There have been seat belt "stings" all over the twin cities here. I have went on to witness officers parked at the entrance of on ramps with binoculars, looking all the way down the highway in morning traffic, and pulling every single person possible to make matters worse. I have went on to hear of 3 co-workers getting seat belt tickets in the last month, along with my cousin getting one and his mother also, coming into MN from WI.
But now, I think they are going too far
http://www.twincities.com/rosario/ci_14 ... ck_check=1
excerpt
Blake Elfstrom, 22, of Maplewood, was driving his girlfriend home late Sunday morning. He was the fourth car at a stop sign before turning onto westbound Minnesota 36 from northbound McKnight Road in North St. Paul.
That was when he spotted a shabbily dressed, middle-aged man wearing glasses that seemed too big for his face. The man, who turned out to be Maplewood cop Paul Bartz, was holding up a sign — "Will work for food" — as he approached and looked inside the line of waiting vehicles.
Elfstrom was pondering whether to roll down his window when he saw the cars moving ahead of him. He entered the on-ramp, only to be waved to the side of the road moments later by one of several uniformed cops standing near a line of patrol cars.
He asked the cop why he was being pulled over. The officer told him his girlfriend was in violation of a 9-month-old law that gives Minnesota law enforcement the authority to pull over drivers and occupants for not wearing seat belts.
"How in the world did you know?" Elfstrom asked the ticketing officer.
"That homeless guy back there? He's an officer," the cop replied.
"I saw about 10 other cars pulled over as he wrote out the (summons)
If you read the story you would have gone on to read they gave out over 120 tickets in just over 3 hours, for a minimum total of around $13,000 being extracted from the community.
for the record, I wear my seat belt 99.6% of the time. I believe in seat belts, I understand how bad accidents can be and how high health care costs can run, and the last thing I want to do in life is to be giving more money to the gov't. But this is turning into a pirate operation.
and feeling like a crackhead looking over my shoulder all day for the police. I usually see about 10-15 police per day out on the roads. I make it a habit to count them.
