Should people who flash their headlights at oncoming traffic, warning them of a speed trap ahead, be:[list]
[li]punished for warning scofflaws and allow them to escape a speeding ticket?[/li][li]praised for causing people to obey the speed limit?[/li]
Judges 14:9 - So [Samson] scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
Praised. Speedtraps are nothing but shameless revenue generators. I simultaneously flash my brights to warn oncoming traffic and recite my little mantra, “May that radar gun give yon highway robber testicular cancer!”
I have heard in Virginia it is against the law. I am not sure, but they state the law uses some incite of violence law, or some riot law or some lame ass thing like that.
I do it all the time. I also do it to a trucker when he/she wants to get in front of me and it’s safe to do so.
No, my wife’s hairdresser’s roommate’s cousin works with someone whose brother’s mechanic told him about a police officer who came into his shop and told him about a gang initiation. They (the gang members, not the police officers, mechanics, or hairdressers)drive around with their headlights off and then shoot the first person who flashes at them. I heard of this before I went to snopes…
Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan
Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University
“The idle mind is the Devil’s playground.” -Professor Harold Hill
In California for a while, 2 years ago, you would be killed by roving gangs for flashing your lights for any reason. This included if an oncoming car had none one, or to signal a speed trap.
People here stopped doing it. Now no one knows where the traps are.
But I think we have a new varient here. In Connecticut, the gangs would come up from New York with their headlights off. They would only shoot if the oncoming driver flashed to signal them to put on their lights. Speedtraps had nothing to do with it, in fact the gangstas would appreciate being told where the cops were…
The gangs here are rather different. If you flash your headlights they will turn around and follow you. What happens next depends entirely on where you go:
a) if you go to use a payphone, they will sneak ahead and make sure to lace it with a lethal dose of LSD or some other narcotic.
b) if you go to use a bathroom, they will plant a deadly butt spider (arachnis gluteous) under the seat which will bite and kill you.
c) if you go to a hotel or home, they will break in, knock you out, and take a kidney. Being the good chaps that they are, they will leave you a note telling you what has happened and instruct you to call 911.
A few years ago, I heard about a case where a driver flashed his lights at someone (to warn them of a speed trap). The cops picked him up and charged him with obstruction of justice, or some such thing. IIRC, he argued successfully on First Amendment grounds that his right to communicate with other motorists by flashing his headlights at them was protected free speech.
BTW, the URL for Snopes that someone wanted to send Newton is here.
Never attribute to malice anything that can be attributed to stupidity.
– Unknown
