The Freeway to Serfdom
"One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license." - P.J. O'Rourke
Friday, October 01, 2004
Fight Every Ticket
Here's why:
580 CFRA - Ottawa Police Overspend 2004 Court-Duty Budget
"Ottawa police have already overspent their 2004 court-duty budget by 500-thousand dollars.
Police Chief Vince Bevan says union rules governing police court-duty pay plus a growing caseload are costing plenty at the Elgin St. courthouse.
Bevan is looking at bringing in new rules aimed at limiting the time officers spend waiting to testify.
Off-duty officers receive eight hours' pay for showing up at the court house, no matter how much time they actually spend waiting or if they even testify.
If an officer comes in on vacation to testify they receive three days' pay for their time."
When the government gets cute about raising revenue under the guise of "traffic safety enforcement" you have two choices: you can pay the tax like a schmuck or bleed it back out of them by clogging their courts. I choose the latter: you have a 50/50 chance of the cop not even showing up and even if he does you can have fun harassing him on the witness stand (I had an epic battle myself with a Surete de Quebec goon - sweated him down for almost three hours and 40 + questions including a judge-ordered recess). I finally lost, but you know what? I dragged the case out over two years and still haven't paid my speedingtax ticket. The Quebec government may ultimately get its $210, but its going to show up as a net loss on the books.
As Kennedy explains in "A Porcupine's Worth is His Price":
"The lesson the porcupine teaches is that you don't have to be strong enough to defeat a predator to avoid being that predator's lunch. It suffices to be an expensive meal. Predators tend not to dine on porcupines because a serving of porcupine tends not to be worth the mouthful of quill that it costs."
"Costly to Govern" - I think that would be a sweet epitaph for me.
Here's why:
580 CFRA - Ottawa Police Overspend 2004 Court-Duty Budget
"Ottawa police have already overspent their 2004 court-duty budget by 500-thousand dollars.
Police Chief Vince Bevan says union rules governing police court-duty pay plus a growing caseload are costing plenty at the Elgin St. courthouse.
Bevan is looking at bringing in new rules aimed at limiting the time officers spend waiting to testify.
Off-duty officers receive eight hours' pay for showing up at the court house, no matter how much time they actually spend waiting or if they even testify.
If an officer comes in on vacation to testify they receive three days' pay for their time."
When the government gets cute about raising revenue under the guise of "traffic safety enforcement" you have two choices: you can pay the tax like a schmuck or bleed it back out of them by clogging their courts. I choose the latter: you have a 50/50 chance of the cop not even showing up and even if he does you can have fun harassing him on the witness stand (I had an epic battle myself with a Surete de Quebec goon - sweated him down for almost three hours and 40 + questions including a judge-ordered recess). I finally lost, but you know what? I dragged the case out over two years and still haven't paid my speeding
As Kennedy explains in "A Porcupine's Worth is His Price":
"The lesson the porcupine teaches is that you don't have to be strong enough to defeat a predator to avoid being that predator's lunch. It suffices to be an expensive meal. Predators tend not to dine on porcupines because a serving of porcupine tends not to be worth the mouthful of quill that it costs."
"Costly to Govern" - I think that would be a sweet epitaph for me.
