Houston Traffic Cops Arrested Her?

[lariat]

Umm, actually speeding is a civil infraction. Although you are rendered in that Officers control until the Stop is over. (You all signed it when you got a DL) But it can become a criminal act if the speed is excessive(check you local laws) here in Florida its 20mph over. Thats why many many people are cut HUGE breaks on a daily basis when the officer makes the Ticket for only 9MPH over. Big difference in fine for 9-10MPH. Many will also just get a warning. The thing is, these speed traps as you call them (better known as problem areas that are high in accidents) are very neccessary to keep the majority of the population honest.......and safe.

When you see a dirty POS riding a bike because she probably got her DL taken away obstructing officers from their duty your reaction should not be incensed unless its directed at that person.

Now a days most cars made are capable of 130+ . If you don't think that people would be taking advantage of that left and right without Law enforcment you are crazy. Or like that dirty hippy..........have already lost your DL and have a bone to pick.

You're right, speeding is a civil infraction (that's why I put 'crimes' in quotes).


I don't think most people have a problem with lower speed limits in such places as school zones or dangerous stretches of road. Every road needs to be evaluated individually. My point was that if speed limits for normal stretches of road were again set by the 85th percentile, the roads would be safer, and otherwise law-abiding people would stop seeing traffic cops as the 'bad guys'. (Most people's interactions with police are traffic stops - which is usually not a good thing.)


I happen to like cops (my wife comes from a cop family), and I don't like how some governments have turned them in revenue generators.


I have no problem nailing a guy that is driving recklessless fast (I would think that most people don't), but to nail someone for doing 5 over when that is a safe speed for the conditions doesn't seem like the best use of law enforcement to me.

 

[MeKevin]

Thats all well and good from a certain point of view..

I agree that people doing 95 mph on a public road are endangering others...


So why is it that these good samaritains always pick a spot where the speed limit drops from 45 to 35 for no apparent reason and then put that speed detector right at the freakin sign which happenes to be at the bottom of a hill on a corner out in the middle of a freakin field somewhere where the only witness is a goddam raccoon carcass?????

most of the time you see a local cop in PA sitting at a speed trap.. this is the case...........



15% of the time the cop has nothing better to do

10% of the time its becasue there's an actual speeding problem on the road...

and 75% of the time its blatent revenue vampiring to catch that poor bastid that was doing 46 mph in a 45 and didn't notice that the speed went down to 35 and right there is the vampire in a hat pulling them over and writing a ticket and giving attitude 101 while he's at it.

The state police on ther other hand... 75% of the time they pull you over for speeding.. you were hauling ass and deserve it. 20% of the time you were driving like a moron and deserve it, 5% of the time they were bored and you were pushin it..



I don't have a problem with police officers, dont get me wrong...


traffic cops, however, working speed traps for no apparent reason other than to pay their salary.. pond scum is a higher form of life

This is a very interesting point that I had never thought of before. I wish there was a way to make all traffic patrols at the State level, and institute a system that didn't have quotas or rewards for pulling people over. Only problem is you would have lazy cops driving around and not pulling people over. They could get a radar system that is on at all times and is able to detect when someone is speeding and make it manditory for the cop to make the traffic stop. This would be like a computer making the decisions. Or do like they do here in the German cities and at some red lights in the states, have a camera catch speeders and mail the ticket.

Great post though, very interesting.

 

[Nicky]

You, my friend, should go to law school.

I think that is a winning defense - probably enough of a winning defense that the prosecutor would drop charges (or agree to a plea with a deferred imposition of sentence).

Win!

Dice, a similar case was tried sometime last year, not sure where, and defendant won under 1st Amendment. I'll see if I can find a link to that story.

 

[Notorious BFG]

What if? What if she was holding a sign that says "The world will end tomorrow". Would she have gotten arrested for that, holding it in the same manner as her previous sign?