@*$#*^ small town speed trap

Yesterday afternoon the wife and I took the CR-V to lovely Paris, Texas to watch my nephew play in a little league tournament.

So I'm cruising up State Road 24 from Commerce to Paris. It's 7pm, the sky is clear, the sun is out, there isn't anyone ahead of me for miles, and the speed limit is 70mph. I've got the cruise set on 76mph, when State Trooper Bumfvck - coming from the other direction - whips a U-turn with lights blazin' and sirens screamin', like I'm some wanted fugitive.

That sorry SOB wrote me a ticket for 76mph in a 70mph zone. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I know that 'technically' what I did was wrong, but usually when I get a ticket, I know that I deserved it. This was just good, old-fashioned, inbred hillbilly revenue generation, plain and simple. :evil:

Even better? The damn ticket - for six mph over the posted limit - is a hundred and thirty bucks! Dammit!

When he pulled me over and asked me - literally - "Where's the fire, sonny?" I wanted to respond "Are you fvcking kidding me? I'd get rear-ended by a little old lady going this slow where I'm from."

Just to prove what a petty, small-town SOB this prick of a "peace officer" was, as I was signing the ticket, a tour bus drove by. The turbulence from the bus knocked Dudley Do-Right's hat off, even though the bus had pulled into the oncoming traffic lane to pass us. After Lieutenant Jackass finished issuing my involuntary tax summons and I was free to go, he passed me on a double-yellow line with no lights or sirens doing well over 85mph (don't you love it when the laws apply equally to those in power as well? :rolleyes: ), and two minutes later I came upon him again... lights blazing behind the very same tour bus that he'd just pulled over.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I know we've got some law enforcement types on this board, and I know all cops aren't crooked, inbred, power-tripping jackasses. Just the one I met yesterday. :bash:

There's always that myth that most cops will allow for a 5 to 10mph buffer only because the revenue drawn on those numbers wasn't worth the time... I wonder if some of these local muni's have changed their fine structure so that the lower speed violations make more fiscal sense.

Bummer for us though... we still lose out anyhow.

And oh yeah, sorry about the "tax summons"...

speeding tickets is just a way for the cops to make money..


if they didnt really want people to speed tickets would be 40000 dollars..
did you know that 1 percent of all accidents are related to speeding..

I hate dumb tickets..

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Originally Posted by Tool

I hate dumb tickets..

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http://www.dallasimports.net/forums/...ult/shutup.gif

In TX they make you pay tickets too fast.. back home in cali you can stretch it a few months..

There was something on this board a few weeks ago about zero tolerance speed limits, and a stricter enforcement policy going into effect. This guy had to be ticket hungry to write that one. Speedometers are subect to be at least 1% incorrect...
Unless you admitted to the officer you were in fact going that fast, I'd fight it...Chances are the judge would throw it out based on the 1% theory...

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Originally Posted by OzCop

There was something on this board a few weeks ago about zero tolerance speed limits, and a stricter enforcement policy going into effect. This guy had to be ticket hungry to write that one. Speedometers are subect to be at least 1% incorrect...
Unless you admitted to the officer you were in fact going that fast, I'd fight it...Chances are the judge would throw it out based on the 1% theory...

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But in order to fight it he's got to go all the way back to that jurisdiction... the one thing the most folks won't do when faced with out of state/county/city tickets.

anybody ever think of flooring it instead of stopping for a cop? I mean i figure those crown victorias or dodge intrepids are pretty beefed up to run but by the time they make a u-turn a miata is well gone, or even able to go through a whole maze neighborhood roads :rambo: hahaaa, i know, i'm just daydreaming but this keeps running through my mind everyday and things like this keep me driving right at the limit. :drunken: what was i typing?

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Originally Posted by Altiain

Yesterday afternoon the wife and I took the CR-V to lovely Paris, Texas

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Originally Posted by Mouglie

anybody ever think of flooring it instead of stopping for a cop? I mean i figure those crown victorias or dodge intrepids are pretty beefed up to run but by the time they make a u-turn a miata is well gone, or even able to go through a whole maze neighborhood roads :rambo: hahaaa, i know, i'm just daydreaming but this keeps running through my mind everyday and things like this keep me driving right at the limit. :drunken: what was i typing?

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Yeah that might work... lets us know.

Man...I was just going to post the same thing.

I was driving back from College Station in my dads newly aquired utility van saturday. Going through this small town im thinking I remember the cops being bad in this particular town so ill keep it down. Im going 40, watching my speed closely, then I come up to a blinking yellow light, slow down a bit, (remember this) come around a curv & this cop bust a U & throws on his lights. Im thinking, is he pulling me over, what the hell did I do?? This guy couldnt have beeen a year over 25, says I was doing a 41 in a 30, WTF 30?? is what I was thinking. I told him I didnt realize the speed was 30 & he fires back with this cocky ass "Yea I radar'd you back at the blinking lights (**remember I slowed down, also a half mile away & around a corner), yea there is a 3 block stretch that is 30 mph" he says that a like I was doing 85 in a school zone or something. Comes back & writes me a freaking ticket for 11 over, which by the way is $160. I seriousely doubt the radars work at that distance, & I wasnt going 41 when he supposedly radared me, so obviously he lied about it, but what can you do...
DAMMIT I hate those cocky ass small town Barney Fife tax collectors :-x

My uncle told me he was on the Marlin PD, but he sucked bad enough to be relocated to this half assed town, aparently hes famous around those parts.


I feel your pain brother, I think im going to try one of those small traffic lawyers, at least to keep it off my record. This has worked for me in the past.

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Originally Posted by Jiggerachi

My uncle told me he was on the Marlin PD, but he sucked bad enough to be relocated to this half assed town, aparently hes famous around those parts.

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There's a place that's more half assed than Marlin??? Mart is the only other town that is more dead. I have in-law family in both towns.

Sorry to hear about your tickets guys. :mad:

^Thats whats funny...he couldnt even cut it in Marlin...pretty sad.

My Uncle "in-law" is a bail bondsman, and runs a used car lot. What a place, I can't believe they've lived there so long.

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Originally Posted by Mouglie

anybody ever think of flooring it instead of stopping for a cop? I mean i figure those crown victorias or dodge intrepids are pretty beefed up to run but by the time they make a u-turn a miata is well gone, or even able to go through a whole maze neighborhood roads :rambo: hahaaa, i know, i'm just daydreaming but this keeps running through my mind everyday and things like this keep me driving right at the limit. :drunken: what was i typing?

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Yeah... that's a great idea. Even the bravest idiot can't outrun a radio.

My father (who is on the city council in our own small town) told me that if you get pulled over in a small enough town, to demand a trial by jury and alot of the times you will be sent on your way. Apparently the ticket may be $100-$200 but in most small towns the trial will cost the city $400+, costing more than the ticket. Just what my dad told me.

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Originally Posted by altiain

Yeah... that's a great idea. Even the bravest idiot can't outrun a radio.

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I actually knew a guy who tried to do this. It was in Florida. I don't know where. All I know is, the road he chose eventually turned to dirt through a construction site and got really bumpy, then it ran smack dab into the ocean, where he was forced to stop. He was driving an 80s Ford Thunderbird.

I believe he got two years probation and a dishonerable discharge from the armed services. MPs were involved somehow. I knew him years ago, so the story is a little fuzzy.

What I do know for certain is that he wound up on the ground, spread eagle, with handcuffs on. Ouch.

S.

What's the ol' saying...

"You can't outrun Motorola!"