Guest Post by Eric Peters
It is increasingly tempting to just go for it.
Scratch that. It is increasingly reasonable to just go for it.
Traffic stops are not what they once were. The fines have become disproportionate, abusive – hundreds of dollars for crimes-agains-no-one such as “speeding” and not having various government stickers, all of them up to date.
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Many people cannot afford to pay these fines – not to mention the additional fines they face in the form of higher car insurance premiums, which they’re forced to pay as much as any court-ordered fine.
These premiums are already so high – even before they go higher, based on the pretext of convictions for crimes-against-no-one such as “speeding” – that many people reasonably elect to chance not paying at all. For the same reason that many people elect not to pay for “health insurance” that is unaffordable.
But if they catch you going without . . . notwithstanding the fact that you haven’t harmed anyone, including yourself. . . .
Now the premiums will be even higher again; not uncommonly several thousand dollars per year. Who can afford this?
Yet, who can afford not to drive?
And so, they do – regardless.
In some states, a driver can be arrested and taken to jail merely for exceeding a posted speed limit by more than 20 MPH. This might be reasonable if speed limits weren’t unreasonable. But when a speed limit is set at 35 MPH on a road where traffic casually and routinely flows at 45-50 MPH, driving 56 MPH is hardly excessive, let alone “reckless” – yet it is defined as such by statute in states like Virginia.
Where it is also “reckless” to drive faster than 80 MPH anywhere – even on an Interstate highway with a speed limit of 70 MPH.
A trip to jail can ensue if one pulls over, which is a very strong incentive not to. And even if you don’t get taken to jail, you will be taken to the cleaners. The total cost of a single speeding ticket, including the jack-up insurance premiums that will remain in force for several years at least, is typically around $500. A “reckless” driving conviction – 81 MPH on a 70 MPH Interstate – will cost the average victim several thousand dollars, all told.
For people whose livelihood depends on a “clean” driving record, the motivation to take a chance waxes. Increasingly, it is a question of what have I got to lose? Increasingly, the answer is – not much.
Unreasonable laws – and excessive punishments – tend to trigger such responses.
And there is the more serious risk that you’ll face more than just a financial wood shampoo given the Submit and Obey mentality of today’s Israeli occupation-style law enforcers. People who aren’t aware how radically things have changed over the past 10-15 years or so may not realize that an innocent action such as stepping out of the vehicle unbidden or reaching for a driver’s license can trigger the Officer Safety Reflex – and leave you on the ground, bleeding out.
Law enforcers have been trained to consider the least act of non-compliance, even if arising out of confusion, as “resisting” and to escalate the situation with belligerent commands and – not uncommonly – drawn guns. They have been specifically taught to fear us – or at least, to pretend that they do – even though it’s they who’ve got the guns and the body armor and the legal immunity from meaningful sanction if they shoot first and ask questions never.
This is a scenario many people legitimately fear and would rather not have to deal with – and so they drop the hammer rather than pull over. It is entirely understandable because it is not unreasonable – as it may have been once upon a time when laws and cops (as distinct from law enforcers) were more reasonable.
These thoughts ran through my head the other day when I was out riding a motorcycle – BMW’s motorcycle, the 2018 K 1600B (reviewed here, if interested).
I was less than five miles from my house, on the nearly empty rural highway that bisects the county I live in. The speed limit is a ridiculous 55 MPH. Except for glaucomic old people and the occasional farm tractor, most everyone else is driving at least 60 and usually closer to 65. A competent driver – or rider – can cruise at 70 without offending any law except the state’s.
On the straights – some of which are close to a mile long, with clear visibility from one end to the other – going faster is entirely reasonable. The ninnies who post speed limits insist we should slow down in the curves. Why not pick it up when the road straightens out?
Anyhow, there is just such a gorgeous straight stretch about five miles from my house and I was on a brand-new BMW bike with a luscious in-line six cylinder engine. 55 MPH on this bike is like expecting Usain Bolt to sit in a wheelchair like George Bush the elder. It’s absurd.
So I went faster, as per reasonableness.
A law enforcer appeared, coming at me in the opposing lane. I glanced at my speedo. 70-something. Shit!
And the thought bubbled up…
I was only five miles from the safety of my house, of my garage. The law enforcer was in a Crown Vic and headed the wrong way. I was on a BMW bike with four times the power-to-weight ratio of his car, and was already running 70-something in the right direction. He would have to stop, turn around and come back. Build speed. Close the gap.
I thought about the hundreds of dollars I was probably going to have to fork over to the got-damned government (on top of all the other dollars I – like you – am compelled to fork over to the got-damned government).
My right wrist merely awaited the command from my brain.
But it was BMW’s bike – and if that law enforcer happened to have a plate reader in his car, I’d be canned meat. Not just hundreds of dollars would be out of my pocket. My gig as a car/bike journalist would likely be terminated, too.
And so I pulled over and waited for the enforcer.
He wrote me a 74 MPH ticket – but at least I didn’t get shot for “resisting.”
If it doesn’t have a plate reader, you can be fairly confident it has a dash cam. All they have to do is take it frame by frame, get that plate number and you’re cooked.
One time I was following a tour bus through a 35 mph zone, sucking up his fumes. I downshifted and goosed it up to about 50 mph in about half a heartbeat, blowing off the bus. Sure enough there was a rent-a-cop coming from the opposite direction and he immediately turns on his lights and starts turning around. “Immediately” was entirely too slow in that case. I vanished…and have been hiding in the cellar now for 28 years..PS admin: a column on statute of limitations stuff might be well received.
great story,
I did something similar in PA about 25 years ago, in an old Buick with a 455 big block, out ran the boys in blue at night, turned into a neighborhood, and hid. after about 1/2 hour, I drove to my garage, and that Buick never left the garage for two months, until I could move it to another state.
There is no better feeling that to elude capture.
All the motorcycles I have owned never had a plate on the front of the bike, just saying.
Mine neither
No such thing as front plates on a bike. And no cop car has a rear deck cam. You should have just kept on. Besides, you know what really triggers cops? Change. If they see you get on the brakes, they know you know you’re guilty. Or swerve, or dive across 4 lanes to hit the nearest exit. Just keep on keeping on, and the cop – on his way to somewhere important, like a donut break – will likely ignore you.
Politeness, good clothes, whiteness, good papers, a clean license, and a “gosh I was just rolling along with traffic” will get you a warning more often than not. Around here they know the game, and hand out “seat belt unfastened” tickets, a $35 fine but no points. And tell you they’re doing you a favor.
I was thinking car…but still, is it worth it to take what would be a ticket and kick it up to a felony? I guess that’s up to you and your ability. If you don’t get away in the first minute or so you’re pretty much done.
My last encounter with the Thai police on my Kawasaki big bike was when I was making an illegal U-turn and didn’t see the policeman standing in the shade. I stopped and he pointed to the NO U Turn sign. Busted! I showed him my valid Thai license and the “tea money” routine started. 400 baht or you have to go to the police station to pay. I countered “too much, I give you 200 baht” and we finally settled on 250 baht ($7.65 US). I didn’t have change so I said “here is 300 I don’t have change”. He smiled, thanked me and then stopped the traffic so that I could continue with my illegal u-turn. Hey, I paid for it. I was treated with respect because I was much older than him and not a trace of the aggression you commonly find in the US.
What’s a “big bike”?
In Thailand it loosely refers to a motorcycle with a larger c.c engine instead of the typical scooters. The average guy here isn’t that big compared to westerners so they call them “big bikes” which are not that common. I have a Kawasaki Er6n 650 c.c. engine, a stripped down version of the Ninja.
I just paid for new tabs. The current ones expire in 50 minutes (12/1/17). My check cleared on 11/2/17. No tabs yet. Due to a computer system merger, the county workers told me the whole system is a “hot mess”. So even if I drive under the speed limit, I might get pulled over. If I get murdered by a copfuk “hero”, you’ll know why.
That K 1600 (beautiful bike) will do north of 80 mph in first gear alone (as with most sport bikes over 600cc). Expect a few more bills from speeding. Twisting that throttle is just too hard to resist. That’s one of the reasons I have a cruiser-Yamaha Stratoliner; no tickets in 16 years. Maybe get a radar detector?
I had a Norton 850 when I was 19. I weighed about a buck20. Just a little twist on that grip and I could go from 60 to 80 in a flash. Had it up past 120 crossing Utah-when I slowed to 55 it seemed like I could get off and check the oil.
Sold it a year or so later-probably the only sensible thing I did in my 20s
Come to Australia, long flat wide land but twisting the throttle on a Victory bigbanger to pass a diesel truck laboring at 30mph in a 40mph signed area will gets you the following for 76mph radar record : $2350 fine, Instant loss of license for 6 months and impoundment of vehicle for auction to the state. In another state they just got lots of “legal” ways to make that hip pocket hurt more https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/safety/fines/demerit/points
It is expensive to be poor an unable to pay on time.
HL Mencken: “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
Brian (above) nailed it. If you get caught, evading police is a FELONY.
Your life will never be the same again. No voting, no firearms, and good luck filling out your next employment or dwelling-place lease application.
Don’t do it! Don’t even be tempted.
Check out Chris Rocks video about how not to get your ass kicked by the police. It’s funny and helpful.
Cops don’t set the penalties and fines for traffic offenses, legislators do.
Befehl ist Befehl
No guts, no glory. The only thing wimpier then stopping for the police would have been for Eric to pull into his house and hide the bike. Keep going, toy with them until you run out of gas and then go out in a hail of bullets.
miamionice–
On a 5 mile road no one in sight then you nail it and out of the blue a cop he stops you gives a fine them says have a nice day I’m sorry fuck him.
Agreed that this zero discretion policy, focusing on glorified revenue collection traffic stops, in which normal citizens are practically treated as they were all potential felons, coupled with civil forfeitures without due process, is out of control. Where the small town officer friendly has mostly become an overzealous authoritarian enforcer of minor offenses.
In cupcake land (suburban/small town/ rural areas) this is a problem. But for those of us who reside in the mean streets of the city, close to urban afro american ghettos, we have a different problem. Our problem is the containment of near daily afro american destruction, and the city police departments are an integral part of this containment. The consequences of our urban problem is not a traffic fine, its serious injury, or death (where most of know several people who were hospitalized, or killed).
The problem with cupcake land dwellers is that they want to blame city cops for the abuses that some of their small town cops commit (which is the same type of leftist style collectivist guilt that is used against all White males). This causes a deterrence of the effective use of policing in our cities. It aids and abets groups like BLM, while afro americans kill more American residents than any other category of people. Many libertarians, such as Lew Rockwell, pathetically pander to BLM attempting to associate them with freedom fighters against authority (how pathetically naive).
The abuses of policing must be stopped, but it must also be acknowledged that afro americans are conducting a low grade race war against the rest of society (unwanted by the rest of us). In addition, in the BosWash Megalopolis, both the NYPD PBA, and Conn State Police PBA, were asking for public support against the abusive practice of excessive ticket quotas. Unfortunately no public support was given to these unions, to fight against the politicians draconian practice of using traffic enforcement as govt revenue (Despite these two police unions providing public confirmation, of this unethical political government practice, the silent public outrage was deafening … with the whistleblowers punished without protest).
I know most libertarian cupcake dwellers are going to cry about how they dont care about city dwellers being victims of afro violent crime… yet they cry day and night about wanting acknowledgement for their difficulties with traffic stops. Yes, I am concerned about your situation, but why are you not concerned about the savagery we are subjected to, on a near daily basis (and no, not all of us who live in these cities are libs who had it coming … we are the forgotten ones getting condemned, by these urban liberals, for refusing to submit to afro atrocities … we need support too).
joe,are you a leo?
Move out of the damn cities
I began scanning the article and just knew that Eric got a ticket before I got to the meat of it. After all his ranting about evil, dangerous copfuks he continues to invite them into his life. Bwahahahaha!
He should move out west where it’s not uncommon to be told to slow it down and have a nice day if you’ve got a clean record. Not sure what they’d do to a hot head on a crotch rocket but it can’t be worse than what happens on the east coast.
“Anyhow, there is just such a gorgeous straight stretch about five miles from my house and I was on a brand-new BMW bike with a luscious in-line six cylinder engine.”
Impulse control baby! That or you roll the dice and take your chances. In north Spokane we had a nationally know talk radio personality who liked to ride her bike at breakneck speeds until she met a deer on the highway. Damn near killed her, could have ruined her career and devastated her family as well. As it was it took well over a year to recover and she’ll have lifelong reminders of her injuries every time she looks in the mirror. Hopefully Eric will avoid a hard lesson like that.