Did you hear the joke the King's right hand Jester told A guy with Foot in Mouth disease went to the Doctor Doc said " He'll be back on his feet in no time, he has a runny nose " I'll think of that one for the wrist of my life
It might be fun if a campaign to avoid that particular town gained traction. They could suddenly face a liquidity crisis. Of course, if a route with no practical alternatives goes through there then it might not be feasible.
@@Fee.1 I might just roll through there in 15 years or so. I'd wait that long just so that when the cop tells me to just pay the ticket, I can tell him that I'm retired and don't have anything better to do than fight it!
The statute in Arkansas says that a municipality can NOT receive more than 33% of its revenue from traffic tickets. A small department had a 2 mile stretch of road that the speed went from 65 to 45 and after the 2 miles back to 65. They had 8 officers and all brand new cars. The state did an audit and closed down the department and auctioned off the cars because of all the fraud.
Probably was Marshall or Damascus, Arkansas on Hwy 65 North from Conway. In Marshall there's a passing lane on the uphill incline into the town and they wait at the bottom of the hill and hit their lights before you even get to them as you're riding your brakes all the way down. Yee haw !! You might find yourself asking: "When will the judge be back from his fishing trip?" then, "Can I just do my jail time? Is Aunt Bee cooking the prisoner food?" and "Does Otis snore?"
@@gotrythym Grady on 65 south of Pine Bluff was pretty bad too. I've been told that the bypass around town was created specifically because the town went from 65 to 40 in the span of a quarter mile. The cops still patrol the bypass, but at least the speed limit is 65 there.
I lived in Terrebonne parish for 12 years and came back to Texas as SOON as I could. Louisiana politics and politicians are so crooked they make the Mississippi river look like a snapped chalk line. This story doesn't surprise me at all.🙄
@@alexm7777 I've lived in both as well as other states. Texas is WAY better than lousyana (not a spelling error). No state or country is perfect, but LA sucks right down to the bone.
Jan, my mother was born and raised in Houma and I still have a number of relatives who live in Terrebonne Parish. I thought about visiting and even possibly relocating but after reading that Reason Magazine article, I’m having second thoughts.
Hughson, CA used to be that way. You could drive through at 10 under the limit and get a ticket for 20 over. They were locally famous for it. Finally, they nailed so many of the wrong people that the state got involved. They were set up, busted by state police, and sued. The award was so large that they lost their police department and had to contract out to the county for enforcement. Personally, I’m amazed that nobody is addressing these crooks in a more direct manner.
I got one in Arkansas from a deputy hidden behind a sign across from where the limit dropped from 55 to 35. I was told if it was paid in cash it didn't go on my record. I lived 700 miles away so I sent the cash and it never showed up on my record. I always wondered who pocketed the cash.
24 years ago I was driving from Oklahoma to Florida and cut through a small town in Louisiana and got pulled over by a cop. He issued me a $40 ticket for not wearing a seatbelt even though he can clearly see I was. I said so you issuing me a ticket because I am from another state and this is a money revenue scam even though I broke no law. With a huge wad of dip in his mouth he responded tell it to the mayor judge if you don’t like it, and walked away. I drove back to Florida and never paid the ticket. 24 years later I am still getting an annual letter from this town demanding I pay the ticket or they will have Florida suspend my license. But to date I have not paid the ticket and my license has never been suspended.
@@fixitallpaul4847 I do competition shooting and have bought over 50 guns in the last 24 years since the incident. I just bought a Ruger Mark IV last week
In the 1960’s Danny Thomas had a TV show. An episode of that show introduced the US to Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith). On that episode Danny was pulled stopped for speeding by the sheriff and wanted to contest the ticket. In court the Sheriff was the Judge. This was a good comedic scenario for the show, and there was a happy ending. It’s not so funny when it happens in real life.
Steve, you are such good guy! Your honest distress, beginning @9:34, gives hope for humanity, except in Louisiana. Thanks for the excellent, entertaining and educational videos!
Now they I think about it, maybe just avoid the Southeast completely: If not the speed traps for money, then it's the Georgia counties using drug trafficking, for instance. Avoid especially if you have "Yankee" plates
I spent almost three decades in the Army and am a retired Paratrooper and combat veteran. I immediately moved to Panamá after I retired. When people question why, I just point to things like this…..
When I was an MP at Moffett Field in the late 70s, I had and old Master at Arms give me the bests advise I ever heard. He told me to just enforce the spirit of the law, within the letter of the law. He said, leave enforcing the letter of the law to the lawyers.
Unfortunately, where there is money involved, not all have such high morals or integrity. A town near me has a line item in its budget for seat belt tickets. Guess what most tickets are written by their officers.
I am a vengeful S/O/B, and I always find a way to get my pound of flesh. Hwy 280 East and West from Chelsea Alabama through to Jackson's Gap Alabama was on of the WORST speed traps in the US for many years; not only did you have all of the local (Sylacauga, Westover, Harpersville, Childersburg) departments to worry with, the Alabama State Troopers were notorious as well; 35 mph to 55 mph then down to 45 mph and then the 20 mph "school zones"...... the departments made it a contest to see who could write the most citations in a shift, a week, and a month. I had a Marine buddy that worked for one of those departments for about 18 months and he told me all about it (he moved to VA and is now a Trooper there) Sue enough, on my way to Auburn one day about 7-8 years ago I was stopped and got a citation; now when I'm guilty I'm guilty, but I knew better than to be speeding since I'm from here, so I knew I was not speeding---but there was no arguing w/the cop. Fine. I ate the ticket and paid the fine; but I knew those nice little spots the PD's all like to hide on most occasions, so on my next trip to Auburn three weeks later, in four different "hides" I pulled over and left them a gift. I'd had a friend with a fab shop make me about 150 caltrops from 3'' nails, and I spread them out over the four spots on my way down to Auburn. I know I *caught* at least one of them. On the way back to BHAM, I saw a flatbed truck with a Harpersville PD car on the back.... looked like it had at least 3 flats. I bet they thought about THAT one for a while, especially if other PD cars & PD Tahoes met the same fate.
30 years ago I got a ticket in Wall Township NJ for going two miles an hour over. Went to court and the judge threw it out and reprimanded the cop . Guess I was lucky .
Love these stories. Reminds me of the the two towns here in Florida Waldo and Lawtey. Waldo had a $1Million annual budget and over 50% was from tickets. The towns both were about 2 square miles in size. They were the ONLY two towns in the USA where AAA paid for billboards outside the city limits warning motorists of the Speed Traps. This went on for years until they finally got shut down. Now no police departments for either. But amazingly not many speeders to this day. Keep it up Steve!!!
Back in the bad old days in Florida, where cities on RT 301 named Waldo, Lawtey and Hampton set up very lucrative speed traps. One technique they reportedly used was to watch oncoming traffic (sometimes with binoculars) and if they saw a car approaching which had a front license plate (Florida cars do NOT have front plates) they would jump on it and find a reason to write a ticket. Since it was clearly an out-of-state car, the prospect that the owner would return to town to appeal the ticket was nil, so it was like printing money. In future years one or more of those towns admitted that the police had quotas for ticketing and apparently "reformed", and the AAA warnings to motorists about "Speed Trip Ahead" were ended.
The many hats story made me think of a long time ago when I used to be a convenience store clerk and I said something that annoyed a customer and he said I want to speak to the manager so I went in the back room and came back out with a big smile on my face I said hi my name is Josie I'm in charge here today, how may I help you! I reached out to shake his hand and he declined lol it felt great 😂
In the early 00’s, speed traps in Stringtown and Colcord, 2 towns that highway 69 passes through in southern Oklahoma, if you did not pay your fine on the spot for your bogus ticket, they would jail you. Eventually the local chief as well as the judge were arrested and jailed in a joint FBI/DOJ sting.
I believe I drove twice through Springtown. There was a 40 foot box trailer with large ted block lettering saying SPEED TRAP just off the highway exit.
@@Foolish188 I lived in Tacoma, Washington, for a while. During my tenure there, a Pierce County Sherriff's Deputy was pulling women over, accusing them of DUI, and offering to "Get them off," if they'd "Get him off." If you catch my drift. Complaints were made for years. And written off as "Attempts at retaliating." Apparently, he finally pulled it on a U.S. Marshall. And THAT was what it took for something to finally get done.
Yeah. Good luck with that one. As dirty politics as our local Barney Fife's are the State boys are way dirtier. Dash cam footage showing the cop was a bald faced lying bastard and I still lost in court. My dash cam setup record front and rear as well as a cam pointed at the driver that shows my dash in it. Visual footage of the stop sign i was stopped for and the cop in the corner of the video sitting in the parking lot on the other side of the intersection. Video showing the speedometer sitting on 0 not moving. Got charged with making a rolling stop at the sign. Rolling huh? 0 mph is still rolling? Judge overruled the video in favor of the "honest" trooper. His wife's third cousin.
Louisiana has also perfected the concept of sovereign immunity too. You cant sue them either. In NOLA, they have red light cameras. You have to pay the fine before you can fight the ticket, and even if you win, you cant force them to pay. They simply wont. And you cant sue them to make them. There are hundreds of millions in municipal fines ofvall sorts that the city refuses to return.
As mentioned in my other comments I live in Louisiana, and I thought I would share another creative money collection scam from a small town here in Louisiana, the town was New Llano, which is located new Fort Polk (US Army base), back in the 1980's they had a creative scam going on, where they would randomly pull people over for drunk driving, then have the cars towed while taking the driver into the police station for a breathalyzer test. The catch was no matter the results the people would have to pay the towing fee, and the only tow truck company in the town was owned by the chief of police's brother. Of course what do you expect from a town where the chief of police could not carry a gun due to a previous felony conviction. All of this came to a screeching halt when their offices were raided by the FBI after they tried to play this trick on the son of a US senator.
I have been a Louisiana resident practically my entire life. I have to tell you that these small towns prey on anyone they don't recognize. Regardless of what state you are from. Citizens of Louisiana frequently discuss what road trips are being planned so we can hear about speed traps. We get the love also. Vigorously...
Hey! Louisianan here! They only run for mayor and the judge position comes with it in tiny towns and villages. Also Baskin is known to be a speed trap. It has even been listed on a top 10 list of speed traps for many years.
I was ticketed for speeding, although I wasn’t. Went to fight the ticket; court told me I could either pay the $100 or pay a lawyer $400/hr. Tuesday is court day in our town of 9k residents; the town hall was full and there was a line snaking around the parking lot. It sure was a wake up call for me.
In Miami dade county they charge you 500 dollars to fight any code enforcement ticket. And that is for a kangaroo court that is guaranteed to rule against you.
Don't get me started on FPL and how they lobbied for laws to protect their own income. You want to live "off grid," it is essentially illegal in FL. Your CO (certificate of occupancy) will either never get issued or it will be revoked unless your home (or office or other edifice) is hooked up to FPL's power lines - and they require you to have an external disconnect so that they can turn off and lock you out of using your own solar panels or other alternative power source. Unrelated, but coincidentally - FL is also the state in which BoA foreclosed on a couple's house. Nothing unusual - miss enough payments on your mortgage and the bank/finance company will foreclose on the property. The kicker in this particular case - the couple paid cash for the house and never took out a mortgage or loan of any kind against the house. The Judge ruled in favor of the couple and ordered that BoA pay the court costs and the couple's legal fees. This is where the story takes another twist. Look it up... P.S.: I understand there are safety concerns for the Engineers/Technicians working on the power lines and transformers which requires temporarily locking out all sources of power into the system. However, this wouldn't be necessary if they allowed "off-grid", independent power. If your house isn't connected to the grid at all, there's no need to disconnect it should the power lines, transformers, &/or substation require maintenance or repairs. The way the system is currently (as far as I understand it), FPL could lock out your solar due to some maintenance or repair and "forget" to turn your solar back on after they finish what they were doing. Then, your next electricity bill is an order of magnitude (or two) greater than you were expecting. My info on this subject is from various online articles and online forums/complaints. My information might not be 100% accurate and/or might not be up to date. If you live in or plan to move to FL, please consult more authoritative sources regarding what you can and cannot do and don't take my rant as 100% accurate.
This is the literal definition of highway extortion, pay the toll and we let you go free kind of thing...The fact that they punish you for trying to fight the ticket just makes it more criminal.
When I was 16, I was driving a Texas car on the coast highway in New Jersey. I was watching out for speedtraps which were notorious. The limit was 55. I saw a sign saying reduce speed ahead, then nothing. Other towns stepped down to 40 or 45, then 30 and then 20, but this time nothing. Then I see a sign behind a tree limb, about the same time I see a light bar above that limb, and an arm holding the limb down. Apparently locking up all 4 wheels produced enough deceleration that the radar did not get a lock.
I got a dashcam after getting 2 tickets at the same place to prove that I was stopped at the stop sign. The intersection is a main street where cars park at an angle and you can't see around them when stopped behind the crosswalk. Got nailed a 3rd time and went to court with the dashcam video showing that I made a complete stop before inching out over the crosswalk. Got out of the ticket. Dashcams have saved my ass on many occasions. Just make sure to hide the dashcam if you do decide to something illegal. Lol
Dashcam won't save you in one of these mayor's courts. In fact, the video will be seized and destroyed, including if you only mention that you have it when you get to court. These people are corrupt. You think they have a problem with doing this?
I used to live in Lake Charles which is in the general area. They've got my father in law and they got me in north eastern area. If you have to drive through Louisiana stay on the interstates as much is possible.
IN new Orleans the city set up cameras to catch speeders going through school zones and set the time on the camera an hour off .thousandas got tickets before it was corrected
Recently I got a speeding ticket (North Carolina) at 5am in the rain. I asked the police officer what his radar clocked me at. He said he didn't use a radar, he estimated my speed. I went to a lawyer and she said that they take classes on how to estimate your speed and get certified and that I wouldn't be able to counter the argument because the judge will always side with a police officer in my county (Wake).
This is the most southern thing ever, small town of 300 people lives off out of towners with money, ran by the Mayor/Judge and his Cousin the Sheriff. What's next, does the Mayor/Judge have a Cousin/Wife? 😂
A friend got a ticket in a small Louisiana town for driving too fast through a school zone. What school zone? he asked. The cop pointed at a side street, two blocks down that way. You could not see the school from the highway. There's no signs, my friend replied. The cop chuckled, "There's going to be, we just haven't put them up yet." I got a ticket in another small Louisiana town where the speed limit suddenly changed from 55 to 35 to 25. I didn't see the 35 speed limit sign, but suddenly saw the 25 sign, slowed down immediately, but too late, the cop tucked around beside a building got me. I went back later, sure enough, there was a 45 and 35. Both were visible in daylight, but had apparently been made non-reflective. Some sort of clear spray paint? You could not pick them up in your headlights at night.
I know locally; no sign, no law. Traffic laws are supremely complex here and take up an entire shelf in the law library. But, some of those laws restrict how the police conduct business. So, want to enforce a special zone; a sign *needs* to be posted prior to any citations being issued. Simply taking pictures and/or video of the route showing no signage of the traffic zone in question will get a ticket tossed by the judge here in a heartbeat. But we have actual courts here; judge is not the prosecutor, nor mayor.
Steve, if you only knew how true this is. The town of Tullos, Louisiana is so bad that many people won't drive through it. I passed through there a few years back, knowing I was going the speed limit, because I have known of their reputation for decades. Me and a truck were side by side, well within the speed limit. Here comes a cop, turns on his lights and pulls over the pickup. It was a 50/50 shot and I got lucky. I tell people to this day, the man in the truck got a speeding ticket for doing nothing wrong. Great videos! Keep them coming.
The 12 block city of Mountain View in Denver does this by taking advantage of setting yellow lights ridiculously fast and citing people from out of town to fund their court house staff, judge, and six police officers. That's right, six officers for 12 city blocks. If you go to trial, they will plead down to a lesser point violation, but miraculously the fines stay the same and they add a court fee.
I’m from Louisiana. Almost every one in my family has received a ticket in Fenton, La. it’s a speed trap and it seems that they also like to pull over out of state vehicles. The ticket I got in Fenton was $250 for 7 over.and incidentally I got the ticket during the construction of the project Steve mentioned. Funny enough I also got a ticket in Georgetown La. it was definitely a speed trap. The ticket for 10 over was over $400!!
Here in CA I had a speeding ticket show up on my record. From a place in AZ I had never been. In a car I've never seen and paid by a person I never meet. The DMV refused to even talk with me on it and I ended up paying higher insurance rates until it fell off. Our government is garbage top to bottom.
I got caught in a speed trap in a tiny town in Oregon: combination filling station and store, and a few houses. I had reason to write to the town. Four of the five official people on the town letterhead had the same unusual last name.
Hey Steve this kangaroo court could also be in the state of Florida where there is no district attorney and the judge is not elected but appointed. Also in Florida traffic non Court has a court clerk that purpose is very unclear. Because if you want a recording of the proceedings you need to bring in your own tape recorder to record it. Although you're in a room with about 50s tiny microphones microphones hanging from the ceiling. I'm glad to hear that there are places in America where traffic court is more corrupt than Florida.
When I lived in Louisiana they had what was called a "first time offenders" rule. If you got a ticket you went to a police station and handed an officer CASH with your ticket and told him this was your first offense. They took your ticket and cash and that was it - no receipt and the ticket disappeared into thin air and your insurance never found out about it. In addition, they opperate under a form of the Napoleonic Code.
I remember driving across the TX border into LA when I was 18 to buy alcohol. It was illegal for me to buy or possess it, but legal for the store to sell it to me. It's all about the revenue.
I lived in Shreveport, LA for about 3 years, and I got 2 speeding tickets in my car, and a "no inspection sticker" ticket while riding a friend's motorcycle. The speeding tickets were for: 39mph in a 35mph zone and 50mph in a 45mph zone, and I showed the officer the inspection sticker for the motorcycle (it was in a pouch with the tag receipt under the seat), but it was supposed to be on one of the front forks of the bike! ($64 fine!) This was back in the early 1980s...
This sort of injustice with courts and fines is the bread and butter for Australian states. Recently NSW divised a way to increase fine revune by 1600%
In Ohio, a Mayors court "cannot accept " a Not Guilty plea Anyone pleading Not Guilty must go to the County Court house to hold a trial in an official court setting. Thus NO POINTS in a Mayors court and points if plead Not Guilty but found guilty in a real court
Brice, an Ohio municipality just outside of Columbus, has been banned from issuing speeding tickets, yet they continue issuing "notices of liability" via speed cams into a mayor's court. If you go to the hearing the Mayor dismisses the notice and you pay court costs, thus dodging judicial review because you must exhaust administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit. And the "administrative remedy" extinguishes the ability to seek judicial review...
@@TwoScoopsofDestroyer Yes It's not a speeding ticket , it's a village code violation . Check out Linndale , Ohio 44135 . they built a garage for police to sleep in so there is an officer within viewing range of the violation
Ohio resident here: mayor’s courts for speed camera tickets (where you are issued the “Notice of Liability”) were banned in 2019, when the state legislature passed a law granting exclusive jurisdiction to municipal courts for all non-criminal traffic violations. This ban was strengthened by an Ohio Supreme Court decision in the case _Magsig v. Toledo_ decided last year.
Louisiana has made an effort to reform its small town speed traps. The law now is that if the ticket is for less than 10 over, the fine goes to the state and not the local jurisdiction. This might explain why the tickets now tend to be for 10+ over, possibly regardless of the facts.
@@StarvieCarvie Like what details were exaggerated? I can't speak to Louisiana, but I can say this stuff most certainly happens elsewhere. Speed enforcement has pretty much always been a means of making money, 'safety' was an added benefit.
A few years ago the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (the highest court in the state) ruled that when a person fights a ticket in court he can be assessed court costs,and other costs,even if you win the challenge. IOW,in Massachusetts if a cop writes you a ticket it *will* cost you...even if the ticket was bogus in the first place.
I've heard Louisiana law is derived from French law where the rest of the US is based on British law. Could that be why they allow the mayor to also be the judge? It would be interesting so see a video explaining the differences.
In Mamou Louisiana you can get a tick even though the cop is no where around. He will pull you over and say you was speeding. When he was sitting at the police station. Wasn't out there radaring. They do it all the time. Every body should get a dash cam. One that shows speed.
They won't help much as the dashcam will need to show a certificate proving accuracy. Dashcam and phones use an averaging system. They take two positional readings which are not 'point accurate' the speed is calculated by the time taken to travel between these two points. I'll leave others to figure out how far you have to travel before the average speed is correct with a few feet of error. Note it is not the actual current speed but the average.
@@andyp5899 not just to show your speed. For cop like in Mamou that claim's he was sitting in that empty lot. But when you pass your dash cam doesn't show him anywhere around there. Then ask to see radar if he refuses you write on the ticket when you sign refuse to show radar.
@@andyp5899 It's good enough for most. When a dummy fines you for doing 60 in a 40 zone and your dashcam shows 39 for a long enough stretch, the cop is doomed. But going into the +1, that's hard.
Steve, you know there is no way to fix this. Even if you took it to the supreme court, and they ruled that there had to be a separate judge, prosecutor, and mayor, it still would mean nothing. They would just be 3 different people who all live in town and know each other, and the results would be identical. You would have to put in place the right to appeal to a state court, which, as you say, just is not worth the $$$$.
Actually there ARE ways to fix it but it's a major reform. Specifically make it so that any funds from fines, tickets, etc. must be immediately forfeited by the branch of government that's doing the collecting of the fines. Periodically the fines must be returned to the people of the US as a whole WITH interest. Basically remove the economic incentive for bad behavior and ... surprise .. you get less bad behavior.
@@erutherford Good idea - Make all traffic fines go to the state general fund (or whatever they call it in LA). Then the state legislature gives a percentage of the general operating fund to each municipality.
I got a ticket in Morrow County Oregon in the 70's. It was a really chicken Sh*t ticket. I appeared as promised and asked for a jury trial as allowed by law. The judge tried everything to convince me to just ajudicate it then and there but I held my ground. He set a trial date. A week later I got a letter telling me the citation had been dismissed as the fine exceeded the cost of the jury trial. I laughed all the way down the highway.
Traveling cross country last year I had literally just passed a quarter mile of semis with 10 cars directly behind me. The moment I put my blinker on to get out of the passing lane, I saw the speed trap on the side of the road. Within 4 minutes, I had a $200 ticket in hand. Good luck fighting a Louisiana ticket when you live in Florida…🤦🏼♂️
It certainly does stink. There is mold growing on the buildings and I smelled it everywhere. The state's name should be LousyAnus - a combination of diarrhea and hemorrhoids.
Hi Steve: I am originally from Louisiana. You are right, Georgetown is the absolute worst speed trap. I think it would be worth it to go through there about 10 MPH over the posted limit in order to get pulled over to receive a citation and then go to Mayor's court and have a trial. Ask the Mayor/Judge where the prosecutor is and have it on record that he is the prosecutor so that when he finds you guilty you now have grounds for an appeal to the District Court. The only problem....there is probably no record of the proceeding kept by the Mayor's Court. Therefore an appeal may be a bit tough unless you recorded the transaction yourself and then had it transcribed. A win in the Court of Appeals for lack of due process would at least shut down all of the Mayor's Courts in Louisiana I think..
@@southfloridanick Be forewarned that if your vehicle has tires on it which are a different size than the factory size, it could skew the speedometer's accuracy. Such a discrepancy would be a percentage, not a constant amount. For example, in a particular car owned by a friend of mine's brother, he has oversized tires on his little hatchback. His car's speedometer is off by 1mph at 20, 2mph at 40, 3mph at 60, and 4mph at 80. Therefore, he's actually doing 84 when his speedometer says 80. Here, in my area, a local TV station did a Freedom Of Information Act Request and examined actual traffic citations issued in the years leading up to the request. There was a sharp jump in speeding tickets issued when the alleged offender's speed crept up from 14 over to 15 over the posted limit. Relatively few speeding tickets were issued for an excess of 14 mph or less over the posted speed limit. So, if my friend's brother was to do 80 in a 70, thinking he was okay doing a dime over, he'd likely be getting a ticket for 15 over with the smallest fluctuation in his speed (he'd be doing 84 when his speedometer says 80. Add a tiny speed fluctuation going over a hill and bam! 85mph in real speed!). So, while a modern vehicle with factory wheels and tires might have a fairly accurate speedometer, a change in wheels &/or tires can skew the accuracy. Tires with a larger outside diameter will make the vehicle go faster than the speedometer says. Tires with a smaller outside diameter will make the vehicle go slower than the speedometer says. For the 4×4 crowd, it may be possible to re-calibrate your vehicle's speedometer to account for your 37" tires. In ancient times, there were substitute gears and adapters for the speedometer cable. In modern times, it may be a few taps on a keyboard and a few mouse clicks with some tuning software. Although, changing the differential ring and pinion gears might (partially) compensate for the difference in tire sizes too (or exacerbate it).
That is exactly what I feel in NM. You can actually get pulled over in NM just for working on your vehicle with no keys in the ignition! You can actually get pulled over and ticketed for ridding a bicycle which you are not required to have a license to ride! They even go beyond that and ticket people for walking on the sidewalk! I have been pulled over mor for walking than driving!
Steve, not sure if you will see this... I've been watching/bingeing on your channel for a few months and haven't seen this topic addressed or even mentioned: I wonder if there is a database accessible by lay people that reports stats on officers and their performance... Like a win loss record but more along the lines of catching deceitful practices. Example... Officer Jones wrote 300 tickets last month, 93 were traffic infractions less than 3mph over the limit, 145 were written less than 10 over the limit but of these 2 categories all but 18 were disputed in court... Or say an office who writes dui tickets on a fair percentage that were legitimately beaten in court... Because they weren't actually impaired at all. Just a thought. If no such database exists is there a way to aggregate this information?
The first thing that came to mind in regard to this video was the 1991 movie, "Nothing But Trouble." It's everything Steve was just talking about, and a whole lot more.
In Texas we passed a law that prevented municipalities from keeping fines written on highways for less than 10mph over. They could write the ticket, but the fine has to go to the state. Has had the effect that all tickets are for more than 10 over.
Try going after a prosecutor who privately meets with a cop to coach the cop how to fabricate pb on a search warrant affidavit...and then orders the cop to execute the warrant for which no actual contraband is found (but seizes knowingly innocent property anyway to support their fabricated narrative), and doesn't charge the home owner with any crime. Even though a prosecutor has total immunity for prosecutorial functions and no immunity of liability for investigative functions....try going to a federal court with that. Federal judges WON'T let you succeed no matter what the constitution or law states. Prosecutors are granted dictatorial powers so that they can cover for other official criminals.
Only the law says you have to appeal to the courts... You can cause so much more pain and damage outside the law than even a crooked prosecutor can do to you! if you feed to evil inside, There is nothing really out of bounds....only your own ethics can limit you if you dont mind being the cause of unimaginable suffering the world can be your oyster and EVERYBODY has a limit to what they can withstand.
@@norml.hugh-mann My Bucket List awaits my inevitable terminal diagnosis. I will be doing the world a favor on my way out...as that drunk with immunity thug least expects it.
This type of arrangement was immortalized as a positive thing on a TV show where Andy Griffith portrayed both the Sheriff and the Justice of the Peace.
This reminds me of when a friend of mine got arrested for a fight in a small town away from home. He shows up to court and the officer of the court is the girlfriend of the guy he fought and a witness. Once he told his lawyer his lawyer said we are taking whatever plea bargain they offer.
My husband and his carpool buddy alternate weeks driving and drive thru Fenton daily. It's the route a ton of people take to their petroleum/construction jobs between here and Beaumont. Those cops are shooting fish in a barrel.
Uh. Yeah. I lived in Alexandria 41 years. When I am in state I have to go through there to get to the cemetery where my parents are buried. Have someone with you for a witness. Set cruise control 10 under Krotz springs is another one. Don’t come off that bridge from Baton Rouge too quick. There is a cop waiting.
I used to hunt in Kisatchie every fall and the cops in Woodworth always stopped at least half of us heading to the woods. It's completely ridiculous how they make stuff up to steal our money!
Yea.... I am from Louisiana. I went fight a ticket that was written out wrong. I get to court and they had a corrected copy. Since I went to fight it, I had to not only pay it, I also got 2 years of unsupervised probation.
The State of Texas recently banned red-light cameras. New ones cannot be installed. Existing ones can live out the rest of the existing contracts, but said contracts cannot be renewed. As time goes on and various cities' red-light camera contracts expire, there will be less and less of them until they all disappear. Eventually. Conflict of interest. Cities don't own the cameras. The company which installs them owns them. The contracts typically specify the company gets a percentage of ticket revenue. Incentive to collect as much ticket revenue as possible, justified or not. Conflict of interest. Ergo, the new statewide ban here.
Missouri has a law that no municipality can earn more than 30% of its budget from tickets, any excess is supposed to be turned over to the state. Worked great, shut down many of the small town speed traps.
Born and raised in Louisiana. Just now seeing this video. Anywhere in Louisiana the first week of the month and the last week of the month you better follow every possible traffic rule or law or suggestion! Those two weeks of the month the cops, state troopers/sheriffs/city police, are everywhere ticketing anything they possibly can. They are everywhere those 2 weeks. In addition, when you are driving down different highways/roads/interstate if the speed limit all the sudden changes to a lower speed you better be at that lower speed limit before you get to the speed limit sign. As soon as the front bumper of your vehicle gets to the lower speed limit sign if you are not at that lower speed you’re going to immediately be pulled over and ticketed. The cops sit in their vehicle literally right behind the pole of the lower speed limit sign. They know that normally people slow down when they get to the lower speed limit sign and see that there is now a lower speed limit. That’s when drivers start to slow down. Even though that makes complete sense and logically what is normally going to happen the cops know that they can technically get you for not being at that speed limit as you hit that lower speed limit sign. Of course you are going to ask a very reasonable question, how would I know to be at that lower speed until I get to that lower speed limit sign? Well, that’s how they get people from out of town or out of state or here from out of country. You wouldn’t know that. Unfortunately, they get away with doing this every day. One of the worst things that even locals have to deal with is cops trying to pull people over when it’s the middle of the night and pitch black outside. These officers will be in their car with absolutely zero lights on. They don’t have the under lights on and they don’t have a light inside on and there is literally not a single light source on. Around here they will be in their black SUV vehicles with zero lights on inside or outside and pulled far enough off the road in an area where there is zero light and absolutely no way to see them. You will not know that they are there and there is no way to even know that they are there because it is pitch black where they’re hiding. I hate that and I think it is so wrong of them to do it that way. They will even pull into private resident driveways, these homes are not theirs and they are not family member homes either, and get beside one of the homeowner’s vehicles. They don’t have any of their lights on in or outside of the vehicle and they’re in a driveway of a home. They do that to look like they are just parking their vehicle in their homes driveway for the evening while they are inside asleep. Nope, they are trying to catch speeders or anyone who violates any rule/law while driving.
Reminds me of "Doc Hollywood" where the damaged fence is the judge's -- of course he was a nice guy. BTW, can the lawyer dog try a case in the mayor judge's court?
I live in Lake Charles and I drive through Fenton often. You drive northbound through Fenton to get to the land based Indian casino. The police set up on the southbound side of HWY 165 to get that money when people leave the casino. The speed limit is 65mph but when you hit Fenton, it drops to 50mph. He sits on a nice concrete pad specifically built for his dark blue Tahoe with ghost decals. You will not see him until you get right on him. Also, by the time you get to him, you passed two 50 mph speed limit signs. I see it all the time.
Soo am I suppose to keep my eyes on the speedometer to try and stay exactly on the posted speed limit and completely disregard all other responsibilities while driving,like watching where I'm going, keeping it between the lines and etc. Even cruise control is not that accurate.
Sheryl Beasley: Cruise Control is only as "accurate" (inaccurate, really), as your speedometer. Even the best electronic speedometer isn't "perfect", and, the cop can always lie, with complete impunity! PS: A whole lot of courts don't allow electronic device readings (other than the police radar gun's, of course), to be admitted as evidence!
In an effort to curtail speed traps. The state legislature enacted a law that says that if you exceed the limit by less than 10mph the fine is paid to the state. Usually a state trooper won’t stop you if you’re speeding less than 10 mph. They can but usually don’t. Unfortunately some small towns act like highway bandits by robbing passers-by It’s not a safety issue it’s a revenue issue.
Tarrant county Texas (Fort Worth) puts their presiding judge in charge of the council. Judicial controls legislative > executive controls judicial. Judges have the most power, so putting them in charge is the worst form of govt. The 3 branches of govt are not separated.
Steve this is an interesting take on things, as I have mentioned before my father was a District Judge in Louisiana, I also live within 50 miles of at least 4 maybe 5 of the towns on your list, and within 20 miles of one of them. Based on my personal knowledge the general attitude of the District Court judges in the area is to pass off these traffic court cases that occur inside a city limits to the local city court, which is often a mayors court in towns of under about 10,000 people or so as the district court is kept busy with much more serous matters. Note it is not only traffic citations that are handled by the mayors courts, but also other local city ordinance violations, everything from parking violations to someones grass being too tall. When my father was a district judge, the local school system had started taking to turning student disciplinary issues over to the police when it came to student actions. and the courts had a very similar attitude, basically telling the school system to deal with these matters themselves and not to involve the courts when a pair of 12 year old Jr High students get into a fist fight. As to your list of towns most are legitimate speed trap towns where people get pulled over for doing 3-5 mph over the limit, also nearly everyone on this side of the state knows not to speed there. There is perhaps one exception to the list, which while they give out lots of tickets I feel that the vast majority are legitimate, that is the town of Merryville, which is located on US 190 just about 3 miles from the Texas state line, this section of US 190 is a 2 lane federal highway, and in Louisiana the speed limit on rural 2 lane highways is 55 mph, however in Texas the speed limit on rural 2 lane highways is 75 mph. So east bound traffic entering Louisiana which has become accustomed to driving 75 mph on a 2 lane highway for perhaps nearly a thousand miles suddenly finds themselves in a 55 mph zone in a very rural area, this speed then drops to 45 or 50 mph at the Merryville city limits (the highway bypasses the center of town), needless to say by this point a large percentage of drivers are back up to doing 70+ mph.
Steve:
FYI
@ 0:42 in some parts of the world the gesture with your right hand means *F/U!*
My hand gestures mean all kinds of things in other parts of the world.
The OK 👌🏼sign in Europe and Middle East means A/H.
@@stevelehto lmao
@@RickyLHendricks
In Japan it means money.
Did you hear the joke the King's right hand Jester told
A guy with Foot in Mouth disease went to the Doctor
Doc said " He'll be back on his feet in no time, he has a runny nose "
I'll think of that one for the wrist of my life
7:15 - if 93% of your town's revenue comes from fines, *you DEPEND on crime to pay your bills.*
Let's fix that a bit.....depend on "crime......"
Where's the "crime"?!?
No Victim = No Crime....
Tyranny is afoot, and the 🐑🐑 🐑 are asleep and Compliant....
Well no because road infractions are that : infractions. They arent in the criminal code.
Apparently people don't understand SUBTLETY. He's saying that the towns are the criminals. Extorting people via bogus traffic citations.
It might be fun if a campaign to avoid that particular town gained traction. They could suddenly face a liquidity crisis. Of course, if a route with no practical alternatives goes through there then it might not be feasible.
Pay up and you get no points sounds like extortion to me, and this whole thing sounds like the beginning of any given episode of the Dukes of Hazzard.
Yeps. Cannot be constitutional if someone can get it tried.
@Skrewewe Toob I used to have a crush on him in the early 80's
@@Fee.1 better have a dashcam with gps, you’ll have all kinds of evidence for a court appearance.
@@Fee.1 I might just roll through there in 15 years or so. I'd wait that long just so that when the cop tells me to just pay the ticket, I can tell him that I'm retired and don't have anything better to do than fight it!
You made my think of daisy duke thankyou
The statute in Arkansas says that a municipality can NOT receive more than 33% of its revenue from traffic tickets. A small department had a 2 mile stretch of road that the speed went from 65 to 45 and after the 2 miles back to 65. They had 8 officers and all brand new cars. The state did an audit and closed down the department and auctioned off the cars because of all the fraud.
I think that was Tyronza
Grady, by chance?
Probably was Marshall or Damascus, Arkansas on Hwy 65 North from Conway. In Marshall there's a passing lane on the uphill incline into the town and they wait at the bottom of the hill and hit their lights before you even get to them as you're riding your brakes all the way down. Yee haw !! You might find yourself asking: "When will the judge be back from his fishing trip?" then, "Can I just do my jail time? Is Aunt Bee cooking the prisoner food?" and "Does Otis snore?"
@@gotrythym Grady on 65 south of Pine Bluff was pretty bad too. I've been told that the bypass around town was created specifically because the town went from 65 to 40 in the span of a quarter mile. The cops still patrol the bypass, but at least the speed limit is 65 there.
that would never happen in Louisiana cuz they are all related to each other -- literally
I lived in Terrebonne parish for 12 years and came back to Texas as SOON as I could. Louisiana politics and politicians are so crooked they make the Mississippi river look like a snapped chalk line. This story doesn't surprise me at all.🙄
Texas isn't much better
@@alexm7777 I've lived in both as well as other states. Texas is WAY better than lousyana (not a spelling error). No state or country is perfect, but LA sucks right down to the bone.
Thus the SNL skits...
@@alexm7777 Compared to Louisiana, yes it is.
Jan, my mother was born and raised in Houma and I still have a number of relatives who live in Terrebonne Parish. I thought about visiting and even possibly relocating but after reading that Reason Magazine article, I’m having second thoughts.
Hughson, CA used to be that way. You could drive through at 10 under the limit and get a ticket for 20 over. They were locally famous for it. Finally, they nailed so many of the wrong people that the state got involved. They were set up, busted by state police, and sued. The award was so large that they lost their police department and had to contract out to the county for enforcement. Personally, I’m amazed that nobody is addressing these crooks in a more direct manner.
The moral of the story is to always speed through Louisiana; as you're going to get a ticket anyway you may as well earn it.
"Oh you were going extra fast so we'll have to get you for reckless driving too."
I got one in Arkansas from a deputy hidden behind a sign across from where the limit dropped from 55 to 35. I was told if it was paid in cash it didn't go on my record. I lived 700 miles away so I sent the cash and it never showed up on my record. I always wondered who pocketed the cash.
24 years ago I was driving from Oklahoma to Florida and cut through a small town in Louisiana and got pulled over by a cop. He issued me a $40 ticket for not wearing a seatbelt even though he can clearly see I was. I said so you issuing me a ticket because I am from another state and this is a money revenue scam even though I broke no law. With a huge wad of dip in his mouth he responded tell it to the mayor judge if you don’t like it, and walked away. I drove back to Florida and never paid the ticket. 24 years later I am still getting an annual letter from this town demanding I pay the ticket or they will have Florida suspend my license. But to date I have not paid the ticket and my license has never been suspended.
They go to family reunions to get a marriage partner .
The family tree does not have branches .
If you ever move to another state, you may have trouble getting a license.
Try and buy a firearm.
@@fixitallpaul4847 I do competition shooting and have bought over 50 guns in the last 24 years since the incident. I just bought a Ruger Mark IV last week
@@kennethnevel3263 Their family tree is a wreath.
In the 1960’s Danny Thomas had a TV show. An episode of that show introduced the US to Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith).
On that episode Danny was pulled stopped for speeding by the sheriff and wanted to contest the ticket.
In court the Sheriff was the Judge. This was a good comedic scenario for the show, and there was a happy ending.
It’s not so funny when it happens in real life.
Steve, you are such good guy! Your honest distress, beginning @9:34, gives hope for humanity, except in Louisiana. Thanks for the excellent, entertaining and educational videos!
Lesson for the Day:
*"Don't drive through Louisiana and Arkansas!"*
Got it. 👍
Mississippi is bad too.
Avoid during Cannonball attempts is what I’m gathering here…
Now they I think about it, maybe just avoid the Southeast completely: If not the speed traps for money, then it's the Georgia counties using drug trafficking, for instance. Avoid especially if you have "Yankee" plates
The interstate between Little Rock and Memphis has been a "construction zone, fines are doubled" since the '70s.
Anyone whos traveled through the south already knows not to go there. Its a humid shithole
I spent almost three decades in the Army and am a retired Paratrooper and combat veteran. I immediately moved to Panamá after I retired. When people question why, I just point to things like this…..
When I was an MP at Moffett Field in the late 70s, I had and old Master at Arms give me the bests advise I ever heard. He told me to just enforce the spirit of the law, within the letter of the law. He said, leave enforcing the letter of the law to the lawyers.
Ever notice that no matter how ridiculous the law is, there are lawyers arguing both sides.
Unfortunately, where there is money involved, not all have such high morals or integrity. A town near me has a line item in its budget for seat belt tickets. Guess what most tickets are written by their officers.
I am a vengeful S/O/B, and I always find a way to get my pound of flesh. Hwy 280 East and West from Chelsea Alabama through to Jackson's Gap Alabama was on of the WORST speed traps in the US for many years; not only did you have all of the local (Sylacauga, Westover, Harpersville, Childersburg) departments to worry with, the Alabama State Troopers were notorious as well; 35 mph to 55 mph then down to 45 mph and then the 20 mph "school zones"...... the departments made it a contest to see who could write the most citations in a shift, a week, and a month. I had a Marine buddy that worked for one of those departments for about 18 months and he told me all about it (he moved to VA and is now a Trooper there) Sue enough, on my way to Auburn one day about 7-8 years ago I was stopped and got a citation; now when I'm guilty I'm guilty, but I knew better than to be speeding since I'm from here, so I knew I was not speeding---but there was no arguing w/the cop. Fine. I ate the ticket and paid the fine; but I knew those nice little spots the PD's all like to hide on most occasions, so on my next trip to Auburn three weeks later, in four different "hides" I pulled over and left them a gift. I'd had a friend with a fab shop make me about 150 caltrops from 3'' nails, and I spread them out over the four spots on my way down to Auburn. I know I *caught* at least one of them. On the way back to BHAM, I saw a flatbed truck with a Harpersville PD car on the back.... looked like it had at least 3 flats. I bet they thought about THAT one for a while, especially if other PD cars & PD Tahoes met the same fate.
30 years ago I got a ticket in Wall Township NJ for going two miles an hour over. Went to court and the judge threw it out and reprimanded the cop . Guess I was lucky .
Love these stories. Reminds me of the the two towns here in Florida Waldo and Lawtey. Waldo had a $1Million annual budget and over 50% was from tickets. The towns both were about 2 square miles in size. They were the ONLY two towns in the USA where AAA paid for billboards outside the city limits warning motorists of the Speed Traps. This went on for years until they finally got shut down. Now no police departments for either. But amazingly not many speeders to this day. Keep it up Steve!!!
Back in the bad old days in Florida, where cities on RT 301 named Waldo, Lawtey and Hampton set up very lucrative speed traps. One technique they reportedly used was to watch oncoming traffic (sometimes with binoculars) and if they saw a car approaching which had a front license plate (Florida cars do NOT have front plates) they would jump on it and find a reason to write a ticket. Since it was clearly an out-of-state car, the prospect that the owner would return to town to appeal the ticket was nil, so it was like printing money.
In future years one or more of those towns admitted that the police had quotas for ticketing and apparently "reformed", and the AAA warnings to motorists about "Speed Trip Ahead" were ended.
The many hats story made me think of a long time ago when I used to be a convenience store clerk and I said something that annoyed a customer and he said I want to speak to the manager so I went in the back room and came back out with a big smile on my face I said hi my name is Josie I'm in charge here today, how may I help you! I reached out to shake his hand and he declined lol it felt great 😂
In the early 00’s, speed traps in Stringtown and Colcord, 2 towns that highway 69 passes through in southern Oklahoma, if you did not pay your fine on the spot for your bogus ticket, they would jail you. Eventually the local chief as well as the judge were arrested and jailed in a joint FBI/DOJ sting.
This was back when the FBI was still interested in justice. 😏
Must have stopped some guy with influence.
I pine for the days when the FBI and DOJ were honest ! 🇺🇸
I believe I drove twice through Springtown. There was a 40 foot box trailer with large ted block lettering saying SPEED TRAP just off the highway exit.
@@Foolish188 I lived in Tacoma, Washington, for a while.
During my tenure there, a Pierce County Sherriff's Deputy was pulling women over, accusing them of DUI, and offering to "Get them off," if they'd "Get him off." If you catch my drift.
Complaints were made for years. And written off as "Attempts at retaliating."
Apparently, he finally pulled it on a U.S. Marshall.
And THAT was what it took for something to finally get done.
And in my ignorance, I was thinking these states might be interesting areas to check out, with no reports on camping in those states... NOT NOW!
Old-Timers and TV buffs will recognize this as the plotline that introduces sheriff Andy Taylor on the Danny Thomas show.
Your username checks out.
Sounds like these "venues" need a class action lawsuit...
Which ain't possible.
Imagine that you are pulled over AND you have a few thousand dollars with you. Nothing like a little municipal welfare, courtesy of John Q Public.
Pulled over so where you from yep
Yeah. Good luck with that one. As dirty politics as our local Barney Fife's are the State boys are way dirtier. Dash cam footage showing the cop was a bald faced lying bastard and I still lost in court. My dash cam setup record front and rear as well as a cam pointed at the driver that shows my dash in it. Visual footage of the stop sign i was stopped for and the cop in the corner of the video sitting in the parking lot on the other side of the intersection. Video showing the speedometer sitting on 0 not moving. Got charged with making a rolling stop at the sign. Rolling huh? 0 mph is still rolling? Judge overruled the video in favor of the "honest" trooper. His wife's third cousin.
Louisiana has also perfected the concept of sovereign immunity too. You cant sue them either. In NOLA, they have red light cameras. You have to pay the fine before you can fight the ticket, and even if you win, you cant force them to pay. They simply wont. And you cant sue them to make them. There are hundreds of millions in municipal fines ofvall sorts that the city refuses to return.
It is an improvement over the previous method of "Pay the Cop on the spot" that they used back in the 1980s and 90s
I see you've been on the Chicago Loop back in the day.
I'm old enough to remember how buying tickets to the "Policemen's Ball* could get ya outta a speeding ticket.
80s and 90s? I remember paying the cop directly in 2008.
@@michaeldietz7038 I left Louisiana in 1993 after 18 miserable months...
@@michaeldietz7038 think you still do in Montana
As mentioned in my other comments I live in Louisiana, and I thought I would share another creative money collection scam from a small town here in Louisiana, the town was New Llano, which is located new Fort Polk (US Army base), back in the 1980's they had a creative scam going on, where they would randomly pull people over for drunk driving, then have the cars towed while taking the driver into the police station for a breathalyzer test. The catch was no matter the results the people would have to pay the towing fee, and the only tow truck company in the town was owned by the chief of police's brother. Of course what do you expect from a town where the chief of police could not carry a gun due to a previous felony conviction. All of this came to a screeching halt when their offices were raided by the FBI after they tried to play this trick on the son of a US senator.
I have been a Louisiana resident practically my entire life. I have to tell you that these small towns prey on anyone they don't recognize. Regardless of what state you are from. Citizens of Louisiana frequently discuss what road trips are being planned so we can hear about speed traps. We get the love also. Vigorously...
Hey! Louisianan here! They only run for mayor and the judge position comes with it in tiny towns and villages. Also Baskin is known to be a speed trap. It has even been listed on a top 10 list of speed traps for many years.
I was ticketed for speeding, although I wasn’t. Went to fight the ticket; court told me I could either pay the $100 or pay a
lawyer $400/hr. Tuesday is court day in our town of 9k residents; the town hall was full and there was a line snaking around the parking lot. It sure was a wake up call for me.
In Miami dade county they charge you 500 dollars to fight any code enforcement ticket. And that is for a kangaroo court that is guaranteed to rule against you.
Don't get me started on FPL and how they lobbied for laws to protect their own income. You want to live "off grid," it is essentially illegal in FL. Your CO (certificate of occupancy) will either never get issued or it will be revoked unless your home (or office or other edifice) is hooked up to FPL's power lines - and they require you to have an external disconnect so that they can turn off and lock you out of using your own solar panels or other alternative power source.
Unrelated, but coincidentally - FL is also the state in which BoA foreclosed on a couple's house. Nothing unusual - miss enough payments on your mortgage and the bank/finance company will foreclose on the property. The kicker in this particular case - the couple paid cash for the house and never took out a mortgage or loan of any kind against the house. The Judge ruled in favor of the couple and ordered that BoA pay the court costs and the couple's legal fees. This is where the story takes another twist. Look it up...
P.S.: I understand there are safety concerns for the Engineers/Technicians working on the power lines and transformers which requires temporarily locking out all sources of power into the system. However, this wouldn't be necessary if they allowed "off-grid", independent power. If your house isn't connected to the grid at all, there's no need to disconnect it should the power lines, transformers, &/or substation require maintenance or repairs. The way the system is currently (as far as I understand it), FPL could lock out your solar due to some maintenance or repair and "forget" to turn your solar back on after they finish what they were doing. Then, your next electricity bill is an order of magnitude (or two) greater than you were expecting.
My info on this subject is from various online articles and online forums/complaints. My information might not be 100% accurate and/or might not be up to date. If you live in or plan to move to FL, please consult more authoritative sources regarding what you can and cannot do and don't take my rant as 100% accurate.
This is the literal definition of highway extortion, pay the toll and we let you go free kind of thing...The fact that they punish you for trying to fight the ticket just makes it more criminal.
When I was 16, I was driving a Texas car on the coast highway in New Jersey. I was watching out for speedtraps which were notorious. The limit was 55. I saw a sign saying reduce speed ahead, then nothing. Other towns stepped down to 40 or 45, then 30 and then 20, but this time nothing. Then I see a sign behind a tree limb, about the same time I see a light bar above that limb, and an arm holding the limb down. Apparently locking up all 4 wheels produced enough deceleration that the radar did not get a lock.
cheeky bastards
get a privacy computer film and place on plates vertically :)
@@TryMeFoolYT way illegal. Of course soon all cars will have transponders so plate reading wont be neccesary
@@fixitallpaul4847 i put ir leds round my plates. cameras cant even see that i have plates
@@draconightwalker4964 Cool!
I got a dashcam after getting 2 tickets at the same place to prove that I was stopped at the stop sign. The intersection is a main street where cars park at an angle and you can't see around them when stopped behind the crosswalk. Got nailed a 3rd time and went to court with the dashcam video showing that I made a complete stop before inching out over the crosswalk. Got out of the ticket. Dashcams have saved my ass on many occasions. Just make sure to hide the dashcam if you do decide to something illegal. Lol
I would never do illegal.
Dashcam won't save you in one of these mayor's courts. In fact, the video will be seized and destroyed, including if you only mention that you have it when you get to court. These people are corrupt. You think they have a problem with doing this?
I used to live in Lake Charles which is in the general area. They've got my father in law and they got me in north eastern area. If you have to drive through Louisiana stay on the interstates as much is possible.
I learned that lesson the hard way traveling to Shreveport once
IN new Orleans the city set up cameras to catch speeders going through school zones
and set the time on the camera an hour off .thousandas got tickets before it was corrected
....and that wasn't a mistake.
When I’m in New Orleans I always drive the school zone speed no matter the time of day.
@@stelliform We have 15mph school zones, normal speed limit is 45mph…. That wouldn’t work here.
Extorting actions on or near a road is the definition of highway robbery, right?
Recently I got a speeding ticket (North Carolina) at 5am in the rain. I asked the police officer what his radar clocked me at. He said he didn't use a radar, he estimated my speed. I went to a lawyer and she said that they take classes on how to estimate your speed and get certified and that I wouldn't be able to counter the argument because the judge will always side with a police officer in my county (Wake).
The USA really is a developping country.
Corruption in full view and nobody doing anything against it...
This is the most southern thing ever, small town of 300 people lives off out of towners with money, ran by the Mayor/Judge and his Cousin the Sheriff. What's next, does the Mayor/Judge have a Cousin/Wife? 😂
They got divorced, she's just his cousin again.
AGN - Sister/wife ?
Ellie May says, "Me and Uncle Daddy is havin' us a nephson."
@AGN 728 Who did you think was sitting at the clerks desk? Also the court reporter, tax assessor and jail cook.
@@stevejette2329 I was gonna say that but I thought that was a different thing haha
Truth. Lawyer told me to just pay it since he knew you couldn’t beat it. This was in a cmv around 2008.
That how it works in Oregon too.
Sounds like the situation in New Rome, Ohio. The situation was so bad that it was dissolved in 2004.
Nohio has a cop every 2 miles
A friend got a ticket in a small Louisiana town for driving too fast through a school zone. What school zone? he asked. The cop pointed at a side street, two blocks down that way. You could not see the school from the highway. There's no signs, my friend replied. The cop chuckled, "There's going to be, we just haven't put them up yet."
I got a ticket in another small Louisiana town where the speed limit suddenly changed from 55 to 35 to 25. I didn't see the 35 speed limit sign, but suddenly saw the 25 sign, slowed down immediately, but too late, the cop tucked around beside a building got me. I went back later, sure enough, there was a 45 and 35. Both were visible in daylight, but had apparently been made non-reflective. Some sort of clear spray paint? You could not pick them up in your headlights at night.
I know locally; no sign, no law. Traffic laws are supremely complex here and take up an entire shelf in the law library. But, some of those laws restrict how the police conduct business. So, want to enforce a special zone; a sign *needs* to be posted prior to any citations being issued. Simply taking pictures and/or video of the route showing no signage of the traffic zone in question will get a ticket tossed by the judge here in a heartbeat. But we have actual courts here; judge is not the prosecutor, nor mayor.
Did you choose to pay the fine? Or go up to court ?
@@sahasranshupurohit Paid.
Steve, if you only knew how true this is. The town of Tullos, Louisiana is so bad that many people won't drive through it. I passed through there a few years back, knowing I was going the speed limit, because I have known of their reputation for decades. Me and a truck were side by side, well within the speed limit. Here comes a cop, turns on his lights and pulls over the pickup. It was a 50/50 shot and I got lucky. I tell people to this day, the man in the truck got a speeding ticket for doing nothing wrong. Great videos! Keep them coming.
The 12 block city of Mountain View in Denver does this by taking advantage of setting yellow lights ridiculously fast and citing people from out of town to fund their court house staff, judge, and six police officers. That's right, six officers for 12 city blocks. If you go to trial, they will plead down to a lesser point violation, but miraculously the fines stay the same and they add a court fee.
I’m from Louisiana. Almost every one in my family has received a ticket in Fenton, La. it’s a speed trap and it seems that they also like to pull over out of state vehicles. The ticket I got in Fenton was $250 for 7 over.and incidentally I got the ticket during the construction of the project Steve mentioned. Funny enough I also got a ticket in Georgetown La. it was definitely a speed trap. The ticket for 10 over was over $400!!
Here in CA I had a speeding ticket show up on my record. From a place in AZ I had never been. In a car I've never seen and paid by a person I never meet. The DMV refused to even talk with me on it and I ended up paying higher insurance rates until it fell off. Our government is garbage top to bottom.
I got caught in a speed trap in a tiny town in Oregon: combination filling station and store, and a few houses. I had reason to write to the town. Four of the five official people on the town letterhead had the same unusual last name.
Hey Steve this kangaroo court could also be in the state of Florida where there is no district attorney and the judge is not elected but appointed. Also in Florida traffic non Court has a court clerk that purpose is very unclear. Because if you want a recording of the proceedings you need to bring in your own tape recorder to record it. Although you're in a room with about 50s tiny microphones microphones hanging from the ceiling. I'm glad to hear that there are places in America where traffic court is more corrupt than Florida.
When I lived in Louisiana they had what was called a "first time offenders" rule. If you got a ticket you went to a police station and handed an officer CASH with your ticket and told him this was your first offense. They took your ticket and cash and that was it - no receipt and the ticket disappeared into thin air and your insurance never found out about it. In addition, they opperate under a form of the Napoleonic Code.
I remember driving across the TX border into LA when I was 18 to buy alcohol. It was illegal for me to buy or possess it, but legal for the store to sell it to me. It's all about the revenue.
I lived in Shreveport, LA for about 3 years, and I got 2 speeding tickets in my car, and a "no inspection sticker" ticket while riding a friend's motorcycle. The speeding tickets were for: 39mph in a 35mph zone and 50mph in a 45mph zone, and I showed the officer the inspection sticker for the motorcycle (it was in a pouch with the tag receipt under the seat), but it was supposed to be on one of the front forks of the bike! ($64 fine!) This was back in the early 1980s...
This sort of injustice with courts and fines is the bread and butter for Australian states. Recently NSW divised a way to increase fine revune by 1600%
Police states.
glad im not in NSW anymore
In Ohio, a Mayors court "cannot accept " a Not Guilty plea
Anyone pleading Not Guilty must go to the County Court house
to hold a trial in an official court setting. Thus NO POINTS in a Mayors court
and points if plead Not Guilty but found guilty in a real court
Brice, an Ohio municipality just outside of Columbus, has been banned from issuing speeding tickets, yet they continue issuing "notices of liability" via speed cams into a mayor's court. If you go to the hearing the Mayor dismisses the notice and you pay court costs, thus dodging judicial review because you must exhaust administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit. And the "administrative remedy" extinguishes the ability to seek judicial review...
@@TwoScoopsofDestroyer Yes It's not a speeding ticket , it's a village code violation . Check out Linndale , Ohio 44135 . they built a garage for police to sleep in so there is an officer within viewing range of the violation
Ohio resident here: mayor’s courts for speed camera tickets (where you are issued the “Notice of Liability”) were banned in 2019, when the state legislature passed a law granting exclusive jurisdiction to municipal courts for all non-criminal traffic violations. This ban was strengthened by an Ohio Supreme Court decision in the case _Magsig v. Toledo_ decided last year.
Louisiana has made an effort to reform its small town speed traps. The law now is that if the ticket is for less than 10 over, the fine goes to the state and not the local jurisdiction. This might explain why the tickets now tend to be for 10+ over, possibly regardless of the facts.
Oh. So the cop always says you were doing 10+ over to keep in it local court. Smh
Hehe, what a waste of time. Cop can come up with any number they want.
I live in Louisiana.He exaggerated a lot on this story
@@StarvieCarvie Like what details were exaggerated? I can't speak to Louisiana, but I can say this stuff most certainly happens elsewhere. Speed enforcement has pretty much always been a means of making money, 'safety' was an added benefit.
I'd love to see that chart.
A few years ago the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (the highest court in the state) ruled that when a person fights a ticket in court he can be assessed court costs,and other costs,even if you win the challenge. IOW,in Massachusetts if a cop writes you a ticket it *will* cost you...even if the ticket was bogus in the first place.
I've heard Louisiana law is derived from French law where the rest of the US is based on British law. Could that be why they allow the mayor to also be the judge? It would be interesting so see a video explaining the differences.
Louisiana is all about Good Ole' Boys justice system. Good luck!
Them good ole boys are fat dumb and lazy.
In Mamou Louisiana you can get a tick even though the cop is no where around. He will pull you over and say you was speeding. When he was sitting at the police station. Wasn't out there radaring. They do it all the time. Every body should get a dash cam. One that shows speed.
Or the GPS function of their phones...
They won't help much as the dashcam will need to show a certificate proving accuracy. Dashcam and phones use an averaging system. They take two positional readings which are not 'point accurate' the speed is calculated by the time taken to travel between these two points. I'll leave others to figure out how far you have to travel before the average speed is correct with a few feet of error. Note it is not the actual current speed but the average.
@@andyp5899 not just to show your speed. For cop like in Mamou that claim's he was sitting in that empty lot. But when you pass your dash cam doesn't show him anywhere around there. Then ask to see radar if he refuses you write on the ticket when you sign refuse to show radar.
@@andyp5899 It's good enough for most. When a dummy fines you for doing 60 in a 40 zone and your dashcam shows 39 for a long enough stretch, the cop is doomed. But going into the +1, that's hard.
@@andyp5899 A dash cam can also be used to see how fast the lane lines are moving by in which your speed can be calculated from as well.
Lived in Louisiana almost my entire life, have never heard of this, but find it very easy to believe. This is insane
Steve, you know there is no way to fix this. Even if you took it to the supreme court, and they ruled that there had to be a separate judge, prosecutor, and mayor, it still would mean nothing. They would just be 3 different people who all live in town and know each other, and the results would be identical. You would have to put in place the right to appeal to a state court, which, as you say, just is not worth the $$$$.
Actually there ARE ways to fix it but it's a major reform. Specifically make it so that any funds from fines, tickets, etc. must be immediately forfeited by the branch of government that's doing the collecting of the fines. Periodically the fines must be returned to the people of the US as a whole WITH interest. Basically remove the economic incentive for bad behavior and ... surprise .. you get less bad behavior.
@@erutherford Good idea - Make all traffic fines go to the state general fund (or whatever they call it in LA). Then the state legislature gives a percentage of the general operating fund to each municipality.
I got a ticket in Morrow County Oregon in the 70's. It was a really chicken Sh*t ticket. I appeared as promised and asked for a jury trial as allowed by law. The judge tried everything to convince me to just ajudicate it then and there but I held my ground. He set a trial date. A week later I got a letter telling me the citation had been dismissed as the fine exceeded the cost of the jury trial. I laughed all the way down the highway.
Steve said Fenton, Louisiana. I immediately thought Fentanyl, Louisiana.
Traveling cross country last year I had literally just passed a quarter mile of semis with 10 cars directly behind me. The moment I put my blinker on to get out of the passing lane, I saw the speed trap on the side of the road. Within 4 minutes, I had a $200 ticket in hand. Good luck fighting a Louisiana ticket when you live in Florida…🤦🏼♂️
Louisiana, It really is the armpit of the US. It's always hot and humid, and something about it just stinks.
@Skrewewe Toob sure thing, if small town cops are known for anything it's their integrity right /s
@@tylermacdermott5467 they have plenty of integrity -- they never touch anyone with money
It certainly does stink. There is mold growing on the buildings and I smelled it everywhere. The state's name should be LousyAnus - a combination of diarrhea and hemorrhoids.
i agree...and Florida is the crotch, no wait a minute, more like the countries penis., just look at the map.
Hi Steve: I am originally from Louisiana. You are right, Georgetown is the absolute worst speed trap. I think it would be worth it to go through there about 10 MPH over the posted limit in order to get pulled over to receive a citation and then go to Mayor's court and have a trial. Ask the Mayor/Judge where the prosecutor is and have it on record that he is the prosecutor so that when he finds you guilty you now have grounds for an appeal to the District Court. The only problem....there is probably no record of the proceeding kept by the Mayor's Court. Therefore an appeal may be a bit tough unless you recorded the transaction yourself and then had it transcribed.
A win in the Court of Appeals for lack of due process would at least shut down all of the Mayor's Courts in Louisiana I think..
Old Huey Long would be proud.
uh, i know that you are being facetious here, but old Huey is doing barrel rolls in his grave
Florida law doesn’t allow 1-4mph over limit to be ticketed. That’s reasonable.
The day Florida is the more reasonable stance, never though I'd see the day.
Speedometers are usually off by 2-3 mph. It makes plenty of sense.
thats allowable speedo play. not every speedo is completely accurate
The majority of new car speedos are within 1mph. The days of them being off by 2-3 on average are long gone.
@@southfloridanick Be forewarned that if your vehicle has tires on it which are a different size than the factory size, it could skew the speedometer's accuracy. Such a discrepancy would be a percentage, not a constant amount. For example, in a particular car owned by a friend of mine's brother, he has oversized tires on his little hatchback. His car's speedometer is off by 1mph at 20, 2mph at 40, 3mph at 60, and 4mph at 80. Therefore, he's actually doing 84 when his speedometer says 80.
Here, in my area, a local TV station did a Freedom Of Information Act Request and examined actual traffic citations issued in the years leading up to the request. There was a sharp jump in speeding tickets issued when the alleged offender's speed crept up from 14 over to 15 over the posted limit. Relatively few speeding tickets were issued for an excess of 14 mph or less over the posted speed limit. So, if my friend's brother was to do 80 in a 70, thinking he was okay doing a dime over, he'd likely be getting a ticket for 15 over with the smallest fluctuation in his speed (he'd be doing 84 when his speedometer says 80. Add a tiny speed fluctuation going over a hill and bam! 85mph in real speed!).
So, while a modern vehicle with factory wheels and tires might have a fairly accurate speedometer, a change in wheels &/or tires can skew the accuracy. Tires with a larger outside diameter will make the vehicle go faster than the speedometer says. Tires with a smaller outside diameter will make the vehicle go slower than the speedometer says. For the 4×4 crowd, it may be possible to re-calibrate your vehicle's speedometer to account for your 37" tires. In ancient times, there were substitute gears and adapters for the speedometer cable. In modern times, it may be a few taps on a keyboard and a few mouse clicks with some tuning software. Although, changing the differential ring and pinion gears might (partially) compensate for the difference in tire sizes too (or exacerbate it).
I've been to South Louisiana three times in my life every time I've been through there I've gotten some sort of ticket
The judge in my tiny WV town is also the mayor lol. I will admit though, he absolutely dismissed a bullshite ticket I got.
That’s because you’re a voting resident for him to get re-elected. If you were an out of towner, odds are you would have been found guilty
Reminds me of the movie "Nothing But Trouble" with Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Candy, and Demi Moore.
Crooked small southern town. Gotta love it. Reminds me of that song by Reba “ When the lights went out in Ga”
Everything i know about Louisiana, I would never step foot in that shit hole
The food is good, but that's the ONLY "redeeming quality."
The food is tolerable...if you dont know the ingredients
I wish the whole state of Lousiana would do a jomestown
@@norml.hugh-mann Why don't you show us how prick? We might just follow your example if we see you do it first.
@@wpeale71341 is someone butthurt because their shithole home state is getting called out?
That is exactly what I feel in NM. You can actually get pulled over in NM just for working on your vehicle with no keys in the ignition! You can actually get pulled over and ticketed for ridding a bicycle which you are not required to have a license to ride! They even go beyond that and ticket people for walking on the sidewalk! I have been pulled over mor for walking than driving!
Steve, not sure if you will see this... I've been watching/bingeing on your channel for a few months and haven't seen this topic addressed or even mentioned:
I wonder if there is a database accessible by lay people that reports stats on officers and their performance... Like a win loss record but more along the lines of catching deceitful practices. Example... Officer Jones wrote 300 tickets last month, 93 were traffic infractions less than 3mph over the limit, 145 were written less than 10 over the limit but of these 2 categories all but 18 were disputed in court... Or say an office who writes dui tickets on a fair percentage that were legitimately beaten in court... Because they weren't actually impaired at all.
Just a thought. If no such database exists is there a way to aggregate this information?
The first thing that came to mind in regard to this video was the 1991 movie, "Nothing But Trouble." It's everything Steve was just talking about, and a whole lot more.
Pay the cop was more streamlined, like on the Chicago Loop
In Texas we passed a law that prevented municipalities from keeping fines written on highways for less than 10mph over. They could write the ticket, but the fine has to go to the state. Has had the effect that all tickets are for more than 10 over.
Try going after a prosecutor who privately meets with a cop to coach the cop how to fabricate pb on a search warrant affidavit...and then orders the cop to execute the warrant for which no actual contraband is found (but seizes knowingly innocent property anyway to support their fabricated narrative), and doesn't charge the home owner with any crime.
Even though a prosecutor has total immunity for prosecutorial functions and no immunity of liability for investigative functions....try going to a federal court with that.
Federal judges WON'T let you succeed no matter what the constitution or law states.
Prosecutors are granted dictatorial powers so that they can cover for other official criminals.
Only the law says you have to appeal to the courts...
You can cause so much more pain and damage outside the law than even a crooked prosecutor can do to you! if you feed to evil inside, There is nothing really out of bounds....only your own ethics can limit you if you dont mind being the cause of unimaginable suffering the world can be your oyster and EVERYBODY has a limit to what they can withstand.
@@norml.hugh-mann My Bucket List awaits my inevitable terminal diagnosis.
I will be doing the world a favor on my way out...as that drunk with immunity thug least expects it.
This type of arrangement was immortalized as a positive thing on a TV show where Andy Griffith portrayed both the Sheriff and the Justice of the Peace.
U S Coast Guard plaque a little tough to read. There is someone maybe Ben blocking the D.
This reminds me of when a friend of mine got arrested for a fight in a small town away from home. He shows up to court and the officer of the court is the girlfriend of the guy he fought and a witness. Once he told his lawyer his lawyer said we are taking whatever plea bargain they offer.
My husband and his carpool buddy alternate weeks driving and drive thru Fenton daily. It's the route a ton of people take to their petroleum/construction jobs between here and Beaumont. Those cops are shooting fish in a barrel.
Steve, thanks for the video. It's like "heads you win, tails I lose"!
Woodworth, Louisiana. Been doing that 40 plus years. Known speed trap. Mayor’s court. Guess where most of the city revenue come from.???
Woodworth is famous for its speed trap!
Uh. Yeah. I lived in Alexandria 41 years. When I am in state I have to go through there to get to the cemetery where my parents are buried. Have someone with you for a witness. Set cruise control 10 under
Krotz springs is another one. Don’t come off that bridge from Baton Rouge too quick. There is a cop waiting.
I used to hunt in Kisatchie every fall and the cops in Woodworth always stopped at least half of us heading to the woods. It's completely ridiculous how they make stuff up to steal our money!
Yea.... I am from Louisiana. I went fight a ticket that was written out wrong. I get to court and they had a corrected copy. Since I went to fight it, I had to not only pay it, I also got 2 years of unsupervised probation.
Had the same experience with red light cameras in New Orleans. Dont know if I'd call that a small town though.
The State of Texas recently banned red-light cameras. New ones cannot be installed. Existing ones can live out the rest of the existing contracts, but said contracts cannot be renewed. As time goes on and various cities' red-light camera contracts expire, there will be less and less of them until they all disappear. Eventually.
Conflict of interest. Cities don't own the cameras. The company which installs them owns them. The contracts typically specify the company gets a percentage of ticket revenue. Incentive to collect as much ticket revenue as possible, justified or not. Conflict of interest. Ergo, the new statewide ban here.
Missouri has a law that no municipality can earn more than 30% of its budget from tickets, any excess is supposed to be turned over to the state. Worked great, shut down many of the small town speed traps.
Louisiana; the Zimbabwe of North America
Born and raised in Louisiana. Just now seeing this video. Anywhere in Louisiana the first week of the month and the last week of the month you better follow every possible traffic rule or law or suggestion! Those two weeks of the month the cops, state troopers/sheriffs/city police, are everywhere ticketing anything they possibly can. They are everywhere those 2 weeks.
In addition, when you are driving down different highways/roads/interstate if the speed limit all the sudden changes to a lower speed you better be at that lower speed limit before you get to the speed limit sign. As soon as the front bumper of your vehicle gets to the lower speed limit sign if you are not at that lower speed you’re going to immediately be pulled over and ticketed. The cops sit in their vehicle literally right behind the pole of the lower speed limit sign. They know that normally people slow down when they get to the lower speed limit sign and see that there is now a lower speed limit. That’s when drivers start to slow down. Even though that makes complete sense and logically what is normally going to happen the cops know that they can technically get you for not being at that speed limit as you hit that lower speed limit sign. Of course you are going to ask a very reasonable question, how would I know to be at that lower speed until I get to that lower speed limit sign? Well, that’s how they get people from out of town or out of state or here from out of country. You wouldn’t know that. Unfortunately, they get away with doing this every day. One of the worst things that even locals have to deal with is cops trying to pull people over when it’s the middle of the night and pitch black outside. These officers will be in their car with absolutely zero lights on. They don’t have the under lights on and they don’t have a light inside on and there is literally not a single light source on. Around here they will be in their black SUV vehicles with zero lights on inside or outside and pulled far enough off the road in an area where there is zero light and absolutely no way to see them. You will not know that they are there and there is no way to even know that they are there because it is pitch black where they’re hiding. I hate that and I think it is so wrong of them to do it that way. They will even pull into private resident driveways, these homes are not theirs and they are not family member homes either, and get beside one of the homeowner’s vehicles. They don’t have any of their lights on in or outside of the vehicle and they’re in a driveway of a home. They do that to look like they are just parking their vehicle in their homes driveway for the evening while they are inside asleep. Nope, they are trying to catch speeders or anyone who violates any rule/law while driving.
Reminds me of "Doc Hollywood" where the damaged fence is the judge's -- of course he was a nice guy. BTW, can the lawyer dog try a case in the mayor judge's court?
Steve this was the perfect story to have a very brief sound bite of "dueling banjos" play in the background every time you said "Loiusiana."
My son just drove thru there this week he said every road in the state is full of holes
_"Holes"_ or *_"assholes"?_*
Had a similar situation in Central NY where the cop was the judge's nephew...🚔🚨
Two weeks from now, new sign appears next to Lawyer Dog.... Parking Reserved for Mayor Judge... Fine: $76,000
No no.....when you got out of your car , and turned your back , the sign pops up.
I live in Lake Charles and I drive through Fenton often. You drive northbound through Fenton to get to the land based Indian casino. The police set up on the southbound side of HWY 165 to get that money when people leave the casino. The speed limit is 65mph but when you hit Fenton, it drops to 50mph. He sits on a nice concrete pad specifically built for his dark blue Tahoe with ghost decals. You will not see him until you get right on him. Also, by the time you get to him, you passed two 50 mph speed limit signs. I see it all the time.
Soo am I suppose to keep my eyes on the speedometer to try and stay exactly on the posted speed limit and completely disregard all other responsibilities while driving,like watching where I'm going, keeping it between the lines and etc.
Even cruise control is not that accurate.
Sheryl Beasley:
Cruise Control is only as "accurate" (inaccurate, really), as your speedometer.
Even the best electronic speedometer isn't "perfect", and, the cop can always lie, with complete impunity!
PS: A whole lot of courts don't allow electronic device readings (other than the police radar gun's, of course), to be admitted as evidence!
In an effort to curtail speed traps. The state legislature enacted a law that says that if you exceed the limit by less than 10mph the fine is paid to the state. Usually a state trooper won’t stop you if you’re speeding less than 10 mph. They can but usually don’t.
Unfortunately some small towns act like highway bandits by robbing passers-by It’s not a safety issue it’s a revenue issue.
I would love to see Jonny Depp play all the roles in this ticket prosecution and collection.
Tarrant county Texas (Fort Worth) puts their presiding judge in charge of the council. Judicial controls legislative > executive controls judicial. Judges have the most power, so putting them in charge is the worst form of govt.
The 3 branches of govt are not separated.
Louisiana: "thank God for Mississippi"
Mississippi:. (plays the Uno reverse card)
Steve this is an interesting take on things, as I have mentioned before my father was a District Judge in Louisiana, I also live within 50 miles of at least 4 maybe 5 of the towns on your list, and within 20 miles of one of them. Based on my personal knowledge the general attitude of the District Court judges in the area is to pass off these traffic court cases that occur inside a city limits to the local city court, which is often a mayors court in towns of under about 10,000 people or so as the district court is kept busy with much more serous matters. Note it is not only traffic citations that are handled by the mayors courts, but also other local city ordinance violations, everything from parking violations to someones grass being too tall.
When my father was a district judge, the local school system had started taking to turning student disciplinary issues over to the police when it came to student actions. and the courts had a very similar attitude, basically telling the school system to deal with these matters themselves and not to involve the courts when a pair of 12 year old Jr High students get into a fist fight.
As to your list of towns most are legitimate speed trap towns where people get pulled over for doing 3-5 mph over the limit, also nearly everyone on this side of the state knows not to speed there. There is perhaps one exception to the list, which while they give out lots of tickets I feel that the vast majority are legitimate, that is the town of Merryville, which is located on US 190 just about 3 miles from the Texas state line, this section of US 190 is a 2 lane federal highway, and in Louisiana the speed limit on rural 2 lane highways is 55 mph, however in Texas the speed limit on rural 2 lane highways is 75 mph. So east bound traffic entering Louisiana which has become accustomed to driving 75 mph on a 2 lane highway for perhaps nearly a thousand miles suddenly finds themselves in a 55 mph zone in a very rural area, this speed then drops to 45 or 50 mph at the Merryville city limits (the highway bypasses the center of town), needless to say by this point a large percentage of drivers are back up to doing 70+ mph.
There be cahootin' afoot...well past the redline.