Police are Narrow Minded Morons!

[stormy652]

True that, Fallen. Great post!

[Captain_Amazing]

Except that post didn’t talk about people stopped without cause. Only one person was mentioned in the article, and he was pulled over for having a broken headlight. I’m not sure if driving with a broken headlight is illegal in Mississippi, but I know police stop people for that reason in other jurisdictions, also. The article doesn’t say how the other people arrested for not having insurance were found out.

[City_Gent]

Regarding laws requiring liability insurance: The only way insurance companies can make a profit is by managing risk; i.e. charging more for people perceived to be more likely to make a claim. But when it’s required by law to have insurance, then doesn’t that take away the possibility of profit being made, taking the population at a whole? If everyone has to be insured, then every time there is an accident, some insurance company has to foot the bill. There’s no way for the insurance companies that issue policies in the state to profit from this situation, assuming an efficient market. The average premium will be just enough to cover the claims that are paid out.

Therefore, wouldn’t it be a better idea for the state to charge a “liability fee” when you renew your driver’s license, based on your driving record, then pay all claims directly? There would be no net impact on the economy, because nobody can make a profit on that particular population anyway. That way consumers wouldn’t have to pay for profit, advertising, new solid gold crapper for the CEO, etc.

[Monty]

*Originally posted by FallenAngel *
I have to strongly disagree here. They are not just “doing a job”. Every time a police officer enforces an illegal law, rule or regulation he or she is every bit as culpable as the politician or other idiot who created the rule. The police are the guns the “leadership” uses to enforce its will.

Newsflash for you: there’s no “illegal” law here. The law was passed pursuant to the city charter, county charter, state constitution and the federal constitution. That makes it legal; i.e., law. There may, however, be an unconstitutional law and that’s determined via the courts, culminating with the US Supreme Court, if it reaches that far. I really don’t recall any police officer being arrested or jailed for enforcing “separate but equal” access, although those laws were ruled unconstitutional. Care to throw a verifiable fact in here; you know, just to clarify things?

Last time I checked, there were exactly zero one-person dictatorships in the United States. That really blows out of the water your assertion about “the politician or other idiot” creating laws.

In any case, police and guns aren’t what politicians use to enforce their will. On the contrary, politicians getting elected into office his how the plebiscite enforces its will on the government.

As a result, every police officer who has enforced an unconstitutional law, detained a citizen without probable cause and proper warrant, performed a search at a roadblock or on less than probable cause, participated in a “no knock” raid, used force of any kind in an interrogation, or any of the thousands of other complaints we hear about police officers every day is one of two things:

That officer is either:
a) Too stupid / ignorant to realize that he or she is being used by some insulated special interest to enforce that interest’s agenda at gunpoint and without regard to the lives or liberties of those affected, or

b) Too evil to care.

Nice way to insert comments about certain acts which are illegal, and for which police officers and departments have been punished to bolster your fallacious argument.

BTW, “no knock” raids are legal provided the judge issued a warrant for such service. Kind of convenient for you to leave out that little tidbit of fact from your flight of fancy, wasn’t it?

I’m not saying there are no good cops.

I’ll have to say you’re fibbing here, based on the title you gave this thread.

I WILL say, though, they are few and far between.

Care to provide some statistics for this statistical remark?

Most follow orders blindly,

Or even this one?

and then they and their defenders say, “They’re just doing their job.” I will remind the readership here that defense didn’t play for the Nazis at Nuremberg, and it is no more valid here.

Nice way to demonize those who don’t hold to your paranoid world-view, there.

Whether they are shaking down motorists on trumped up searches or incinerating innocent citizens, the OFFENSE is the same; only the severity is different.

First: do you have any proof that anyone was stopped, in this case, on “trumped up” charges. Please bear in mind that a broken headlight, broken tail-light, inoperative blinker, and the like are considered defective safety equipment and that’s a good enough reason for a police officer to stop the driver of said unsafe vehicle.

BTW, what’s the offense? Oh, yeah, “enforcing the laws passed pursuant to the city/county charter, state & federal constitutions.” Kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t outlook, huh?

In case you missed it: I am not equating, as you are, “all police” with “the Nazi regime.” For one thing, they aren’t the same thing. For another, I don’t have your paranoid world-view.

[Monty]

Whoops! Please consider my posting above:

I’ll have to say you’re fibbing here, based on the title you gave this thread.

To read:

I’ll have to say you’re fibbing here, based on the way you demonized legitimate acts in your listing of “crimes” by the police above.

Thanks.

[Scylla]

Uninsured motorists are the scum of the earth.

I applaud police intervention and more stringent penalties. Uninsured motorists are selfish and irresponsible citizens. They should lose the right to drive permanently, and they should face prison time for the reckless endangerment they place others in. Their abuse of the driving privilege forces innoncents to face pain and suffering, as well as financial ruin should they show the same disdain for basic common sense while they’re behind the wheel.

I don’t understand the OP’s point of view. It’s the most unsupportable dumb bullshit I’ve ever heard.

[Monty]

Scylla: The funniest thing about the OP is that the link provided is to an article whose text contradicts the title of the article. Click on the link and then scroll down to where it talks about the law in question providing for the local authorities to detain the uninsured drivers at the authorities’ option.

[BunnyGirl]

Mouth, I was always pretty sure that they weren’t required to have insurance if the car was paid off. Almost positive, although I will concede that I may be wrong (but I don’t think so. )

We always owed on our cars and thought going without insurance even when we did pay them off was just stupid, so we never did it.

[Homer]

Well hell, if you don’t want to pay for insurance, just own at least 25 cars, registered, taxed, titled, and licensed in your name. Then you’re considered to be self-insuring.

This may not be true, but for some reason, I remember it being so.

–Tim

[unnameable]

Wow you people even get passionate about insurance! Here’s my 10 cents worth…

---

I lived in England for the first 25 years of my life, then in Australia for the next 30 years.
Makes me pretty fucking old compared to some of you I guess. ;=))))
(That’s a long-bearded wink. Never trust an old winker.)

Anyway, the relevant difference here is not my staggering age but the non-American view
I can offer - an indication of what is considered natural justice in two other cultures.
For example the British and the Aussies are less inclined to sue each other
(…“This is LAWSUIT nation!”… yells Byzantine)
yet their motor insurance laws are almost identical to what most of you describe for the USA.

In England and in every State here in Oz there is, of course, Optional Comprehensive and also
Compulsory Third Party Insurance (CTPI). In all jurisdictions I’ve known, having no CTPI is
treated more seriously by law than many other motoring offences - for obvious reasons of not
leaving innocent-and-poor victims without immediate cash assistance. Paraplegics need money.
The only offences more serious than “no-CTPI” are the obviously dangerous ones.

(drink-driving, reckless speed etc. The penalties for these are graduated with research about
what is statistically likely to cause injury and death. They draw license confiscations plus
big fines and even prison.)

---

Here, CTPI is provided through a choice of half a dozen insurance companies and works ok.

There is one interesting difference:
I’m not certain this is the same in all Aussie states, but here in New South Wales
(which contains the Sydney metropolis and also huge sparsely-populated rural areas)
CTPI only covers damage to any other human body, not their property.
I could pretend with national pride that’s just because we care more about People than Property.
Well I hope we do, but I think the main reason is economic:

The rural population is too widespread for public transport to reach them all, so country folk
need affordable cars. If CTPI premiums allowed for my old utility damaging your new Mercedes
it would be prohibitive for me to live in “The Bush”. Rural depopulation is a national concern.

So if you can afford an expensive car, you buy comprehensive insurance. Poorer folk make do with
CTPI but they have less to lose; the value of the car may be less than a few years’ comprehensive
insurance. And everybody, including the poorest pedestrian, is well covered for injury.
If someone (irresponsibly) drives without CTPI the state will care for those they maim.

Anyway the main point of all the above is to confirm that, in other countries too, Third Party
Insurance (at least for injury) seems like a natural responsibilty for every driver. It’s the
absolute minmum.

---

One more point if I may:

This thread is called “Police are Narrow Minded Morons!” and I can’t resist stating the obvious:

As everywhere, some Australian police officers are pigs and some are a blessing to the community.
Many waver between these extremes, depending on their day and the situation you or I put them in.

Think about it: under the uniform, a cop may be just like the humans you DO care about.
Maybe HE is shit-scared that YOU may turn out to be an asshole!
(See, I’m picking up the Pit dialect already!)

Generalised slander of police seems as daft and destructive as hate-stirring generalisations
about any other easily grouped target: by race, gender, religeon, sexual-orientation, and
VOCATION too. There are even lawyers (pause that kneejerk reaction of “assholes” please) who do
heaps of “pro bono” work (freebees are common enough that they needed a term for it), or work
for peanuts in community law centres.

Daft because it’s obviously lousy maths to say “My father is an asshole. My father is a Mormon.
Therefore Mormons are assholes.”

Destructive because even the best “peace officers” (as Byzantine rightly calls them) could turn
sour if they weary of being abused. Even the worst are more likely to improve with your support.

Bloody obvious I know but it seems we have to keep reminding ourselves.
Poorly focussed verbal rage isn’t as immediately dangerous as road rage but can still cause harm.

End of preach.

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Wishing y’all safe and harmless travelling - by foot, wheel, keel, or wing.

“unnameable” (well ok, Pedantic Old Fart could be a close approximation)
.

[Doobieous]

I’m not saying there are no good cops.

Oh please, not this chestnut “No, not ALL cops are bad, just the ones I meet”

I WILL say, though, they are few and far between.

Provide some hard evidence, or shut the fuck up

Most follow orders blindly, and then they and their defenders say, “They’re just doing their job.”

Can you prove this? If not, again, shut the fuck up.

Note: before you go claiming the shit you have, you had better DAMN well back it all up with evidence. Hearsay is NOT enough for such broad sweeping claims. You wouldnt DARE demonize an ethnic group like that, but you FREELY demonize an entire group of people based on stories you’ve heard. I seriously doubt you even know or work with any police departments.

I do take offense to what you have been saying because you do demonize people I know who are cops and are wonderful people and who are NOTHING like you claim (Such as my brother and father. Infact, just about every officer i know is NOTHING like you claim). It’s even much more offensive to me that you basically equate them with Nazis (that’s almost disgustingly offensive to me). Dont make broad sweeping generalizations if you cant provide evidence for what you say.

[LouisB]

FallenAngel, did you land on your head when you fell? I would like to see a cite detailing a police officer incinerating a citizen. I think burning at the stake is not often practiced anymore although it might be appropriate in some cases.

[Amulet]

*Originally posted by FallenAngel *
I’m not saying there are no good cops. I WILL say, though, they are few and far between.

If most of the cops you meet are assholes to you, I’m thinking they are not the problem at all.