On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:35:34 -0500,
(Brent P) wrote:

>In article >, dwight wrote:
>
>> In this particular case, this 19 year old kid could have chosen to pull over
>> at any time in the 8-minute event without any lasting effects. Talk about
>> choices...
>
>What we need to evaluate is the traffic stop itself. Governments see the
>traffic stops as money making excerise and use underposted speed limits
>to increase their revenues. Cops see it as a way to catch criminals. The
>public in general is annoyed and hassled.
>
>But what happens when you get some kid or someone else who makes poor
>decisions? He cannot afford being selected for taxation so he runs. What
>about someone who's wanted on some stupid petty warrant? He runs too.
>Most of these people that have warrants, the government can just go to
>the address on their DL to find them. Instead it waits until they have an
>interaction with law enforcement at the side of the road.
>
>High speed pursuits could be cut down by getting rid of selective
>roadside taxation and just doing some simple police work to pick up
>people with warrants.
>
>
>
Nothing personal, Brent, but you objections to police activities in
the area of traffic enforcement have been obvious for a long time.

It's the same old story. Many people want the cops out stopping the
bad guys, as long as they are not the ones being stopped. And if the
suspect is injured, it's the cops fault for chasing them. In other
words, they give tacit approval to people who break the laws society
institutes.

That's as bad as the "illegal immigrant" problem. If someone enters
the country illegally, it's a crime. But the do-gooders want to give
the "criminals" amnesty. Would they see it the same way if an
"illegal" entered their home without permission, and demanded to be
fed, clothed, educated, and their medical taken care of? And if that
same illegal bore a child in that home and then demanded to be allowed
to remain their forever, would the owner still see things the same
way?

You don't want pursuits for traffic offenses because it's just another
form of taxation and revenue collection.... UNTIL.... your child is
the one killed by a speeder. One accident I will never forget... a
father was walking with his two children to the store to buy the girl
her birthday gift. A teen ripped out of a side street, slid sideways,
off the pavement, and the girl took the full impact. The father had
been able to push the boy aside.

Now, how many times had he driven like that and not been stopped
before he finally killed a child? But we never should have gone after
him until he did more than just speed and break traction? Maybe if we
had been able to stop him earlier, he might have learned a lesson and
it never would have reached the level it did. Maybe not. But we never
had the chance to find out because our pursuit limits were not more
than 5mph in a residential area, and not more than 15mph over the
posted on the highway.

We've already raised a generation which has little or no respect for
any kind of authority; not even parents, let alone the law. The ones
who were once the "bad guys" have become the "good guys". Why should
they care or have respect for anything when they know the police
aren't allowed to chase after them?