Police in our region doing a great job! (Pittsburgh, Northampton: universities, live)

[ML North]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

At what point are we going to stop allowing government to babysit us and take responsibility for our own actions? If someone's reckless driving hurts someone else, then they should be appropriately punished for that.

Discouraging a dangerous behavior that can cause serious accidents - especially when the discouragement is of little consequence to anyone - is clearly a much better outcome than one person dead + one person in jail, which is generally a terrible outcome for everyone involved (taxpayers included).

[youngabe]

[quote=Gnutella;24349212]This morning in metro Atlanta, a 23-year-old like OMG! from Alpharetta named Haley (or some permutation thereof) turned herself in to the police after causing an accident on GA 400 last month that killed a 62-year-old man. She was believed to be texting while driving, and is charged with vehicular homicide.

To be honest with you, if there's evidence that she was texting, then she better spend a long time in jail. I also believe that anybody under the age of 25 who comes from an upper-middle-class or wealthy background should be punished more severely for crimes than those who aren't so well-off-, because you'd figure that people coming from such a good background a) were taught better by their parents, and b) would realize that they have a lot more to lose. Maybe they should start losing it when they **** up.[/quote]

Is the bolded a serious comment? If it is, that's pretty flawed and screwed up on many levels.

Texting and driving is one thing that I am a big advocate against. No matter who you are, no matter what "technique", no matter how "good" at it you are, no matter what you drive, no matter where you drive, you CANNOT text and drive and be safe about it. If you believe you're capable of doing this safely 100% of the time, you're plain stupid.

People are making comments that we should be focusing on "bigger" issues. A cop investigating a shooting isn't going to be taken off the case to go sit on a roadway to catch texters. However, a cop who is on routine patrol or set up on a roadway to catch motorist pulling illegal moves (speeding, TEXTING) will be more aligned to look for texters. Saying that by enforcing texting and driving, we should be focusing on bigger issues, makes no sense to me, because of the example I just gave above.

All distractions aren't good for the roadway, but I do believe that texting is one of the worst. People do need to take responsibility for themselves and their actions, but sadly, we seem to live in a society where that mindset is in the minority.

[JayDiFiore]

When I'm assigned a new responsibility at work, I don't get to choose a previous responsibility to disregard. I trust the police force operates in a similar fashion.

[UKyank]

[quote=youngabe;24356321]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

This morning in metro Atlanta, a 23-year-old like OMG! from Alpharetta named Haley (or some permutation thereof) turned herself in to the police after causing an accident on GA 400 last month that killed a 62-year-old man. She was believed to be texting while driving, and is charged with vehicular homicide.

To be honest with you, if there's evidence that she was texting, then she better spend a long time in jail. I also believe that anybody under the age of 25 who comes from an upper-middle-class or wealthy background should be punished more severely for crimes than those who aren't so well-off-, because you'd figure that people coming from such a good background a) were taught better by their parents, and b) would realize that they have a lot more to lose. Maybe they should start losing it when they **** up.[/quote]

Is the bolded a serious comment? If it is, that's pretty flawed and screwed up on many levels.

Texting and driving is one thing that I am a big advocate against. No matter who you are, no matter what "technique", no matter how "good" at it you are, no matter what you drive, no matter where you drive, you CANNOT text and drive and be safe about it. If you believe you're capable of doing this safely 100% of the time, you're plain stupid.

People are making comments that we should be focusing on "bigger" issues. A cop investigating a shooting isn't going to be taken off the case to go sit on a roadway to catch texters. However, a cop who is on routine patrol or set up on a roadway to catch motorist pulling illegal moves (speeding, TEXTING) will be more aligned to look for texters. Saying that by enforcing texting and driving, we should be focusing on bigger issues, makes no sense to me, because of the example I just gave above.

All distractions aren't good for the roadway, but I do believe that texting is one of the worst. People do need to take responsibility for themselves and their actions, but sadly, we seem to live in a society where that mindset is in the minority.

I agree with you that the previously quoted bolded section is a bit scary if truly believed by the person.

& maybe I'm just cynical and see the law as yet another excuse to be used to pull over black people (or whoever they want) under a thinly veiled excuse for probably cause. That & my general belief that an individual policeman is much better served patrolling problem areas for more serious crimes rather then sitting by a road looking for driving infractions, especially in light of the city being undermanned in the first place in terms of officers on duty.


Completely off topic, but was there some anticipated activity at Mellon green (the former occupy pittsburgh area) yesterday? I went past it around 5:30pm and there were probably at least 15-20 cops hanging out around it.

[gg]

Originally Posted by UKyank

There's a shooting nearly every day here now & people think stopping texting should be a priority?

Do I think people should text & drive? No - are there much more important things the police should be investigating? Absolutely

Sorry, but another bad example. Those shootings aren't involving innocent people. They are all about turf wars in the drug trade. Get hit riding a bike on the side of the road by some idiot texting? That is a killing of someone obeying the law and possibly going to work or whatever. Not the same thing at all and 90% of the police effort is that dumb drug trade crap. I think the innocent people should be looked after as well, not just the drug dealers.

[Copanut]

Enforce ALL the laws, then people will take notice.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Enforce ALL the laws, then people will take notice.

Like the anti-jaywalking campaign downtown a few years ago - oh, the indignation.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by squarian

Like the anti-jaywalking campaign downtown a few years ago - oh, the indignation.

Yes, enforce every law to the letter.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Yes, enforce every law to the letter.

I don't like the sound of that plan.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by squarian

Like the anti-jaywalking campaign downtown a few years ago - oh, the indignation.

I wish they would bring that to Oakland. I can't tell you how many CMU students I almost plow over on a daily basis as they casually prance across Forbes Avenue because they're too lazy and/or stupid to walk to the nearest crosswalk.