flashing lights to warn of cops (school, license plate, bill)

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by magic462

I was flashing my light to oncoming motorist so they dont get caught for speeding as someone got pulled over...

He asked me why I was flashing my light and I told him I was testing out my lights to make sure they work and I think there could be an electrical problem with my car.

Originally Posted by magic462

Yes that is true, but I told the officer I was making sure my headlight works due to some electrical issue.

Originally Posted by magic462

Never lied to him at all, lying is when you say one thing to him and change your story.

No, sorry, lying is saying something that is not true. It's a false statement. As you said here, you were flashing so an oncoming motorist wouldn't get caught. Then you told the cop you were testing your lights because there might be an electrical problem. That was a lie. By your own words that was not the real reason.

Not that lying is a ticketable offense, in this case, but cops are used to people lying to them, and sometimes they give a motorist a break if they tell the truth. He could have let you go with a warning. But in this case, your false story actually gave the cop cause to write you a ticket. As the saying goes, you shot yourself in the foot by telling that lie.

Originally Posted by magic462

So how could you get a ticket for electrical issue is my question, which its just something that happen to vehicle.

Police have the leeway to issue you a ticket for any equipment violation at all, no matter how small, even for a missing bulb on a license plate, or something dragging on the pavement, or a cracked taillight lens. In my experience, when I've been stopped for something like a burned out headlight, and I was polite and expressed appreciation for letting me know, a simple promise to get it in to a garage to be fixed immediately was enough for the officer to wave me off with a warning.

Once a ticket is issued, however, it gets more complicated. Depending on the judge you might be able to get a "mechanical ticket" dismissed if you go to a garage, get the problem fixed, and then bring the receipt in to court... or in some states, to a police inspection station. In this case, in order to do that, you'd have to pay a garage to do an inspection on your electrical system and switches and lighting. Might as well just pay the fine because you know there's no real problem.

[CyberCity]

Originally Posted by magic462

Never lied to him at all, lying is when you say one thing to him and change your story.

Huh? No, lying is not just when you "change your story". Lying is telling a falsehood anytime, in the beginning or middle or end.

Originally Posted by magic462

They didnt drive 50 miles out of hilo to go up to the pohakola training base not issue tickets...they clearly where looking to make money. Be a waste of drive. If they came back empty handed.

Fines paid as a result of traffic citations go into the state’s General Fund as mandated by law. The Police Department, the county and the Judiciary derive no income from these citations.

Hey, maybe the police were just trying to prove to you that they know how to do their job? :0

[magic462]

This is the way I see it.

Problem is, with the presumption of power and authority on their side vs “passive/obedient” citizens, police will continue to preemptively assert all sorts of prerogatives and make up prescriptive applications of law. They’ll get away with for the most part because of 1) the “chilling effect” effect 2) the very presumption of police authority/rectitude effect 3) the difficulty and expense of challenging police action 4) the apparent failure of many politicians to speak out against the growing unconstitutional police behavior and surveillance state, and more.

Speed traps supposedly exist to reduce vehicle speeds in areas where average speeds are high. They are not intended, orginially, to become traps where the police can make a bunch of money writing tickets. The intent of the police should NEVER be to trap as many people as possible in breaking the law, but rather to make sure that as many citizens as possible follow the law.

A citizen warning other citizens that there is a speed trap ahead causes drivers to slow down and drive safe…the supposed intention of speed traps. If that’s the case the speed trap IS working and the police should not be pissed about a thing. Instead they’re pissed they aren’t getting enough speeders and enough tickets written.

[cittic10]

Let this be a lesson to you...
Next time the po-pos ask you a question...
exercise your right to keep your rat trap shut!

If you didn't say anything, you probably wouldn't have gotten a ticket.
Let the cop conduct his own investigation and find his own witnesses and evidence. Why help him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4nQ_...ure=plpp_video

[Becca8377]

Originally Posted by magic462

Never lied to him at all, lying is when you say one thing to him and change your story.

Lying has nothing to do with changing your story. A lie is a lie, whether you change your story or not. You lied. Had you not, you may have not gotten the ticket.

[magic462]

Originally Posted by cittic10

Let this be a lesson to you...
Next time the po-pos ask you a question...
exercise your right to keep your rat trap shut!

If you didn't say anything, you probably wouldn't have gotten a ticket.
Let the cop conduct his own investigation and find his own witnesses and evidence. Why help him?


10 Rules for Dealing with Police (Full-Length) - YouTube

The thing the cop excerise his power by making me speak, he was angry for the get when the he came up. He forced his authority on me and explained to him what.

[terracore]

Next time (not that there is going to be a next time) just say "I was just saying "aloha!"

Or if you are going to lie (not that I condone lying) say "there's a goat in the road back there!". Technically more of a white lie, since if you go back far enough, there will eventually be a goat in the road eventually.

People who "understand" constitutional law and advocate silliness like "don't say anything!" live in a fantasy world where Rodney King was never beaten, cops never abuse their authority, and all police are well trained, competant professionals who have never said off the record that somebody was guilty of P.O.P. (pissing off police).

[HiloDiver]

This thread is just as entertaining as the OP's other threads.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by magic462

Speed traps supposedly exist to reduce vehicle speeds in areas where average speeds are high. They are not intended, orginially, to become traps where the police can make a bunch of money writing tickets. The intent of the police should NEVER be to trap as many people as possible in breaking the law, but rather to make sure that as many citizens as possible follow the law.

First of all, just because the police have a traffic enforcement zone set up to reduce violations in a specific area does not make it a speed trap. It's simple logic... where do you want the enforcement effort focused? Where the violations occur most often, or where they don't occur? The former, obviously.

Second, what makes a trap a trap is if there some unfair element to it, like a big change in speed limits without warning that doesn't allow enough time for normal braking. Another is clocking traffic at the bottom of a long steep hill, where a lot of people don't like to ride the brake to slow down.

Third, a speed TRAP involves some motivation other than simply enforcing the law... like jacking up tourists for hefty fines to pay the costs of running a small town. Florida is famous for this, where local police enforcing local regulations issue tickets that have to be paid to a local Justice of the Peace, with the money going directly towards paying the cop, the JP, and possibly even the Mayor. IOW, there is a financial incentive to issuing more tickets.

But that mechanism is missing in this case, because it is county police enforcing state and county regulations, and as has been already explained, the fines collected do not go into any local fund, and the cop gets no commission on the tickets he writes. So there's no real financial motivation involved. And the police chief has repeatedly said there is no quota system in place.

Originally Posted by magic462

A citizen warning other citizens that there is a speed trap ahead causes drivers to slow down and drive safe…the supposed intention of speed traps. If that’s the case the speed trap IS working and the police should not be pissed about a thing. Instead they’re pissed they aren’t getting enough speeders and enough tickets written.

Or maybe, just maybe, what upsets them is having a citizen appear to be interfering with law enforcement. Or having someone obviously lie to them about why they are flicking their headlights. I mean seriously, that was pretty lame, and could be seen as a form of disrespect. That's probably why they went looking for something else to get you on.

The irony to all this is that the easiest ticket to have had dismissed probably would have been a ticket for warning other drivers, because 1) I see no specific code in Hawai'i that prohibits doing that, and 2) courts all over the country have ruled that flicking your headlights is Constitutionally protected "free speech." But the place to argue that point is in court, not with the cop.

[magic462]

I never argued with the cop at that is where some of you folks are mistaken, I took the ticket and kept my mouth shut, after I said calmly what was going on. The way he spoke to me was if I was in a military boot camp and I was a cadet. Which I found very rude and refused to argue with him about this issue, and stick with my story. After that I kept my mouth shut he wanted to me to turn on and off the headlights. I did as he told me, and then he went back to the car, wrote me a ticket.