Text 15618, 241 rader
Skriven 2005-11-08 14:23:48 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
Kommentar till text 15542 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: looters in NO
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08 Nov 05 11:59, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Roy Witt:
>> California's methods of doing things is one reason why I no
>> longer live there.
MvdV> Vote with the feet. The American way...;-)
In the past two or three years, many Californians have. More than the
local governments would like to admit. There tax base has dwindled to
those who either make so much money they can hire CPAs to manipulate the
tax loop holes, or they're poverty level wage earners who don't pay any
taxes either.
MvdV>>> There is indeed no arguing with these robot cops that we have
MvdV>>> here. Actually, most of the time you never see them. You won't
MvdV>>> know you speeded until you find the ticket in the mail.
>> If it's means of detecting your speed is radar or laser, I'll
>> know they're there.
MvdV> How?
Radar/laser detector. (I wouldn't care if it was illegal)
MvdV> They use rader for the robot speed traps and they are facing in the
MvdV> same direction as the traffic moves. A radar detector (illegal
MvdV> here) won't see them until you get past them and hit the forward
MvdV> facing beam.
Wrong. Radar dectectors will sense a signal even from the side. I used to
have one that would detect the radar for automatic door openers at the
supermarket while driving by. Laser detectors won't.
MvdV> And then it is too late. it measures the speed while
MvdV> you are moving away from it and photographs you from behind.
That's where that device I mentioned later comes in handy.
>> And of course, the red-light cameras are easily
>> defeated with a polarized plate cover.
MvdV> Illegal here.
Here too, yet they're still sold and used. Just like 11mtr (CB) linear
amplifiers, they're also sold and used here.
>>>> Now I hear that they have those cameras on some interstate
>>>> freeways here in Texas. Of course, the thing to do there is
>>>> to find out where they are
MvdV>>> Over here they have fixed and mobile cameras. Of the fixed
MvdV>>> ones, only 20% are loaded with film at any one time. Of course
MvdV>>> you can't see which ones.
>> Shades of Big Brother.
MvdV> I don't see it that way. The camara only gets activated when one is
MvdV> speeding. How is that worse than a human cop standing on the side
MvdV> of the road watching traffic?
See US Constitution, Amendment 4.
>>>> and mount your rear plate on a hinge that you can manipulate
>>>> from the drivers seat.
MvdV>>> You don't want to be caught with a gadget like that over here...
>> Nor here, but such gadgets are widely used.
MvdV> Not here. I have never seen movable plates or even heard of them.
MvdV> The point is that over here nearly all these tricks to evade speed
MvdV> traps carry a much higher penalty than just the speeding. Speeding
MvdV> is mere violation of the traffic laws. You pay the fine and that's
MvdV> it.
Not really. You admit guilt on any of those charges and you're license is
in jeopardy for a loss of points. Not to mention, that when you get a
moving violation, your insurance premiums are subject to an increase.
MvdV> But deliberately manipulating plates to avoid detection is forgery.
MvdV> And forgery is a crime. That means that when convicted you are
MvdV> marked for life.
Mounting them on a hinge isn't changing the plates...
MvdV>>> Radar detectors are outlawed here. The police employ radar
MvdV>>> detector detectors.
>> Radar is easily defeated with a radar jammer. It detects the
>> radar signal and adds some white noise to the reflected signal,
>> confusing the radar gun. And, unlike radar jammers on the market,
>> it's quite legal to use.
MvdV> Over here it would not be legal. If only because using such a thing
MvdV> without a license is a violation of the radio regulations.
You don't need a license to use a passive device. It'd be no different
than mounting a reflector around your license plate frame.
MvdV> And then there is always "obstructing a police officer carrying out
MvdV> his duty"...
He wouldn't know, as the device is passive and only adds white noise to a
reflected radar signal. It draws no current, nor is it electrified until
it sees that radar signal. Of course, you can buy one that's not passive,
but those are illegal here too.
MvdV>>> Not very smart. The cop has to *measure* the speed to be able to
MvdV>>> write a ticket isn't it? A mere "it looked to me like he was way
MvdV>>> over the speed limit won't stand in court would it?
>> I'm sure that if he wanted to, he could have pulled us both
>> over and written a ticket for something.
MvdV> That's the thing. Look closely enough at any car and you will find
MvdV> *something* that is at fault...
He could have written 'exhibition of speed' and only estimated the real
speed. But it wouldn't have stood up in court. However, he might have
thought it'd be too much of an inconvenience for me to take it that far,
but he couldn't be sure.
>> Not being able to prove our speed, he may have been able to get
>> away with writing 'exhibition of speed', which might fly in court.
MvdV> Not here I think. But then there is the catch all of "reckless
MvdV> driving"....
Which is what the write you for if you exceed 100mph. And that's a tow and
impound offense. They usually don't want to do that unless it's for
something far worse than speeding. It's one thing to drive fast, but it's
quite another to drive recklessly at high speed.
>> But, without any proof of how fast we were going, he'd
>> have a hard time making it stick.
MvdV> Over here cops never patrol alone. So they have each other as
MvdV> witness...
Here there's a team, which is commanded by a field sargent. He has his own
vehicle and is capable of traveling to any trouble spot because he doesn't
have a regular patrol area. And like I said before, a judge is going to
believe an officer of the court before he'll believe a citizen. In that
case, a jury trial is your best bet, if you're right.
MvdV>>> OTOH, it would be a very bored policeman who would stop you for
MvdV>>> something that in two weeks would no longer be a violation.
>> Very true. This past week, I drove the 98 Camaro to Illinois
>> to visit my mother on her 86th birthday. No front plate and
>> obeying the speed limit plus 5mph. Which they'll give you.
MvdV> They are stricter here. The robot speeds traps are set to trigger
MvdV> at plus 3kph at speeds below 100 kph and at plus 3% for speeds
MvdV> above that.
I think there's a big difference between your country and the wide open
spaces of West Texas. Or any of the roads between cities in the western
US. Long stretches of nothing but mountains, cactus and coyotes for
scenary.
MvdV> And, oh yes, the grace period for red light cameras is 800 mSec.
I don't know what it is here. I think it varies from camera to camera...
MvdV>>> For a missing plate, you can get away with a "fix-it" ticket if
MvdV>>> you can make the cop believe it was there when you drove off and
MvdV>>> lost it very recently.
MvdV>>> But that won't fly if there are no marks whatsoever to show that
MvdV>>> there ever was a plate to begin with.
>> If you look at the front of that photo of my Z28, there used
>> to be a license plate mounting bracket screwed to the plastic
>> grill, where it says 'Camaro' now. I think that was the first
>> thing I did to thatcar when I bought it.
MvdV> I have that too. I don't consider a car "mine" before I have made
MvdV> some modification to it. ;-)
Everyone does something similar.
MvdV>>> Here we have compulsory inspections for all vehicles over three
MvdV>>> year old, except motor cycles and trailers under 3500 kg.
MvdV>>> Doesn't matter if you drive it or not.
>> At the moment, they'd have to come to my place to check the 56...
MvdV> Wouldn't do here. You have to get it to an authorised garage for
MvdV> inspection. Some how...
I will trailer it to an exhaust shop in a couple of weeks. I'm nearly done
with the brakes, steering and engine modifications and it will need a new
exhaust system when I'm done. Already made the arrangements for that day.
MvdV> For oldtimers I think you can get a suspension. But then you can't
MvdV> drive it on a public raod any more.
Once it has a legal exhaust system on it, I can get a permit to drive it
around to have it safety certified. Once that's out of the way, I just go
to the tax office and pay the registration. Then it's legal to drive it
on the roads.
MvdV>>> Makes sense. But then what if the plates are forged?
>> I'd think that the chances of someone matching the car compared
>> to the discription of it in their database would be hard to do.
MvdV> Simply walk the streets of a big city until you find a car matching
MvdV> yours. Then copy the license number...
I suppose anything is possible if you want it bad enough.
>> Therefore, it'd be easy to get caught doing that.
MvdV> By a robot cop?
No.
MvdV> The discrepancy won;t be noted until a human looks at the
MvdV> pictures...
Or inspects the vehicle while you're pulled over.
>> If you do forge a plate, the car is impounded, so it best be a
>> car you don't care about.
MvdV> Here you lose more than the car. You lose you "white sheet" That's
MvdV> worse in the long run.
That's a given here. Once you're caught with that, you'll be charged with
everything they can think of.
Roy
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* Origin: Hacienda de Rio de Guadalupe * South * Texas, USA * (1:1/22)
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