Police are that.
I mean, really, tell me the difference between a speed trap and highway banditry.
You’re going along doing your own thing, doing no harm to anyone (note: most speed traps in my area target low-moderate traffic areas because it’s the only way to catch the speeders. In heavier traffic, they blend in.) So, you’re going along, doing your own thing, when you get stopped and told to hand money over for your own safety.
Personally, I think it’s still better then the alternatives.
facepalm
CCTV CAMERAS ARE THE ANSWER!
Well, I never get tickets and always pay attention to speed limits. Funny how I never get any of those arbitrary highway bandit speed tickets you speak of.
But really, I pay a steady fee to not be harassed, and have a special license plate number. We don’t tell too many people, but I assure you, there is an immense cover up, and you don’t know about it. I also owe them my first born son and a pack of cigarettes each week. The system is just that corrupt.
Income from traffic tickets goes towards maintaining police staffing.
A non sequitur is a Latin term for a comment that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what it follows, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing.
Yeah, guys around here will rave about the speeding tickets they get and how speed traps are bullshit and the man is out to get them but … I never get speeding tickets.
It might be because I don’t speed but that can’t be it. Seems too simple.
Some speed traps are obvious though… like when there is a sudden and inexplicable drop in the speed limit, without any real reason like a change in visibility or population density, and cops just happen to sit there and wait for speeders. If you aren’t familiar with the area, then you get caught if you missed the one sign showing the drop in the speed limit.
This doesn’t quite fit here, but doesn’t deserve it’s own thread, so:
Officer Bubbles takes on the Internet; Internet laughs ruefully.
In short: laughably hyper-aggressive response to a protestor blowing bubbles near him results in a Toronto cop being dubbed “Officer Bubbles” on the internet, complete with a set of cartoons on YouTube featuring the adventures of Officer Bubbles. Bubbles files $1.2M lawsuit against YouTube and a bunch of anonymous posters who commented on the videos with insightful remarks like “fuck officer bubbles.” As a result of the lawsuit, the story is featured in all of Canada’s major news outlets, the cartoons were temporarily removed from YouTube but reappeared shortly thereafter, and orders of magnitude more people are insulting Officer Bubbles, usually followed with a challenge to for him to sue them.
(Video of Officer Bubbles earning his moniker here.)
Check out the linked articles at the bottom. One of those headlines is not like the others.
To be fair, hyper-aggressive happens in the taser thread. That was just “gentle pointless arrest.” Honestly I think the cop had a point, blowing bubbles in his face is a bit more than free speech.
H.
I’m impressed. I always thought the best way to slow down aggressive policing is to laugh at them. It’s good to see the general public trying shame for a change instead of hitting their heads against the brick wall of “department policy.”
I’m not surprised at the response – bullies always throw a fit when they have to take what they dish out.
The point was actually that trying to sue the internet for making fun of you is stupid and amusing.
But as to the actual incident: Snarling in fury at someone for blowing bubbles is an amusingly over-aggressive and unprofessional over-reaction (contrast with the smile from the female cop next to Bubbles), and threatening someone with assault charges over bubbles is just silly. Hence, the internet meme.
If he’d actually gone through with his threat, he would’ve spent many thousands of taxpayer dollars to prosecute a girl with assault of a police officer, over bubbles. It isn’t even that he was standing there doing his job and she walked up to him and started blowing bubbles in his face, he actually ran up to her to tell her, I mean, hiss in a red haze of roid-rage at her, that she’d be charged with assault if she didn’t stop blowing bubbles. And even if he had just been standing there and she started blowing bubbles near him, “Ma’am, would you mind not blowing bubbles near me? Thanks!” would have been the human, professional response.
Getting back to the point: Officer Bubbles is suing people for saying stuff less critical than I say above.
The bubbles thing was just an extra incentive. That young woman was apparently arrested for the same reason that many others at the event were arrested: because she wore a backpack and had a phone number written on her arm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVwXOKZh4Os (longer version of the story - ~12 minutes)
Getting back to Forfeiture…
The county commissioners have given up their effort to stop Roach from spending $25,000 on high-powered rifles, shotguns, helmets and shields to outfit a one-of-a-kind courthouse security team.
The commissioners, who approve the district attorney’s overall budget, sought a legal opinion but found that Roach can use asset forfeiture funds for the purchase.
Spencer Gifts LLC could face criminal charges in the coming days because the city says the national retailer is operating an unlicensed adult-oriented business at Rushmore Mall. On Monday, the Rapid City Police Department seized more than 2,000 sex-related products from Spencer’s as possible evidence that the store meets the definition of an adult-oriented business. City Attorney Jason Green said Tuesday he anticipated filing charges within a week based on the information gathered from Monday’s search warrant. “We’ll get the reports from the police department and determine what charges to file,” Green said. Under city ordinance, operating an adult-oriented business without a license is punishable by a $200 fine and 30 days in jail for every day a business fails to register. Businesses can sell adult merchandise without a license as long as it does not make up a “substantial or significant portion of its stock.”… During Monday’s raid, police officers entered Spencer’s about 9 p.m. and did not start loading the boxed merchandise into police vehicles until after midnight. On multiple occasions, officers brought in more cardboard boxes, and police Lt. Tom Vlieger, who oversaw the search warrant’s execution, confirmed there was more merchandise affected than they had anticipated. The search warrant, which was signed by Magistrate Judge Scott Bogue, allowed officers to seize all merchandise designed for use during sexual activity, books, films or other visual representations of sexual activity or anatomical areas, novelty items depicting genitals or exposed female breasts and packaging of items depicting sexual activity or anatomical areas, according to court documents. An inventory of all of the seized merchandise included in the court documents listed more than 2,000 items.
That’s going to be one hell of a retirement party at the PD.
So who serves the jail time?
According to that article, a Spencer’s has been in that mall since 1979. 30 years later and someone just now noticed the gag sex merchandise? There’s got to be more to this particular story. Either someone’s grandmother walked in there for the first time and flipped out or some new ordinance passed in Rapid City would be my guess.
This seems particularly egregious, though it’s clearly told from one side only. I’m looking forward to hearing the justifications from the city (and feds?).