Well…I just can’t let this one go…you all know about the new law in Michigan that makes texting while driving a primary offense…that means that the police can stop anyone they “suspect” of sending or reading texts, or reading e-mail while driving. While this sounds like a good idea to some folks given some highly publicized accidents that have happened while the drivers were texting, let’s look at exactly what that means. What are the actions that would make you a suspect? Basically, anything that you do in the car now makes you liable to be pulled over. I have an MP-3 player that is attached to the stereo in my car that any officer can say looks like a phone if I’m looking at it to change the music. What if I’m looking at maps that I need to get where I’m going…how can they see in my car to see that it is a map and not a phone…and what about the smartphones that many people use instead of maps? What about the handheld gps systems that can be mistaken for a phone? What about ford’s Sync system that can provide e-mails to be read in the car? Which, under this law is illegal. I’d be selling my Ford right away.
That said, I do believe that when you are in the car, you should be driving; not talking on the phone, eating, reading, or putting on makeup.
Where are the Repubs who are howling that the healthcare bill is a direct attack on their freedoms when this bill is so much more of a direct attack on the fourth amendment and the guarantee of protection from unreasonable search and seizures?
And, let’s think of the primary driving force behind this bill; the insurance companies who have spent millions lobbying for it’s passage. The reason for this is, as the police write tickets for this offense, guess who gets to raise the rates of people that have been ticketed? Given the history of police departments abusing the powers granted to them by vague laws, do we expect any different here? Geez….