Seat Belt Laws
Take your "Click It or Ticket", and Stick It!
Page Contents
What Is Wrong with Having Seat Belt Laws?
100 Ways Cops Could Be Put to Better Use
Miscellany and Tidbits
What is Wrong with Having Seat Belt Laws?
This has to be one of the WORST
laws ever enacted. Nobody ever said that wearing a seat belt was a bad idea.
It's just common sense. In fact, I ENCOURAGE people to wear them whenever they
are traveling more than 35 miles per hour. But this is a terrible, terrible law,
for the following reasons.
1) In America, the land of the free, the government should NOT empower the local
police to stop your vehicle at their whim. To pull you over for no other reason
than to check to see if you are wearing a seat belt is a gestapo act. (Do you
remember that little moustached guy in Germany in the 40's? His government was
empowered as such).
2) This law is designed to protect a person from himself. We don't need laws to
protect people from themselves. We need laws to protect people from OTHER
people. If you are going to enact laws to protect people from themselves, why
stop at seat belts? How about making it against the law to drive with less than
six hours of sleep, or with a "dangerous" handicap, like obesity? How long
before we empower the government to go into our homes and check to make sure we
are not endangering ourselves in some other way?
3) While our police departments are "enforcing" these seat belt laws, they are
taking themselves out of service to enforce the legitimate laws, like preventing
rapes, burglaries, muggings, speeding, running red lights, and things that
really are important to people. Besides, I am less likely to wear a seat belt
since someone is trying to force me to do it.
4) It could be that this is a law designed to help fill the coffers of state
government. I can't tell for sure at this point.
I couldn't care less whether John Smith is wearing a seat belt while driving. If
the cops are too busy pulling people over, checking whether they are wearing seat
belts, how are they going to see John Smith riding my bumper, or otherwise
driving dangerously? Let's get our priorities straight!
100 Ways Cops Could Be Put to Better Use
On the interstate, stopping people from speeding.
On the interstate, stopping people from riding my bumper.
At the donut shop, keeping the neighborhood businesses from getting robbed.
Cruising the neighborhoods, having a presence, thereby deterring street crime.
Walking a beat, preventing muggings and holdups on the streets.
To be completed. We need some
input from you here.
June, 1999- Kansas: Kansas Highway Patrol organized seat belt
checkpoints. That's right. They formed a task force to stop your car, to see if
you were wearing a seat belt. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these
cops could be doing something important instead, like PREVENTING CRIME!
May, 2004- In Ohio, I heard a radio commercial air, where they were very very strong,
and even THREATENING to "crack down" on people who weren't wearing
their seatbelts. Why aren't they as serious about real crime? Why is this
suddenly such a priority? Is it because this "crime" is so much easier to
enforce than real ones?
May 18, 2004- The USA Today showed a picture of a police officer on the street, with the following caption: Seat-belt initiative begins. Buckle up: A Washington Metropolitan Police officer motions for a car to pull over during a "Click It or Ticket" checkpoint in Washington, D.C. The campaign is a drive to enforce seat-belt laws in all 50 states. If these cops weren't wasting their time bullying motorists, they could be available to prevent real crime in Washington D.C. How did enforcing seat belt laws take priority over murder, drugs, and burglaries?