The speech Nixon would have given if Apollo 11 had failed.
Happens every summer–some idiot calls the cops on kids running a lemonade stand.
Ted Turner calls CNN Headline News “unwatchable.” Sure is. The formulaic half-hour cycles were great back in the day. Now, it’s Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, and 12 people talking about some celebrity scandal. I can’t remember the last time I watched it.
I’m trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was taken. I can’t really conceive of a scenario where it wasn’t staged. Which means the caption is misleading. Also, who does this? I’ve never been in a car where the driver asked the passenger to hold the wheel so he could use both hands to send a text message. Does this actually happen?
You’ve got hand it to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, if he believes in a project he’ll follow through on it, even if it may harm one of his biggest constituencies.
Another Texas driver gets a taser pulled on him for refusing to sign a speeding ticket.
More beautiful photos of Detroit’s slow decay.
Reason boss men Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie had a good piece in yesterday’s Washington Post on Obama’s sputtering domestic agenda.
Nice try, Comcast.
Ben Stein continues to descend into parody. And yeah, the NY Times ought to drop his business column for this. More here.
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on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 9:53 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
I agree that HLN is unwatchable. However, Glen Beck has left the building (and I cannot stand hearing Nancy Grace’s voice, it’s like fingernails on a chalk board). They need to find a better way of doing business.
“The police officer would have no way of knowing this on the street,” Viola said. “He acts on information he has available.”
I once heard ignorance of the law is no excuse. I guess it’s good to teach double-standards to 5-year-olds with minor infractions. Teach them good and early.
I’ve definatly seen somebody hold wheel while somebody else hit a bo… texted a friend.
During one summer when I had a longer commute, I saw the following personally : shaving (electric and dry razor), make up, hair (with hairspray and/or mousse) stockings being put on, 2-3 inch of presentation pages someone was flipping through, salad with fork (knees doing the steering), newspaper reading, changing clothes, and the ever popular dog in the lap paws on the wheel.
Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Some of those were highway driving and some of those were on city streets.
I wonder where the Iraq/Afghanistan backup speech is hiding…
‘After investigating, however, police supervisors determined Officer Jeandron did nothing wrong.’ we knew that!
/golf clap
Well played on the Chicago story.
I remember when headline news was actually new (back when I was in college). I loved to watch it.
Police misuse Tasers? Really?
Damn stories like this are older than the internet. Nothing seems to change.
Seen someone text with NO friend helping. They almost hit me entering a parking lot and I screamed at them to put the effing thing down.
That Nixon speech is beautiful; it’s easy to forget the level of danger that the astronauts were up against.
The Detroit pictures are equally beautiful. One would expect that in closing down a building the owners/tenants would clear it out of everything not bolted down, but I guess there are enough 13″ televisions and beat up pianos in the world already so they just sit there dying instead.
I removed HLN from my TV lineup a while ago. It wasn’t worth even the extra click I had to go through when rotating through channels.
I’ve been to the St. Johannes cemetery mentioned in the Chicago item. It’s an amazing location. Everybody is crazy about airport security these days, but access to the cemetery is unrestricted—it’s a public road. Anyone can drive in, and the planes are just right there on the other side of the fence.
To give you some idea of the location, here’s the Google Maps view:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=41.968904,-87.916353&spn=0.010785,0.014784&t=h&z=16
I’ve always thought on HLN/MSNBC (pre-olberman): if you’re already getting crappy ratings why not throw some money at really smart rotating hosts and make a really thoughtful show? Steve Pinker, Jared Diamond, Radley, Greg Mankiw, Glenn Reynolds. Just smart and not-too-partisan people covering topics in depth. You’ve lost the popular battle, why not win just do an excellent job.
I came to say well-played, gave Lee the big thumbs up instead.
When Daley decides it’s time for the cemetery to be gone, the bodies had best be someplace else before he sends in the dozers. Ask the owners of planes stuck at Meags.
“I’m trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was taken. I can’t really conceive of a scenario where it wasn’t staged.”
Simple. It really happened and was captured by a photographer in the back seat. Or it could be fake. Who cares? Does anyone read the Times anymore?
Can someone please explain this “signing the ticket” thing to me? As a Yankee, that’s not something I’ve ever had to do, whenever I’ve received a speeding ticket the cop/trooper has always pointed to the date on the ticket on when the court day will be if I want to fight it….
CNN/HLN mornings with Morning Express with Robin Meade is the first thing on my TV, so I can catch up for the 1/2 hour before leaving for work. Nights are completely different though. I want to slap Nancy so she will not show another hour of Cayley Anthony. I kinda think 700 hours is enough already. Jane Velez-Mitchell gets slapped right after Nancy. Show Biz Tonight why is something like that on a news channel? Who else is on at night? Guess it does not matter.
Oh I do want to slap Robin Meade also, but in a completely different way.
The worst part of the cell phone story is they keep referring to distracted driving. I can actually live with no cell phone use, hands free or not when driving. When driving do not compose the next great symphony, shave, pluck your eyebrows, get or give a hummer, just “DRIVE”.
When they throw around distracted driving though this becomes worrisome. It opens the door to officer interpretation, and very easily escalates pretense stops. Most of the legislation places distracted driving regulations as a primary offense.
Officers drive past you on the other side of the street, and say “I saw you looking into the passengers seat instead of observing the road” thus justifying the stop. once stopped it is a short jump into “mind if I search your car”, “have you been drinking”, “what is that smell?”.
Neither of my parents had to sign the tickets they received while living in Texas. At least, neither of them recall having done it.
I called Francine about a month ago, when she was ranting about the grandmother story. She was declaring that if you backtalk a cop, you should expect to be treated that way. That the woman deserved to be tasered.
I told Francine that, as far I knew, you are not required to sign a ticket and that even so, the woman posed no threat. I even said that tasers were not “safe”, but that they were supposed to “less lethal” than a gun. That the difference between those those two concepts is huge.
She cut me off and went on about how the woman deserved it.
The next day, a state trooper called her and said that you are required to sign tickets in Texas. *shrug* Ok, but that still doesn’t mean you should get tasered for refusing. And would you believe, the trooper actually agreed that the woman shouldn’t have been tasered?!?
He pointed out the foot difference in their size and argued that a 6′ something cop who can’t control a 5′ nothing elder woman without violence probably shouldn’t be given a badge.
I wonder what Francine will say about this case?
Not only have I seen people ask someone to take a wheel so they could text, I have seen drivers of motor scooters surrender the handlebars to a rider behind them so they can place a call/text. My personal favorite though are those who drive those scooters, they are very popular here in this college town, with one hand while chatting on the phone with the other.
Never a helmet of course.
I’ve also seen all the other behavior others have mentioned here. I even recall once a friend of mine, many years ago, asking me to grab the wheel so he could pack a bowl. I declined, offering to pack the bowl instead. Good times….
I am continually amazed there aren’t more auto accidents than there are.
From the lemonade story:
The responding officer – who was unavailable, whom Viola would not identify, and whose name and badge number were blacked out of the police report – invoked a township ordinance…
They’re actually protecting this guy’s identity? Well, I guess it’s probably become kind of an automatic reaction…
#8, Careful. I pulled into a drive-thru for a working lunch and stopped short so I wouldn’t block some asshole in and he could pull out of a parking spot. Once he pulled out he drove by and had the balls to yell at me for being on my cell phone after I had politely waited on him. Long story short, someone saw me trying to pull him out of his car and called the police. The nice officer showed up maybe 10 mins later but the gentleman I had the disagreement with was already long gone. My point is be careful who you yell at and make sure you’re in the right when you do.
In Texas, signing a ticket is not an admission of guilt, just a promise to appear in court. And it is required or they will take you in (it is a promise ot appear, so if you don’t promise, they take you to make sure you appear).
Wait, you can’t just pay a speeding ticket in Texas? You have to show up in court?
You are free to refuse to sign the ticket. However, the officer is then free to place you under arrest and take you into custody.
“My point is be careful who you yell at and make sure you’re in the right when you do.”
I mean this in the nicest possible way — Tokin, you are one crazy mofo. Confronting anyone these days is a helluva risk. Could be an off-duty cop — bang, bang, you’re dead.
No, Dan.
When you’re pulled over for a traffic violation in Texas, you are at that moment under arrest. If the officer writes you a ticket, he is charging you with a crime (all Traffic Code violations are Class C misdemeanors or higher).
Having been charged with a crime, you are required to either appear in court to dispute the charge, or to plead guilty and pay the fine. Signing the ticket is a form of personal recognizance bond. It is a promise to either appear in court, or pay the fine before the court date.
You are free to refuse to sign the ticket. However, the officer is then free to place you under arrest and take you into custody.
I think we have a disagreement on the definition of “free”. Freedom is not “do what you want, but if you do something we don’t like, we will hurt you.” That’s quite the opposite of the definition I usually use.
Yes you can just pay the ticket in Texas. Which I do when I get tickets from a local cop as opposed to a state trooper.
Typically the local jurisdiction (if it is a small town) will NOT report it to the state if you just pay the ticket.
I even had one JotP tell me, if you just send the money order made out to the city, then it is just between the city and you :)
Another funny story:
I got a ticket from a local cop, happened to drive by the courthouse. So I went in and tried to pay for the ticket I just received. It really threw a wrench into the system. They had to get the local judge involved and I finally just paid it and was able to leave (it was crazy).
It also could have been a regular citizen with a concealed carry permit. Trying to pull someone out of their car might get you shot one day – and depending on the locality, they’ll be completely within their rights to shoot you.
Oh, and let me add that HLN has been irrelevent since they got away from the 30 minute cycle. Longer form programming was what regular CNN was for, right?
I stopped watching then when I could no longer count on seeing headlines at the top and bottom of the hour, or sports at :20/:50.
The endless parade of clowns like Gracie JaneNancy Grace makes the whole thing seem like a bad spoof. The Onion does a better job.
Omar,
The law regarding signing tickets is quite clear, and available for the public to read. A motorist is free to speed at 90mph, and free to not sign a ticket. However, there are consequences to both.
You appear to believe “freedom” means “do whatever you want with no consequences whatsoever”… sorry, that’s not reality. If you don’t like the law, get it changed. If you don’t like the law, and choose to not follow it, then expect to have problems with people enforcing the law.
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie had a follow-up livechat on the Post as well: here.
#31 | thorn |
You didn’t read or understand what I said. Or maybe you trolling, I can’t tell. I’ll spell it out again.
You are using a different definition of “free”. You are cosmically free to do whatever you physically can irregardless of the law, and you will pay the consequences; nobody doubts that.
But that is a stupid definition of free and does absolutely nothing to advance any debate from any side. Libertarians agree with Republicans who agree with Democrats who agree with socialists who agree with anarchists; when I say “free”, I, like most people, mean the law won’t offer up consequences for an action. According to that definition, you are not “free” to do anything that’s against the law.
You can disagree about the correctness about the particular (or general) freedom, but please don’t confuse the issue by pretending you are talking about the same thing as us.
I believe thorn defines freedom as the absence of prior restraint.
Hope that clears things up.
KBCraig
Thanks for clearing up my confusion on traffic violations in texas.
PDN spoke with the Times photographer who described the scenario you are unable to conceive:
http://www.PDNPulse.com/2009/07/the-story-behind-the-new-york-times-textingwhiledriving-photo.html
Regarding the Traffic Ticket signing, I actually like the Texas policy much better than that of my own state. By requiring my signature on the ticket there is proof that I have seen the ticket. It’s a nice check and balance. Otherwise it would be possible for a fraudulent ticket to be generated just by a single party (the officer). I don’t see why you wouldn’t sign a ticket assuming you have a chance to read it first.
With regards to the cemetary, I’m not a member of St Johns Church of Christ, but I’m thinking of converting my goldfish. When he finally passes it seems like it might be a foolproof way of preventing any emminent domain procedures on my land.
To Mike / #36 –
Exactly my point. Your signature is ONLY proof that the officer cited you, and you were present to receive the citation. It’s not admission of guilt in ANY state, as far as I am aware.
Similarly, I don’t understand why some drivers wish to debate their rights not to sign it on the roadside. Sign or don’t sign – they were still speeding, still got caught, still have to go through either a fine or court process.
In many states, if you refuse to sign, you are in effect saying “I will not pay the fine nor will i be present in court. Screw you, system.” At this point, the law’s response is to take you in and force you into a courtroom… but AGAIN, your guilt has STILL not been decided until after your hearing.
Mountains and molehills…
Cynical or any other cali folk…
a little threadjacking…
i’m making my first trip out to the bay area tomorrow, and i’ll be there a week. what’s cool to do there aside from visiting the socialist bookstore. i’ve always considered california a flyover state (snark snark), so i figure this will be an experience. :)
I think the problem with signing the ticket is that there are OTHER states where if you’re CONFESSING, you sign the ticket and send in your check.
People aren’t refusing to sign tickets because they’re dicks. [Well, I guess some people are; but not everybody.] They’re refusing to sign tickets because they assume that doing so means they admit the infraction.
And I’m sure that the traffic cops try to explain that this isn’t the case, but in the moment people don’t believe them. Cops are notorious liars, and are allowed to lie to trick people, so why should the person receiving the ticket be expected to believe the cop?
Texas should simply change their ticket practices – because the jurisdictions where signing the ticket is the way you confess are actually the ones operating more reasonably in accord with the public’s expectations for how the process should work.
BTW, don’t forget that Ft. Worth is where two geniuses with badges tasered a guy to death for allegedly… stealing electricity.
I’m afraid that two handed texting shit really does happen. I’ve got a friend that I’ve had to tell multiple times to stop SMS’ing on his iCrack while he was driving. Actually, this demonstrates a learning disability on my part, you’d think I’d just stop riding in the car with him. Or insist on him letting me drive his car… :D
I followed the link off of boingboing.net. I thought you were kidding when you said, “I can’t really conceive of a scenario where it wasn’t staged”. We live in two different worlds. I can’t imagine teenage kids not being reckless.
#40 Fluffy
It is in fact different in different states. To broaden the problem parking tickets are the same way. Sign and return with payment or sign and return with intent to challenge.
But as you say. Cops are notorious liars. If no signature is required to acknowledge receipt, what’s to stop a cop or two or precinct from writing phantom tickets for cars they see parked on the side of the road and throw the driver’s copy away and then claim the driver is lying when he said he was never pulled over? Requiring a signature can in this case protect the communities drivers from crap like this and you can bet it would happen given pressure on cops to make quotas and raise revenue.
Now that I think on it, I’ll bet that is at the heart of this tasering. A missing signature on a ticket probably means it doesn’t count toward someone quota or some such down the line.
Oops. I see Mike at #37 already made the checks and balances point. What he said.
[...] Balko wrote on his blog, The Agitator: I’m trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was [...]
“i’m making my first trip out to the bay area tomorrow…”
Being as I am in SoCal, have a great time in NoCal, Omar. SF is a great town. Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, the Haight, SoMa (south of Market). All of that is within a few square miles. Head out to Sonoma if you have time for wine, balloon rides, etc.
Truer words were never spoken. Never trust a cop. Part of their job is to lie (even when they’re doing the part of their job where they’re not supposed to lie).
On the other hand, I’d sign the ticket because I’m a spineless pussy.
[...] Balko wrote on his blog, The Agitator: I’m trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was [...]
#25 Cynical,
I’m one of the most happy-go-lucky, pleasant people you’d meet as long as I’m spoken to with respect. I was raised to go out of my way to be nice to people, and I have a pretty thick skin, but I have a tendency to snap when I or someone around me is talked like that asshole spoke to me. I’ve mentioned the court ordered anger mgmt classes haven’t I? Eventually someone is going to shoot me, but I’ll have made my point.
I was in a denver fast food joint last winter and some asshole started flipping out on a mexican lady because her kid was crying, before I could say anything one of my hillbillys (I employ a lot of rednecks) slapped the old guy in the back of his head and told him to watch his tone. I was so proud I bought his lunch the rest of the week.
[...] Balko wrote on his blog, The Agitator: I’m trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was [...]
Fluffy,
I’d say that states other than Texas are the ones that probably need to change. I see your point but I just like the check and balance aspect of it.
As Adolphus says, I want to be forced to sign BECAUSE I don’t trust the cops. It is really a feature for the lawbreaker. As long as the ticket clearly states that signing the ticket implies you are accepting that you were ticketed and does not imply guilt. I’d be curious to see what the form actually looks like. If it doesn’t say the above I probably would be hesitant to sign in some state that I hadn’t been too.
I think the problem with signing the ticket is that there are OTHER states where if you’re CONFESSING, you sign the ticket and send in your check.
Fluffy – what state is this the case in?
In Ohio, it clearly states on the ticket something along the lines of “your sig is merely a promise to pay or appear in court” … what state does your signature = your admission of guilt?
Omar –
I’d also recommend the view from Coit Tower (at the top of Telegraph Hill). You don’t even need to go up in the tower; there’s a terrific panoramic view from the parking lot.
One used to be able to take a bus (#39 Coit) up the hill – I lived up there, so I got used to the slog on foot. And consider walking down the Filbert Steps (neat little neighborhood) afterwards, which will take you to the Embarcadero.
Also try – assuming it’s still open – Sam’s Grill at 374 Sutter Street. It’s usually very crowded at lunch, so an early dinner might be a better bet. (IIRC, they don’t take reservations.) Very “old school” S.F. place; great food and the prices were fairly reasonable by local standards.
And the Fresno Hotel Saloon on Grant just north of Broadway was a classic “dive” that had above-average blues bands several nights a week.
Have a nice trip.
“I’ve never been in a car where the driver asked the passenger to hold the wheel so he could use both hands to send a text message. Does this actually happen? “
{shrug} dunno. If I had a dollar, however, for every time I saw someone rolling a joint at the wheel (including me), my airplane would be finished, now.
Fucking varks.
As far as the texting thing goes… Hey, at least somebody is driving. The real concern is the people who use both hands to text while nobody else is in the car.
As far as that pic goes, its obviously staged. Why would a third party take a picture of that from the back seat?
“Hey take the wheel for a sec” is a time honored request while on road trips. Usually this is while on a stretch of mostly straight federally regulated highway, however.