You must do this, but you must not do this!

For purposes of this blog "this" as it appears in quotes is legal, ethical, responsible and all the rest in that line.

Imagine your boss walks in and demands you do "this." No worries.

Imagine your boss quite literally turns around in front of you. He does a physical 360. Nothing unusual, no worries.

Now, imagine after this brief spin, your boss demands that you do NOT do "this." He also demands you do "this" at the same time.

We gots worries. We gots worries on top of worries on top of worries about "this."

"This" is the position local law enforcement across the state of Georgia is in.

The General Assembly, as it is known in this state (it should be called The Generally Asses), has passed laws establishing speeding limits across the state. No worries.

Now this same legislative body in its infinite pure damn stupidity is ordering local law enforcement to NOT ENFORCE SPEED LIMITS!

Yep. 

Fair warning. I am trying to avoid profanity, but it is hard when referring to that... group of Neanderthals in Atlanta.

Anyway, The Generally Asses passed a law limiting how many speeding tickets local law enforcement may write.

See? We have a law that the Thin Blue Line is supposed to enforce but cannot enforce. See the problem with "this?"

The... entities in Atlanta got an earful from people who got speeding tickets. So, the... yeah, well, them things in the Big Peach passed a law saying "speeding fines may not account for more than 40 percent of a police department’s budget." The new law lowered that percentage even more.

In other words, law enforcement may NOT enforce the law.

"Baker, police departments are not revenue generators. Police are created to promote safety, not raise money."

Yep. In case you think speeding is not a safety problem, check here, here, here, here, here and if you ain't got the idea by now, I can't help you. I can explain the problem to you, but I cannot understand it for you.

This article and many like it are driving (HAR! see what I did there?) the demand to make police stop writing speeding tickets. However, that AJC article also provides a VERY limited view. The Augusta Chronicle took a much closer look and Hey! Hey! Hey! they found Super Speeders (who are not affected by the state-ordered maximum quota law) are the real source of all that money.

My community is regularly singled out as one of the worst speed traps in the state. We do get a lot of money off the Interstate. The. Interstate. We get it from people who feel like they can do more than 90 miles per hour. Super speeders. 

I like this. Keeps my taxes down.

If you are one of those people who are upset about the speeding tickets and the fines and so forth, I have two solutions for you:

1) DON'T DRIVE THROUGH TURNER COUNTY!

2) DON'T  %$^^fifl‡°  SPEED!

Simple as that. You don't speed, you don't get a speeding ticket. You wanna break the law, you pay the consequences if you get caught and personally think that is entirely appropriate.

Meantime, if you get a speeding ticket in my community, feel free to call my office and complain. I promise to laugh at you so hard my ribs ache. I'll even trade insults and profanities with you, if that's how you want to play it. I'll also thank you for keeping my taxes down.