It is increasingly tempting to just go for it.
Scratch that. It is increasingly reasonable to just go for it.
Traffic stops are not what they once were. The fines have become disproportionate, abusive – hundreds of dollars for crimes-agains-no-one such as “speeding” and not having various government stickers, all of them up to date.
Many people cannot afford to pay these fines – not to mention the additional fines they face in the form of higher car insurance premiums, which they’re forced to pay as much as any court-ordered fine.
These premiums are already so high – even before they go higher, based on the pretext of convictions for crimes-against-no-one such as “speeding” – that many people reasonably elect to chance not paying at all. For the same reason that many people elect not to pay for “health insurance” that is unaffordable.
But if they catch you going without . . . notwithstanding the fact that you haven’t harmed anyone, including yourself. . . .
Now the premiums will be even higher again; not uncommonly several thousand dollars per year. Who can afford this?
Yet, who can afford not to drive?
And so, they do – regardless.
In some states, a driver can be arrested and taken to jail merely for exceeding a posted speed limit by more than 20 MPH. This might be reasonable if speed limits weren’t unreasonable. But when a speed limit is set at 35 MPH on a road where traffic casually and routinely flows at 45-50 MPH, driving 56 MPH is hardly excessive, let alone “reckless” – yet it is defined as such by statute in states like Virginia.
Where it is also “reckless” to drive faster than 80 MPH anywhere – even on an Interstate highway with a speed limit of 70 MPH.
A trip to jail can ensue if one pulls over, which is a very strong incentive not to. And even if you don’t get taken to jail, you will be taken to the cleaners. The total cost of a single speeding ticket, including the jack-up insurance premiums that will remain in force for several years at least, is typically around $500. A “reckless” driving conviction – 81 MPH on a 70 MPH Interstate – will cost the average victim several thousand dollars, all told.
For people whose livelihood depends on a “clean” driving record, the motivation to take a chance waxes. Increasingly, it is a question of what have I got to lose? Increasingly, the answer is – not much.
Unreasonable laws – and excessive punishments – tend to trigger such responses.
And there is the more serious risk that you’ll face more than just a financial wood shampoo given the Submit and Obey mentality of today’s Israeli occupation-style law enforcers. People who aren’t aware how radically things have changed over the past 10-15 years or so may not realize that an innocent action such as stepping out of the vehicle unbidden or reaching for a driver’s license can trigger the Officer Safety Reflex – and leave you on the ground, bleeding out.
Law enforcers have been trained to consider the least act of non-compliance, even if arising out of confusion, as “resisting” and to escalate the situation with belligerent commands and – not uncommonly – drawn guns. They have been specifically taught to fear us – or at least, to pretend that they do – even though it’s they who’ve got the guns and the body armor and the legal immunity from meaningful sanction if they shoot first and ask questions never.
This is a scenario many people legitimately fear and would rather not have to deal with – and so they drop the hammer rather than pull over. It is entirely understandable because it is not unreasonable – as it may have been once upon a time when laws and cops (as distinct from law enforcers) were more reasonable.
These thoughts ran through my head the other day when I was out riding a motorcycle – BMW’s motorcycle, the 2018 K 1600B (reviewed here, if interested).
I was less than five miles from my house, on the nearly empty rural highway that bisects the county I live in. The speed limit is a ridiculous 55 MPH. Except for glaucomic old people and the occasional farm tractor, most everyone else is driving at least 60 and usually closer to 65. A competent driver – or rider – can cruise at 70 without offending any law except the state’s.
On the straights – some of which are close to a mile long, with clear visibility from one end to the other – going faster is entirely reasonable. The ninnies who post speed limits insist we should slow down in the curves. Why not pick it up when the road straightens out?
Anyhow, there is just such a gorgeous straight stretch about five miles from my house and I was on a brand-new BMW bike with a luscious in-line six cylinder engine. 55 MPH on this bike is like expecting Usain Bolt to sit in a wheelchair like George Bush the elder. It’s absurd.
So I went faster, as per reasonableness.
A law enforcer appeared, coming at me in the opposing lane. I glanced at my speedo. 70-something. Shit!
And the thought bubbled up…
I was only five miles from the safety of my house, of my garage. The law enforcer was in a Crown Vic and headed the wrong way. I was on a BMW bike with four times the power-to-weight ratio of his car, and was already running 70-something in the right direction. He would have to stop, turn around and come back. Build speed. Close the gap.
I thought about the hundreds of dollars I was probably going to have to fork over to the got-damned government (on top of all the other dollars I – like you – am compelled to fork over to the got-damned government).
My right wrist merely awaited the command from my brain.
But it was BMW’s bike – and if that law enforcer happened to have a plate reader in his car, I’d be canned meat. Not just hundreds of dollars would be out of my pocket. My gig as a car/bike journalist would likely be terminated, too.
And so I pulled over and waited for the enforcer.
He wrote me a 74 MPH ticket – but at least I didn’t get shot for “resisting.”
. . .
Got a question about cars – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
If you like what you’ve found here, please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: EPautos stickers are free to those who send in $20 or more to support the site. Also, the eBook – free! – is available. Click here. Just enter you email in the box on the top of the main page and we’ll email you a copy instantly!
Eric – some punk might have an incentive to run, especially if he’s got outstanding warrants or would face a second, or “gawd” forbid, a THIRD ‘strike’ and thus be looking at spending most, if not all, the rest of his days in the slammer.
For those of us that WORK for a living, it’s an idiotic idea. Sure, you can ‘flee’, and the coppers might not give chase…MIGHT. But if they’ve ID’ed you, and have in on THEIR camera(s), why should they risk cracking up and/or hitting the little old ladies or minivan full of kiddies (though the ‘po-leece’ will deny culpability and the city won’t pay anyway) when all they have to do is assemble the SWAT boys for a little ‘fun and games’ at your crib? Cops just live for that shit anyway, getting in some ‘trigger time’, especially if they didn’t get enough of a chance to murder Iraqis or Afghans when they ‘served’ in the Army or the Corps.
Best thing to do if you see the bubblegum machine light up is to pull over ASAP and be courteous and professional. Yea, it’s the OFFICER (or deputy) that needs to be courteous and “professional”, but seldom faces consequences if (s)he is NOT. Stick to your rights, especially to not TALK, nor permit searches of your vehicle or person (which they will ANYWAY, but your refusal is vital in getting the ‘fruits’ of said search tossed in court, especially if in frustration they plant something to ensure a ‘bust’), and record, Record, RECORD; but running or fighting is a no-win scenario for you…the “LAW”, even when UNLAWFULLY applied, always ‘wins’, and the dumbest thing to do is to be the most ‘righteous’ man…in the whole damn cemetery!
Hi Doug,
I’ve slipped the Porkers three times n the past two years… so long as you’ve got the drop on the bastards and they haven’t got plate readers…
Okey…as long as you’re sure they haven’t ID’ed you. If they have, you’re fucked…and hopefully not in the same manner as that erstwhile Mesa, AZ, pig etched on his HK5 (the case, actually)…the one he used to kill a drunk man who couldn’t understand his instructions when he and his ‘heroic’ Sergeant attempted a takedown on this confused fellow in the hotel hallway.
And they ask me why I moved to Mexico. Here, road signs are merely a suggestion.
Reading the plate is a far cry from proving identity of the driver…
That’s little comfort to the registered owner of the car. Guilty until proven innocent, probably only after ratting out on who was behind the wheel.
Just another of the million things that they will use to end private car ownership. Death by lots of little cuts.
The operator is ticketed for moving violations. The registered owner is of no consequence, and of no value in ID’ing the operator.
It’s now becoming a minor miracle to write about an encounter with a Law Enforcement Official that doesn’t have a violent ending.
I will note in my locality that when the Enlightened (otherwise known as our Dear Leaders) talk positively about those that wear the funny costumes, they will refer to them as “Police Officers.” They still think we live in Andy Taylor’s Mayberry! They also talk about needing more police officers, yet what they really want is law enforcement officers.
Here’s the difference: A police officer will make every effort to track down those who have committed crimes of violence. A law enforcement officer is the modern version of Barney Fife. They are only concerned with adherence to the text of the law, and assessing the appropriate fine. And they are also taught the proper way to administer the wood shampoo.
look up Emerson Georgia
its a city of 1400 residents.
they have SIX police officers.
, conveniently interstate 75 is a couple of miles away, and they have expanded the city limits to include it.
I used to ditch the state troopers when I was a teenager.
i lived in a rural area with the sheriff and THE deputy, and they didnt have a radar, only the highway patrol.
when you were doing 70 and met a trooper, Id floor it for a half mile or so and then nail the brakes and turn around and floor it again, youd meet the highway patrol running wide open, with both of you running alot faster than before. then youd just dive onto some side road.
Good memories triggered by this article.
Once dodged two cop cruisers way back in the day in NJ, by blasting a hardtail Triumph chopper through a graveyard and a golf course, to come away clean on a back road half a mile, cross country, from the bacon.
Good times, good times…
Sonic was quite proud of that picture. It was with “somebody.” ????? If that is what it takes to be a “somebody,” I am in good company being with “nobodies.” And I’ll tell you what: The people who choose to live more noble lives behind the scenes and with less fanfare (less photo ops) are the recipients of a reasoned, more humble and meaningful existence. For goodness sake, I would be ashamed to have my picture taken with any treasonous leech.
Amen, Pam!
The idea of plating patty cake with a creature such as Cheney appalls me. I’d need a long, hot shower after.
Sonic appears to be one of those people who believes the system is both fundamentally fixable as well as fundamentally legitimate. The problem – as he sees it – is that the wrong people are in charge of being in charge of us. If only (insert here) good Christian people (and so on) were Our Leaders, all would be well!
Hi Eric, I agree! I would absolutely refuse to shake hands with Penis Chainey.
I once got a ticket because I “must have been doing at least 25 mph, I was kicking up so much dirt!” I was in a 10 or 15 zone in some little federal recreation area. The wannabe cop-lady did not even have me clocked. I was moving out of state anyway, so I just ignored the ticket.
Another time, I got a ticket for “loitering” – and here’s the kicker – in a state park. Isn’t that what parks are there for? My brother and I were standing there on a rocky ledge next to a lake, dripping wet. The cop pulled up and said there was no swimming allowed there. Really? A lake out in the middle of the woods? I said, “We’re not swimming.” We weren’t at the time – we were just standing there, all wet. So he gave us the ticket for loitering. Waving the ticket, I asked him where the nearest trash can was, because I did not want to litter. He told me, “One more word, and I’ll haul you in and have bail set for $1 more than whatever you have.” I shut up, and later threw the ticket in the nearest trash can I found. I ignored that one, too. It might have been fun to go to court, just to make a fool of that cop in front of the judge.
Hey Eric, long time since I’ve posted here. I continue to read your articles though. Really enjoy these types the most. I believe the only way to really chance it these days would be completely riding dirty (no plates or anything). Like OppositeLock said, “if another pig was hiding farther up the road.” Not just that though, all the cameras around now too. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are rear facing/plate recognizing cameras equipped on some police cars. Your ass would be absolutely fucked! I would have stopped too, and have a few times for these very reasons.
Luckily, automatic plate readers are banned here in New Hampshire, along with red light and speed cameras.
And except for holiday weekends when they can rape the Massholes and New Yorkers, and end of the month “performance standard” time, the Staties are remarkably absent from the main highways
There are other ways than just accelerating away, you know. There is also the pedal on the right. One time, I was flying down the 101, a 3 lane highway here in Phoenix. I was cruising in the middle lane, well above the posted speed limit, when one of the State police boys took notice, and came right up behind me. I watched as he closed, and saw him jabbering away in his microphone in my rear view mirror. I was dead meat. I knew he was going to turn on his Christmas lights in just a few moments, and give me a nice ticket to a court date, where I would be the guest of honor. So, quick thinking, I waited until an exit ramp was coming up, and checked my mirrors again. Besides the pigmobile, no one was behind me. So, I flashed my turn signals exactly one blink, and swiftly changed lanes into the right lane. Then I jammed on the brakes HARD. The cop went flying past to my left, and as he did so, I smiled and flashed him the bird. Boy, was he ever surprised, and MAD. I then grabbed the exit ramp & disappeared into the neighborhoods of North Scottsdale.
Eric,your getting older and your testosterone is getting lower, it suks
Hi Anonymous,
Yeah, guess so – and it does suck…
I was once ticketed for doing 51 in a 55 MPH zone. I had just some out of a steep curve at the edge of a Western NY cow town with a speed limit of 30. Ahead of me was a sign indicating an increase in the speed limit to 55 going past the cow pastures ahead. I just let the rental car with an out-of-state plate naturally accelerate and was doing 51 as I passed the sign. From behind a barn came the local blue-clad tax collector. I asked him why he stopped me and he said I was speeding. I asked how I could be speeding when I was driving slower than the speed limit and I couldn’t speed in the steep curve while still in town. He got huffy and challenged me to go back and speed in the steep curve. I refused, saying that would be dangerous. He then oinked that I had to wait until I actually passed the 55 MPH sign before I could speed up. Being from out of state, I negotiated a deal with the local judge by mail. All they wanted was their money and were willing to settle for a little less rather than have me ignore the ticket.
Pulled over once for going 56 in a 55. The officer felt I was going faster so he wanted to have a talk with me. He pushed my bike over while it was parked breaking off the front brake lever and smashing my helmet that was on the handle bars. Then proceeded to tell me I was free to go and he got in his car and left. America!!
I’ve had this type of situation occur to me a few times… one I never slow down or pull-over and wait, I also take my chances that he “might” radio for another RMP at the next exit to assist, but chances are they don’t.
I operate under the premise and it’s reasonable to expect (assume) that just because he flips the bar lights on as he passes me in the opposite direction jams his brakes and attempts a u-turn that he’s not after me but responding to a complaint call that someone dialed 911 for assistance. But if they should happen to catch up to me (if I’m doing 80 and he’s doing 100 thats still minutes before LEO’s ever catch-up).
If the LEO’s do manage to bob & weave through traffic (most people are kind enough to not immediately pull-over especially in NY/NJ there’s just no shoulder to pull-over into most times), and catch-up, but until they are on my bumper I have no reasonable expectation to assume that they are looking for me.
Same. I’ll usually move to the right and slow down to the posted limit, but until he’s on my @ss, I continue on as if nothing happened.
My favorite was heading in to work one morning, round about 5am in winter in NH. Overcast and dark. I’m doing about 85 in a 65. I come around a bend to the right, and on the shoulder, blacked out, there’s the cruiser.
I figure I’m nailed so I let it coast down to 65 and move over. In the rear view I see the headlights come on but no blues. About 10 cars pass him before he can pull onto the highway, so I’m still putting distance between us. After about 15 seconds he finally throws on the blues, but I’m still a ways in the distance, so I keep going.
I see him get up behind another car, which starts to pull over and the cruiser begins to follow. At this point he must have realized he had the wrong guy, so he yanks the cruiser back into traffic and keeps coming. Another 10 seconds and the blues go out.
I figure he thinks he lost me, and I don’t want push my luck, so I take the next exit and go the back roads to work.
The best thing would be to equip you car with radar/lidar jammers. And not the weak ones using GaSFet transistors, but using magnetron tubes like in your microwave.
Plus, it would be nice to have a nail gun attached to a camera-controlled stabilizer platform under the car to shoot out tires of cars behind you.
See a cop behind you, fire the remote nail gun and blow out both front tires 🙂
Interferon, I’ve been dreaming up those scenarios since I was a kid. Once again, 007 had a great answer with spraying oil. I don’t know if you’ve ever hit oil in a turn but it’s an eye-opener. You will promptly lose traction and it’s off to the races or something like that. If you’re in the car that hits the oil the only race is to try not to wreck. I always thought having a can loaded with roofing nails and such would be a boon. Just flip the switch and drop the nails.
Now that any secret compartment on a vehicle, even the factory ones you don’t even know of, has become a felony it’s best to be really discreet. I guess the easiest and least noticable way of using nails would be a genuine PoLeece nail strip you could let go.
I used to use a Coke bottle on those drivers who’d run right behind me at night with their brights on when in a truck. Lots of drivers keep a bag of marbles for such.
I thought I was the only one who sat around dreaming of crazy stuff. I was thinking of welding a bunch of spikes, you know, the ones that end up point-up, no matter how they land and creating a way to dump them on the road to stop pursuing pork.
As Eric mentioned, I’m the day of plate readers and cameras everywhere, it’s less than wise.
*in the day of…..
Damned autocorrect
Policía: Hombre Roanoke arrestado por aproximarse aleatoriamente, patear al oficial durante la detención del tráfico
http://wset.com/news/local/police-man-arrested-for-randomly-approaching-and-kicking-officer
“Policía: Hombre Roanoke arrestado por aproximarse aleatoriamente, patear al oficial durante la detención del tráfico”
Well, Tor, what can I say? That WAS random as shit wudn’t it?
Te Quiero Mucho!
No puedo quitar mis ojos de ti – Angel Parra Trío
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQpNo8Nvbdo
Si. Que viva Angel.
80mph will get you a reckless driving ticket in VA? Seriously? You’ve got to be joking. Move out to AZ. Here most of the cops don’t care about “traffic violations” (except small towns that have no other source of revenue) and they are only enforced about once a year, toward the end when money is really tight.
But on the freeways out here, the speed limit is 75 outside of city limits. And if you’re not doing at least 80, you’re going to get run over.
Colorado is replacing all the speed limit signs on I70 and I25 with electronic speed indicators. They are testing variable speed limits depending on conditions.
This might be a good idea. For example, currently the speed limit through Glenwood Canyon is a pokey-slow 50 MPH. Almost no one pays attention to it, except that there are cops hiding around corners all the time. When the project is completed they plan on raising the PSL to 60 in clear, dry conditions. They already change the speed limit around Idaho Springs on Sundays when everyone heads back to Denver, although it’s always a parking lot anyway.
The downside is that I’m sure we’ll see a lot more tickets issued, and probably (at least for a time) a lot more tickets being thrown out, as we all get used to the new “system.” But even if all they do is issue a bunch of warnings it will still be a stress-filled hassle, and they’ll probably find other “violations” along with the speed infraction.
Related: Last night (Nov 30) on the way home I counted 5 people pulled over for speeding, and at least 5 other speed traps. This over a 40 mile stretch of highway. Don’t tell me these guys don’t have a quota to meet!
There’s no hope. The US will be lucky to last another 30 years.
The best we can do now is to warn people to study history and prepare.
The USA is a bankrupt warmongering police state.
The line has been crossed. The Bill of Rights will never be restored. Even if the government said that they have ended NSA wiretapping, CIA torture, NDAA indefinite detention, and secret FISA courts, who would believe them?
The 1% appears intent on causing an economic collapse, a civil war, and WWIII.
Those fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
https://www.unit587.com/bbs
Hi Free,
I tend to agree, with a caveat. I suspect a strong possibility is that the U.S. will simply crack up, like the Soviet Union and devolve into several regional blocs. This could be a improvement over the current state of affairs.
I don’t think the entire U.S will fall under the dark shadow of a single Stalin or Hitler. My reasons for holding this opinion are several:
The U.S. is tapped out, in terms of physical resources. Its people are socially/culturally fractured, heterogenous. There are too may armed people who will resist if it gets really bad.
But I suppose we are going to find out, eh?
Actually only about 40% of Americans own a gun:
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/americas-complex-relationship-with-guns/
And even though the number of guns out there is higher than ever, it is mostly due to about 3% of the public owning over half the total number of guns, at least as reported. I imagine there are a lot of people who lie about owning a gun though.
I don’t know how much stock I would give a Pew poll. A constant bleat from the totalitarians is; only a small percentage of Americans own a gun, most guns are owned by the small percentage of bitter clingers who own several to dozens.
Yep, just a few percent. You could drive for days in Tx. and never find a gun owner…….
You mean you could drive for hundreds of miles and never find somebody who admits owning a firearm. Here in Wyoming, every gun owner I know has multiple unregistered weapons. Private party to private party sales are legal. The state and federal governments have no idea who owns a significant percentage of the weapons in this state.
Hi Sonic,
In my neck, rural SW Virginia, it’s a safe bet that every house has at least one gun and probably several. No one I know here doesn’t have a gun.
“You mean you could drive for hundreds of miles and never find somebody who admits owning a firearm. ”
Why do you frame every one of your trolling responses by attacking something that the person you’re responding to never said?
Damn, boy. I thought old Bill was tedious, but you take the fucking cake.
I responded to exacting what was posted Your reading comprehension is extremely poor.
Some parts of the country a breakup would likely be a big improvement. But some would quickly devolve into third world h*llholes. The areas where things would be better would have to be able to wall themselves off from the holes. It will make the fight over the wall with Mexico look like a p*ssing contest.
Most western states not on the coast would be so much better off, they could finally develop some of their currently off limits resources, don’t have huge populations and have far fewer deadbeats of society. Same thing with Alaska. Alaska would likely become a wealthy place if it was finally opened up (less then 5% is privately owned).
The southern states could be ok if they could keep their ports open to trade. But they have some large cities like Miami that would make things difficult. Large cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc) would be the h*llholes as most would no longer have a reason for being and are filled with takers. The vast majority of today’s problems can be traced to large cities. Keeping those areas contained will be a major problem.
“The southern states could be ok if they could keep their ports open to trade.”
The last time they tried to do that, they were invaded and shot at for four years. You probably read about it. 😉
Yay, you got what I was talking about. That’s what is great about this site and its regular posters!
Hi Eric,
The problem with running is that it turns a misdemeanor monetary punishment — a fine, however hefty — into a challenge to their “authori-tah”, which can, if you get the wrong cop having a pissy day, turn into a summary execution or, if you get “lucky”, a felony conviction and a stint in jail.
And it’s not just the cop who spotted you, it’s any other cop in the vicinity who might be called into a high speed pursuit.
I could see considering running if you were tagged doing what Virginia considers felonious behavior — driving over 80, however safe your conduct would appear to most everyone who posts here — since a felony conviction could fuck you over bigtime. But, again, crazy high risks if the occifer decides to escalate. You’re likely better off engaging a competent attorney and going for jury nullification of an eminently unreasonable law.
Or moving the fuck out of Virginia to a state that doesn’t make felons out of someone in your profession doing their gotdamn job and TESTING vehicles near their limit. Do Tennessee or North Carolina have such onerous driving laws? They definitely have country in the Blue Ridge mountains similar to where you live — and Tennessee has a 0% state income tax rate.
Shorter: Sometimes you just gotta say “fuck all y’all” and vote with your feet. I did that when I moved from statist hell in Hawaii to Tejas.
Hi Jim,
Yup, amen.
That’s why I stopped. Sigh. Running any faster and – probably not, because (per the article) nothing left to lose at that point.
As far as moving: SW Va. is actually among the better options, given the others. Some over-the-top traffic laws, certainly. But my county has no zoning laws and the loathsome property taxes are not yet confiscatory. I’m not sure there’s any place left in the U.S. that would be meaningfully better, except perhaps Idaho or Wyoming – and while those states are beautiful, there are outside the radius of the press fleets.
The engine turns, but no fire… sigh…
I see factory vehicles all the time on I70 out here in the way out west. You can tell because they either have that checkerboard wrap that is designed to screw up digital cameras or lots of fabric covering the front and rear. Might be worth checking into at least.
Hi Ready,
Yeah, those are being tested by the manufacturers themselves; prolly not press fleet vehicles… I’m about as far out on the periphery as you can get and still get access to press vehicles…
Interesting. I would have thought there would be more than one fleet. After all California is where all the interesting stuff in design typically happens, you’d think the manufacturers would like having reviewers who are living in that culture reviewing their vehicles.
But then again they probably think that you need them more than they need you. Lots of (potential at least) automotive journalists. Only a few manufacturers. They dump a journalist and there are 4 others in line who are happy to shill for them. Play ball or die is the downfall of the 4th estate.
Idaho and Wyoming will soon be overrun with the elite liberal trash that is escaping the hell they have created in California. They’ve already turned Colorado into a statist hell-hole for the most part. Read about the pit bull laws there now if you really want a coronary. But at least they can smoke pot until Jeff Sessions and his moral goon squad decide to murder a bunch of state law-abiding potheads!
Not Wyoming. Guns scare the fuck out of liberals. All of our liberals are confined to Teton County. Whenever I have to go there, I open carry just to remined them Jackson isn’t Palm Springs with different scenery. . There are no liberals anywhere else in Wyoming. Sure, a few may move here but give up after two years.
Legalizing pot has only made Colorado a deeper shithole.
” You’re likely better off engaging a competent attorney and going for jury nullification of an eminently unreasonable law.”
It doesn’t work that way in Virginia. What happens is that you pay an attorney who then makes a deal with the court for you to plead guilty and be sentenced to driver’s school. For the system here, it’s all about milking the ticket for the payoffs to the widest possible circle of payees. You are very unlikely to be able to get a jury trial for a misdemeanor traffic offense. Such offenses only merit a few minutes in court with a predetermined outcome.
Eric – take the driver class. I hate to see a speeeeeeeding ticket on anyone’s record.
Hi Ed:
re this: “You are very unlikely to be able to get a jury trial for a misdemeanor traffic offense.”
I agree, but I was talking about a felony traffic offense, which carries jail time. Pretty sure you’re entitled to a jury trial for that. And if ever there was a law begging to get fought all the way up to SCOTUS, it’s the insane notion that 80 MPH is ALWAYS a felony, when there is at least one state (Texas) with a stretch of road that is posted 85 MPH, and I think over a thousand miles of roads posted 80 MPH.
Certain counties are exempt in some way, of accepting Tx. speed limits and set their own. Heading out I-20 west you get right around Monahans and the PSL changes to 80 from 75. No real reason I can see since I 20 isn’t any different there than 10 or 20 or 40 miles down the road to the east.
If anyone was really concerned about safety they’d have pictures of certain car models warning you that those are often driven by no-driving fools. When you are on the road all the time like I am you begin to notice such things. I’d name a few but everyone who had one would take me to task for saying they were no-driving fools when that is not what I’m saying at all. They could put certain models up on signs like the ones with cattle or deer or the ones they should have in Ok. with drunken Indians which isn’t a knock to Indians in general but there are certain stretches of roads there with lots of vehicle/pedestrian fatalities and they are almost always of a certain race and drunker than old Cooter Brown. Don’t get me wrong, me and old Cooter have hung out plenty in my life, we just stayed off the interstates when we did…..or at least stayed off as pedestrians.
Recently cruising along the high speed parking lot of I 20 the day preceding Thanksgiving those certain models were replete and trying to negotiate their driving habits were only upped in dangerousness by the sole DPS out where traffic really cooks and we all came over a rise with he having a car stopped and lots of reds and blues with everybody trying to move one lane over and of course, trucks stuck in that lane trying to not pass him as per law, you must be doing at least 20 mph less than the limit if you remain in that lane. This gets dicey when big rigs are involved and dicier when there’s no place fore even a car to pull into the passing lane since at that point the passing lane was solid as the non-passing lane. Yep, one lone, idiot DPS creating more hazard than a plethora of El Paso tagged Focus’s and Versa’s and Altima’s. I was sorely tempted to take the back roads but the rut is on and bambi is replete about that time of the evening.
8, you just reminded me of “Choctaw Bingo”, where the lyrics mention
“hes goin to dallas texas in a semi truck
caught from that big mcdonalds
you know that one thats built up on that
big old bridge across the will rogers turnpike
took the big cabin exit stopped and bought a carton of cigarrets
at that indian smoke shop with the big neon smoke rings
in the cherokee nation hit muskogee late that night
somebody ran the stoplight at the shawnee bypass
roscoe tried to miss him but he didn’t quite”
Ed, the wife and I love that song. It sounds like a family get together I’ve been to. I can’t go by that mcdonald’s without thinking of it and generally play it on the stereo.
Going to see the SIL I used to always catch that AmyNarvy store and stock up on gun oil and tracers. “Yes sir, what we can we for you today?”. Oh, I need summa that surplus gun oil and some tracers. Yes sir, what calibers do you need? Oh, a couple boxes of all of em. All? Well, just the ones native to this country.
Hell, I had to have em for the Garand, and the AR, and the HK G3 and the M1A. I like to keep my options open.
This has nothing to do with this article but one year we’d just buried a good friend a day or two before the Fourth of July. The cemetery he was interred in was 1/2 mile from a small town up on a tall hill. Everybody in town were “illegally” setting off fireworks so at midnight we told the sheriff’s dept. we were gonna shoot some for our friend. We go up there and set off a bunch of stuff just like the ones everybody else had. This late it was down to the big stuff for everybody. When all our big stuff was gone I pulled out the Garand with 4 rounds of tracers in it. I told everyone to hold their ears….and of course, they didn’t….for the first round. After I’d shot all four directions I noticed the entire town was dead quiet. One old cop was down there huffawing since he knew what I was shooting. We got a sheriff’s escort back to town since it was obvious we’d all been hanging with old Cooter.
Hi Ed,
I quit smoking almost a decade ago, but when I was a smoker; I useto stop by Indian smoke shops including that one. The sad thing was that more often then not the cigaretts were not much cheaper than at regular stores. It seems that the Indians were basically collecting the tax money for themselves. I did find a good smoke shop here and there that would sell them really cheap, but not very often. There was a store north of Vegas that comes to my mind, but I haven’t been past there for years. I do not know if the place still exists, and I do not remember its name.
I know it, Brian. Cigs were always cheaper at Pace warehouse club anyway. I think those indin smoke shops were set up to target travelers, and the ones from big cities were impressed with smokes that were “half priced” compared to the prices they were used to in NYC, Chicago, etc. Locals knew better, of course.
It’s kind of fucked up here in Virginia, Jim. I was given a felony reckless driving ticket here, in a case with a rookie statie who charged me without even having his radar on and the attorney representing me got it dismissed with a safe driving class agreement.
He said that to take it to trial guaranteed a conviction because the cop’s testimony was regarded as irrefutable proof. It’s worse than you think, too. It isn’t just an over 80 mph charge, it’s also the same charge if you’re 20mph over any posted speed limit: reckless driving by speeding. That means you could get a felony charge for driving 45 in a 25mph zone.
I didn’t have half a million dollars to spend on trying to get a speeding ticket heard by the Supremes, anyway. 😉
Any decent cop would have marveled at such a magnificent machine — and given you a warning. The problem is the paucity of decent cops, even in backwoods Virginia. Nowadays, they just want your money for their pensions.
Eric,
While I agree with your comments about penalties and fines for breaking arbitrary speed laws and registration/insurance regulations, they do not lead any rational person into evading arrest and high speed police chases.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours in a police helicopter over the police chase capital of the world, Los Angeles County. That included dozens of multiple jurisdiction chases. Sometimes, I got to operate the SX-16 Nightsun. Without exception, these all involved persons who had just committed felonies, had outstanding warrants, or had a BAL of at least 0.16. Not one was motivated by the high cost of traffic tickets or being arrested for reckless driving.
You seem to be very uncomfortable around cops. You might consider moving someplace like Wyoming where open and concealed carry does not require a permit. The cops here are super polite! I’ve been pulled over three times for going way over 100MPH and received verbal warnings.
When a friend of mine got a speeding ticket (in his pajamas at 3:00AM while driving a Japanese kei truck) one of our local officers reached in the vehicle to remove a Glock 17 sitting on the dashboard. My friend visited the chief of police and complained about the officer’s conduct. The officer was told not to do that again.
You should mention that police officers enforce the law, they don’t make it up. The blame for stiff speeding fines and crazy enforcement needs to be placed squarely on city councils (police), county supervisors(sheriff’s departments) and state officials (highway patrols). No police offer I’ve ever met likes being a revenue officer.
(Yes, here in Wyoming you can register a kei truck and insure it despite federal prohibitions on highway operations. They can go over 60MPH if the shift gate isn’t welded to block the top two gears to make them fed-friendly off road only.)
Hi Sonic,
I’ve evaded several times (successfully) out of necessity, so there’s one case for you.
Necessity because I was operating well over the “reckless” threshold in my state (anything faster than 20 over the limit). Pulling over would be a career ender for me, not merely a night in the clink. So I dropped the hammer.
No pigs in the sky here. I live in a very rural area. If one has the “drop” on the cop and knows how to drive/ride, getting out of his visual is easy and then you just lose the SOB down any of several endless country roads.
I am glad the enforcers are “friendly” where you live, but do not give any of them a pass for merely enforcing the laws they didn’t write. That excuse – the Nuremberg Excuse – does not fly with me and did not fly once upon a time in America, either.
Anyone who chooses to enforce unjust laws and gets paid to do so is a dick at the least. And since virtually all the laws being enforced today are unjust . . .
I miss peace officers.
Eric,
My mother was a Catholic survivor of Auschwitz. If you equate any law enforcement agency in the US with Nazis you are either seriously ignorant or just plain stupid.
If you believe virtually all the laws being enforced today are unjust, then I expect you NOT to call your local Nazi pigs when you’re robbed. Of course, you’ll never do that because you don’t believe half of what you write. It’s time to walk your bullshit, Eric.
I assume that the regulars here are on the same page as me by now.
We’ve been remarkably tolerant. Tolerant to a fault, actually. Giving a newcomer every benefit of the doubt, and then some.
But it’s pretty clear by now what’s going on. Steady escalation in order to provoke a backlash. SOP for trolls. No surprise of course. We’ve dealt with this kind before, many times. We all know what happened to them in the end. Not pretty.
I must say however, that it never ceases to astonish me how people like this actually equate their boorishness for “toughness”, as if being able to anonymously type personal insults on one’s keyboard amounted to some sort of character strength.
The regulars police Eric’s site? And, you’ve been tolerant? Get over yourselves.
Sonic, what are you trying to accomplish here if not trolling?
Call out somebody’s bullshit is trolling?
You haven’t called out any bullshit, you little queer. All the bullshit on the threads the past few days has been yours.
Look, we already have one know it all troll here, named Bill. That position is filled. You need to come up with another schtick. Right now you’re just filling the threads with nonsensical disagreement. That’s trolling.
“You haven’t called out any bullshit, you little queer. All the bullshit on the threads the past few days has been yours.”
Amen to that!
Anyone who reads the threads in chronological order will see clearly who crossed the line first.
Eric,
So, enforcing any laws doesn’t fly with you unless the enforcer wrote the law? Two of my Jesuit logic professors have just rolled in their graves. In your world, one is only allowed to enforce the laws written by himself. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
“your” “jesuit” “logic” “professors” ?
“where” “does” “one” “find” “those” “cat-lick” “unicorns?”
Hey, Tor!
I’ll bet money you couldn’t have passed the entrance exam to my grammar school.
Yours in Christ,
Sonic Mustang
Hi Sonic,
It’s an open field here, no speed limits – but please stick to commentary rather than personal attacks. It’s fine – welcomed – to deconstruct or challenge someone’s arguments. But calling them names cheapens everything we’re trying to do here, so please don’t.
Eric,
With all due respect,
“your” “jesuit” “logic” “professors” ?
“where” “does” “one” “find” “those” “cat-lick” “unicorns?”
was a personal attack on me.
“was a personal attack on me.”
That’s rich. You must be a total chickenshit to take a little ribbing like that as a personal attack. In person, face to face, you’d lick spit off your face if somebody spit in it.
You’re an asshole. There. That was a personal attack.
Evening, Ed!
I think Sonic is a “good Republican” of the Rush Limbaugh School, annoyed by Libertarians. His favorable/deferential comments about “Dick” clued me in.
He he he he he he…..aaahhhh. I felt like Tor deconstructed him plenty and couldn’t have added anything better. Of course, being a “good Jesuit” he couldn’t leave well enough alone. I’ve laughed at this all day, couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve envisioned his Jesuit “logic” “professors” spinning in their whole cloth. All that energy spent and nothing accomplished.
I wasn’t even gonna mention “sonic” “mustang” but now I can’t let it go by.
Dear Ed,
Thanks! You just spoke my mind and saved me the typing.
There’s an expression in Chinese for what “sonic mustang” [lol!] was doing.
得了便宜還賣乖
Déliǎo piányí hái màiguāi
It means “having gotten away scot-free, yet still playing the victim card”.
Our of gentlemanly forbearance, everyone, particularly eric, was bending over backwards to be polite, despite utterly uncalled for, out of the blue personal attacks.
Ironically the kid gloves treatment, which was far more than “sonic mustang” deserved, also gave him the rope needed to hang himself with.
Dick Cheney? Neocon kleptocrat par excellence? Talk about clueless.
Wish I could remember who it was being introduced to Cheney and wouldn’t shake his hand. I’m thinking it was a libertarian non-politician. I think it was Cheryl Crow that Cheney refused to handshake with.
It’s probably best I never get that close to him.
Dear 8,
Whatever you do, don’t go quail hunting with him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney_hunting_incident
Never even heard of such a thing before. Interesting.
Here they are.
2017 Grammar School Examination Papers
https://www.mgs.org/2602/2017-examination-papers
Uestrorum libertato amans Tor.
Sonic;
You wrote;
“So, enforcing any laws doesn’t fly with you unless the enforcer wrote the law? Two of my Jesuit logic professors have just rolled in their graves. In your world, one is only allowed to enforce the laws written by himself. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.”
Eric wrote;
“I am glad the enforcers are “friendly” where you live, but do not give any of them a pass for merely enforcing the laws they didn’t write. That excuse – the Nuremberg Excuse – does not fly with me and did not fly once upon a time in America, either.”
Sonic;
How did you get this;
“So, enforcing any laws doesn’t fly with you unless the enforcer wrote the law? Two of my Jesuit logic professors have just rolled in their graves. In your world, one is only allowed to enforce the laws written by himself. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.”,
From this?
“I am glad the enforcers are “friendly” where you live, but do not give any of them a pass for merely enforcing the laws they didn’t write. That excuse – the Nuremberg Excuse – does not fly with me and did not fly once upon a time in America, either.”
I don’t get it, it doesn’t make any sense, I don’t see the “logic” in that.
Adam,
It seems you are no familiar with the reference to Nuremberg.
Eric,
It was so good to see you mention the Nuremberg Excuse, as it is always the first thing I think of when I hear that, “I’m just doing my job” crap.
I have left jobs over that kind of thing, and though it has cost me, I can live with myself knowing I wasn’t part of the corrosion and diminishment of my own country, my own circle of influence, my own soul.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Thanks! I agree, it ought to be brought up more often. I annoy my “conservative” friends by pointing out that if Herman Goring deserved to hang for waging unprovoked, aggressive war then so does The Chimp (W. Bush). But The Chimp is comfortably retired, painting John Wayne Gacy-esque portraits in Texas.
Und so weiter . . .
And just so nobody misunderstands, that cocksucker, as Wu would say, was a Connecticut yankee. They’d have blocked the road to Midland if they’d known his old heifer of a mama was in that car and that his daddy was not only a CIA mole but was pretending to be a Texas oil man. Excuse me, I have to spit.
Morning, Eight!
Amen. Whenever I am forced to deal with a Republican Chimp worshipper, I state: You must love Obama (and Obamacare) then, right? They look puzzled. I proceed to point out that without The Chimp’s disastrous reign, Obama would have been inconceivable and Obamacare thus never enacted.
They are not happy.
The GOP set the ball.
The Dems spiked it.
Think volleyball.
Morning, Bevin!
I’ve written several times previously about my particular dislike for “conservative” Republicans – as opposed to “liberal” Democrats. The reason being that Republicans will warble about things like freedom while systematically undermining it at every turn; that plus their usual tendency to prattle on about values – as opposed to principles – tends to make my teeth ache!
Dear Eric,
Could not agree more.
Conservative Republicans adhere to all sorts of “values”, except for the most important value of all — the value of having principles.
Their reverence for “values” is the right progressive counterpart of the left progressives’ reverence for “social justice”.
It’s all so conveniently flexible.
Yep eric, what goes around comes around. The second election for thinking people was Anybody But Bush so the ’08 election rolls around and any wanta be GOP is still dealing with Anybody But Bush and the truth is, they fucked us all. Of course the Mitster might not have been any better than BO in many ways but he still wouldn’t have purposely gone out of his way to create a civil war between illiterates and literates.
Remind me to paste an email from a friend who went to S Texas to try to save some historical things last week or earlier in the week. While he is white, when he was in the armed forces his best friend was black, sort of a Bubba/Gump type thing. Hispanic bitches are shrieking “you white racists” to him and his friends. In San Antonio the cops had to form a barrier to keep the blacks from assaulting the whites. Of course those fools think the cops foiled them but the white crowd there was armed to the teeth.
Morning, Eight!
Some future Tacitus will one day write about America and The Chimp will be described as the most catastrophic president since Dishonest Abe. The carnage he left in his wake was similar though ol ‘Bram had the advantage of being bright – a feature The Chimp sorely lacked.
You might consider moving someplace like Wyoming where open and concealed carry does not require a permit. The cops here are super polite! I’ve been pulled over three times for going way over 100MPH and received verbal warnings.
“Is this Heaven?” “No, it’s Iowa.”
I meant Wyoming.
Good one, Thomas. That reference to “Field of Dreams” works better without changing the quote to Wyoming.
Hi Ed,
The fact that Wyoming loves them some “Dick” has never sat well with me. I honestly think I’d rather deal with liberals than “conservative” Republicans – because at least liberals are philosophically honest about their love of collectivism and coercion. I can no longer endure listening to Republicans talk about freedom.
It makes me want to smash things… .
No shit eric. I feel the same way. The new tax bill the Republicans passed is going to stick it up yours and my asses and even though the closet Republicans used a quote from good old Chuck, what he said was right on and had they been paying attention I sent them the same information a week ago that Ron Paul sent me….saying the same thing as Schumer.
Oh, they built it up to make it sound like they were doing nothing but building up the USA when in fact they were simply robbing the working man for the rich one just as they always do. Democrats are guilty of the same but not quite to the degree of simply handing it to the uber wealthy as the Republicans do. Nothing has changed since the Republican party was formed and they got dishonest Abe to do the handiest dirty work inside this country ever seen. And since that wasn’t good enough they took it on themselves to commit as total genocide as they could on the native people. Ah, Republicanism, how’d we ever live without it?
I need mountains; can’t abide the flatlands…:)
Don’t know what to tell you eric. I have spent a lifetime of evading. I even let myself be stopped by one cop while evading another. They’re all heroes and don’t want to share any glory. I pointed out I did a bit of slip and slide not anticipating the water in the intersection. I wasn’t(it wasn’t possible in that spot with a cop watching you from the left side of the intersection)speeding but doing my best to get out of the line of sight of the occifer who was chasing me. Without the cop there I would have gone two blocks, made a right and stopped in a driveway. I doubt he’d even have known I turned.
I got into a high speed pursuit that went on for 30 miles only I couldn’t even see the DPS chasing me. There were no side roads and most of the lease roads were locked or at least had a gate. I made it to my home town and was drinking a cold one when the guy I had been racing….briefly, saw my car and did a ueey. He said they stopped him but wanted me. He didn’t need to lie since he rightly had no idea which way I went or who I was. He was unhappy with his ticket. I treated him to the coldest drink in town and we parted friends. They were serious enough to create a roadblock…..way behind me. I’ve even pulled into service station bays real fast and acted like I had a severe overheat problem and that takes everybody’s mind off you coming in for a landing in their bay cause they’re ready to help. Once you establish your gauge just malfunctioned then everybody’s chilled and you can back to the pumps and get all you can hold of their 105 they’re glad to sell you.
It may be illegal to put switches on your running lights and brake lights but they gotta catch you first.
I’ve been chased in the snow and got away. I got chased on ice and my little Nissan 4 WD with big tires just ran off away from all of them. The last ticket I got was in my big Chevy 4WD 3/4T when I had 50 cases of beer in the back. The DPS kept saying “Isn’t there a limit to the amount of alcohol you can haul?”. I just shrugged my shoulders and said I couldn’t have hauled much more without stacking it in the seat. He said “No, no, I mean the amount you can transport”. I kept playing dumb. I said “Well, this is all I bought so they probably wouldn’t have wanted me to haul more off”. He finally threw his hands up and I had what I think was my last speeding ticket. I could have gotten away from him across some territory he couldn’t have gone but it would have ruined the beer and he knew who I was so he’d have been pissed and probably showed up at my house….after walking in from a locked gate……and then he’d really have been pissed. That was back when I had a deal with a liquor wholesaler who’d give me a big discount for buying a lot. That probably wasn’t more than 3 weeks of beer…..or less.
Sam’s Club once had beer cheap enough I’d buy 50 cases but after doing that awhile they probably had a visit from the TABC and limited me to 30.
“It may be illegal to put switches on your running lights and brake lights but they gotta catch you first.”
Could you explain the utility in this? Would it be to fake a broken brake light so as to get pulled over for a lesser offense by a different officer?
Night running – can’t see you slow down or turn.
Actually, often at night you can’t see the lead car’s headlights so you simply lose the chaser. I used brake light switches on curvy roads so I could show when I braked…..and then turn them off on some really badass turn. They’ll have braked right along with you and when you don’t, they won’t…..well, not in time anyway.
The entire point is not to pull over. It’s a “never say die” philosophy. Thanks michael67, you wouldn’t think anyone would need an explanation.
Tom, I can see I could introduce you to a totally new world….for you.
Wyoming has mountains.
Wyoming has mountains like you would not believe.
Yes indeed Paul! And the altitude in Wyoming is so high that the clouds are very close by overhead. On cloudy days; the clouds are all around you at ground level.
Brian, you ever made that long pass road up on the spines? I’ve only seen it and don’t want to drive it. Of course brakes are optional in west Tx.or so truck owners have told me.
No,I haven’t 8Southman, but I have driven on a lease road so bad that it took an hour and a half to drive 20 miles.
On a lease N of Midland 3 years ago 10 mph was the top speed you and the truck could stand and often you just got down to idle in low gear and hoped to not break anything going over the holes and berms. I got sick of that in a hurry and only had to deal with it for nearly a week at one time. I was hauling big overloads of rock to a compressor site. At least it wasn’t 20 miles long or I’d have quit.
Sonic, when I lived in Chicago, I knew lots of people who evaded police just to avoid the fines and penalties associated with speeding. I knew one person who fled in a Porsche when he was traveling a speed that would have ensured jail time if caught. He was far enough ahead to be able to pull into a truck stop and hide until the police passed. Every other case of running from police was on motorcycles – and that is fairly commonplace. The CPD don’t chase speeding motorcycles so every rider knows that it is quite easy to get away. The penalty for 100 mph or higher is immediate jail in IL but riding over 100 mph is quite common. Perhaps you don’t know about all the people who flee the police who are not otherwise criminals because they are smart enough to make a calculated decision to only flee when the chance of success is very very high?
Krista, the bill that attempted to get more reasonable speed limits in Chicago has resulted in making things far worse. Many years ago the first ‘super speeder’ law made 40 over a 6 months in jail possibility. The second made 30 over 6 months, and 40 over a year, but the third, the deal with the devil reduced it to 26mph over. See that was supposed to come with a 70mph speed limit. But once the bill passed the system of course decided the speed limit should remain 55mph. So now, 81mph, an imperceptible hair above what are often average traffic speeds can send one to cook county jail for 6 months.
Not sure if anyone actually has been jailed yet, but the shakedown without jail can be thousands of dollars. Back in the day if one went to the cattle call court it could be less than $100.
I was born in Chicago. You guys should try getting the hell out of there. I left after the first grade.
I did leave Chicago 3 years ago. The speed cameras, the bad weather, the ridiculous property taxes, etc. all drove me out. Anyone who is staying in Chicago is just waiting for it to become Detroit. There are much better places to live.
LOL!
Dammit man, the word press assholes said that the LOL comment is to short. F word press and the shit storm it rode in on.
You have plenty of company Guitarman.
Used to live in Chicago. Loved it – though I probably shouldn’t, as the place is a totalitarian pesthole by any proper definition.
No, I’m NEVER going to call it the Willis Tower. It’s the Sears Tower.
Watchu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?
Anyway, the city’s parking ticket division is called the Department of Revenue – not even bothering with a pretense of public safety – with a fleet of trucks that drive around with cameras all day and night looking for cars with unpaid parking tickets.
If they find one, they boot it, which got me thinking.
What if you lived there and instead of owning ONE nice car, you had a fleet of like two dozen $500 beaters, and you just abandoned the one you’re currently using if it got booted?
Just leave it right there, make your way home and start using the next one in the rotation till you find a yellow shoe on it.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Some real wisdom there. The nice thing about beaters, in my case being good work trucks but have some whiskey dents and stuff, is parking spaces. Just wait til miss hoity toity gets in her big Merc and pulls out of the row of similar cars…..right up front, sidewalk parking….and then pull in there with that old one ton 4WD with the RanchHand front end and work bed. There’ll be plenty of room to open your doors when you come back.
I don’t know how it is in WY, but in CA, the cop unions (including sheriffs) definitely DO lobby for specific laws, usually making penalties harsher, meaning higher fines to pay for their pensions, which are under-funded. Then taxes go up (this year, a new $5.5 billion yearly tax was imposed for “transportation,” including the idiotic high-speed rail project) to pay for everything else. That’s the real crime.
What’s it like in Wyoming? Back in 2007, I sat in a meeting of police officers called by the city manager. He was very concerned about citizen complaints. Dead serious. It seems the number one complaint for our police department was, “Your officers don’t return waves often enough.”
People were actually including nasty notes with their utility payments and calling city hall: “I passed officer Jones on Main Street and waved at him and he didn’t wave back!” I laughed out loud and the city manager asked what was so funny. I told him I knew a dozen police chiefs in two other states that world trade their biggest problems for our department’s local problems. He was not amused.
Our town’s wrong side street parking ordinance has been on the books since the ’60s. One day, our city council asked the chief to start enforcing it. The first week, 33 wrong way parking tickets were issued and the following week 14 ticketed citizens showed up at the council meeting to bitch. Enforcement stopped that night.
Hi Sonic,
From your descriptions, you live in a slice of the America That Was. Which will change.
Your cops are still, generally, peace officers and not “law enforcement” – the American take on the British troops occupying Northern Ireland. This will change.
You live in an area that is not yet over-run by the people I style Clovers – authoritarian control freaks, busybodies at gunpoint. Wait awhile.
It won’t change in my lifetime. Every time I see the county prosecutor, he reminds me that he’ll sign off on a CLASS III machine gun license.
Hi Sonic,
I hope not.
But, consider that a mere 15 years ago, one could board a commercial airliner without having to submit to a government geek pawing your junk. Or being “scanned” while assuming the I surrender pose. These things were unimaginable as recently as the late 1990s.
Today, they are accepted by most people with a shrug.
Eric,
I’ve been in Wyoming for 13 years and things have changed very little here simply because the residents won’t allow it.
Not long ago, we had a liberal mayor (art gallery owner from New Mexico) who responded to a friend’s complaint about seeing someone putting a pistol into a locker at the rec center. The horror! She instructed the city attorney to draft an ordinance outlawing guns at the rec center. Several residents showed up at the following council meeting open carrying to remind her state premption means only the state can pass firearms legislation. A few dozen phone calls to the attorney General’s office produced a rather stern and personal letter from the AG to our mayor.
Wyomingites do not shrug.
I met Liz Cheney when she was running for congress. There were all of twenty voters at the meet and greet including Dick Cheney. I sent a picture of Dick and me to friends in California who went crazy because I was open carrying a Glock in the picture. Then I told them Dick was carry concealed and the third guy in the picture had a real derringer in his cowboy belt buckle.
That was almost as much fun as taking California visitors to my friend’s in-home 1,500 gun vault and driving through town loaded for bear with a .50 Boys Anti Tank Rifle sticking out of the pick up truck bed with the visitor shitting his pants.
What I’m trying to point out is unless you spend years living in middle rural America you cannot assess the majority of Americans. Out here, resistance is not futile.
Hi Sonic,
This is generally true of most rural areas – my area is similar.
But eventually, they will get around to us, too.
People – Clovers – will move in. The Feds will throw their weight around.
40 years ago, most of the country was pretty free – relative to today. I grew up inNorthern Va. Just outside DC. In high school, kids drove their pick-ups with shotgun racks and parked them in the school lot. This was in the 1980s.
Today, most of the country is a police state – as bad or worse than East Germany in several ways.
PS: Dick Cheney is no friend of liberty. He is a war criminal and a general criminal who ought to be in a cage, along with his sock puppet The Chimp.
Eric,
Most people do not have a picture of themselves open carrying while standing next to a Vice President of the United States.
I’m really interested in how your vitriol has manifested in action. Quantifiable action. Have you successfully replaced war criminals, Republican corporate shills or any politician with libertarians? Have you run for office? Have you, personally changed any laws or ordinances you believe illegal or immoral?
Dick Cheney may be a war criminal and Bush may be a chimp but until you actually accomplish something, you are nobody.
How about channeling some of your energy to changing your local speed laws and reducing traffic fines instead of just complaining about them?
Hi Sonic,
So you got a pic taken next to a loathsome politician while open carrying in a state where this is legal. This means what, exactly?
Why treat “Dick” with respect? He is nothing more than BTK type and I steer clear of such human vermin.
I am not interested in running for office because I am not interested in running anyone’s life except my own. That is what Libertarians are interested in.
As far as my accomplishments, they suit me. None of them involved harming anyone or taking their property. Neither The Chimp nor his proxy father can say the same.
Eric,
Thanks for confirming you’ve done NOTHING to change existing politics or existing law.
Hi Sonic,
Your position amounts to: If I haven’t called my senator (and so on) then I have no right to complain. I’m a professional writer; my words reach hundreds of thousands of people. I pursue the course that is most effective for me.
What you do is a different matter.
I do not malign your efforts; why do you malign mine?
Eric, I used to write elected office holders. I learned it doesn’t do a got-damn’d thing.
Old Clover was more receptive than most of them.
Morning, Brent!
Of course. Appealing to a “representative” is as absurd as a chicken appealing to the farmer not to steal her eggs or put her in the stew pot. She – the chicken – may even regard the farmer as “her” farmer…. just as Sonic speaks of “our” (or “my”) government.
Sonic doesn’t get this. Or perhaps he does, because his objection – as per Republican policy – is not collectivism or coercion per se but rather the direction it takes and on whose behalf.
Wyoming
W.S. 31-5-301 MAXIMUM SPEED LIMITS:
Posted 80MPH 81 – 85MPH will NOT go on the record
Posted 70MPH 71 – 75MPH will NOT go on the record
Posted 75MPH 76 – 79MPH will NOT go on the record
Posted 65MPH 66 – 79MPH will NOT go on the record (not a typo)
Wyoming Reckless Driving Statute (NO SPEED TRIGGER)
31-5-229. Reckless driving.
WY Stat § 31-5-229 (1997 through Reg Sess)
Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.
Back during the miserable days of the artificially amanufactured fuel shortage” of the 70’s or so, I ran a series of the old Volvo sedans and wagons with the B 18 or B 20 pushrod engines, very well nourished by the amazing Skinners Union carburetters. Pulling the tortuous Double Nickel Shuffle, they’d return only 28 mpg on cheapest fuel available. But when I’d open up those HS 6’s and let the engine revs get up where the cam worked well, those cars would all return above 40 mpg at 85 mph, all day long. I logged quite afew trips between Vancouvner BC and various points in California. With a watchful eye and a sensitive “nose” for the coppers, I’d make the trip in two days, never once got even pulled over.
One time, though, along the lonely stretch of I-5 north of Buttonwillow, I was crusing my u=usual 85, noticed a black speck approaching from the south. Along there, the north and southbound lanes were separated, due to terrai, by as much as a few hundred yards. Rolling hils, gentle curves, plenty of visibility. As the speck grew, I realised it was a CHiP, dropped my foot off the right pedal, slowed to maybe 70 as we were abreast…. I checked the mirror, saw his brakelights, let the throttle trail (NO brakelights from ME) till the car slowed to 56 mph, and held it there. That was just as I slowly passed a big rig, tractor and drybox. As I slowly eased over in front of this chap, I checked my side mirror, and sure enoigh, CHiP was falling in behind the rig, pacing. I think he was silly enough to think I”d not seen him. Hah!!! Sure, copper!! I carried on, within an ace of 55 or 6, for a couple miles, I’d gradually pulled a couple hudnred yards on the rig, but every tie we all went over one of the humps, I’d check the mirror.. rig would top, come down the face, and then a little black dot would do the same, about three hundred yards behind him. When I was near half a mile ahead of the rig, copper was STILL THERE behind him, pacing him, and certainly watching me. At that point I slowly increased my speed to 57 or 8, but no more.. until I could no longer even see the rig. I eased it up to 60, then 62, waited another few miles, then let it rip up to 85 and carried on. That CHiP was behind me, checking and pacing, for over ten miles!!! Of course, we three were the ONLY cars visible southbound, and precious few northbound. The fuel scam had nearly everyone off the roads in those days, so the CHiPpies were hungry and not finding many rabbits. I refused to satisfy their hunger. Probably 20 or 30 thousand milies at abobe 70 during those years, never once even got the bubble gum machine on the roof lit up.
Eric, for your own informational safety in this modern world you should do some redaction on that last image or remove it entirely. These days I am even wary of being carded in bar and using my DL.
Indiana State Troopers Disable Stolen Car Using On-Star
http://nwigazette.com/2017/11/29/troopers-disable-stolen-car-using-on-star/
Probably no reason why On-Star wouldn’t disable any car the police want disabled.
why U will not own or drive a car with that government snoop/control feature built in.
Doesn’t Oregon want to track every registered vehicle with GPS and tax owners based on how many miles they drive, and charge more if they drive during rush hours on congested roads?
Years ago, I met an airport shuttle van driver at a Subway near LAX. He had one of those plastic magnetic cones with numbers on the roof of his van. You know, the ones dealers slap on cars when they’re being serviced. The driver told me the company installed GPS in all the vans and the magnetic base on the “number cap” made the van disappear from tracking.
What really amazes me is the number of idiots who think a dash cam is a great idea. It is if it videos somebody crashing into you. It’s a hell of a stupid idea if it videos you breaking the law or crashing into somebody else. Especially if you crash and are in the ambulance when the police remove your SD card. Or worse, if you’re caught destroying evidence after your at-fault crash. Most people are stupid.
Pulled the fuse on mine, at least the safest way to disable it without pulling the module out and shafting the ECM with it’s cancer (so i’ve heard, if you pull the module the car won’t start). A month after buying the truck, I fish tailed on slick tires pulling out of a car wash and the truck auto dialed onstar. A lady answered to see if I was okay, I told her to F-off and hung up. Onstar has never been used since.
I’ve read that onstar is well integrated into the cars now. The last-I-heard recommended disabling tactic is to disconnect the antenna so it can’t phone home or receive orders.
Brent, that’s the preferred method as indicated to me by a GM tech. I was in a hurry once and smashed some heavy aluminum foil over the antenna. I think that worked pretty well.
I son’t think running is a good idea , ever. I live in the detroit area . we have the higest auto insurance rate in the US.
A large part or our population here lives outside the system completely. They don’t keep a current drivers license , buy auto insurance , and don’t register their cars .
They use a junkyard plate and when they get stopped , they hand the officer a state ID card, so they can’t be arrested for no Id or to check for warrants. They claim the car is borrowed, or that they just bought it. They take the ticket or tickets for driving on expired,no insurance, whatever else. then throw either throw them away or go in and plead poverty. even if they get a few hundred dollars in fine, it’s a lot less than $1500 min for insurance annually but most likely $2200, $150 for plates /yr, $80 for DL /yr.
considering that several years go buy between traffic stops if they are not acting crazy, its reasonable. pulled
“If you want the law respected, you must first make it respectable.”
–Mark Steyn
“The law enforcer was in a Crown Vic and headed the wrong way. I was on a BMW bike with four times the power-to-weight ratio of his car, and was already running 70-something in the right direction. He would have to stop, turn around and come back. Build speed. Close the gap.”
Now never mind the fact that you were driving 74 MPH — only 6 MPH from recklessly! — but consider how fast the ossifer would have to go to catch up once he spun that lead pig around. *Who’s* reckless, here?
Hi Brother John,
I’m going to try to get out of it in court; prolly shoulda just blasted the five miles to the house, ditched the bike in the shed and hunkered down!
50 is a far more comfortable speed on nearly every road that is marked as 35. In my morning contra flow commute in Houston. Posted limit is 60, yet the lack of traffic lets the herd travel at 85mph and 90 if you need to pass. Yet there are cops in this herd as well who do nothing. Doing 90 in a 60 anywhere else would be straight to the slammer yet in this particular area at this particular time the cops let the little fish go and drive 25 over the posted limit.
35 sucks for me, especially since the limit on our road is 45… we still have some zombies toodling at 10 below. This is too close to allowing my car into 4th gear and being able to lock up, so my mpg suffers… not to mention that I used to ride my bicycle at about that speed… well, in a sprint anyway.
Yes. Houston has been a low enforcement zone for quite some time now. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s it was bad there, but it improved for some reason. Dallas, surprisingly moves along pretty well, though you have to watch out in the smaller cities outside the LBJ freeway. Dallas has 65 and 70 mph speed limits on many of its urban freeway system Houston is mostly 60 and 65. Speed limit enforcement is heavy along I-45 at times with it being spread throughout. The towns I know to watch for are Ennis, Corsicana, Fairfield, Centerville, Madisonville, Huntsville and Willis. In Texas, you are pretty safe on the two lane roads, although slow down at small towns with speed limit drops. Texas is largely reasonable in its postings. 70 & 75 limits are common on two lane roads.
In the state of Oklahoma, they are harsher on “violators.” I was pushing 70 through OKC and a cop tailed me for a while, running my plate through his computer. I was a little nervous. I have seen people being pulled presumably for less and I watch myself. On the two lane roads, they are so uncrowded, a cop has to wait a while for a fish, so they tend to troll the interstates. Both states have their pluses and minuses. OK’s divided highways are nicer and better designed. Texas has higher limits. The two lanes in TX are also higher and better, though OK has some pretty nice blacktop as well.
I’ve burned rubber on the Indian Nation Turn Pike going to Kansas from East Texas before. Never saw a single cop until we exited in Tulsa and maintained 80 the whole way with very few cars on the road. The roads were very good for driving but near the toll booths they had rim destroying pot holes for some reason. Jasper to Tenaha on US-96 in Texas is probably the most scenic drive in East Texas. During grad school in Nac I would take off Saturday just to burn gas and drive it.
I wonder when the tipping point’s going to arrive, when it’s no longer a certainty that you can pull over for a cop without getting assaulted or robbed.
I suppose that’s why police restrain themselves to some degree – they know they don’t have the resources to chase everyone and absolutely don’t want society as a whole to believe that it’s better to run for it.
Same strategy the IRS uses.
The very idea of laws against “resisting arrest” or “eluding” presuppose such things as the police are always in the right, that people should actively participate in a situation that’s not in their best interest and that the law is always supposed to win.
This is why I’d rather deal with the mafia. At least they don’t begrudge you fighting back.
The tipping point is very deep into totalitarianism. Look at North Korea, or Eastern European countries which fell under the Soviet’s caring oversight. When the people enforcing the law have disproportionate force on their side, there isn’t much you can do.
There are a lot more oppressed than there are oppressors, and if the oppressed all resisted, the oppressors have no chance. Our leadership knows this, so our society is brainwashed to be subservient, and a good part of it is economically dependent on these same oppressors, so no real resistance is going to happen in a very long time.
The best response, in my opinion, is to get out once you reach your own limit. The world is a big place, plenty of wonderful places to live which have a different mix of benefits and problems. Police aggression is almost uniquely an American problem.
Bush the Elder doesn’t just sit there; he grabs bush from that wheelchair. That’s why he’s former prez and we are not.
I once passed a police officer who had pulled another vehicle over to the side of the road on my commute home. Moments later, I saw the police car come flying towards me from behind, lights flashing and I wondered what emergency may have occurred, only to have them pull me over for committing the sin of letting my insurance lapse for 9 days 9 months ago before I renewed it. DMV had flagged me and he had a plate reader that automatically alerted him to any monetary infraction collection opportunity available in the vicinity. I’ve thought about trying to run or duck from the cops a few times, but after that I assume they all have (or will soon have) plate readers that are already tracking you every moment.
I’d go to court and tell the joker in the black bathrove that yuo let it lapse because you were in a situation where you would not be driving at all during that period, and thus were justified in not having insurance. Car not on the road, no possibility of incurring liability, thus no insurance needed. Stupid coppers think they are omniscient as well as omnipotent.
You still have to carry insurance on your vehicles even when it isn’t on the road so that wouldn’t be an accepted reason here. New York State is exponentially not interested in why you can’t pay them; only that you shall, will and do.
Tionico,
Yeah, tell the joker in the bathrobe…. It’s real smart to fuck with somebody who can throw your sorry ass into jail for as long as he wants with a conviction for contempt of court.
Hi Sonic,
The only “sorry asses” who deserve to be caged are those who aggress against people who’ve caused no harm to anyone or their property. This includes geeks in government costumes, whether styled law enforcement or judges.
Eric,
Oh, come on. If you really felt that way, you’d fight that speeding ticket and tell the judge exactly how you feel about him/her in court. But you won’t. You’ve NEVER taken your libertarian ideas into the real world, have you? have you ever spoken with a congressman or either of your senators? How about your mayor or county supervisors? Have you ever spoken in from of any government body, in public, on the record and told them they were full of shit? I have. Multiple times. I took a lot of crap, but I got things changed.
Here’s an idea: how about writing a few stories about how you will implement libertarian change? Tell us what you will do and tell us how it’s going.
Sonic,
I don’t pick fights I can’t win. Do you?
Why would I waste my time speaking with cretinous politicians? They are the scum of the earth – people who live by force and fraud.
I spend my energies communicating ideas with people who aren’t yet lost causes.
Thousands of them come here every day.
Eric,
You don’t fight because you’re more interested in bitching than effecting real change. Face it, you’re just scared.
Oy vey.
Yeah, I am scared. I publish under my own name articles that directly challenge many treasured orthodoxies; my home address is published openly.
But I am “scared…” because I don’t waste my time “trying to change the laws I don’t like” and talking to vile office seekers and holders…
I get this a lot from conservative Republicans, who invariably want to measure dicks and show how tough they are. Who also like cowards like Dick Cheney, who avoid the wars they love to send others to die in and profit from.
Well, I am not worried about tough. I am concerned with reaching people – and by that standard, I’ve achieved a great deal. It is all that matters to me.
What you think of it matters to me not at all.
Statists always bring up working in the system because they know the system is designed to resist it.
I don’t think any of us here haven’t had some experience working within the system. Maybe even some victories. But even in those victories we learned a thing or two. Usually that it is not redeemable.
In Texas, as long as you are not driving the car, you can let your insurance lapse. I took my Mustang off insurance for about 8 months while i was getting the engine repaired. I’m glad I didn’t’ have to pay for that long.
The last time I got “stopped” speeding was over 70 in a 35 on my former CB400F. I passed a prick pulling a lawn trailer who pulled out from a stop sign 50 feet in front of me, so I used the next straightaway to get the hell away from his ass holding us both at 15 mph in a 35. The road is rural and no lane markings, but I went past a parked Deputy Sherriff who eyed me, you know the look. So I just puled over at a wide paved dumpster lot and waited. He told he was surprised that I did not keep going, he had no intention of chasing me if I had, lol! The look on the deputy’s face was priceless when he 1st saw me. I was 40, the bike was 30, and he was 30 or so. He had expected a college kid until I removed my helmet. I had a defective speedometer, and the ticket was dismissed. After that I sold 2 other bikes of mine to Sherriff’s deputies who really liked old Hondas.
At least that was back in 2005, and things have changed a lot in those 12 years. I doubt if I could get away with that today.
In my state TAX, the speed limit in most two lanes is 70 or 75 mph. In OK, it is 65. Pretty reasonable.
You now need to find yourself a lawyer to try and keep your record clean. They know the Masonic handcodes to get you out.
I’ve come to the conclusion that these “law enforcers” are a bunch of pussies. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be so afraid of us.
The only respect that Hugo Boss homo costume gets is that you don’t kill them or knock sense into them immediately when confronted by an armed individual out to do you harm.
We all know the answer, but we’re still hoping they keep hauling the other guys to the gulag.
What? No Valentine? Or was it an instant-on situation?
I’m a white dude, so not somebody the cops automatically beat up, but when I see a “peace officer” my adrenaline spikes and I’m afraid about what they could do to me, even if I’m doing something innocuous like walking down the street.
I’ve lived in Muslim countries, and under Soviet oppression, and never felt fear like this. Generally, if you weren’t doing something horrible at that moment, they’d leave you alone, which isn’t the case with our gun toting maniacs, who suffer no consequences for abusing people.
You did the right thing Eric, cops travel at the speed of light due to radio, and you have no idea if another pig was hiding farther up the road.
OppositeLock,
I imagine when you were in a Muslim country the thought of breaking any law or traffic regulation never entered your mind because you were damned well aware of the consequences. The same goes for iron curtain countries. When I was in Czechoslovakia not once did the thought of complaining about socialism enter my mind. The ONLY reason you complain about American law enforcement is you damned well know you can without being shot.
Hi Sonic,
Your argument here is that because American law enforcers are not yet as generally abusive as NKVD thugs doesn’t change the fact that they have become far more like NKVD thugs than they once were. The gap is closing – and one way in which American law enforcers are worse is their enforcing of laws regarding penny ante lifestyle/personal choice issues – for example, “buckle up for safety.”
Even in East Germany, they didn’t do that!
Eric,
No, my argument is people get the government they deserve. If you don’t like your government and you are unwilling to take real action and if you believe real action is communicating with thousands of like-minded idiots who also prefer sitting on their hands and whining, then you deserve living in a police state. How’s that for a run-on sentence?
If my relatives in Poland could get up and protest and strike against the communist state and help throw the Soviet Union out of the country, surely you can do something about your local criminal pigs.
But Sonic – It is not “my” government! It’s the ruling caste of thugs and cretins, nothing more.
Your language indicates that, at a very deep level, you still reverence the idea of government; that if only “we” had the right government. That it is somehow legitimate for some people to rule others who’ve never consented to it.
This is the bedrock “conservative” Republican idea. Coercion and collectivism are ok provided they are exercised for the “right” reasons by the “right” people… .
I reject the whole business. No one has the right to rule anyone else. Not “Dick” – and not Obama, either. Or Trump or any of them. Throw them all in the woods! Every last one, especially that evil gimp you got your picture taken with. As someone once said about that old fraud Ronald Reagan: May he chew coarse grains through loose teeth…
Meanwhile, you disparage the thoughtful and bright people who come here to exchange ideas as “like-minded idiots.”
Genug.
The difference between the USA now and Poland in the 1980s is that people in Poland knew the government was their enemy.
They had known it since 1945, when the Red Army “liberated” Poland from the “Nat-Zees” (whom the Soviets ‘dee-stroyed’, Google “Vistula-Oder Offensive”)…out of the frying pan, into the fire…
Fortunately for Lech Walesa and Solidarity, the incompetence that Communism produces was such that the Soviets needed 32 divisions, including 10 tank divisions, to pull off an invasion of Poland…and they barely got six “Motor-Rifle” and NO tank divisions by the planned assembly date. Else a tragedy, not unlike what happened to Hungary in 1956, would have likely ensured.