The Dumbest Laws

[Xero]

OK, so before anyone replies to my post with the comment "It's the Law" etc, do me a favor and save your bleeding heart law abiding citizen schtick for someone who cares

*The Views Expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect those of iGame or it's affiliated parent company iBurst

With That out of the way, here goes
Has anyone ever sat back and taken a good long look at how idiotic some of the laws are these days.
I got fined R750 this morning for having a cellphone in my hand while driving.
Now to understand WHY I think this is redicilous, let's examine the scenario.

I was coming to a stop at an intersection (5km/h) when I fished my cellpone out of my jean pocket, a traffic officer (I'll refrain from calling them pigs) noticed this and pulled me over when I started driving again.
I was fined and when I asked the Pig (There goes that attempt) as to why exactly, he stated (This reflects on my Fine) that I was fined for HOLDING a cellphone in my hand

Now, look, let's be serious for a second, the Taxi that jumped the curb infront of me, stopped in traffic and skipped the first few seconds of a solid red light to do so was ignored as clearly my traffic violation was more serious in nature.

Now my question is this, even while holding a cellphone and TEXTING on it, I'm a better driver than the guy driving that taxi. Is this law, the one that was amended form the original wording of "Operating" to "Holding" purely a means for the traffic department to increase their monthly turnover ?

I see drivers who are drving cars that may have been roadworthy 40 years ago at breakneck speeds with a driver behind the steering wheel that can't properly see over the steering column, with NO regard for anything that remotely resembles the rules of either Our National Roads or Self Preservation.
Why then when I further phoned the traffic prosecutor to contest my fine was my request dismissed with them telling me that I would have to go to court to contest it.


Same thing goes for other idiotic laws, take RICA, everyone here knows how I feel about that, I see they've now noticed that people are simply having one guy register every single sim card in sight instead of doing it themselves, once again, poor planning and even worse implementation of an idea has led to law abiding citizens being forced to RICA a sim card even after having to supply the network operators everything short of a pint of blood and a urine sample to get their contracts in the first place.

Exact same thing in regards to the truly pathetic smoking laws, you can't smoke inside a restaurant, great, did you know that the fact that Boksburg's Air contains more cyanide particles per million that is legally allowed is still being evaluated ?
The air we breathe in cities is more toxic than anything I could light up and smoke, yet smokers are fined, even arrested for smoking in a prohibited area.
Surely there MUST be more serious issues to deal with than smoking, holding a cellphone and declaring who your sim card belings to by giving them information they have already.


Is all of this so that the authorities can sit back at the end of every year and state that crime statistics show the decrease of serious crime?
Have they considered that instead of having the Police attend to trivial matters such as these that they could actually be out there solving some real issues.

"Awesome forethought has lead to the number of public smoking incidents in 2011 decreasing overall, unfortunately Murder stats still indicate that people are dying needlessly across the country, this is irrespective of them holding or not holding a cigarette at the time of death"

I honestly think that I might not want to live here anymore

[Xero]

BTW, I'll be paying my R750 Fine, I have no choice as I cannot take the time off from work to go and appeal the validity of the fine.
I also would not be able to keep myself from openly stating that the actual issue is not the fine itself, but the principle behind it
Who do you appeal something like that to, the nameless, faceless department that deals with that specific item where no matter what time of day you phone everyone is always on lunch break ?

That's part of the problem, there is no one to reason with,no one that listens or comprehends that while everyone attempts to be a law abiding citizen, there are some laws that are in direct contradiction to what our basic rights are as citizens of this country

[R4C3]

Some of the laws are silly as we cannot police them we do not have the intelligence nor the manpower for them. In first world countries however there are laws like these but they get policed with all the other laws as well, I do not include the RICA bs in that.

I personally do not have a problem with most laws as long as they are policed with the ones we already have and fairly. For instance if I get pulled off for my cell phone and a taxi scoots past over the robot the more serious crime should be looked at and persuited. If it is well policed tho it will still happen but there will be less of the same offence.

[Xero]

Race, sure Policing a law is one of the contributing factors in this, but the actual law itself is absurd
I've seen, and driven with people who don't look at the road and sit there staring at their GPS units the whole time while driving
Is this not a bigger risk ?
Should this then be against the law as well ?

What about simply looking out of the side window, am I less likely to make an accident while looking out of a window and taking my eyes off the road or while making a call holding something against my ear ?

[R4C3]

Agreed Xero not easy to accept that, where does one draw the line?

[Xero]

I think the line to be drawn is pretty simple, base every law on Intelligence
If you have a base intelligence score of below 70 for example, you can't drive with a GPS, Cellphone or anything other than your Dummies Guide to Breathing book in your hand

I'm kidding, I don't know where to draw the line, but currently it feels like if you are an honest and contributing citizen, you get shafted by every mundane law that is passed.

[Xero]

As a further example to this, the end of last month saw the Port Elizabeth Municipality increase its rate for Pre Paid Electricity.
They then enforced a strict 10% addage amount onto people that wanted to buy electricity before the new pricing came into effect, limiting the amount of units you could buy.

This to me is the same as stating that they basically want to shaft us and won't allow anyone to do anthing to try and prevent it.
Surely if I want to buy R 10 000 worth of tokens, with money that I work for and earn in a legitimate manner, I can
According to their system however, I can't, THEY get to tell me what I can buy and what I can't

Think this sounds like a Police State, that's because with the current situation the way it is, that's exactly what we live in, they pass some obscure legal statute or law and we are forced to abide by it, no matter how unfounded it is and no mater which of our rights it limits or violates.

Take a closer look at some of the things you can get arrested or fined for, or some of the items that you can be forced into doing with absolutely no choice.
Once this starts it normally snowballs into an end result that looks like 70% of the African Continent's countries

[OGBuzz]

Xero

I wouldnt have paid the fine, i wouldve have waited for the summons and then paid, i often do this with my traffic fines, if they too lazy to send me the summons, i wont pay and ofcourse the fine expires after a certain amount of time, not sure how long though but it is indeed the law that the fine will expire.

And then my peeve is the Gun Law, yes, i wish i could own an automatic rifle for any f$^ker that tries to hold my family at gun point and rape your mother in another room whilst you are helpless, believe me i wont have second thoughts to kill another man if it comes to that, the biggest mistake by far is less guns = less crime

whereas it leaves those who could defend themselves without a gun, thankfully we still have a gun and i own a 175 pound hunting crossbow which will kill a man easily.

IMO the Gun Laws should be the same as the American gun law, if your fit to handle a gun then you should have one, you have a right to protect your family and life.....

[Xero]

Yet another example of the law abiding amongst us being policed and regulated
This issue is further compacted by the fact that police are expected to arrest me because I just lit up inside a mall instead of catching the guy breaking into your house

[wheunis]

As much as I feel that you (Xero) got shafted in this incident, what it really comes down to is exactly something you bring up.
The policing of any law.

Currently, the law merely says (paraphrased): You're not allowed to use your cellphone inside a moving car without a handsfree.
While I agree that things like GPS are worse, lets stick to the point - that specific law.

In it's current form, it is easy to understand and enforce/police.
Is the person holding the phone or is it in a handsfree kit?

Now imagine they started tacking all sorts of subsets into the law.
"He can hold it, but only if it's upside down"
"He can use it, but only if he wears his glasses skew"

A much as I know the above examples are far out, it merely demonstrates the point of what I'm saying. The more complicated a law becomes with exclusionary addons and exemptions, the harder/more impossible it becomes to police/enforce said law.
Simplicity is key when it comes to an enforceable law. If it's not easily spotted and categorized in the blink of an eye, it's useless.

That being said - the law does have some merit. Unfortunately, it is one of those that blankets everybody for the stupidity of others in the past.