Youngstown, You Don’t Need To Be Pulled Over Any More

The Youngstown Vindicator  reports that the Youngstown Police Department is about to mail out 1,000 speeding tickets gathered over the past 12 days. Most of the tickets were picked up on State Rt. 711 and I-680 using new radar guns the department acquired.

After only 12 days with the new radar guns, the Youngstown Police Department is prepared to mail civil fines to 1,000 people for violating victimless speeding laws. In comparison, the city issued 960 speeding tickets all of last year and 1,050 in all of 2013. So beware when the police get new toys. They use them a lot!

After a 30-day warning period, city police officers started using handheld radar guns in school zones and on highways. Rather than being pulled over by an officer and given a moving-violation ticket with a fine and points on their driving record, those caught with the radar guns will be mailed a civil fine. This is how they get around the people exposing the red light camera scandal. I’m sure it is only a matter of time until the practice of not pulling people over for speeding becomes acceptable for ALL traffic offenses.

“The efficiency of [officers] not having to stop people is great,” police Chief Robin Lees said Thursday. “As the tickets go out, we expect behavior modifications and for people to slow down. We’ve been surprised at the volume and the number of people who are speeding. We won’t change our enforcement. We expect people to slow down.”

I think I found out why the police are using them so much. The article states, “Youngstown has a three-year deal with Optotraffic of Lanham, Md., that calls for the city to keep 65 percent of the fee, with the company getting 35 percent.” I’m sure this percentage has to be paid to Optotraffic regardless if the police use them or not!

How long before we find the corruption behind the scenes like with the red light cameras? See, this is the problem I see with the state. When they are defeated they go, “Oh Yeah?! Don’t like us extorting you with red light cameras?! Well, we are coming back bigger and better than ever to continue to extort you! We will enact a work around to something you obviously do not want us to do in the first place!” Why don’t they get the real message?

That is that people do not want your services in this area! No one is asking you to catch speeders. They want you to catch irresponsible drivers, whatever that means to them. Some want to get drunks off the roads. Some want to put new roads in place. No one complains to the police that they aren’t catching speeders. If anything, I’d say the police get more complaints from people about the enforcement than the speeding. Not to mention the cops are the biggest offenders, especially when they think the badge grants them extra rights!

When asked if the citations are a “money grab” by the city,  Mayor McNally said, “I don’t have a thought on that. There’s a fine, but we look at it as a safety issue.”

I think we all know traffic fines do nothing but generate revenue. Apparently this mayor is too airheaded to have any thoughts on that. Let’s elect him again!

How many cops do you think get speeding tickets? And how many people do you think see cops speeding and say, “If he is doing it, why can’t I?” How about you assholes lead by the example you want to see, and then maybe someone will take you seriously, hard as that may be?

I had a Parma cop tell me one time, “Next time there is a fatal (he meant accident with death involved) on State Road, I’ll tell the family to come see you!” As usual, complete hyperbole. Can anyone in Parma remember the last fatal accident on State Road? The speed limit is 25 MPH! Another lie to justify the police state tactics, which is all this radar gun scheme is:  A lie to make extortion legal.

Youngstown, You Don’t Need To Be Pulled Over Any More is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights