I was recently pulled over for speeding, but was I really?

Speed Trap

Well, yes, technically I was speeding, but I wasn’t accelerating.  In fact, my foot was on the brake, so how can I be speeding?  Ironically of the three cars going down the street, I’m the only one that got a ticket.  The real kicker was that I was going slower than the other two cars (as they were pulling away from me since I was behind them), but I’m the one that got pulled over.  Why?  Because I was easy prey since my car was the last of the three cars going down the street.

Now the officer that pulled me over gave me a warning because of some decent verbal dancing, and the points that I made (or so I like to believe), but I’m sure others did get a ticket.

In many ways it’s very hard to go exactly 25 mph down the road that I was on.  My wife is constantly drifting to over 30 mph on that road, and I’m sure she is sick of me continually warning her (after all, I don’t want to get a real speeding ticket)!

The experience made me think of how many innocent people fall victim to such laws that seem like a hidden tax that exists to make the city money?  In my case, I actually get yelled at from my family for driving as slowly as I do.  So what a huge irony it would be for me to get a speeding ticket!

About 5 years ago, I got a small fine for parking in front of my house out on the street.  Apparently, unlike other cities, my city has a law that says you can’t park out on the street after a certain time.  Of course that’s not common knowledge… how unfair in my opinion…

Then we have the seat belt law, which I have huge disagreement with.  What if I were overweight and had problems with the belt?  I bet I would still get a ticket from an overzealous police officer.

Then you have complexities with the Taxing system.  Shoot, even Tim Geithner screwed up with hiring a housekeeper without paying taxes (along with others in the government).  I think it’s funny that top government officials can’t even avoid messing up the law.  I wonder why others in government don’t realize how bad it make us look when even top government officials cannot follow these incredible complex laws?  Are they bad guys too, or just victims like most of us of an complex legal system.

I starting to wonder if such complex and nonuniform laws are just a way to increase the revenue base for the various forms governments?  I wonder how much money a city brings in ticketing “speeding” drivers and other unusual laws?  I bet the revenue from ticketing and fining people that aren’t really bad guys is much higher than imagined.  To me it’s starting to seem like a another type of taxation, albeit hidden…

Thanks for listening to my rant,

MR