Protect and Serve or Trap and Ticket Around Town, posted by Disappointed, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jul 21, 2012 at 10:16 am
I would like to that officer Schroedr for reminding me that Palo Alto is still wasting money.
Houses are being robbed but we still pay these guys to hide and give tickets. My infraction, seat belt for which I apologize.
I do know that the mayor needs to figure out how to fix this and I will never vote for police funds as long as they waste our money.
Schoedr should be ashamed but at least he can be proud of reminding the citizens of palo alto that there is waste in his department
Posted by whine whine whine, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Jul 21, 2012 at 10:53 am
Whine whine whine. The traffic cops are out there to protect us from the speeders, red light runners, and other reckless drivers that kill and maim many more innocent Americans than robbers or terrorists. Since they are already out on the streets, why not enforce other laws at slow times. Not using a seatbelt can cause you to loose control of your car and kill someone in some situations.
Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jul 21, 2012 at 11:38 am
I think you are whining, and you probably gave off a big fat attitude to the police officer when you were stopped that earned you that ticket since they do not normally ticket people for just forgetting their seatbelt alone. What's the real story, without the whining?
Judging from the way I see people drive I think the Palo Alto police should hand out more tickets - just not for seatbelt violations.
When I am driving through Palo Alto, especially on Channing or Homer people who drive seem to fail to stop all the way for stop signs, and they often drift into the other lane. This is chronic, some people seem to not be able to keep their cars in the center of the lane if their lives depended on it.
The other thing I see too much of is aggressive driving. For example, when you get to a stop sign and another car pushes on through ahead of the car whose turn it rightfully is because they follow on so closely there is no way for the person whose turn it is to go.
Also, merging on to 101 there is always some jerk who thinks it's a great idea to pass everyone on the right and then dart in in front of someone at the last minute who is either not looking or polite enough to let them in. Apparently this is even legal.
One other thing is that people seem to not understand the rules at a stop sign. People regularly just sit there when they are next to go. They think they are being polite but what they are really doing is causing confusion and not following the rules of the road.
I'm looking forward to the day when cars are driving by computers that obey the rules and cut people out of the aggressive contest that some seem to think driving is.
Posted by Disappointed, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jul 21, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Nope, not whining and no attitude toward the officer and no generalizations which only confuses the issue like "anon" and "whine, whine, whine" would like to do.
The officer parked on St Francis saw me legally turn the corner from Channing and pass him at about 10 miles an hour. He followed me into the shell station and as I was getting out of the car to pump gas he shouted get back in the car. He walked up and explained that he saw my seat belt was not on. I apologized (it was half on) and explained that I just hopped back into my car I stopped on the corner to close my hatch.
His response: License and registration please.
I asked if I could pump gas why he did the check.
His response: No, stay in the car.
10 minutes later: I get my ticket and he suggested that I show up to court to explain my view. Huh? I apologized what was there to explain.
15 minutes later: I finish pumping my gas, during which I was approached by others confused by the police arrogance.
Note: this fine officer Schoedr returned to the high crime location of St Francis to get more quota filler. He was not protecting and serving, he was trapping and ticketing in an area with few pedestrians.
This is not the attitude Police have always had. There was a time they tried to build a relationship with neighborhoods. Justify him if you want but a little analysis might show the Mayor and Police Chief are not stopping robberies and there is no increase in innocent Americans being hurt on St. Francis let alone most of the streets of Palo Alto.
I will vote against pay raises and pensions until I feel there is a return to Protect and Serve. In fact I will vote against those who support the Mayor, because he is letting this get worse.
Posted by neighbor, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jul 22, 2012 at 12:52 pm
If a law was broken, well, there it is... or else work to change the law... or contest your citation. Now if we could just get the federal government to enforce our laws...like on illegal immigration and border enforcement. I find it most troubling when we see egregious lack of enforcement of our laws.
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