Nuxx:MPG.25e24d6179d8dd90989707@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news.k-dsl.de!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!prichard.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Guy Cuthbertson  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport Subject: What Would the Consequences Be? Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:37:00 -0000 Lines: 34 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: MicroPlanet-Gravity/2.9.14 Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: ad4a5fc9.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=Tid=AnFkfA6W@H\B:N=aj70g@SS;SF6n7R9OH0:RnEN4:hoe0Z_FD?6`:ITG5aA:c7\VPWj8H:c]8 X-Complaints-To: abuse@zen.co.uk Bytes: 3097 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:835708

If every violation of the law against speeding automatically resulted in a conviction, what would the consequences be for society? Is there not at least some danger that it would make things very bad indeed? What if huge numbers of people started getting banned? Car-haters may get off on the idea of millions of car drivers being banned and losing their jobs for trivial reasons, but said car-haters would also have to go without food and all sorts of other things since there would be a shortage of lorry drivers. It would probably still be "worth it" for them (that's spite for you), but all the same, society in general would be hugely suffering and I think there's a significant chance that things could go awfully wrong if every single incidence of speeding started automatically resulting in 3 points and £60 (at least).

Now consider the same question for pretty much every other law (except possibly drug possession, one or two other motoring-related laws, and probably a small number of other laws, none of which are enforced anywhere near as much as speeding). I think it's pretty safe to say that if all murders resulted in convictions then society would be better. Ditto rape, burglary, robbery, assault (when the victim presses charges), shoplifting, and pretty much everything else that real criminals do. They're proper laws and therefore there's no such thing as enforcing them "too much".

If, as seems at least possible with speeding (and I think it's definite), "too much" enforcement of a particular law would be a bad thing for society, then it seems to me that we probably shouldn't have that law at all, and if we must have it then *all* enforcement of it should be judicious, discretionary, in the public interest and conducted by an officer at the scene who is in no way being "encouraged" to give out tickets. No hidden agendas should be at play (at the moment cameras are used to discourage motoring, raise revenue, *and* keep people in cushy non-jobs...this cannot be allowed to continue). Enforcing such laws automatically and indiscriminately by camera is not the way to improve road safety or anything else.