Triumphrat

LoVel · 08-14-2007, 05:33 PM

You're gonna just love this.

In Alabama this is the state troopers, Week To Take Back The Highways. There is an all out blitz to write as many tickets as possible to prove to the state legislature that we need additional troopers on the road. Every desk jockey and administrative person available is supposedly on the highways this week to make them a safer place.

Who are they taking the highways back from? I haven't seen anyone out there taking them hostage in quite some time.

Is there a job more useless than State Trooper? They do nothing but ride up and down the road writing people tickets for going 80mph on a highway where the speed limit is 70 and you could drive safely at well over 100 all day long. They use to ocassionally change a tire for a stranded motorist but ever since they put the assistance patrol on the road they don't bother with that anymore either. Last year during the AMA race at Barber's I saw one sitting shooting radar as a car burned on the interstate ramp just up the road from him. I guess he called it in. I mention the Barber's AMA race because that is the other time of the year around here that it is not safe to be out on a bike. The cops are psycho. They even put a chopper up so the sport bike guys can't run from them. We do not have a chopper up or available at any other time of the year.

I will say they are the only law enforcement group in the country that will walk up to a car in the middle of the night without back-up. I don't know if that makes them brave or stupid but it still doesn't make them useful.

Motley · 08-14-2007, 10:47 PM

Get a ticket didja?

tba-golfer · 08-14-2007, 11:15 PM

LoVel

Unless you are a true anarchist, I hope you take some time to re-think the positions you are espousing; both your characterizations of law enforcement employees, and your stated desire for a state-wide Alabama Autobahn.

Ricochet_Rabbit · 08-15-2007, 01:50 AM

LoVel

You sound to me like you have serious attitude problem. The troopers are following the orders they're given and doing the job they're paid to do. They didn't set the speed limits and I can assure you that most of them would rather be home on the weekend than working.

Do you want to ride as fast as you can? Go ahead and take a trip to Germany. There are plenty of stretches of autobahn where there's no speed limit. But guess what. There are plenty of stretches where there is a speed limit and it's enforced. Surprise. You can get a ticket. You will pay a fine.

You mentioned Barber. Maybe you ought to do a track day there someday instead of crying about not having your way on public highways.

idahotb · 08-15-2007, 02:12 AM

First let me say that I have a lot of respect and admiration for LEOs. It is a crappy job, and you never know when some SOB is gonna take a pot shot at you for no reason at all on a "routine" traffic stop. It takes a special individual to show up for that kind of work each day and show some kind of restraint. I know for a fact that I couldn't do it.
That said, I think that those same pressures tend to foster an "us vs. them" attitude, that though understandable fosters a predictable reaction like LoVel's. When a decision is made to increase enforcement for political or financial gain rather than to help to ensure traffic safety, I tend to agree that it is abuse of authority. It goes from there to Redneck Judges, to the Duke Lacross Team prosecutor, or all the way to Alberto himself. An orderly society doesn't depend upon it, rather a few petty (or prominent) officials get their jollys by scaring the citizenry. I don't know if objecting to that makes me a "true" anarcist; but I will admit to having some sympathies there as well.

Blah, blah, blah.

fugitive · 08-15-2007, 08:11 AM

I have mixed feelings about this. Where I get on I70 the trucks come in from the country at 90 mph. There are lots of weavers and tailgaters. I have gone through radar at 70 in a 55 and not been stopped, but when I abruptly changed lanes at 65 (in truck) I was followed for a way, and maybe should have been. Lately I have seen an unmarked car along this stretch and don't really mind it. My Bonnie actually is pressed to keep up with the fastest traffic along here at times and I don't think our locals with Mexican flag stickers; with dark windows and cellphones and attitude are really skilled enough to race. I don't like the old "fishing Hole" enforcement style, that is just for revenue.

ruscook · 08-15-2007, 08:32 AM

Hi lovel
I just posted this in another thread Cops in Alabama. Bikers should get out and take back the highways.

:

"When they do this you should organise a mass go slow ride. I've always wanted to do this

Be staggered in the lanes, like so (so they can't get you for 2 abreast)
|
___|
|
___|

and clog the highways going slow as a protest. Cops should be out catching real crims, not counting tickets and 10km over the speed limit of open roads.
"
Russ

J_DOGG · 08-15-2007, 08:52 AM

GET EDUCATED!!!!

The National Maximum Speed Law (in the United States) is a provision of the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act[1] that capped all speed limits at 55 mph (90 km/h). This cap was intended to conserve gasoline in response to the 1973 oil crisis. The law was modified in the late 1980s to allow 65 mph (100 km/h) limits. In 1995 it was repealed, returning the power of setting speed limits to the states.

We need to stand up for our rights. in 1974 they told us to slow down but not buckle up... since 1974 automobile technology has advanced at a staggering rate, cars are safer (seat belts, air bags, side air bags), more fuel efficient, more powerful, and can stop on a dime compared to the tanks on the road in 1974. Yet strangely our states have refused to raise the speed guidelines, why you ask. MONEY plain and simple their is big money in the ticket writing business and they are not going to let it go with out a fight.

Everyone needs to start fighting every speeding ticket with as much vigor as they put into this message board to "prove a point" that the speed limits are set way to low. In fact they are purposely set so 80% of the people on the roads are already driving over the limit... MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!!!!

Whisperinsmith · 08-15-2007, 08:57 AM

Quote, "Is there a job more useless than State Trooper?" Wow. For one, I'm kinda glad they are around.

LoVel · 08-15-2007, 11:24 AM

Okay, maybe I went a little over the top but what they are doing this week is all about empire building. Some small minded head of a state department is trying to make himself and his department more important and more influental. I watch this garbage go on at work every day and I know it is human nature but it can also be a serious waste of the tax payers money.

In Alabama any local county or city cop apparently has the authority to sit on the interstate and write tickets. When in a strectch of three miles on the INTERSTATE you pass the state trooper, the county sheriff and cops from two different cities something is wrong. Maybe I'm picking on the wrong people. Maybe the cities and the counties need to get off the interstate and let the troopers do their job.

No I have never gotten a ticket on the interstate. Normally I go about 75MPH and they will not stop you for that in a 70mph zone.

I do respect the job the LEOs do. This is just too much.