Massive corruption in Florida "speed trap" town, state legislature may dissolve city

[Dan Druff]

I've always said that city government tends to be extremely corrupt -- moreso than state or federal government.

Here is a story of the worst of the worst:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/09/us/ham...ion/index.html

Sadly, while Hampton, FL is probably one of the worst cases of city corruption, stuff like this is all too common in the US.

Many of you would not believe the staggering amount of money that is wasted, stolen, or steered toward crony companies from city government coffers. If you examined your own city government, I'm pretty sure you would find a lot more corruption than you might think.

BTW, if driving on US 301 in Florida, drive as slow as you can in the cities of Hampton, Lawtey, Stark, and Waldo, and try avoiding them altogether. They pull over a very high percentage of cars driving through, including some going UNDER the speed limit.

[Dan Druff]

http://goflorida.about.com/od/drivin...peed-Traps.htm

What do these towns do that others don't? Three things. They place rapidly decreasing speed limit signs close together, they regularly patrol the highway looking for violators, and they write tickets. Lots and lots of tickets... even for violations of just one mile an hour over the speed limit. They are not shy about what they do. Officers are often easily spotted laying in wait for their next victim, motorists even complain about being followed for blocks through town.

Speed limits are usually set by traffic engineers, but these speed limit signs seem to defy logic of their locations. Some are located in areas without congestion that would usually call for reduced speeds. The decreasing speed limit signs are close together and vehicles cannot meet the newly decreased speed by simply coasting. Officers will site drivers that are going faster than the posted speed limit at the time they pass the sign.

While community leaders and law enforcement claim they do what they do in the name of safety, others see nothing more than greed. The high-priced tickets bring thousands of dollars every year into the budgets of towns that have little industry and nothing to draw tourists.

[son of lockman]

When I worked in Upland Cally they had speed traps all over the place plus photo lights. And I got several tickets.

As far as corruption goes I do know they were paying the police chief, fire chief, and city manager about 400K each a year.

Later the mayor (Pomenski or something) was charged with closing down business for not paying brides and convicted also.

But he got some kind of sweetheart deal and served like 6 months for it.

The city almost broke was sued for like 3 million but how that turned out I never followed up on.

[BeerAndPoker]

Many traffic tickets are nothing but cash grabs for a city. Some are definitely warranted but others are not. I'm not a fan of speed traps or throwing up a new sign then ticketing the shit out of people which I received a ticket for last year that I fought and got the points eliminated but still had to pay a fine.

A big problem I have is inconsistency within system yet police have always been able to get away with it. What I mean is you can be in the same city and get pulled over by one cop who will let you go for something minor while another might throw you the maximum fine he can. On some days that hard ass cop might feel like being lazy so he don't treat the next guy committing the exact violation you did the same as he treated you. Don't let me forget the "You got tits so you can go, but drive safely" favoritism that does go on.

When funding is down cities will pump up the tickets as much as possible in any given area. The embezzlement of city funds happens everywhere and most get away with it if they don't get too greedy or are able to avoid rising suspicion.

[lvpkr1009]

Many traffic tickets are nothing but cash grabs for a city. Some are definitely warranted but others are not. I'm not a fan of speed traps or throwing up a new sign then ticketing the shit out of people which I received a ticket for last year that I fought and got the points eliminated but still had to pay a fine.

A big problem I have is inconsistency within system yet police have always been able to get away with it. What I mean is you can be in the same city and get pulled over by one cop who will let you go for something minor while another might throw you the maximum fine he can. On some days that hard ass cop might feel like being lazy so he don't treat the next guy committing the exact violation you did the same as he treated you. Don't let me forget the "You got tits so you can go, but drive safely" favoritism that does go on.

When funding is down cities will pump up the tickets as much as possible in any given area. The embezzlement of city funds happens everywhere and most get away with it if they don't get too greedy or are able to avoid rising suspicion.

I got so many tickets on 275 between six and eight mile where Livonia drops that speed limit and sets up shop

[Gordman]

All else aside, you know its got to be just plain bad when AAA (American Automobile Association) is posting billboards warning you about the town

[vegas1369]

I have experienced a lot of the same in Texas. Never have been able to drive through that state without getting a ticket. Last time I drove through I went through OK, which had 75mph max speed on the highway. I hit Texas on the same stretch, with much nicer and easier roads to drive on, and it drops down to 65. In Shamrock County, Texas I of course got hit with a 78 in a 65. It was right after my father died and I was driving his Town Car across the country. Cop was really nice, asks me to get out of my vehicle and accompany him to his Tahoe. Asks me all sorts of questions, including why the car wasn't registered to me. I tell him how my father had just past, and I was driving his car across country cause it was something he always wanted to do but never did, so this was a way of bringing him with me, and also kind of clearing my head of all the sadness and heartbreak the last few months had delivered. This was on Thanksgiving day mind you...

Cop also asks me what I do in Vegas. I tell him I bartend and he asks me all sorts of questions about that too, just basically making friendly conversation. He then tells me how he'd like to let me go, but this is just business, nothing personal, then hands me a ticket for 78 in a 65. I find out later that if he had just dropped it down 1mph less the fine would have been $150 less. Mother fucker. Then, when I go to pay the ticket online I see on THE COUNTY RUN WEBSITE that for an additional $100 more they will drop the ticket down to a non traffic violation, basically a parking ticket, which is what you pay the lawyers to do here in Vegas and in other parts of the country. Shamrock County obv has eliminated the lawyers and gives the offender the option of doing this themselves, for even more money than what a lawyer would charge.

Total fucking racket.

[vegas1369]

Oh, and fuck FL.

[Gordman]

I have experienced a lot of the same in Texas. Never have been able to drive through that state without getting a ticket. Last time I drove through I went through OK, which had 75mph max speed on the highway. I hit Texas on the same stretch, with much nicer and easier roads to drive on, and it drops down to 65. In Shamrock County, Texas I of course got hit with a 78 in a 65. It was right after my father died and I was driving his Town Car across the country. Cop was really nice, asks me to get out of my vehicle and accompany him to his Tahoe. Asks me all sorts of questions, including why the car wasn't registered to me. I tell him how my father had just past, and I was driving his car across country cause it was something he always wanted to do but never did, so this was a way of bringing him with me, and also kind of clearing my head of all the sadness and heartbreak the last few months had delivered. This was on Thanksgiving day mind you...

Cop also asks me what I do in Vegas. I tell him I bartend and he asks me all sorts of questions about that too, just basically making friendly conversation. He then tells me how he'd like to let me go, but this is just business, nothing personal, then hands me a ticket for 78 in a 65. I find out later that if he had just dropped it down 1mph less the fine would have been $150 less. Mother fucker. Then, when I go to pay the ticket online I see on THE COUNTY RUN WEBSITE that for an additional $100 more they will drop the ticket down to a non traffic violation, basically a parking ticket, which is what you pay the lawyers to do here in Vegas and in other parts of the country. Shamrock County obv has eliminated the lawyers and gives the offender the option of doing this themselves, for even more money than what a lawyer would charge.

Total fucking racket.

I had to look up and see if where you got busted was the same area I was hearing about a while back. I thought I read a story somewhere about some city in texas that mimics what is going on in florida...at least with the speed trap aspect; i think i faintly remember something about the cops illegally confiscating motorists money in the traffic stops or something too

[Pooh]

Druff, you seem to have a special hard on for Florida and I want to know why. It's basically paradise and people are moving in, not out of Florida for a good reason. That said, I think I know where you are talking about regarding those speed traps. That place is a total shit hole in upstate FL where the only people who live there are poor, stupid or both. They need something to make them money. When my brother moved down here a few years ago we drove through that area at the speed traps were no fucking joke. They had it down to a science like putting the speed limit at 30 and pinching people at the bottom of hills. These were 50 mph streets in normal places by the way.

Fuck FL....lol jk.

[Gordman]

Druff, you seem to have a special hard on for Florida and I want to know why. It's basically paradise and people are moving in, not out of Florida for a good reason. That said, I think I know where you are talking about regarding those speed traps. That place is a total shit hole in upstate FL where the only people who live there are poor, stupid or both. They need something to make them money. When my brother moved down here a few years ago we drove through that area at the speed traps were no fucking joke. They had it down to a science like putting the speed limit at 30 and pinching people at the bottom of hills. These were 50 mph streets in normal places by the way.

Fuck FL....lol jk.

I would have posted this same shit if I saw it earlier.
Don't blame Druff. There is plenty of idiotic shit happening in that state lately that puts it on the map. I don't 'hate' Florida; I call them as I see them, and there is plenty of news on Fla


Like this for example: Guy obv presumed dead wakes up in his body bag in the FUCKING FUNERAL HOME!


http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/2...-body-bag.html

[vegas1369]

Druff, you seem to have a special hard on for Florida and I want to know why. It's basically paradise and people are moving in, not out of Florida for a good reason. That said, I think I know where you are talking about regarding those speed traps. That place is a total shit hole in upstate FL where the only people who live there are poor, stupid or both. They need something to make them money. When my brother moved down here a few years ago we drove through that area at the speed traps were no fucking joke. They had it down to a science like putting the speed limit at 30 and pinching people at the bottom of hills. These were 50 mph streets in normal places by the way.

Fuck FL....lol jk.

In all fairness to Druff, this is a front page article on CNN.com, right below the Malaysian airline disaster. Pretty big story ATM.

[Pooh]

I understand this might be mainstream news but Druff has a hard on for the state of Florida dating quite a ways back.

[NaturalBornHustler]

This was on 20/20 the other night, they interviewed the "mayor" who was currently behind bars.

The amount of tickets they issued was complete insanity, there is like 2500 people in the town and they issued like 600k worth of tickets in a couple years or something.

[4Dragons]

FL bad for non-Floridians. No problems with them while I lived there, but change that plate and they are on you hard. I've seen roads that have been built with 'profit centers' built into the budget of the road, where they mandated a 20mph speed change in the middle of the stretch so they could run a train on everyone coming through. Institutionalized extortion at the point of a gun. Cute.

[son of lockman]

Reminds me of April of 1967 in Chicago. I blow by this speed trap doing about 65 MPH and drunk. Copper pulls me over and says ''Mouse Man what the f#ck are you doing out here at this time of night and drunk? I heard you're supposed to be the service?''

''Yes sir in several days I take off for Camp Pendleton.''

''Ok well get home as our country needs you out there. Just try and make it back here when you're finished with the Marines. I'll write you a ticket then.''

Times where crazy in those days.