I can’t wait to watch this entire documentary:

Please understand that I do not advocate drug use of any kind. However, I do believe that the war on drugs is evil.

Florida Highway Patrol wrote over 200 citations in less than one month’s time on a stretch of road in Plant City, Florida (SR-60).  There is some construction going on in that area, and police presence is magnified as a result.  The problem is that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has been covering the speed limit signs with black plastic bags (like a trash bag or something similar).  Covering the signs in this manner is a violation of federal guidelines that suggest putting speed limit signs near every major intersection.  Typically, in construction zones, there are new speed limit signs erected. I’m not sure so they are justifying not having any. I think that construction workers should be safe, but this is an obvious trap.  There’s no reason for them not to have signs posted for miles.

Florida Highway Patrol has been written about previously on this blog when they were giving motorists bogus tickets for flashing their headlights to warn of speed traps.

I learned yesterday that it violates Facebook’s rules to “like” a page in reference to a giveaway or promotion.  Whoops.  I guess my recent promotional event/giveaway breaks the rules.  That’s typical for me — do something I think is perfectly legit and then get informed that it’s some kind of a violation.  Of course, it’s not, technically, illegal to do that, but you can have your facebook page taken down because of it.

I also heard about a similar thing yesterday.  It turns out that the Department of Justice wants to make it a crime to give false information online — like using a fake name on facebook or lying about your weight on match.com. They say this is because the users agree to a terms of service, and if you lie, you are violating the terms of service.  Of course, the Department of Justice routinely lies to the public without consequence.  But, I doubt “terms of service” is the real reason they’re interested in this matter.  These social websites make it easy for them to find information.  But, the information is only good if it’s true.

It seems like they are really grasping at straws with this one.  In Indiana, I had to put my weight on my driver’s license.  They didn’t put me on a scale, they just asked me what my weight was.  Of course, my driver’s license has rarely been accurate in this area.  If the Indiana state government doesn’t mind inaccuracies on their driver’s licenses, I can’t imagine that the federal government really expects to have full and true disclosure on social networking sites.

I once got called for jury duty.  You can read all about that experience here.  The short version is that it was a sexual pedophile case against a man.  He was supposedly caught soliciting a minor in a chat room.  Of course, the person in the chat room was really a detective and the detective actually solicited the man.  Anyway, I’m sure these things will continue to occur because the rules rarely apply to the rule makers.

I seriously didn’t intend for this blog to be an anti-police haven.  However, I do see the police as playing a role in the bigger problem of over-regulation in my life.  The police have a job to do, but their job is getting more and more overbearing as new laws are passed.  This and other things have served to make some of the police bitter, obnoxious, and condescending.

You will find me making the argument that “one bad apple ruins the bunch.”  That’s really how I feel.  Some people leave feedback that I should abandon this view because all police are bad because even the “good ones” turn a blind eye to the actions of the bad ones.  Then, other people tell me that I shouldn’t let a few bad apples ruin the bunch because the police really are, by and large, decent, good folks who have society’s best interest in mind.  For now, I will maintain the middle of the road view that the bad ones are serving to ruin the reputation of the good ones.

One of the roles of this blog is to bring awareness of the problem to regular citizens.  I used to be in the boat that considered all police heroes.  I come from a very patriotic background and, somehow, supporting the police is seen as patriotic.  So, I believe that people need to be aware of the increasing police presence in their lives so they can stand up for themselves when new laws are enacted that restrict their liberties.

One of the terrible things that I think is happening in modern day America (U.S.A.) is the more frequent exposure to the idea of the police state at an early age.  This is reflected in having armed officers patrol the schools and giving kids criminal citations for school-related behavior.

You can search through the archives of this blog to find all kinds of articles regarding my view of the police.  I think I’ve made a good case in the past and I’m not going to rehash it all right now.  I think that the problem I have with the police can actually be summed up better by the Twin Rivers Police Association.  They recently stopped selling a shirt that depicts a young child behind bars with the phrase “You Raise ‘Em, We Cage ‘Em.”  Wow.  This police association evidently sees their main job as “caging” our children.

The insidious nature of this shirt disgusts me.  First of all, there are so many laws on the books now that the argument to “just follow the law and you won’t get in trouble” is impossible. The United States has more prisoners than any other country, and it’s not because our citizens are more devious, it’s because we have more laws on the books that are criminal offenses. Once we pair the fact that there are too many laws with the fact that the police have an “out to get you” attitude, we’re doomed.

If you wonder why I have taken the stance against the police that I have, look no further.  It’s increasingly becoming an us vs. them situation, and the police are the ones perpetuating it.

I’ve posted before about the attitude problem of the police.  This truly isn’t meant to be a blog that just bashes the police. But, so often, at least in the culture that I come from, the police are praised as unconditional heroes and you are looked at as some kind of weirdo if you don’t fall in line with that type of thinking.  I used to wonder why people were on the lookout for police or got nervous when they saw them.  After all, if they’re not doing anything wrong, there’s nothing to be afraid of, right?  So, instead of just accepting that, I feel it is my responsibility to present the other side of the story to people like myself — “law abiding citizens” who never plan to have run ins with law enforcement.

This woman probably never planned to have a run in with the police, either.  But, now her house is nearly uninhabitable because of their actions to catch a criminal who wasn’t even there.  One of the commenters on the post is a soldier who says that if he did that in a war zone to someone’s house in Iraq, he would come up against charges.  I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but if it is, it should definitely not be accepted in Stockton, California.  Now, she wants them to pay for the damages that they did.  If I find out whether they do, I’ll let you know.

Oh, if you click the link, there’s a video attached to the news story so you can see the damage they did for yourself.  Read the comments, too. They’re good.

Arrest quotas are unjust.  Such things assume people are breaking the law at a certain rate and that the police should be able to catch them doing so.  They put undue pressure on the police force to meet the quotas.  When this occurs, our liberties are compromised.  The corruption that ensues is unparalleled in framing innocent people.  The court tends to believe the testimony of the police, and the innocent person doesn’t stand a chance.

I’m not saying that all police are corrupt. But, I would be naive to believe that I should trust them just because they’re the police.  Yesterday I read that a former NYPD narcotics officer testified that they routinely fabricate drug charges (the original link is broken, so this is a new article) on innocent people in order to meet the quotas. I think that the person on trial should have just as much credibility as the police officer testifying against them.  We do not want wrongful convictions in our legal system. It would be better to have guilty people go free than innocent people suffer.

Of course, like I’ve said before, I don’t agree with drug use.  But, this war on drugs isn’t accomplishing much.  In fact, it may be doing more harm than good.

Drivers in Florida have recently been issued tickets for future violations.  The parking tickets were issued for future dates and given on streets in which there are no parking restriction signs.  The best line I’ve seen in a news article in a long time summarizes the problem (referring to a driver, Michelle Cintron):

Cintron got a ticket for parking just two hours in the un-posted three-hour parking zone that was dated next Monday.

That’s so funny that you might think it’s a joke news story.  But, no, it’s completely real.  Rest assured, the local police department is looking into it.

From time to time on this blog, I will highlight corruption in the government and its various agencies.  Why?  Because these are the people making and enforcing laws that the rest of us are supposed to follow.  I know that individual incidents of corruption don’t apply across the board to all people in all departments.  But, I plan to slowly make the case that we give the government too much credit.  We trust them too much.  We let them boss us around.  They often don’t deserve our respect and admiration.

Recently, two police officers and three TSA agents were arrested for conspiracy to distribute tens of thousands of highly addictive painkiller pills.  Regardless of what you think about the war on drugs, these people are hired to supposedly screen for these items and protect us from them.  These same individuals would probably be summoned to testify against you if you were caught doing the same thing.

Maybe I shouldn’t have the attitude that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, but I am also not going to be naive enough to believe that all police officers and TSA agents have my best interest in mind and are somehow keeping me safe.