Give Cops Some Green To Halt Red-Light Runners
When “Bagpipes” asked how $7,500 in federal money might be spent persuading Spokane-area motorists not to run red lights, one reader suggested a succinct, roadside message.
“Giving a bounty to the police for each one that they catch for speeding,” said Lynn Beazer, Spokane. “The only thing that needs to be said is just, when they’ve given them a ticket, ‘Please sign here.’
“I think it will get a message to people, and then the cops will make extra money and they’ll be a little more alert.”
Isaac Wilson, Spokane, recommends a remedial driving course for motorists caught running red lights. No dry, run-of-the-mill driver’s ed curriculum, but hard-hitting “shock therapy.”
Take violators to hospital emergency rooms to see auto-accident victims being patched up. Show them crumpled vehicles, have them climb inside and tell them: “Here you are inside. This is what this vehicle is going to be like after it’s broadsided.”
Morgan Sheldon, Spokane: “I drive back and forth across town and I find, on the one-way streets especially, that if I stay in the middle lane and go about 32 or 35, I get through without a stop.”
Public servants doing their jobs
When Attorney General Christine Gregoire and King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng - prospective gubernatorial candidates - aired opposing ideas for restoring the state’s sex-predator law, “Bagpipes” blamed political motivations.
In fact, replied former Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Don Brockett, they were doing their jobs.
“For you to categorize that as political is normal for your paper since that is the slant you want to put on any action, thinking it will sell papers better. …”
“I would like to see our elected officials state what they want to state, have you print accurately and completely what they state, and then make up my own mind about whether or not their statements are politically motivated.
“And by the way, if they are, the highest calling of service to the public, if honestly carried out, is to serve as an elected official and attempt to bring matters of public importance to the attention of the public, which in the truest sense of the term is supposed to be ‘politically motivated.”’
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