But cops can make snap judgments about the wife of a security guard. Sweet.

it’s a crime - punishable by imprisonment - to *tell a lie to* a federal agent. not “lie under oath”, oh no no no. ANY lie. ANY time. it started off as “can’t lie to the FBI”, and is gradually morphing, of course, into all gummint agencies. this is moving fist-in-glove with the arming of IRS agents; park rangers; etc.

and if you believe what you’re saying is the truth, but our government masters disagree? TS. am not a lawyer, but i *believe* that’s why martha stewart did time. they said, “did you commit a crime?” she answered, evidently in good faith, “no.”

then they had her. she was of course imprisoned, her lands and monies were of course forfeit to the crown….and the serfs were thus put on notice.

anyone who doesn’t think tickets are fixed every day or certain people aren’t given preferential treatment are very uninformed. I’ve been a firefighter for 18 years and have many friends working for different departments- I KNOW what the real policies are around here. Quotas and people who are ‘off limits’ are a given.

I don’t know where you live, but in all the states I’m aware of, fixing tickets is a crime. You don’t have to write them, but once they are written, you can only go through the process.

I think your perception of the American people as a whole is sad. I believe the vast majority of people are honest and hardworking, wouldn’t game the system, would turn in a lost wallet if they found it…etc etc. I’m certainly happy not to have your world view, and In the nealry half a century I’ve been on this planet think mine is more accurate….with the exception of politicians of course.

Matthew,

The plates in question are identical to a regular California license plate. The only difference is if you run one through the computer, the address for the registered owner returns as their place of employment. I know for a fact they don’t get you out of parking tickets as a rule. I also know that very few cops run the license plate through the computer until after the traffic stop is made. At that point it’s really up to the cop to write the ticket or not, the license plate has nothing to do with it.

They DO get the address of the government agency for whom the holder works, but it seems that the record for these violations getting through to the actual violator is poor.

Police agencies can look up these, of course, but it appears that they have little incentive to do it and the statutory time limits on how quickly you must send a violation letter mean that in practice it doesn’t happen.

I’d have my doubts about how well the plates prevent a driver from getting a serious ticket, but I’m pretty sure they’re right about that in practice, it renders a person immune to these kinds of minor violations costing them anything.

One person had 430 recorded toll lane violations, for instance.

Some of the cases are simply that clerical errors don’t get corrected; e.g. if someone’s license plate isn’t correctly in the tollway system and their transponder isn’t working. If they had a regular plate, they’d get an incorrect violation notice and they’d correct the problem; with the confidential plates, they never get a ticket and the problem remains unfixed. I suspect that there are a lot of supposed problems that are actually in this category, at least in the toll lane department.

This is more likely the tip of the iceberg rather than the whole thing. Especially when one takes into account the confidential plates protect people from even getting recorded for violations in the first place.

Here’s a different angle:

It was three or four times last year alone that I was cold-called at home by the New York State Troopers’ Police Benevolent Association. They want my money. Every time, I told them to leave me alone and go to Albany, which is already trying to beat my brains out in taxes.

Here’s what I wonder: how long before my name ends up on The Wrong List?

But I’m sure the networks would be too afraid to tackle something like this..

I’d be interested to see what would happen if you parked two cars in adjacent handicap spaces - one with the “special” plates and one with regular plates - give a litmus test of how the enforcement officers respond with some tangible measurements regarding the regularity of abuse. The only problem is prying back that “wall of blue”.