Quote:
Originally Posted by Huckleberry
If a law is broken but mitigating cirumstances make clear to any reasonable person that the breaking of the law was acceptable and even preferred in the citizen's situation, then I expect my law enforcement officers, or failing on their part then my district attorneys, of failing on their part then my local jury members to dismiss the charges without punishment.
And fortunately for me, the vast majority of people in charge agree, and that's why, for example, Moats' ticket has been dismissed and why I was not ticketed for running the red light in my situation.
So, yes, logically I am still subject to the inconveniences and penalties associated with laws. But I will protest the application of those penalties and any excessive inconveniences in these kinds of situations. Both with my voice and my vote (we elect judges and DAs around here, not sure about everywhere). There is always room for common sense and compassion.
I get the feeling there are a lot of fans of the completely ludicrous "zero tolerance" approach by school administrators these days. You know, the kind of approach that results in kids getting strip-searched because they are suspected of having extra strength ibuprofen at school.
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Again off-topic, but elected DAs and judges is an absolutely horrible idea. We really don't want decisions in criminal justice motivated by election concerns and campagin contributions.
Everything above traffic stops, such excuses and mitigations are built into the law. Necessity is a legal defense (though the standard is much higher than a lot of criminals seem to assume).
With traffic infractions, we're talking about small fines, and we'd rather not have people think they're above the law because of their own personal emergency (that usually isn't really an emergency). So it's a strict liability thing. You don't have full due process because you don't have any risk of going to jail. In a practical sense, like you said, the true emergency-based tickets get dumped, and nobody's saying the guy's ticket should have held up here.