When Apples are Outlawed, Only Outlaws will have Apples
Scotsman.com News – Weird, odd and quirky stories – Woman who drove with apple in her hand feels full force of law — Are they kidding us or what? Are the police proud of this sort of thing? Unless the “Apple” was a large computer, I don’t get this at all.
A NURSERY nurse stopped by a traffic policeman because she was holding an apple was subjected to a “nonsensical” prosecution in which aerial photographs, a video shot from a police aircraft and a film recording from a patrol car were used to prove her guilt.
Sarah McCaffery’s trial lasted more than two-and-a-half hours as all the evidence was heard. She was eventually judged not to have been in proper control of her Ford Ka as she negotiated a left-hand turn with an apple in her right hand.
So I assume that in the course of this dangerous turn she rammed into something, right?
via E. Campbell
Ma’m step out of the vehicle! Slowly!
Put your arms out and drop the Fruit!!
Get down! Down!
If I’m not mistaken, the Europeans are very insistent about people driving with both hands on the wheel. It was one of the things that baffled the German BMW auto makers when their American counterparts kept insisting on cup holders.
Holding an apple is not far different then holding a cellular phone. From what I hear, some people talk to their fruit as well.
I was browsing around the web, looking for dumb arrests. There is a ton of stuff about dumb criminals, while finding dumb arrests is a little more difficult.
This is actually from the university police. http://www.ou.edu/oupd/
Citizen’s Self-Arrest. http://www.ou.edu/oupd/selfarr2.htm
Read the following
“I am under arrest. I have a right to remain silent. Anything I say can and will be used against me in a court of law.”
We must have drug problems in the mid-west or something.
In general, the Brits are superior drivers compared to US motorists. I believe they have to learn to actually operate their vehicle and demonstrate some knowledge of the rules before they qualify for a license. Here in Texas you don’t even need to be literate to get a license. Of course, there is that little problem with the Orwellian automated speeding ticket camera thingie in the UK ….
I bet video showed her driving like crap. I’d further bet that she probably has a history of driving like crap.
Whenever something in the news sounds this unbelievable, you just know only one side of story is being told and being presented in a way omitting several key facts.
Following up on Thomas’s post, the Europeans apparently take driving a bit more serious than we do.
Here in Connecticut, it is:
1 – Illegal to pass on the right on a road with less than 3 lanes in one direction. That’s about 99 percent of the roads in the state.
2 – It is VERY common to find a driver in the left lane on an expressway (2 lanes, each way) posted 65, driving 50.
You pass the S.O.B. on the right, you risk hefty fine and points on driver’s license plus increased insurance for 3 years, maybe 5 from Staties in an unmarked Ford Crown Vic or Chevy Impala or Mazda 626.
Hey, Jim, I just wanted to follow up with your story on Mayor Don Williamson. I live a few towns over from him. The guy is obviously crazy, but is also VERY rich. His wife owns several car dealerships.
He’s been attempting to run for Mayor for about two decades and no one took him seriously. He finally won after the last mayor was kicked out on a recall. Other candidates didn’t have a chance to get their campaigns in full swing and “the Don” (as we call him here) snuck in.
He’s like Mussolini in that a lot of people like him because he “gets stuff done.” Everyone else is highly entertained by him. Unfortunately he won’t get elected for a second term, which is kind of sad. Kind of like if Boss Hog got kicked out of Hazard County.
Rick, here’s a site you will want to know about:
http://www.motorists.com/
The site is dedicated to fighting stupid tickets.
All of this is nothing compared to what they are doing in schools with rediculous zero tolerance rules on everything. Like this:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,145447,00.html
Fish,
I don’t know the guy, I just thought the story was nutty. We have a wild mayor down my way. The guy wanted to tear about 70 buildings down and then build a big mall in the middle of the city downtown with some developer out of Chicago. The whole thing was insane, like some kind of plan in East Germany in the old days. The city is now financially busted, which the mayor is real concerned about. Arrogant people with money run for office I guess. The newspaper person in Flint should of run from the office. I avoid city hall, since it is full of cut-throats and liars. Then they wonder why the city is flat busted broke. Too many people want to be boss and too few want to help people in a bind.
Thomas – Thanks! That’s a very interesting site. The problem is, however, that – as a Brit buddy told me – it’s illegal to hog the left lane in Europe and the law will nail your butt if you do it.
Here, however, the signs are posted “Minimum Speed 45” so the Staties don’t go after the slowpokes in the passing lane, just the poor slob road warrior peddling something or actually working out of his car and not the jackass simply out for a drive.
As for the 55: That bred what traffic engineers call “contempt for engineering and enforcement.” It was so ridiculous that it was disobeyed universally. Originally set at 45, YES the law was written for 45 to save fuel but the trucking lobby raised it to 55, so the politicians caved and a whole generation of people came to see that 55 was a joke. (Volvo manual trans 4cyl cars got better fuel mileage at 63mph than at 55!)
Thus, by inference, in the back of their minds, they also associate a 25 or 20 in a school zone as also stupid. This has been proven by too many schools of traffic studies recently.
Thank your politicians (lawyers who had a lot of fun playing engineer, bending rules like lawyers do in court but such doesn’t do for the laws of physics) for their “training” of a whole generation of drivers to believe that speed laws are ridiculous and – by inference – many other traffic laws might also be stupid.