• TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “Fix it tickets” are not a national thing. Some places do it, some places don’t. It’s just easier to say with a general meaning like Kleenex versus tissue paper.

    Many places just issue you a ticket. End of story. Once the ticket is issued you are on notice that your vehicle is not considered legally roadworthy. You are legally supposed to park it and not drive on public roads until fixed. Tow it to the shop if you have to.

    Obviously this is onerous and stupid. But it is the law. If you have a minor issue, 99% of the time the pig will let you go and get it fixed like you said. But they don’t have to. “Officer discretion” is a fancy way of saying applying laws on a whim. Picking and choosing when to enforce laws and against whom.

    In some countries it is much more clear cut. If you need to fix something the police escorts you to a staging area, like a big parking lot and that’s where your car sits until it’s fixed. Once fixed the popo there check it before you drive out. People in the lot changing bald tires, burned bulbs, fastening new side mirrors, etc.

    • corroded@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I have a few issues with what you’re saying. By getting a drivers license and operating a vehicle on public roadways, you’re agreeing that you’ll keep your vehicle in whatever operational condition the law dictates. A “fix-it” ticket is justified if your car doesn’t meet these requirements. Officers applying this law unfairly is a whole other issue, but the concept is not “onerous and stupid.”

      Also, police need some level of “officer discretion.” If you have a friend with a gaping wound in your passenger seat and you’re doing 90mph to the hospital, do you really want a cop to write you a ticket and force you to wait for paramedics to arrive while your friend bleeds out?

      • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If a pig is going to ticket you for an issue they’re saying your vehicle is unsafe. By then letting you drive away, they are not protecting or serving your wellbeing at all. They just deemed your vehicle hazardous to you and other drivers and it requires a civil penalty plus fixing the hazard. If they let you drive away, all they’ve done is collected money for their domestic terrorist pension fund.

        Either it’s a hazard that warrants being pulled over and ticketed, or it isn’t. And it almost always isn’t a hazard. It’s an excuse to shoot coloured people and do warrantless searches.

        Discretion for application of the law at the pig level is rife with abuse. In the US, so much so that the laws mean nothing. Pretty much at any point in the day, anywhere you are, you are guilty of a law somewhere. This means if they wish to get you for something, they can. Their discretion. Just decide to apply the law.

        As for your example, no for many reasons. If you’re injured, an ambulance should be driving you with sirens. If your country is so broken as to be unaffordable to help their sick and weak, it is a broken country. Which it is. And let’s say you are driving it. Police should expend zero energy pulling over speeding vehicles. It is a cash grab, it is not safety. If it was for safety, it would just send you a ticket.

        For example in a civilized country where I primarily reside now after leaving the shithole that is the USA, police don’t hide and ambush people. There are speed cameras every so often and when you go 15mph over the limit within 10 seconds, your phone notifies you that you have been fined for speeding with your picture. In the government app you can contest it, pay it, etc. If you continue speeding you just get more fines. There have been cases of people who did go fast as you suggest for personal reasons. No cop hindered them at any point in their journey. They got a bunch of tickets electronically. They contested due to an emergency, judge agreed, tickets dropped.

        No safety issue with a loaded cop pulling you over in an emergency preventing you from helping your loved one. No interaction with police at all. The law is applied 100% of the time fairly to every person from the delivery driver to the “president”. If there is a reason you believe discretion is needed, a judge will decide if that discretion is warranted.