Now that sounds like a good use of police manpower

[priv8ter]

So, I finally get home from San Diego, and I'm watching the local news so I can find out what's been happening, and get my daily dose of anger over the stupidity I see in the world. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long.

One of the Seattle stations was doing a story about a police sting going down at a Highway rest stop over in Snohomish County.

It seems that folks are going to the rest stop, and putting trash in the dumptsters. Imagine that! Trash in the dumpsters! Not on the side of the road, but in the dumpsters.

Well, so much trash was going into the dumpsters that sometimes the county had to pay up to an extra $1500 a month to get the dumptsters emptied. I guess people were showing up and throwing trash away from their houses.

So, they county paid to put up a sign notifying people that the only trash allowed to be disposed of was what was created in your car. And when that didn't work, they had a cop sit at the rest stop, and start ticketing people that were throwing trash away.

The news showed three people doing it...two folks with one bag a piece, and another older lady who threw out two grocery store sized plastic bags of trash(now I don't know about you, but given a month or so, I can accumulate that much trash in my car.)

All three folks they caught doing it were fined $500 dollars!

For throwing trash in a dumpster.

And then, while they were interviewing the cop doing the 'sting' he didn't even have the good grace to look embarressed to be giving out tickets to people for putting trash in a dumpster.



But hey...with that $1500, I guess the county can afford to have the trash emptied next month, before needing to collect more money from people that were putting trash in a dumpster.

ARGHHHHHHH :banghead:

greg

 

[Orthonym]

I wouldn't know about this.

I NEVER go deeper than the 1986 layer in my truck. (Something might bite me)

 

[LiquidTension]

The Force tells me that this thread will be closed soon due to no relation to firearms...

 

[BigDeeeeeeee]

Once a very long time ago I found a shotgun in a dumpster. That's all I'm going to say about that.

 

[Moparmike]

God forbid we use a trashcan for its intended purpose. Maybe they should just put 2 dumpsters there and the same truck can empty them both. But that would be using logic... And we all know that logic and government go together like Matter and Anti-matter.

I agree liquid, The Force tells me the same thing. However, The Schwartz tells me that the good grace of a Moderator will provide the power to pursuade this thread over to Legal & Political.

 

[Justin]

*grabs priv8ter like Chris Walken in 'The Dead Zone' and goes into trance*

I, I see your future. It resides in the L&P forum.

 

[resmeth]

Out of curiosity did they state the fine for just chucking the trash on the side of the road?
Oh well better the cop be watching the trash than me speed.

 

[4v50 Gary]

One of the "ten" responses to why "you" were stopped:

"Yes ma'am, I know there are bank robbers to catch but I thought I'd play it safe today and issue you a moving citation instead."

My favorite was "Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster."

 

[brownie0486]

It's more due to state tax dollars being spent to pick up the extra trash than nothing else to do by the "boys".

Course, a lot of folks can't wait to make fun of the boys for enforcement of the law. The dumpsters are not there in the rest areas for your homes trash, thats what you pay the town to do [ pick up the trash ].

Anyone want to guess why the trash would be dropped off at the rest area in lieu of their own street corner? Or their local dump?

People atempting to get the state to pay for their trash pickup. Costs me 300.00 a year to have it picked up at te curb, guess I could save that money and take it to the states dumpster, then, if everyone decided to do it, the state could pick up the tab for a whole neighborhood [ waste of "my" tax dollars ] to have anothers trash collected? Doesn't seem right to me.

Brownie

 

[hammer4nc]

People, rather than complain about this, we should all express our sincere gratitude! We should be THANKFUL it's not being used as a SWAT training exercise! (Although I'm sure there are some officials who argued that this would be a perfect application for armored vehicles, night vision, CS gas and "flash-bangs", cooler heads have prevailed for the moment.) Repeat law breakers MUST be taught a lesson.

Rest assured, in the 2003 version of Alice's Restaurant, officer brownie... er, I mean Obie, will be equipped with much more than 27 eight-by-ten glossy photographs...cop equipment (and tactics) have come a long way!

 

[Standing Wolf]

Millions upon millions of illegal aliens infest our nation like a cancer, and we've got cops keeping a close eye on trash containers?

 

[spartacus2002]

To keep this thread firearms-related.......

THIS nefarious conduct by skulking trashmongers is EXACTLY why police stations request M249 Squad Automatic Weapons. The War on Drugs will pale in comparison to the War on Dumpsters.

 

[TheeBadOne]

To effectively sum up this entire thread, “Those damn copsâ€!

 

[jimpeel]

So the remedy isn’t to tell people they can’t throw the trash in the dumpster; but to issue them a $500 citation instead. The cop gets about $100-$150/day so the proofit margin is in the neighborhood of 10:1. Sounds like revenue enhancement to me.

Since the fine for littering is also $500 I would simply remove the offending trash from the dumpster and throw it in the air. If you’re going to get whacked, at least let it be for something you’ve actually done.

If someone decided to sit at the area and accept trash from people the police would tell him to leave or be cited for loitering. Can't have some yahoo standing between them and that $1,500/day, now, can they?

 

[c_yeager]

So, let me get this straight. You are criticizing cops for enforcing a law right? Here i thought thats what they were paid to do.

 

[WonderNine]

The news showed three people doing it...two folks with one bag a piece, and another older lady who threw out two grocery store sized plastic bags of trash(now I don't know about you, but given a month or so, I can accumulate that much trash in my car.)

All three folks they caught doing it were fined $500 dollars!

For throwing trash in a dumpster.

And then, while they were interviewing the cop doing the 'sting' he didn't even have the good grace to look embarressed to be giving out tickets to people for putting trash in a dumpster.

I'm at a loss for words

I couldn't imagine having to live in California for very long. I'd go postal in no time.

 

[greyhound]

To effectively sum up this entire thread, “Those damn copsâ€!

My anger with c**p like this is not with the cops, but with the stupid beaurocrats who order them to do stupid stuff like this. I'm sure most police would rather be doing something more useful than this.

Sure, I will rant at cops when deserved (i.e. placing themselves over lowly "civilians"), but in this case they weren't the ones that decided that the way to keep the public safe was to patrol trash dumpsters!

 

[brownie0486]

Cops don't enforce only safety laws, they are charged with enforcing all laws within their jurisdiction.

Guess people don't understand about tax dollars being wasted except where the cops are concerned. More of the Us vs. them me thinks. It couldn't possibly be the person who is illegally dumping trashs fault, so hwy, it must be the cops fault.

And I'd bet the cops were not the ones with the idea to stop the highway trash dumping in the first place as well. They are the enforcement arm, not the law makers.

Throw the trash in the air and you are now charged with littering and unlawful trash dumping. Double fines there for those who would be so inclined. Want to incite the cop at the scene to make your point? No problem.

Anyone say the cops were standing around and waiting for the trash dumpers? No, but others here will take the time to post it like they are. State police in our area are charged with highway duties, it wouldn't be the locals on the highway. As their duties are to patrol the highways and enforce the laws, they are doing their job. Don't want them enforcing a "stupid" law? Get the laws changed and then they can go about catching felons and speeders, but those who get tickets for speeding will probably have a problem with them performing that duty as well.

BTW--It's not a revenue generator for LE's. If you are not aware of where the funds go, you should either look it up or not post that crap. They don't get paid peacemeal per citation, whether that be all or partial. It's a revenue generator for the state [ state roads ].

And all this could go away IF people would obey the laws as they are written to begin with, right?


Brownie