The Vancouver sun is reporting that Cpl. Grant Gottgetreu from the West Vancouver police department is bragging about seizing 2,000 cars for speeding. This guy is a piece of garbage and is the reason this stupid law should be repealed. This is why people hate cops.
We all thought it was funny when a member of the Hells Angels was caught on camera driving like an asshole speeding excessively weaving in and out of traffic in a very unsafe manner. Yet the bottom line is that seizing people's vehicles for speeding on a open stretch of the freeway is over the top. It gives the police and the government far too much power which in this case has clearly gone to their head. This guy is no hero. He is a villain. The police are letting drug dealers sell crack and fentanyl in public in the DTES and on the Surrey strip but they are seizing cars from hard working Canadians that speed on a freeway. That is unequal protection of the law. Who do these guys work for? Themselves or the taxpayers that pay their wages and elect the government that makes the laws to protect them not enslave them. Get a life. Get a real job.
Seizing someone's car after three drinks is also excessive. Cops are the worst DUI offenders. They have a tax paid bar on site to get drunk after work and drive home impaired all the time.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-police-officer-charged-with-drunk-driving-1.713188
ReplyDeleteThis was 2008. These guys were charged (Robinson was allowed to resign, sound familiar?) but back in the mid-late 90's there was a VPD officer (detective?) who was pulled over on Marine Drive IIRC, "Professional courtesy"....they called a cab. He got out of the cab, walked back to the car a few blocks behind, other cops had left, he got back in the car and was killed minutes later when he drove full speed into the back of a semi.
All they could talk about was what a tragedy it was, how he was a great guy. Not how many people's lives he put at risk that day and all the others he ever drove drunk.
Rules are for "little people", not "members". They're special.
quite shocked to read about this case. It is my understanding cars may only be impounded for speeding if they are going more than 30K over the speed limit. I'm o.k. with that. some people don't care about speeding and pay the tickets because they can afford to. taking away their vehicles sometimes is the only way to get their attention. excessive speed can kill. if the speed limit is 120 and the person is driving 150 or more, perhaps it is a good thing to take away their car so they can think things over. going 30ks over the speed limit in an urban area can kill people especially if its bad weather.
ReplyDelete30 k over the speed limit in a school zone is very different than 30 k over the speed limit on the freeway. The Conservatives were talking about increasing the speed limit on the freeway the same time the police were seizing cars.
DeleteOn the subject of speed limits on highways......
ReplyDeleteIn the early 1970's it was common to have speed limits of 70/75/80 mph on Interstate highways. Along came the "energy crisis" and the US Federal G mandates 55 mph. Any state that doesn't go along with it gets it's Federal funding cut off. Yet another example of your government using your own money against you to force you to do what they want. Canada adopted the metric system and replaced a gazillion old signs that worked just fine with new 100 km/hr signs. 100km/hr = 60mph. Roughly comparable to 55mph, right?
Now ask yourself this, if it was safe to drive 70-80 mph in a relatively straight line with the suspension systems and steering of cars 45 years ago, why isn't it now? Germans routinely drive 120/140/160 and even faster on the autobahn. Speed doesn't kill, people who can't drive worth a shit do.
A quality modern sedan, Ford Taurus/Chrysler 300/Nissan Maxima, you can be doing 90 and think you're doing 70. Sure doesn't feel unsafe to me. But hey, think of the drop in revenues if people like Corporal Douchenozzle had to go do honest police work like say, arrest people who sell poison for a living... Why, the whole crooked system could fall apart...
However, those German roads are much better engineered than ours and maintained much better. Then there is the matter of getting a driver's license. Its much tougher than here.
ReplyDeleteWhen speed limits are raised or already high, that means a lot of those very large trucks are going that speed and their condition isn't always that great.
Those speeds of the 1950, 60, 70s were fine. However, one ought to remember there were a lot fewer vehicles on the road back then. Now its bumper to bumper just about everywhere. Raising speed limits isn't a good idea. Have you seen some of the driving that is being done on our highways? Seen some of the driving conditions, the conditions of the roads. Prior to the early 1980s highways were maintained by the provincial government. Now its all privitized and the first order of business is make a profit. Having driven the highways back "in the day" and today, there are curves on the Hope Princeton I took at 30 mph over the limit. Today I'd go 30 under. The roads aren't as well maintained, pot holes galore when you're on the Inland Highway on Vancouver Island. Hit one of those at 160 and you could flip and off you go. The company's idea of "fixing" the road is some tar and a lot of gravel and let cars drive it down. Not what I'd call a great place to go over the speed limit.
Given the number of vehicles on the road today, I'd suggest no increase in speed limits. If taking excessive speeding vehicles off the road, well I'm for it.
Remember West Van has its own police force and is a small city. Some how they do have to raise funds to run the department.
Consider that I spent 3 years stationed in Germany, (drove about 2 years of that time, Jeep/VW Bug/Porsche 911) lived there for another few months, went through there regularly on rotation from my various contracting jobs for 6 years, and am now there on business every 4-5 months average. Rent a car about half the time. So....
ReplyDelete1) "those German roads are much better engineered than ours". I'm sure German engineers would tell you that, but.... No, not really.
2)"and maintained much better." They sure spend more time working on them, but I don't know that a=b. Some are pretty jacked up. There's no real pressure to get the job done in anything like an expeditious time frame from what I've seen. Germans joke about that. It's a "creating work" thing common to socialist Western Europe and Chicago.
3)"the matter of getting a driver's license. Its much tougher than here." Not sure that it's relevent to driving in a straight line but definitely. No such thing as a learner's license in the sense that we have it. You have to take actual instruction from a "Fahrschule", or driving school. You are looking at EUR 5-6K minimum, maybe more if you have no innate talent for the task. It's not uncommon for adults not to have a D.L.. Public transportation in-city and a great train system in Western Europe make that doable within a compressed geography compared the the US/Canada, where it doesn't work because that transportation system doesn't exist, and never will until population density in NA reaches something close to Europe.
4)"Those speeds of the 1950, 60, 70s were fine..... Now its bumper to bumper just about everywhere." Thanks for agreeing with my actual proposition, which was "highways", not what you expanded to be "roads in general".
4)"Remember West Van has its own police force and is a small city. Somehow they do have to raise funds to run the department." AYFKM. The richest area in the Lower Mainland. "Somehow"? It's called property taxes. You apparently think predatory speed limit enforcement and vehicle confiscation (extortion) is just fine.... :rolleyes:
property taxes, surely you jest! You expect the rich to pay for the services they receive. where have you been living. this is B.C. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. No getting those travelling through the city works just fine for those living in west Vancouver. Its politically expedient.
ReplyDeleteRight you are.... ;-)
DeleteAnd not only that, Gottgetreu has been investigated and seen many times for flirting with female drivers - I being one of them. Feel sorry for his wife - she must be stupid.
ReplyDelete