Wife just got stopped!

Quite frankly it goes to show you the utter stupidity of the situation. LEO's are getting turned into meter maids. They are squeezing the middle and lower class for cash - of which this class is becoming increasingly short of. Just means less money for Wal-Mart for most, fact is the people who are really strapped are the ones running around with dead tags and dead inspections and no real estate tags.

If they wanted or needed money the states most insolvent - of which NY is one - could go after the real bad guys and fine them 98% of their net worth - which they stole and or take their illegal corporations. 

This is primarily why stuff like this is sooooo upsetting! We got robbed and to pay for what the criminals did we pay in taxes and then we get robbed as the politicians turn the cops into keystone extortionists with their shakedown checkpoints. Makes me think of the Stones I went to see in concert at UVA.

Sympathy for the Devil 

Just as every cop is a criminal 
And all the sinners saints 
As heads is tails 
Just call me Lucifer 
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint 
(who who, who who)

When will americans do this:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCzRIuXJ2aw

Skip to 1:40

I hope never. I truly hope all this insanity we support - all of which we can not afford - just economically crumbles and we quickly move on with nothing more than the usual Katrina looting cr@p that we always see when the social fiber gets torn.

My life is probably about 50% spent - if I'm lucky I have another 40 years, and I'd like to enjoy as many of them as possible. Going through that h*ll because we've had 535 morons on the hill for God knows how many decades and a few greedy oligarchs isn't fair to 300 million people.

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are notwarned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

Thomas Jefferson

Theft by other means.  Just one more of the tools of the state.

"That was when he spotted a shabbily dressed, middle-aged man wearing glasses that seemed too big for his face. The man, who turned out to be Maplewood cop Paul Bartz, was holding up a sign — "Will work for food" — as he approached and looked inside the line of waiting vehicles."

http://www.twincities.com/ci_14466682?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

As local governments feel the pinch more, look for this type of activity to increase.

Logan:

I certainly support your upfront challenge to the officers. You are a rare breed that does simply follow blindly.

I would, however, submit that a more viable longer term strategy for these sorts of things would be more civil disobedience. If not directly taking their anger to the police headquarters itself, why not have your old clunker mysteriously crap out at the exact moment they want you to move on. Act bewildered, confused, and scared that your car is broken. Waste 20 minutes of 5 cops' time at the expense of wasting 20 minutes of yours. A pain for you? Sure. But what will they do when there is a line 100 cars long that can't get through because of some bullsh*t police block? Do you think those other 100 drivers will be pissed? Maybe while they're waiting they'll wonder why there's even a police stop in the first place.

FWIW if I were a criminal, I'd be salivating to know how many cops are tied up checking papers instead of remaining available to stop crime. This entire situation disgusts. And Logan, I don't know about you, but I've been feeling particularly antsy in NOVA lately...this is perhaps the most hated city worldwide. There's a lot of anger focused here, from the US and abroad, and I think it's only a matter of time before the angry ones break through the defenses. Unfortunately, that will result in more of these stupid stops, subsidized by the Fed gov, of course.

 

+1 and California had to let thousands out because they couldn't afford the prison or it's staff. 

 

HA-  thats what you think. We are just making room for the bankers.

 

 

I was referring to California - not the Riviera  - lol

At least you can see the checkpoints when you drive up to them.

I live in rural county in the midwest that just started equiping the police cruisers with cameras that automatically read license plates.  The image is fed through an onboard computer.  All the info on the title owner is displayed at the click of a button.  When the first system was installed, a local newspaper reporter road along.  Apparently, the cop was so happy when they had a "hit" and pulled over a "stolen" vehicle.  Of course, the information was months old and the vehicle's owner was pulled over and treated like a criminal for an hour while the bad information got sorted out.

Besides eliminating the Constitutional requirement of probable cause in order to initiate even a cursory search of a motorist, the cameras can also be used (albeit, theoretically) to map vehicle movement over time.

Anyone else have these appearing in their areas?