Re: What makes Louisiana famous....
Serves em right, bhammer. We have a big fight going on in Jefferson Parish, La over them right now - a class action suit has been filed against the Parish, in regard to red light camera tickets.
Our red light cameras only take a photo from the rear viewpoint, because Louisiana does not issue plates for the front of the car. This results in an inability of the Parish courts to identify the driver and that, in turn, gets into a major problem with criminal law v. civil law. As I understand the situation, the rules of criminal procedure require that a suspect must be positively identified, in order to be charged with a crime. But, since our red light cameras can't do that, Jefferson Parish (and apparently other Parishes) prosecutes the offenses as non-moving violations, which they obviously are not, to get around this "little problem" And, since there is no other moving violation in this state that is handled outside of the criminal court system, the intent by the Parish to circumvent the law is extremely obvious.
You are also right about the fact that traffic tickets are primarily revenue generation devices, not law enforcement tools. This is true all over the country and is amply evidenced by the fact that most jurisdictions will plea a moving violation down to a non-moving, non-reportable infraction, just as long as the fine is paid. The reason for this is simple - it results in less people fighting tickets and, hence, the ability to run more people through the system each evening of traffic court. More people processed equals more money for the coffers. Add to this that, in most places, the court costs and associated fees are usually two or three times the actual fine.
For those who receive a ticket, I strongly suggest that you not just pay it. Take the time to go to court, plead innocent and then go back to cut a deal with the ADA. You will be successful essentially all of the time, unless your infraction was of a serious nature such as DUI or reckless driving, in getting a reduction to a non-moving violation.
So, why do this? Why not just take your lumps and say "I messed up and need to accept the consequences of that?" To start with, because you may well not have messed up. If you ran a red light, made an improper turn, or any number of other things, you may have actually fell victim to an improperly timed light, an improperly marked roadway, etc. That said, if you were drunk or truly acted recklessly, yes, you should pay up and never do what you did again!
There is a Federal document called the Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which provides both recommended roadway standards and mandatory roadway standards, for every state, county/parish and municipality in the US. Where a standard is mandatory, it is just that - every jurisdiction that I just mentioned must follow it. It doesn't matter if the road was Federally funded or not, and it doesn't matter what the local traffic engineer thinks about the standard.
In the case of the red light that I mentioned in my previous post, I went back and timed the yellow interval - it was barely over 2 seconds long. According to the appropriate standards (approach speed and intersection width), it should have been 5 seconds. Furthermore, there is no standard that permits a 2 second yellow interval. I also interviewed a convenience store clerk who worked the shift during the time that I received my ticket. He told me that the State Trooper who stopped me had been there pulling person after person over, day after day, for about two months. This yellow interval was so short that there is no way that an experienced police officer wouldn't know that something was wrong. It also should have occurred to his superiors that the 10 to 15 tickets that he was apparently turning in daily, was unusual for a single intersection. In spite of this, no report on the light was sent to the LADOTD, and the only reason those folks knew for quite some time that the light was off, was because of citizen complaints. The simple fact of the matter is that this cop found himself a "sucker spot" and turned in a bunch of tickets, which probably made his boss happy.
Sadly, this sort of irresponsibilty results in a great deal more than a thousand or so people being unlawfully fined $160.00 each. Some may have seen a post that I made a few days ago about declining a SAR mission at 2:30 in the morning, because I felt that my assistance in trying to find a car that was submerged in 30 feet of water, would be of no value. Unfortunately, my decision was the correct one and the driver, who had driven off of a bridge, was only found when the Coast Guard brought in a boat the next morning with sonar. What has come to light since, is that this person was a decorated narcotics police officer, and that he accidentally drove off of the bridge, because it was of the raised deck type and the warning gates/barriers were not in place, while the deck was up. Incredibly, it was revealed in our local paper this morning, that the warning and barrier system has not been operation for as much as ten years, and that the LADOT knew this!
So, now Louisiana has one more incredibly sad and stupid thing to be known for. That said, this sort of stuff is happening everywhere else and I'll ask everyone to pardon me for another one of my very long posts, because this is something that all should know about.
