Five-Oh | 01-07-2009 09:39 PM | Quote:
Originally Posted by yvrnycracer
(Post 6211429)
This is why someone gets pulled over for something (I am not saying in this instance) whilst on one corner a drug deal is happening, which is something that violates the CRIMINAL CODE OF CANADA!!!! Explain to me how this officer is bettering society by harassing a driver who has a NOVELTY europlate while displaying CORRECTLY his front plate?! If he was running no front plate I would not be commenting on this but given the fact that the plate is being displayed, unobstructed is what really gets me going. I see countless dangerous acts being committed by drivers in front of PO's and nothing gets done. Why can you walk around in possession of illicit, illegal substances (I am not in agreement with possession being illegal but the point stands) and nothing is done about it, BUT if you have a europlate with the correct plate or other pointless violations (tint front plate) do you need to take 20 plus minutes of a PO's time to deal with something that affects no one else (kind of like the argument made to decriminalize possession of drugs its all the same).
and how does it violate 13 (1)(C) if he is displaying his ICBC issued plate in the manner prescribed?! This section would be used when someone is ONLY displaying a plate that is not supposed to be there?! At least that is how I interpret the law... :confused: | For the most part a traffic officer pulls over the first offence he sees, writes a ticket, and then moves on to the next offence. His primary job is to enforce the Motor Vehicle Act, whereas members in other sections are specifically focusing on Criminal Code offences. Is that offence going to be the most serious offence on the road at the time? Not always, but that traffic cop is only one person and can only deal with one person at a time. That being said, if something of a higher priority does come up, that officer will likely drop what he is doing and move onto the higher priority event.
Your argument about how you can walk around with illicit substances and nothing is done about it is also flawed. As a regular member of the general public, your view of the police is what you see on a day to day basis and what the general public sees on a day to day basis is generally traffic stops. On any given day when I am off duty I see at least a couple of cars pulled over when driving around town just because it is easy to see. It is usually in the middle of a busy place and there are flashing red and blue lights. And even if there is a drug seizure in that traffic stop, you as the general public only view it as simply a traffic stop because you don't know exactly what is going on there. There is a lot more stuff that goes on everyday that you don't see. Do you ever go from crack shack to crack shack in your city to see what police are doing there? I go to the crack shacks in Richmond everyday to find out what is going on, to talk to the chronic offenders to get intel on who is doing what around town, to look for stolen property, etc. Even though I do it everyday, the general public does not see that for obvious reasons even though they see me giving out the one ticket I gave out all day and going for my one lunch/coffee break that I take in my 12 hour shift.
There are also all of the plain clothes sections you don't see. There is serious crime, drug section, Marajuana enforcement team, property crime, the list goes on. Those are teams of people working on specifically those problems around the clock, but again, you never see or hear about them. I don't know the exact numbers, but I bet serious crime section in Richmond has 5 to 10 times as many members as traffic section does.
This ticket for the two front plates, is it saving a life? Probably not. Is it getting drugs off of the street? Probably not. Do I know why you can't have a novelty plate on the front of your car? I don't know the exact reasons. Have I ever written a ticket for that? No. The one thing I do know is that laws are enforced, no matter how minor they are. The fact that he did not know it was illegal, he could probably dispute the ticket and have the fine reduced substantially if he takes the extra plate off of his car and explains the situation to the judge. I know it takes time out of his day, but at least there are checks and balances in our system for the people who truly were not wilfully breaking the law. |