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The National Motorists Association periodically rates the states on 17 criteria it says look at whether police and courts are "exploiting" motorists. Areas include enforcement practices, speed traps per capita, treatment of traffic ticket defendants and whether radar detectors are banned. The study concludes Wyoming and Idaho afford the most legal protections to motorists, and New Jersey and Ohio the least.
I dunno. I've traveled and driven all over the country and really haven't noticed much difference between states (wrt to "legal protection"). I've also gotten 4 speeding tickets in my life, and half of them were out of state. <shrug>
I'd like to see the exact methodology though - it's hard to comment when it's so vague.
yeah i agree with tahiti. i've done a lot of driving. Pennsylvania has checkpoints set up regularly during the summer for DUI or general safety checks (checking for seatbelts, easily identified issues with the car and such). in NJ, cops hide really well, but overall, i don't think they do much policing. I constantly see wreckless driving and speeding dangerously, passing on the right, cruising on the left, etc. so i'd have to question how they determined this...
I don't think New Jersey is "out to get" anyone more than other states as much as I think we're somewhat over-policed given the fact that every tiny little town has its own full service PD, and in many cases there really isn't much else for these guys to do but traffic. Boredom breeds a lot of this stuff.
However, cops I know from other states (MA, Michigan, Ohio) seem to uniformly agree that NJ law enforcement is pretty much a black eye to LE given the tacit corruption that goes with the PBA card/shield nonsense and everyone's 4th cousin 22 times removed getting out of tickets and such.
Yet they have no issues with the organizations in their state. Your comment is total BS. Hate to break it to your, but you were actually talking to Paul Blart.
Yet they have no issues with the organizations in their state. Your comment is total BS. Hate to break it to your, but you were actually talking to Paul Blart.
Actually, I was talking to an Undersheriff in Michigan, a Sgt. in Massachusetts, and a patrolman in Ohio, all who I know very well, one who is a family member.
Doesn't matter anyway if you think it's BS. The whole practice is still disgusting and something needs to be done about it. You simply can't have a whole segment of the populace literally shielded from consequences for breaking the law (even if it's just the traffic code) because they're carrying certain cards with them. It's corruption, nothing more than corruption, and it needs to stop. Even if you actually want to defend the practice of having every LEOs fourth cousin 22 time removed being shielded from traffic tickets (which I don't know how you could, but whatever...) how about the overall lack of respect for the law and those in law enforcement that is bred from this practice? One guy getting out of a traffic ticket that would have cost someone else a huge fine and years of high insurance premiums does more damage than ten police beatings caught on tape.
But in honesty persons, including you I fairly well assume, would use any method available to reduce, get out of, mitigate being harassed by the ticket system. Everyone does it. Even the State sets up a system where you pay extra to dodge the points, heavily promoted in every court room in NJ.
Who wouldn't use any card they had under their sleeve to get out of that?
But in honesty persons, including you I fairly well assume, would use any method available to reduce, get out of, mitigate being harassed by the ticket system. Everyone does it. Even the State sets up a system where you pay extra to dodge the points, heavily promoted in every court room in NJ.
Who wouldn't use any card they had under their sleeve to get out of that?
I wouldn't. I know a police officer, in fact, who will not even show his badge if/when he is stopped because he doesn't want special treatment (this officer does NOT live in NJ).
The bottom line, however, is that everyone DOES seem to be using these cards and it's gotten to the point where a sizable chunk of New Jerseyans simply do not care about the law and its consequences. Police officers don't enforce the law equally or justly because anyone with a silly piece of laminated paper gets a pass. It MUST stop!
The only laws we should really care about most of the time are the laws of physics. Disregarding those may get you killed regardless of how many cards or badges you do or do not have.
In my estimation cops should not be in charge of traffic, but then you have a crowded state like NJ,,,who's to say?
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