Thursday, March 22, 2012
Police traffic sting demonstrates that police ignore violations, endangering lives
by Larry Geller
Police said the Traffic Division's Solo Bike Section issued 81 citations for speeding, two for excessive speeding, 60 for no-fault insurance, 46 for driving without a license, 21 for seat-belt violations, 12 for child restraint violations, nine for electronic mobile device violations and 269 for miscellaneous violations.
[Star-Advertiser, Police issue 500 traffic tickets on Leeward Coast in 5 hours, 3/20/2012]
This article raised several questions for me:
1) When are they going to get around to doing the same thing on Vineyard Blvd., near where I live? They could probably issue about the same number of tickets, and mostly for speeding, not stopping or blinking on a turn, crosswalk violations and cell phone yakking.
2) Of course, now that they’ve hit the Leeward Coast the other day, they won’t be back for quite some time. So the violations over there will go on.
and most important…
3) The fact that they could issue so many citations shows that enforcement of traffic laws has been essentially non-existent. Pedestrian and driver safety has been ignored by the HPD. If drivers knew that the laws would be enforced, the police would not have been able to nab so many violators in this one sting.
The intersection near where I live has been identified by the AARP as one of Honolulu’s most dangerous, yet you never, never see police enforcing the traffic laws at this intersection. Drivers know this.
Last week, just one block away, I saw four cars turn left after the red arrow had come on, and one car in the center lane decided it would be a great time to turn left also. So he turned left from the center lane on a red arrow.
How can they get away with this? The chances of a cop catching them are zero.
As the Honolulu police demonstrated with their sting, the enforcement we deserve, we’re not getting.
The Honolulu Police Department once again demonstrates that it's still a hick, Third World, backward-country operation.
Modern, industrialized countries have cops who enforce most of the laws most of the time, and so most people obey them most of the time.
Backward countries have cops who are on doughnut patrol most of the time, and so things like traffic laws are ignored by most people most of the time.
In the backward-country model of law enforcement, the cops stage "campaigns" or "crackdowns" now and then, arresting everybody in sight, and for a few days everybody salutes and obeys the laws. Then it's back to business as usual.
: March 27, 2012 at 3:17:00 AM HST << Home
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