When your battery fails and your gravity works
What do a car that won’t start and a bus that won’t stop have in common? Both are consequences of our reliance on computers instead of mechanical interlocks. I was asked to look at a rental car that wouldn’t start. I got in. Turn the wheel to unstick the key, turn the key, and start […]
The airheads of Troop E
The other shoe dropped in the Massachusetts State Police overtime scandal. A closet full of shoes. Twenty-one officers are in trouble for not making ticket quota. Twenty years ago the euphemism was “quality violations.” Quality meant dollars. Officers who didn’t bring in enough revenue would lose overtime. Leadership put that in writing and learned a […]
The National Speeding Ticket Board
The federal government told itself to tell local police to write more speeding tickets. That’s business as usual. It also told itself to make it illegal for a road not to be a speed trap. That’s new. This advice comes in a report by the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB consulted “stakeholders” — the ticketing […]
Sticks and stones
Recent news reminds us that politically incorrect speech is worse than murder. Police rounded up a gang of rogue ATV riders. In the struggle one rider was shot in the foot. And then the system went off script. A Massachusetts State Police officer could face charges for the shooting. He’s already suspended without pay. Not […]
Flashback
Recently I saw something I hadn’t seen in Massachusetts for a long time: another driver flashed to warn me of a speed trap. I grew up in an area where flashing headlights meant “speed trap ahead.” Sometimes they meant “you’re an idiot”, but mostly they were a helpful warning. When I started commuting in slow […]
Information warfare
It’s one of the most famous scenes in science fiction. The astronaut gives a command to his robotic ride, who responds “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Did you think when the revolution came your car would show the same attitude? HAL was stupid. He talked too much. The real revolution is […]
Reducing the profit motive
Missouri Representative Shamed Dogan filed a bill to make police stop stealing your stuff. The title is boring: “Prohibits law enforcement agencies from transferring seized property to a federal agency in forfeiture litigation.” The effects would be huge. The bill aims to take some of the profit out of policing. Letting police keep the revenue […]
Another officer gets away with it
In recent legal news we have another serial criminal police officer, Texas State Trooper Jared Snelgrooes, and another team of prosecutors fighting against your civil rights. The aforementioned officer has a habit of pulling over cars because they are clean. (Thanks to thenewspaper.com for recent coverage and leagle.com for an older case.) He knows he’s […]
Wag the dog
The woman at the headquarters desk in Prairie Dog State Park didn’t like prairie dogs. I thought that strange until I saw the rest of the park. It’s a place to camp or put your boat in. The prairie dogs are an afterthought, confined to a few acres. So much of government is like that, […]
Make $300,000 working at home
In Massachusetts, where public employee unions own the legislature, guaranteed overtime is one of the perks of being a police officer. City police spend paid details standing around watching other people work. State Police make their money running speed traps. Once again a system of structural overtime breeds corruption. Troop E is the revenue collecting […]