Apparently no time soon.
Last week That’s Crazy told you about a Swiss Court that had the audacity to issue a driver a 290K speeding ticket.
what did the man do? Force himself on a polar bear? Play Junk in a box at the convent? Nothing so egregious. He was clocked going 30 mph over the speed limit.
OK, I concede that 30 mph over the limit is reckless but a $290,000 speeding citation is also reckless abuse of judicial power! The judge should have been knocked off his bench by soccer hooligans and then made to beer bong their beer filled urine till he gacked all over his robe.
In case you missed this Pulitzer caliber article last week, the judge’s fine was based on the amount of money the speeder has in the bank. He apparently has 20 million dollars in the bank. The judge’s logic is, hit him where it hurts. $50 dollars is a microscopic flea bite to a wallet so thick. So the court decided that it would shoot an elephant with a bazooka to make some noise and get the driver’s attention. I am sure that it worked. Is that legally acceptable? Isn’t law a blanket that should cover us all with the same fabric?
Under the Swiss Judge’s logic, a poor man can duplicate the same offense and be ordered to surrender the tic tacs in his center console? Where is the fabric of fair in that governance?
Now another example of society over legislating and micro-managing the life of an other wise law abiding citizen.
DATELINE: LONDON
A Scottish man is pulled over in London and cited for not maintaining control of his vehicle.
Sounds legitimate till you hear that Michael Mancini was in traffic. He was not moving. His parking brake was on. Did I mention his car was stopped? He was going exactly Zero miles an hour. Apparently he used this moment of non-locomotion to take his hands off the wheel and blow his nose.
He blew his nose. He dislodged his nasal cavity with a forceful gust of air expelled from his Scottish lungs.
Big deal right?
So, once traffic began to move again, Mr. Mancini disengaged the parking brake, put his hands on the wheel and continued on his merry way. No harm no foul!
That is until blue lights and sirens fill up his rear view mirror.
“What’d I do?,” the perplexed Scotsman probably signaled to the approaching, citation book toting law man.
The dyspeptic traffic cop informed the van driver that he was pulled over for not maintaining control of his vehicle.
“I was stopped in traffic and had the handbrake on and thought to myself, ‘I’ve just got time to blow my nose,'” Mancini is quoted as telling a London newspaper. “Then police pulled me over and I was booked. I genuinely thought they were joking.”
Mancini knew it was no joke when the court cited him $97 and assessed three points on his driving license.
I guess it could have been worse. He could have blown his nose in Switzerland.
Certainly Mr. Mancini didn’t blow 97-dollars worth of snot into his handkerchief? He certainly couldn’t have been too out of control of his parked van in bumper to bumper traffic. He was going nowhere fast and still he received 3 points on his license. What’s that gonna cost the poor man in insurance price hikes alone?
It’s just unfair is what it is!
This isn’t justice, it’s bullying. It’s Godzilla kicking down buildings type of law enforcement, simply because they can. The judge is a big fire breathing monster kicking over cars and punching in the side of grocery stores and for what? Is he protecting citizens from dangerous driving? Or is he sending a message to all citizens that the government, under the guise of law, can do whatever it wants, like a steam roller flattening sand castles.
To cite a man $97 dollars for blowing his nose in a parked car is over kill and abusive. It’s analogous to calling the fire dept to help blow out your three year old’s birthday cake. Sure the flames go out, but so does the cake, the presents, the table.
At last report; Mr Mancini is refusing to pay the fine. He has retained a lawyer who argues, Mancini was in charge of the vehicle because his handbrake was on, therefore the offense did not occur.
According to the London Press, prosecutors disagree warning Mancini if the fine isn’t paid the case would be taken to court.
Mr Mancini said, “I intend on taking this all the way to court. I still don’t believe it actually happened”.
Way to go Mr. Mancini. Thanks for sticking up for all of us on this one. When you can’t blow your nose in your own parked vehicle without big brother watching, then it’s time to let the man know he’s crazy. I say pull up the robe of hyper active law makers and stick your boogers where the sun don’t shine. Let them know they are there to serve us and to protect us, not the other way around.
Mancini isn’t exactly Rosa parks refusing to give up her bus seat, but the Scotsman is a guy who just wanted to blow his nose without the long arm of the law reaching in his car to do it for him.
And that is crazy!