Massachusetts State Police encourage speeding
In Nahant, Massachusetts, the causeway’s speed limit drops from 45 miles per hour to 35 miles per hour for a short stretch of road that connects the peninsula town to Lynn, Massachusetts.
This portion of the causeway is under the joint jurisdiction of Nahant Police and the Massachusetts State Police. But the two police departments apparently have differing views on what to do about speeding along that stretch of road. When it came to the attention of Nahant that lots of motorists were being ticketed for going 40 to 45 in that zone, they decided to do something about it: they stationed two cruisers near the speed drop and warned motorists to slow down.
It apparently has worked.
State Police Sgt. Richard Donovan thinks this is “ridiculous” and that “if Nahant officers were warning vehicles to slow down... they were interfering with state police operations.” They’ve asked the Nahant police to stop asking motorists to slow down.
If the speed drop from 45 to 35 is about safety, why is it ridiculous to successfully convince motorists to slow down?
For the state police, speeding laws are not about safety. The state police wants that revenue. If breaking the law means more money for the state governments, then state governments want motorists to break the law, and they will design roadways to encourage lawbreaking, and set speed limits that are unsafe so as to ensure that motorists will not follow them.
- Massachusetts: Town Cops Warn Motorists of State Speed Trap
- “Police in the town of Nahant, Massachusetts are flashing lights on their cruisers to warn motorists of a radar speed trap run by state police.”
- National Motorists Association
- “The National Motorists Association is a membership organization devoted to representing and protecting the rights and interests of North American motorists. Member services include assistance with traffic tickets, information on traffic laws, plus guidance and aid for local and state legislative projects.”
- National Motorists Association of Massachusetts
- The NMA of Massachusetts’ primary goal is to help “defend against revenue-driven speed limit enforcement done under the pretence of safety”.
More traffic laws
- Money more important than safe intersections
- When cities make money when laws are broken, they’ll ensure that those laws are broken more often. With red light cameras, this means shortening yellow times to unsafe levels.
- Red light cameras increase accident rates
- Yet another study showing that red light cameras increase, rather than decrease the danger at intersections.
- Bad laws cause crime
- “Honestly, the level of apathy I’m dealing with is maddening.” Bad laws make it easy to get away with breaking them.
- Speeding and budgets: Conflict of Interest
- Obviously, the money generated by speed laws creates a conflict of interest for state lawmakers, who will need more “lawbreakers” in order to meet budget numbers. But the conflict of interest doesn’t always stop there.
- Driving laws too complicated for DMV
- It appears that California’s driving laws are so complicated that even the DMV and the California Highway Patrol get confused.
- Four more pages with the topic traffic laws, and other related pages
More police corruption
- Public Prostitution
- Because sometimes a police officer dressed as a prostitute really is a prostitute. Especially in Chicago.
- America, your restrooms are safe
- No, you don’t have to worry about touching toes with a homosexual—unless he’s also a police officer, of course.
- Project Safe Neighborhoods
- A typical drug war euphemism kills Kathryn Johnston, 92.
- Targeting critics of the law
- When Canadian journalist Kerry Diotte criticized red light cameras in Edmonton, Edmonton police started looking for a reason to arrest him.