I am not saying that, I am saying discretion built into the law. They are hired to used reason at times. Reason separates us from animals. Why could they not use reason as a basis for the discretion? Either way, I think the state's system, the media, the public, and lobbyist have done a fine job of correcting the law in question. Therefore, if we did not have the tourist, a large part of the states economy depends on tourist, a mindless cop, and a greedy sheriff, the problem would still be an issue. I am glad it worked out, and I commend Florida for seeing the result of a poorly written law and fixing it.
I know the state has not actually corrected the law, but it seems to be in the process.

I would think the sheriff did take position on the law before hand and changed after the attention.

 

I agree that they will correct the law. If the sheriff had taken that position his officers wouldn't have written the tickets, the story wouldn't have made the news and it probably wouldn't have any momentum to change the law.

Having lived in a large tourist area since 92, I wish they would sell hunting permits during tourist season. I'm definitely glad we moved 30 miles from the coast in 07.
One of these days I'm going to Iowa and drive 15mph below the speed limit while staring at the cornfields as if I've never seen corn in my life and if possible it will be next to another car going 15mph below the speed limit so we can totally block traffic.

 

Dude I did that in Kansas once, sunflowers after sunflowers, my IQ dropped 45 points inside 15 minutes. I did not have to spare. We have an elk herd that feeds near the highway sometimes here. People slow to stare, some times people stop and take pictures. It sucks when you are pulling a boat, and find the traffic in a 70mph zone is going 25.

 

Unfortunately most of those small cities' P.D.s around Daytona require little or no college and pay around or less than 30K a year. You get what you pay for and while Im sure there are plenty of outstanding guys and gals.....you can't expect every person to be a rocket scientist with those figures.

On another note, my kudos to the men and women who work holidays, nights, weekends etc to put up with the scum of the earth (and their attorneys) for no thanks and lackluster pay. It's certainly not an easy task.

 

I agree, on both parts and it is a reality.
I am thankful somebody is willing to do a thankless job for our society.

 

Police Department's in Florida generally pay low, some of the lowest in the country. Daytona Beach PD average pay is $33K a year, the smaller departments pay even less.
My wife's first police job down here paid her 20 cents an hour more than when she was slinging car parts at Autozone. She has since moved on to other stuff like Homeland Security contracts, DOD contracts etc. The work is easier, she's not wrestling drunk tourists and it pays better. Sheriff Departments tend to pay better than local PD also.

 

I found Flagler County cops courteous and friendly,am glad they lowered the fine,agree they should just give the guy warning. But I guess they have ticket quotas,as every other LEO-s

 

I was wondering how much common sense prevailed writing a citation to an out of state registration about a law enacted just for motorcycles that was poorly written, a written citation with the smaller fine would have sufficed. But the LEO was just doing his job, did the biker give him/her any grief, we don't know. Glad the Sheriff looked at it (the law) and instructed his deputies on how to handle it differently. Now where are all those citations for drivers driving too slow causing a hazard and impeding the traffic flow?

 

Since more than one ticket was written to different people, may or may not of been by the same LEO, I do not think attitude one either side had anything to do with it.
I also bet the Sheriff only looked at it after he had a little pressure from the business owners or others in the community for putting the tourist dollars at risk.

 

a little clarification from me. I"m not necessarily trying to bash cops, but common sense dictates that just because some moron legislature that happened to get elected passes a lousy bit of legislation, the officers SHOULD be able to use a wee bit of common sense and realize that joe schmoe from outta state isn't going to be aware of every little bit of law in the books. Criminal and traffic law in Illinois is about 6 inches of really fine print on the bookshelf. And that's just the tip. The entire Illinois Compiled Statutes is close to 2 feet. So Officer Friendly here, should take note of the fact that he has a guest from out of state and realize that maybe a warning is sufficient. Anyone thinks a 1000.00 fine is FAIR for a registration mounting issue is freakin NUTS!!! Obvisouly they thought so there too, as the ciations have been pulled and re-issued under a different statute.
I still stand by the fact that some of these new officers and they generally are new, use NO common sense. all done, rant over. Going to take my meds now.