Unlike the Little Engine that Could, you won’t make it to the top of the hill on that chant.
The Cato Institute has put together an extensive list of illegal and botched police raids that have happened throughout the country.
The funny thing is that I totally had this idea years ago, but technology at the time wasn’t good enough to make the idea feasible. Oh well. I’m glad someone’s done it:
Two mobile applications, NMobile and Trapster, are providing drivers with up-to-date maps of speed-enforcement zones with live police traps, speed cameras or red-light cameras. Each application pulls up a map pinpointing the locations of speed traps within driving distance and an audio alert will sound as vehicles approach an area tagged as harboring a speed trap. Both applications rely on the wisdom of the crowds for their data with users reporting camera-rigged stop lights and areas heavily populated with radar-toting police officers via the iPhone or their web-based application, creating the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it most — while you’re driving. To thwart false alarms and eliminate inaccuracies, Trapster enlists its community of nearly 200,000 members to rank speed traps on their accuracy. NMobile founder Shannon Atkinson declined to provide detailed data, though he did estimate that ‘well over 1,000′ users had downloaded the application since it became available last week. The company insists they’ve received only positive feedback from law enforcement officials and police officers regarding their products. ‘If the application gets people to slow down, I think it’s generally considered to be a good thing,’ said Atkinson.
(HT: Slashdot)
Everyone — everyone — should watch this 48-minute presentation about what to do when talking to the police.
[HT: Elliott Griffin]
[Update: I accidentally copy/pasted the wrong link when I posted this last night. The link has since been fixed. Thanks, Jori!]
With the recent completion of the US-95 freeway expansion in northwest Las Vegas, a new form of revenue has arrived for the state: the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane. A few months back, when the freeway and the HOV were brand new, the lane was exclusively for 2+ passenger vehicles. But here’s the secret I’m going to expose, right now, on my website: within the past month or so, they’ve started posting signs with very small printing that state specific times the HOV is in effect. The times are 6am-10am and 2pm-7pm on weekdays.
The thing is, it’s apparently a secret, and nobody knows about it. So I frequently take advantage of the HOV to get through traffic.
And evidently, it’s also a secret from those who enforce the law… As I was driving in the HOV just past 10 this morning, I noticed a darkly tinted car pull up beside me. I could faintly make out a computer system in his center console area, and knew immediately it was a cop. I was speeding a little, but generally going with the flow of traffic, so I didn’t think twice about it… til he quickly dodged behind me and pulled me over.
As he came up to my window and asked for my license and registration (“Papers, please! Show me your papers!”) I asked him why he had pulled me over. “Well, don’t you know you were in the HOV lane?” was his reply.
“Yes… but it’s past 10. I’m allowed to be in the HOV lane. There are signs all up and down the freeway that say so.”
“… really?”
He then tried to save face by pointing out my excessive speed, though I think we both knew it wasn’t a good point to be made, as everyone was going that speed.
He let me go, “with a warning.” …lucky me.
And stupid him.
I remember back in 2003, I witnessed a police officer commit some traffic violations. Nothing big — stuff we all do every day (eg. speeding, changing lanes without using a turn signal, etc.)
When I pulled this particular cop over (yes, I pulled a cop over), it didn’t turn out so well for me. He ended up turning the tables and writing me a ticket for over $1,400 in trumped up charges. Because it was a totally concocted falsehood, the charges all got dropped when it went to court. But the storm trooper who issued the citations was never brought to any sort of justice.
Anyone who knows me well knows I am not a fan of the police. I truly and deeply believe they are the unholy executors of laws biased against the poorer classes (ie. anyone who isn’t incredibly rich or anyone who isn’t politically connected). Note: I eventually want to develop that into an extensive research paper, possibly even a book. But for now I’ll just leave it as is: law enforcement is a plague.
So when I see or hear stories like the following, I can’t help but rejoice, and dream that some day it could be me in Eric Bryant’s shoes.
Read: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=753233&category=22101
Within a month of returning to America nearly two years ago, I bought a car… and a radar detector. I actually call it a “storm trooper detector” because it detects storm troopers. Yes, that’s a Star Wars reference. And yes, I call police storm troopers.
In the past 23 months, I have been pulled over three times:
Last night, while driving home from Ashley’s house, I got on US-95 at Tropicana going north. For those familiar with this location, you know that between the onramp for Tropicana and the upcoming offramp for Flamingo are the same lane, and there’s only about a half mile between them. When I got on the freeway last night, there were a couple of large trucks (you know… 18-wheelers) in the far right lane, essentially blocking my entrance to the freeway. My choices were to slow down dramatically and get behind them, or speed up and get in front of them. The best option seems obvious.
Though I sped up, I didn’t have much distance before I either had to get into the right lane or be forced back off the freeway at Flamingo. In fact… I almost didn’t make it. I ended up driving in the shoulder for about 100ft before getting in front of the trucks, and at this point, I was probably going 75-80mph (in a 65mph zone).
It was about this time that my storm trooper detector went berserk. I slammed on my brakes, but it was too late: sirens and blinding lights came on behind me, and I quickly made my way back to the shoulder, coming to a stop.
I got cited for going 70 in a 65 zone, and for “failure to obey traffic signals,” ie. waiting too long to get over, and driving in the shoulder.
I’m not sure how much the ticket will be worth… I’m guessing not a whole lot (relatively speaking), but still. I didn’t let it bother me too much last night as I drove the rest of the way home, but tonight on my way home form Ashley’s I noticed I was incredibly paranoid as I cruised down the freeway. I wasn’t driving any slower or less erratically (moving around between cars, trying to get home as fast as possible). In driving school many years ago I remember them saying you should pay attention to what’s going on at least twenty seconds in front of where you’re at. Now I was paying attention to the twenty seconds in front and the twenty seconds behind me. I normally check out the rear view mirrors frequently, but this was ridiculous. I was practically looking behind me more than I was looking ahead of me.
Any reasonable person can realize that can’t be safe.
So I’m going to blame the cops with making me a less safe driver.
But additionally, and more importantly, I’d like to rant about the absurdity of getting fines for breaking traffic laws.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when I hear people relate their traffic-ticket-woes, they, or someone else who was with them, will say “… but I guess I/they deserved it.” I’d like to try to correct this incorrect way of thinking.
The proper purpose of law is an oft debated topic, but I would submit that it is “…in order to…establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” These are the words of the Preamble to the Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the Land. Many have restated it even more simply: the purpose of law is to insure an individual’s rights of life, liberty, and property.
If I am speeding down the road, am I infringing upon anyone’s rights to life, liberty, or property?
Imagine I am playing a home-run derby with my friends at a park which is located in a densely populated residential area. The point of our game is to slam baseballs as hard and far as we can. Near many homes, this game is inherently risky. Any one of the balls could go crashing into a car, home, or a passerby. Yet no one would say “they deserved it” if a storm trooper came by and gave them a ticket for hitting baseballs too hard. Besides, there aren’t any storm troopers that hang around parks giving out tickets… why? Well, I don’t really know, but my guess is that it has something to do with it not being very lucrative.
The real reason why we have traffic laws isn’t to protect people, but to have yet another form of taxation on the populace. And just as taxes are evil, so are traffic laws.