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garden police gone wild?
Dave Allyn wrote:
people do not have enough creativity to make up insane laws out of thier heads as preventive. there needs to be a case where someone says "there should be a law againat that" and then makes one. I'm going to go way off-topic here, but this is a funny story. I'm semi-proud to say that something I did resulted in a change in a law. About 20 years ago I made some extra money as a taxicab driver. There was a nice nightclub that was a good place to pick-up people who were too drunk to drive (or had planned to get too drunk to drive), and had enough money to afford to be in such a nice place. Translation: Good fares going a long way from downtown to nice suburbs. Across the street from the nightclub was a bus stop. The lane behind the bus stop was closed for sewer construction. It was hours after the last bus went by. Someone coming out the door of the nightclub could see a taxicab parked in this bus stop before they got out the door. It was the perfect place to sit and wait. I was out of the way, yet right there to scoop up a willing drunk. Along came the leader of the tactical squad, spending time between real emergencies just cruising around. He told me to move on, and drove off. By the time the traffic signal turned green, he was three blocks away, and I saw no need to drive away. He actually had circled around, and walked up behind me. He wanted to write me a parking ticket, but because of his rank, he didn't carry a ticket book, so he called one of his squad over to write the ticket. He apparently didn't make himself clear on the radio, because within 90 seconds, the whole tactical squad had the street closed-off, and they were breaking out the weapons as they surrounded my taxicab. (Yes. This is a true story! The tactical squad closed a street, surrounded me, and broke out their weapons!) Finally, some muscle-bound flunky hands me a parking ticket. (A friend of mine was a cop working in an adjoining district that night. I asked him if he had heard about the event. According to him, they started to shift manpower from his district to the district this occurred in as the regular patrols in that district went to help the tactical squad with traffic control. But then the whole operation was suddenly called off, which he thought was sort of odd. Once he heard my story, he had a good laugh. Seems the leader of the tactical squad was thought to be a bit over-the-top by the rank and file.) Well, I had more free time than people should have, so I took it to court. At the first appearance, all the judge let me say was guilty or not guilty. Three months later, a trial is set. I represented myself, and the assistant city attorney offers to reduce the ticket to a $10 fine. I decline, and she gets all upset about how I'm being stupid, and I'll loose. (Keep in mind it's only a $25, and I've already had twice that much entertainment!) I get on the stand and quote the city ordinance that says "bus stops" are for use of "common carriers". I then read the state statute that defines "common carriers" and specifically mentions taxicabs.I also mention that had attempted to say this at the first appearance in the other courtroom. The judge stops my defense, pulls out his copies of the ordinances and statutes, reads it for himself. He then asks the assistant city attorney whether she had even bothered to read the ordinance. She admitted that she hadn't. The judge immediately dismissed the case, and scolded her for having wasted so much time on a case that she clearly couldn't win. The judge also stated that it was a good idea that I would park my taxicab in order to entice possible drunk drivers off the road. (Incidentally, it was the same assistant city attorney who had a few months earlier lost a case against me. I was ticketed for running a red light. The cop testified that I was doing the speed limit of 30, and the light turned yellow when I was 50 feet away. The judge pulled-out his calculator. I went on the stand, and the only thing I said was that the officer was correct. I was found not guilty.) Within three months the city council was changing the laws that referred to bus stops. They changed all references from "common carrier" to "franchised motor bus". No action was ever taken to make it easier for drunks to have easier access to taxicabs. All that because some cop with too much time on his hands decided that he wanted to hassle a taxicab driver. The least they could have done is name the new ordinance after me. To sort-of bring this back on-topic, the same city council had also made it illegal to put food scraps on your compost pile, and declined to rewrite the noxious weed ordinance to allow people to grow ornamental grasses. I live 2000 miles away from that place, and it's 20 years later. One thing that the Internet has made it easier to do is see what's on the agenda of the city council where I now live. If something stupid appears on the agenda, I'll speak-up before any new dumb laws are passed. Living in a much smaller community, I think the council members are more familiar with the motives behind the items put in front of them, and are less likely to rubber-stamp some knee-jerk reaction from some bureaucrat who wants more power to hassle someone in particular. On the other hand, in too small of a community, one jerk can have far too much influence. -- Warren H. ========== Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife. Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants to go outside now. |
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