Let’s open a bottle of John Adams
A resident of Newton, Massachusetts explained in a public meeting how well the parking system worked for him. When long time residents had a party, police didn’t enforce parking laws. When college students had a party, police towed all the cars away. I shouldn’t pick on just Newton here. The Traffic Council has contempt for […]
Today’s “dumb criminal” award winners
A little advice to people thinking of taking the equipment Pennsylvania police use to measure speed: where there’s a speed trap, there are police. Pennsylvania’s speed trap law requires township police to place equipment by the roadside rather than use radar. Sometimes one of those gadgets is left apparently unattended. But — if you want […]
An expensive moment
She’d had her new car less than two weeks when she had the accident. She drove off with a ticket for failure to yield right of way when the law said she had right of way. I didn’t see the collision, but I got there in time to hear drivers tell their stories and they […]
Two search and seizure cases from Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided two cases recently about how far police can go when drivers of a car are probably up to no good but there’s no real evidence. Park near home In Commonwealth v. Martin the court ruled against police who chased a kid into his house. Three people were sitting in […]
Who says laser works?
The National Motorists Association got a complaint that Rhode Island courts were accepting laser evidence when they shouldn’t have. The problem with this way of thinking, however much sense it may make from a rational point of view, is an evidentiary rule of a state court system can’t be wrong (legal sense) simply because it […]
Sober as a cop
Colorado state trooper Brian Pettit got community service for a drunk-driving wreck that would put any of us civilians in jail. Sadly, this is totally ordinary. Drunk guy runs a stop sign and gets nailed. Happens every day. Police find a fellow officer drunk behind the wheel and don’t arrest him. Happens every day. You’ve […]
Nevada DOT gives an inch
Nevada DOT recently posted 80 mph on part of I-80, leaving most of the highway posted 75. This was a political compromise. The legislature had asked for 80 as a general speed limit but the governor’s people didn’t want any of it. The order went out last year to collect speed data on part of […]
The rules of the game
A long time ago, hopefully beyond the statute of limitations, I was at a Fourth of July party the BATF would have gone wild for. Drunk people with illegal fireworks and illegal cigars. Sober, I nearly got incinerated by a bonfire. Seems like a miracle nobody got hurt. The only harm was done by traffic […]
The dog ate my report
Before we take a look at what the crooks at Nevada DOT are up to, I want to tell a story about a former employer. The company was catching a lot of unwanted attention from prosecutors and competitors. Corporate lawyers adopted two policies. First, they had the computer automatically delete email to keep it out […]
A rose by any other name
If you’re a gardener in the East you can probably recognize the Japanese Beetle. You don’t do it by the book. There is a book. It’s complicated and you need a microscope. For this beetle, a quick look is good enough and experience does the rest. Our brains are good at pattern recognition. Some Connecticut […]