I got home last evening and read the Times-Union article about the Kosciusko County law enforcement officers receiving a $31,000 grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute and how the Warsaw Police Department, along with the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department, have been on an enforcement blitz to crack down on drivers not wearing seat belts.
Apparently, Wakarusa received a grant also. On my way home, I was pulled over by Wakarusa officer Dave Newland. Although he saw that I was wearing my seat belt, he said that I was wearing it improperly. I had the shoulder strap strapped across my chest under my arm rather than over the shoulder.
I explained to Officer Newland that I had a rotator cuff injury and that it was painful for me to wear the strap over the shoulder rotator cuff. He said that his pulling me over was part of Operation Pullover, that there was zero tolerance, and proceeded to give me a ticket.
I believe that wearing seat belts is a good idea. But it is a personal decision. If you choose not to wear your seat belt, that is not a crime against me. No more than if you choose not to study in school. I've written before that if we have cops to give out seat belt tickets, we have too many cops.
And in this case, I had my seat belt on but got a ticket anyway!
So is this waste an example of why our property taxes have gone up 24 percent in one year? Is this waste an example of why elderly people on fixed incomes are being forced out of their homes by escalating property taxes?
I believe that this is bad judgment on the part of the officer who stopped me, bad judgment on the part of the Wakarusa bureaucrats who sent him out there to do it, bad judgment on the part of the state bureaucrats who are wasting our money this way, bad judgment on the part of our state legislature who pass too many laws that they don't understand the ramification of, and who fund this sort of stuff.
On Dec. 11, I will get a chance to assess the judgment of the judge who is going to hear my case.
