What is the crime in warning someone about an impending violation of the law? Isn't this what land use lawyers and lobbyists do? They see regulators on the side of the road, trying to hold them up. They warn their clients of the speed traps ahead. Isn't that what accountants do, when they steer their clients away from traps set by the taxman?
My preferred driving style is to flash my lights intermittently, all the time. People have to be on their toes to sort through violating conventions and laws we may not even be aware of. I hesitate being truthful, because this information in the wrong hands could cause a new law that automobile manufacturers must install intermittently flash headlights in all cars, or, a new law permitting flashing lights only to incoming cars with drivers with whom proof exists you have had an intimate relationship.
From my point of view, the circuit judge faces two choices. Either ban warning against speed traps or eliminate speed limits. I vote, to eliminate speed limits. (for the full story, click 'read more')
By Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In Print: Monday, September 12, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — Erich Campbell thought he was just being helpful the night he flashed his headlights on a busy Tampa highway to warn drivers of a police speed trap ahead.
The Florida Highway Patrol didn't appreciate the help. Officers pulled Campbell over and ticketed him.
Flashing your lights is illegal, they said.
Claiming no such law exists, Campbell, 38, of Land O'Lakes, got angry. Now he wants to get even: He filed a lawsuit on behalf of every other driver in Florida ticketed for the same violation over the past six years, accusing police of misinterpreting state law and violating motorists' free speech rights.
"This is a pattern, and it has mostly to do with frustrated police officers who feel they were disrespected," Campbell said. "When someone comes along and rats them out, they take offense to it."
Capt. Mark Welch, a spokesman for the FHP, cited a law that says "flashing lights are prohibited on vehicles" except for turn signals. Welch said he could not comment in detail because of the pending legal case.
Campbell and his attorney, J. Marc Jones of Oviedo, say police are misinterpreting a law that's meant to ban drivers from having strobe lights in their cars or official-looking blue police lights.
Soon after Campbell sued the state, the Highway Patrol on Aug. 29 ordered all troopers to stop issuing tickets to motorists who use headlights as a signal to other drivers.
"You are directed to suspend enforcement action for this type of driver behavior," said the memo from Grady Garrick, acting deputy director of patrol operations.
Campbell, a student at St. Petersburg College's Tarpon Springs campus, was driving his Toyota Tundra pickup on the Veterans Expressway in Tampa on a Monday night, Dec. 7, 2009, when he spotted two black state trooper cruisers parked in the median.
When he saw them, he said, he flashed his headlights a few times to alert motorists headed in the opposite direction.
"Within 60 seconds, they had me pulled over," Campbell said.
The ticket was for $115, but Hillsborough County Judge Raul Palomino dismissed it, and Campbell never paid a dime.
Campbell's lawsuit, filed in circuit court in Tallahassee, cites similar cases in Escambia, Osceola, Seminole and St. Lucie counties in which tickets for flashing were all dismissed by judges.
"In each of these examples," the lawsuit claims, "Florida courts properly found that (the law) does not prohibit the flashing of headlights as a means of communication," which the suit calls "a right of free speech."
The lawsuit estimates that 2,400 motorists in Florida were cited for headlight-flashing between 2005 and 2010. It asks a circuit judge to certify the case as a class action on behalf of those other motorists, which means that if the state loses, it could be forced to return a lot of money.
The state has not formally answered the lawsuit yet.
All of the defendants in the case report to either Gov. Rick Scott or Scott and the three-member Cabinet: highway safety chief Julie Jones; Col. David Brierton, chief of the Highway Patrol; and Ananth Prasad, secretary of the Department of Transportation.
Jones noted that a different section of law allows drivers to flash their headlights at night when they're passing another vehicle. "Visible blinking of the headlamps," is how the law puts it.
Asked about that apparent contradiction, the FHP's Welch said: "This is something that's going to be dealt with in the litigation. It's not something I can comment on."
Jones said he has been besieged with calls from motorists after the case got a burst of attention on several TV stations, and it has attracted attention in out-of-the-way places, too.
In an editorial headlined "Keep flashing legal," the Panama City News Herald said: "Campbell and other flashers actually encourage motorists to obey the law. Shouldn't that be FHP's only concern?"
After Campbell got his ticket, he did some research online and discovered Alexis Cason, 22, of suburban Orlando, who received a similar ticket in 2005, hired the same lawyer (Jones) and won her case.
"For me, this has to do more with the principle than the cost," Campbell said.
Times researcher Natalie Watson contributed to this report. Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.
11 comments:
I read this story twice! Ever since they arrested Jim Morrison way back in the stone ages, it's been very hard to take Florida seriously on ANYTHING!
This story belongs in the New Times "News of the Weird". I would hope the police have better things to do like protecting the public, guess I was wrong! Or, on the flip-side, firing a Police Chief actually trying to enforce laws in place not made up one's like I believe this one is in your blog post. Or, paying police full pay and benefits, bloating our budgets when they're not working!
I wish the plaintiff the best of luck and would be more than happy to contribute to his legal fees!
Oh, wait, the GOP controlled FL delegation dumbed us down even further when the Shaivo case (pardon the spelling of the surname).
This is a violation of my freedom of speech (expression). If I want to flash my lights and I am not blinding an on-coming driver, this is my right. Let them try, we will get it thrown out.
Question: Can Corporation's Flash their lights?
Janemiami (twitter handle)
power tell us not to lie, cheat or kill... but that is exactly what power does.
The purpose for having a "speed trap" should be to serve as a deterent to speeding.
If folks are slowing down after being "warned" the purpose is not impacted.
The only thing impacted is that the State does not receive revenue from the ticket.
When the State legislates against what I see as common courtesy, that is a problem!
The purpose of the speed ticket lights to make all drivers stop at red lights and save lives and injuries. The motor vehicle code provides that you may not use your flashing lights when moving. Therefore you who flash your lights at speeding cars to warn about speed traps have broken two laws. The statue on flahing and aiding and abetting one who is about to break the law at a red light and perhaps cause an accident. I think you should go to jail.
Wow, Mensa. I am surprised at you. Taking the side of the big bad government. Am I allowed to turn my high beams down to low beams or the other way around? Who says I am warning someone? I guess I won't wave my arms at them if I am on the sidewalk too. I guess I won't tell my neighbor to be careful at the corner or such and such either, because she speeds all the time and that would be me aiding and abetting. I had better be careful - cause I might be called a criminal. Thanks for the warning about the statute.
I was ticketed for this a few years ago in Hollywood. They set up a group of officers at the "speed trap" then another down the road to wave over flashers to ticket them. Waste of manpower and done solely to raise money. No one was being ticketed at the speed trap. It was a flasher trap.
I once held a sign "Speed Trap Ahead." I wonder if I could have got arrested for obstructing justice.
When there's no cops around, I flash my headlights at speeding oncoming drivers then laugh at their silly asses when they jump on the brakes.
As dear, departed Howard Cosell would have said, a mercenary, overzealous constabulary.
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