When I was in central Florida last week, enjoying 91º F. temps, I heard a story about a deputy who stopped a driver in a small town for rolling through a red light to turn right.
The deputy had approached the driver, who was 86 years old. When he asked for the driver's license, the driver told him that he didn't have one.
"You mean you don't have it with you?"
The driver said that's not what he meant and that he didn't have a license.
"You mean it's suspended or revoked??
The driver said that's not what he meant. He said he'd never had a license.
The deputy asked the driver if he had been driving all those years without a license.
The driver said that was right and that he'd never needed one until then.
The deputy told the driver, "Well, I guess you don't need one now. Have a nice day and be sure to stop at red lights."
The story about that deputy finished with, "How do you ticket an 86-year-old man who had driven that long without a license?"
We need more cops like that deputy!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Ur getting soft Buster. If it was a 50yr old, u'd advocate jail time!
The difference was, in that Florida county, they don't use ticket generation to support an expensive courthouse and County government.
When I was chasing speeders in Colorado, I only wrote about one ticket/year. If a polite roadside chat solved the problem, I felt I didn't need to write a ticket.
Every once in a while a driver would talk me into it.
I've noticed a difference between county cops in Florida (especially the rural or semi-rural counties on the Gulf side) and those of other jurisdictions.
Unlike New Mexico that forces "suspects" to undergo a coloscopy (not just a body cavity search) based upon the "alert" of an uncertified K9 sniffing the driver's car seat - TWICE - using a search warrant NOT VALID IN THE COUNTRY WHERE the coloscopy was performed, AND where a cop fires on a fleeing woman in a car full of kids over a traffic stop, my experiences with them have been fair and professional. (Not that I get a lot of traffic stops, I don't).
Since Illinois went to the "traffic tax" model of motor vehicle law enforcement, the counties between Chicago and St. Louis have justly earned the reputation of "civil forfeiture" centers. Between that and the "militarization" of the police with all those Iraq/Afghanistan surplus goodies (like gthe McHenry County Sheriff's tank), the police in many jurisdictions have earned the suspicion and enmity of many citizens. Which is a real pity.
But what I really like about Florida is that I can purchase a 2 year sticker for the plate for less than an Illinois drive pays for one. And the lack of a state income tax, of course.
Thanks, Clem K.
And thanks for reminding me of getting stopped in Florida in 1976 while driving a little, tinny, orange Subaru "SUV" (called a station wagon then). I don't know where the cop came from on the interstate, but the cop got on my tail fast. He had run my plate and it came back stolen.
I thought he was pulling my leg but, when I got back to Colorado and ran it myself, it did come back as stolen. Not sure why Colorado had re-issued it. But he was right, and he was polite.
He quickly determined that the car wasn't stolen, and I was on my way. Up here, they probably would have towed my car and hauled me in.
FL's Governor Rick Scott announced that he intends to apply the current budget surplus to lower license plate fees by $25.
Post a Comment