Originally Posted by DCCommuter
Ticketing cyclists for running red lights has nothing to do with safety -- it's about perceived public disorder, and marginalizing a minority.
I don't necessarily agree. Sometimes these things are just SOP. We have lots of laws that we all pretty much bend, break or ignore on a mass scale. Speed limits, seat belts, rolling stops, etc. are all examples. Government doesn't have the resources to enforce every law on the books, so in theory, yes, they go after the ones that pose the greatest risk or have the best cost-benefit ratio or have some political benefit. The nimby laws that are broken regularly are seldom actively enforced. But sometimes you have to remind folks that they are indeed breaking the law, even if it is rarely enforced. One way to do so is a temporary but very visible crack down that hits people in their pocketbooks. Granted, what they collect in fines doesn't hurt their slush funds, but in the grand sheme of things, the money they collect really isn't worth the effort expended, from a strictly bean counter standpoint.
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"Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws" - Edward Abbey