Woman jailed for holding up "SPEED TRAP" sign
 

I love Houston cops. A couple months ago my GF and I called the police because there was a guy running around in the Washington Street trying to fight people in cars. We sat there and ate dinner, no police ever came. Then, a couple weeks ago, there was brawl we watched with about 10-people outside of the bar we were in on Montrose. When we called the police the dispatched asked us if we were in the fight, and since we weren't we shouldn't call. The law never came, lol.

Katie and I go to the Whole Foods frequently, if that girl was in the street jaywalking, she'd be dead.

I like the part where the cops broke her phone, icing on the cake. Aren't the responsible for that since it was damaged in their possession?

Years ago, a guy that was ticketed for flashing his lights to warn oncoming drivers that a cop was ahead took the matter pretty far up through the courts. It was decided that it wasn't obstruction of justice, but rather free speech. that's probably why she got the ticket for being in the road, and not warning the drivers, they knew it wouldn't stick.

In a case like hers can you sue the cop for something and would it work?

Traffic cops really give the profession of law enforcement a bad name.

their job is to give tickets. nothing more.

Is it different in other states, because in Maine it seems the cops that give speeding tickets are the same ones responding to domestic abuse and noise complaints. They give themselves a bad name on traffic duty, but it's not their whole job. I'm not sure what point I was trying to make with this post, I lost my train of thought.

I wouldn't be surprised if Officer Matthew Davis was involved in that. He is well known around Houston as the traffic officer with the biggest ego. Little story about him:
HPD OFFICER MATTHEW DAVIS SAYS HE’S JUST DOING HIS JOB!

He will write you tickets and tell you to go to court to fight them, because he gets overtime for showing up to court when those are brought up. He is just a revenue machine and his superiors love him.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...es-1826052.php

lol. i do forget I live in one least dangerous counties in the country.

Maine is pretty high up that list, which I assume is why the cops have so much free time to harass drivers.

because that's their job. Cop I know says he sits in same place everyday and just runs plates. Says you wouldn't believe how may ticket he writes just from doing that from hits on plates.

he told me his job is to litterally go out and write tickets.

if he doesnt write tickets, they assume he's not doing his job.

The whole "protect and serve"... it's all bs. Their primary goal from appearance is to make money and "protect and serve" last.

I live on a county where almost every night the red necks ramble on with their atvs and trucks behind the neighborhood, all the way to the early morning hours, with open exhaust etc. Have called gazillion times and nothing ever happens.

Got a humble 110cc atv for my boy and drive it around the nehighbor with the governor on 10 mph, just got stopped that cannot drive it on the neighborhood at almost 11:00 am.

Like the last time a buddy wanted to file a hit and run report, and the cop stated the report cannot be submitted because the other party was not present, major fail!

keep voting for less and less freedom for more and more "security"

The state police force in Ohio is called the "Highway Patrol" - most Ohioans probably don't even grasp the concept of "state police" because we have nothing in Ohio called "state police".

Half of the city police force in Columbus is in a sub-unit called the "Freeway Patrol", for the longest time, I thought "Highway Patrol" and "Freeway Patrol" were exactly the same thing. They effectively do the same thing - their primary purpose in life is to write speeding tickets. The worst part is, it wouldn't be an uncommon thing to see the Freeway Patrol (City Police), the Highway Patrol (State Police), and a Deputy Sheriff all in the median on the same stretch of highway.

in VA you hardly see local police on the highways, state police take care of it.

Not sure the sheriff has the jursidiction/legal authority to patrol streets, they are just used to issue warrants and transport people to jail and such.

I have been pulled over by an unmarked homicide detective before. that was funny.

In most places sheriffs have the authority to write tickets, but don't because they are ELECTED and are smart enough not to piss off the people that elect them.

You are confusing The Sherriff with the Sherriff's Department. :)

When police maliciously violate your rights they are doing it "in the best interest of public welfare" and will never be liable in a civil case. Imagine how awful cops would make your life if you took them to court?

I contested a parking ticket and the parking enforcement lady issuer was present, and actually arguing against me in court.

that was annoying.

I'm fighting a Houston ticket for an "obstructed front plate" which is mounted on one side of the bumper rather than the center. The cockfag cop claims that it cannot be on the driver side and can't be read due to not ~5° angle. This is less of an angle and the same position as an Evo, lol. I got it on the Katy Tollway.

One of my friend in HS did the same thing in a speed trap zone near my HS. He had an old pizza box that he wrote "cop ahead" on and held it up when cars would pass. Eventually another cop went by and pulled over. He booked it out of there and was not caught.

my ticket for was obstruciton of a driveway. i was not obstructing it, i took a pic and the judge agreed.

And you wasted how many hours of your day to try to prove your innocence...

Cops give cops a bad name in general. Mostly becoming a cop is about the power trip to satisfy their personality disorder and becoming a cop also likely has something to do with the C or D student they were in high school. Only a fraction of what they do on the job is really beneficial to society.

Bob

had to take 2 hours of personal time and spent a few dollars at rite aid printing pictures. meanwhile she got paid overtime.

Turning a profit off citations and the penal system in general is an infringement on liberty and tyranny in the most pure sense of the world. Roping someone into a criminal penalties system over license plate decorations and minor technicalities is something the justice department should be involved in as an abuse of power.

Brain's was probably a non-moving violation that did not involve any points, but rising insurance rates and difficulty having future tickets resolved is always worth considering before just admitting guilt and paying the fine.

Perhaps ironically, I think all the technology that allows cops to be more efficient makes them much more maligned. A couple of decades ago, an officer would "walk the beat" and might stop and chat and you would see the same faces on a regular basis. Now, they sit in their cars, messing around with their laptops and the only time you ever interact with an officer is during a negative encounter.

Edit: And I try to make a distinction between traffic cops and most other types, particularly detectives. "FTC" is specifically designated toward the former. There are worthwhile detectives out there trying to actually serve a positive role in society.

hell if I was going to pay $50 for parking were I did everyday for over a year.

she argued in court it was hard for her to turn her truck around at the end of our cul-de-sac and that's why she ticketed me. But that wasn't an option on her little parking device, so I got one for obstruction.

I also had to jump through hoops to get a court date, and every step of the way they warn you that if you lose you have to pay $61 in court fees, making the ticket $111 if I failed to prove my case.

I've never had it so hard to get a parking ticket resolved, and I've probably had at least 10-15 dropped in court/through mail. I've never had to argue with the issuer like I was at a Judge Judy taping for a freaking parking ticket!

I agree.

Bob

Automated photo ticketing machines seem to be the ultimate in ticketing efficiency. And yet when they do set up that highly efficient trap we force them to put up a fixed sign warning that that people are losing liberty and about to be taxed by a form of law enforcement.

If law enforcement becomes a major source of revenue then it will ever become harder for the average person to live their life without being caught being a criminal. Everyone must be a criminal for that system to work.

It is even worse when the profit motivated privite sector gets involved. That is how fascism works.

Bob

You mean like how my county leases two traffic cameras and I am assuming montoring and support from a private company for $19,000 a month. Heard this on the news the other day and I was pretty disgusted. Tax dollars at work right there. Not that I really blame the company for taking the business. I am much more irritated that they are dedicating so many resources to policing two intersections that are not even overly dangerous, just very busy.

drones.

You would be surprised how much money those automated ticketing companies pay to politicians directly, and for lobbying and propaganda. Hell they were even exposed bombarding online message boards with paid trolls on the subject on many occasions.

Interesting how they can reason an intersection near me that never had a serious injury accident in the last 10 years now generating on average several hundreds of dollars a day in ticket revenue for American Traffic Solutions is making things safer for the community.

American Traffic Solutions is a privately held Venture Capital backed company largely owned by Goldman Sachs.

Bob

Shoulda been a cop man, corruption at it's best.

The amount of money thrown at politicians does not suprise me at all because it makes good business sense to do so. The thing that suprises me is that people seem to see this as the business being evil and therefore try to regulate the business as opposed to regulating the politicians. Businesses will adapt however possible to make money. It is the politicians that should be held to the standard of not being influenced by financial gain. People say this is unrealistic and maybe it is but I personally expect politicians to be held to the highest standard. The only standard I hold a business to is the law, nothing more.

that's why im the admin here! and I also like making a crap ton of money.

It’s kind of a circular argument. Not all regulation is bad and no regulation is often much worse.

Private companies shouldn’t be allowed to put up private for profit ticketing machines to take from the public with the force of government and law enforcement.

There ought to be a law against that.

Oh no we don’t want any regulation against the free market which would harm business. We can't make a law because that would be regulation.

Well we should elect people to represent the will of the people in government making the rules and implementing the funtions of government if we don’t like how business is behaving or the loss of freedom.

Can’t elect good people to government because they are too corruptible by money.

Right wing supreme court – “Corporations are people” “Money is Speech” You loose.

In this State several city referendums resulted in the public voting out the cameras and some elected officials were also voted out based on this issue.

The courts recently ruled the referendums of the people in this matter were not binding because the cameras were for their own good and the elected officials were the ones to make those decisions. You loose.

Scary times we live in.

I'm fine with the private sector getting involved in law enforcement, but the contracts need to be "firm-fixed price" rather than "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity". This still supports a free market, but does not motivate increased quantities. "Throwing my ass in jail" should not financially benefit any government nor individual.

I lost the picture back in the iPhone days (good riddance), but I had an image of my car driving through a green light, and a citation for running that light. My only option was arbitration in Arizona which required me to appear in person. lol

Red light cameras are as much of an infringement on my rights as Border Patrol and DUI roadblocks, and I can't believe this nation lets it happen.

When you're growing up as a kid, you pretty much assume that "the customs of your village are the laws of nature." So I really didn't appreciate this until I moved out west to the free state of California, but...

The stereotypes promoted by movies such as Smokey & The Bandit about the state of traffic enforcement in the southeastern US, especially in non-metropolitan areas, are pretty much true. Traffic enforcement IS a major revenue generator in these towns, and has been for more than half a century.

Whenever I go back home to visit the family, I feel as though I'm living in a police state insofar as the number of patrol cars I see pulled over to the side of every major road, with an officer writing a ticket for going 5 MPH over the speed limit, or failing to come to a complete stop before turning right at a stop sign wherein you have clear visibility in all directions for at least a mile, etc.

As much as people seem to have it in their heads that California is some kind of communist regime, we really do have a lot more freedom on the roads than y'all down there in the moonshine belt.

I forgot which scifi book it was, but this thread reminds me of the future society that made traffic infractions a capital crime,...because they needed the body parts.

I wasn't really arguing that all regulation is bad. There needs to be a certain amount of regulation because of the way the world and people actually work. I was referring to the fact that lately the first thing people want to do is regulate a business every time they hear about how much money is spent on policy. Not enough sustained attention is placed upon the political process involved that leads the businesses to operate this way. Minimal regulation on business is key to stimulate competition and innovation but there needs to be a certain amount of base regulation to control the behavior of those who pose threats to the public. Government on the other hand needs to be highly regulated or otherwise kept in check to ensure that those in power do not take steps to increase, prolong, or extort their influence beyond it's intent.

Many on the right have used the deregulation argument to remove things that proved to be needed such as the repeal of Glass-Steagall for instance. And they would do things like repeal the EPA so we can go back to flaming rivers, contaminated ground water, and choking life shortening smog pollution and acid rain and the like. They will twist reality to try and convince that regulation caused companies to behave badly at every instance which is pretty twisted logic in a lot of cases. I trust business to make a profit however they see fit I do not trust them to do the right thing, not infringe on citizens liberty and prosperity, or even behave in a sustainable manner without a significant number of rules. Because the world is constantly changing rules need to be constantly updated some things may be removed some things added. Our government was setup for that purpose. I want my government to use intelligent regulation not tied to a philosophically hard line static view one way or another. Those that think the answer to all the problems of our civilization can be found solely in unregulated free market are Idiots or they think this philosophy is to their advantage somehow.

Bob

are cars not better than horses shitting everywhere?

FEMA spend $75m and is going to spend more making sure a toad population is not infringed-upon in Bastrop Texas from the fires last year, even though there is a high liklihood there are no toads there...like 3 have been found. NEPA needs work.

I'm not sure if you are implying that I said businesses behave unethically because of regulation, but if that is what you are doing you misunderstood my point. I meant that, for politics specifically, businesses behave a certain way because polticians create an environment that makes it easy if not encouraged.

Businesses generally behave unethically or illegally because those in charge are thinking about the short term and how to boost profits now without considering all variables for the long term (i.e. public backlash and subsequent loss of sales) because all they care about is their next bonus. This is where the totally "free market" theory fails to take in to account that businesses are often headed by people who do not give a ---- if the business exists in a year if they can make enough money to retire before then and therefore will do things like dumping toxic waste to cut costs or pull an Enron.

+1. You don't know what you don't know.

The majority of drivers here have no clue what the world could be like to have drivers follow the simple rules "keep right when passing" and "drive as fast as is prudent", like in Germany.

And most Americans, not having lived overseas, have no idea that there are rules and regulations against everything here, and how stifling it can feel.