminalizing more and more conduct, increasing punishments, turning misdemeanors into felonies, and on and on and on. Police keep getting more and more militarized, with the motto "to protect and serve" just becoming a quaint memory of bygone days. Things are changing, and not for the better.

[#1CTYankee]

"Obviously some people ARE stupid enough not to wear seatbelts without being forced to by someone. (And who else would that "someone" be - if not the government?)"

IMO a poor argument, the federal Gov't back when Dole was transportation Sec. tried to stop the insurance industry's push to require air bags in cars.

They attempted to do this by requiring automakers to equip cars with automatic seat belts or air bags by such and such a date.

The Insurance agency won out and car were required to have airbags.

How did they win? If you die in an auto accident they write a check, done deal.
The largest costs were paying for cosmetic surgery for those who faces didn't come out so good, airbags took care of that.

My buddy is a paramedic and refuses to wear seat belts, he says he'd rather die in an accident then end up a veg because a seat belt kept him alive but brain dead.
He might be wrong but he's been one for 20 years so he's seen a fair share of accidents.

I always wear my seat belt but I'm sick and tired of the government treating people like children, makes me sick.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I repeat again....

Where does it end?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1638790/posts?page=33#33

MURDER is the equivalent of NOT WEARING SEAT BELT? Absurd.

MURDER is DIRECTLY VIOLATING THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER. So are all the other capital crimes you cite.

This trickle-down effect rationalization is utter nonsense - it means we can make laws on EVERY SINGLE THING WE DO. Because IT ALL AFFECTS SOMEONE SOMEHOW DOWN THE ROAD!

[the OlLine Rebel]

"If you're happy and you know it, clank your chains..."


ROFL!

[B Knotts]

There are a heck of a lot of people out on the roads who don't even know how to drive.

This is all about money.

There's no money in getting bad drivers off the road.

[Tokra]

These are the arguments of a gullible boob who yearns for governmental control over every aspect of society.

"Every aspect of society"????

Where on earth do you get that from? Because I think the government's job is to protect citizens from murder, theft and fire? That is "every aspect of society"?

Talk about strawmen!

Go ahead and drive without a seatbelt. When you go flying through your windshield and smash your empty head against the pavement - don't ask the rest of us to subsidize your medical care.

Some folks here remind me of the folks at DU - everything is "all or nothing". Guess what? There is a happy medium. The goverment is not "all evil" or "all Nanny-state".

Because I don't want to foot the bill for idiots - you somehow construe that into: I am a "gullible boob" and think that I "yearn for governmental control over every aspect of society."

Great logic there buddy.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Aren't you also tired of the condescending statements on local TV news of accidents making sure they tell you the dead or greatly injured were "not wearing their seatbelts"?

Boy, what a campaign! Yet notice sometimes they make no such statement at all - gee, all were wearing their seatbelts yet somebody died and somebody lost a leg? Not possible!

[Tokra]

MURDER is DIRECTLY VIOLATING THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER. So are all the other capital crimes you cite.

And when you cost me money because you failed to wear a seat belt - you have VIOLATED THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER.

That is much different from something happening to you through no fault of your own. But your conscious decision NOT to protect yourself with a seatbelt VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Your STRAWMAN was comparing REAL crimes - against natural law - that actually VIOLATE OTHER'S RIGHTS, to a stupid non-issue that tenuously minimally trickle-down affects many thousands by maybe raising their rate by $1.

And who says you should be forced to pay for others? Guess what - that's a violation of your natural rights, too! So, GET RID OF FORCED INSURANCE.

Then what's your argument?

[the OlLine Rebel]

It is completely absurd to start worrying about trickkle-down effects on every person in society. That is why that poster said your logic leads to nit-picking bullying on every aspect of living - because guess what?

EVERYTHING YOU DO AFFECTS EVERYONE ELSE, SOMEHOW.

Albeit maybe only down to the 10th or 20th rung.

So, by your logic, you must regulate and enforce every single thing you do in your waking life.

Such as, not eating candy? You don't want to pay for dental or even heart disasters through "shared" insurance?

[Arrowhead1952]

We've had mandatory seat belt laws in Texas for years. One State Trooper who used to teach the defensive driving classes, mad the comment about seat belts.

"I never unbuckled a dead person at an accident."

[mysterio]

They go from secondary offense to primary to zero tolerance in ever instance of this seat belt crap. It's called incrementalism. Here in Indiana, we are a couple years ahead of you. We have 8 million statist laws that basically say kids have to be tied down with duct tape backwards in the backseat in a booster cage until age 28.

The nanny safety statists are one of the biggest threats to freedom in our time.

[mysterio]

The scum suckers promised us here in Indiana that it wouldn't be made a primary offense. It took like five years. Watch out, because now they have the jackboots out stopping cars in Indianapolis and outside the other major cities.

[gc4nra]

What I don't get is the 10 handicapped parking places in front of 24 hour Fitness!

[WKB]

I saw a handicap parking spot at a
"Sonic Drive Up" in Vicksburg Ms and to top it
off it was the one farthest from the front door.

[metesky]

If I'm wasting my time arguing with you, I must have already smashed my head on the pavement.

Conflating murder, arson and robbery with not wearing a seat belt isn't a strawman argument? Where did you take your logic courses, Sophist U?

Accusing others of "reminding you of DU" is just a classic sign of running out of logic, Skippy.

Your love of government incrementalism marks you as a statist who believes all good emanates from gooberment. Loosen up that sphincter and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy your reaming.

When you come out of the ether with a sore rectum and a quarter in your hand, it'll be a government agent with his hands on your shoulders, not your proctologist or the tooth fairy.

[dixiechick2000]

"The new law in Mississippi carries a maximum fine of 25 dollars per vehicle.
Annette M. Jordan, 4213 Will O'Run Drive, Jackson - Improper parking (handicap), $200.50 fine."


Apparently, improper parking in a handicap space is far
more dangerous and deadly than driving without a seatbelt.