Obama administration funds motorcycle-only checkpoints

 

Under its Motorcycle Law Enforcement Demonstration grant program, the
NHTSA will award up to $350,000 in total to be divided among as many
as five law enforcement agencies to set up traffic checkpoints that
target motorcyclists.

http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-ama-seeks-suspension-of-grant-program/

 


http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-ama-seeks-suspension-of-grant-program/

I don't fully understand the ethical and legal issues on either side.

Assume that one has a large motorcycle gathering (like Sturgis, SD).  Assume
that you are a government wanting to prevent operation of a motor vehicle
while intoxicated.  If the most logical local source of intoxication is the
motorcycle gathering, it doesn't make a lot of sense to stop non-motorcycles
at checkpoints.

In that case, you are really discriminating based on the proximity of a
local event involving drinking, not on vehicle type.  It just so happens
that "vehicle type" is an easy test to determine which motorists probably
did not attend the local event.

Or assume that there is a nearby pickup truck rally involving drinking, and
you set up checkpoints that stop only pickup trucks.  Is this legal?
Ethical?

I have no idea.

DF.

 


http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-ama-seeks-suspension-of-grant-program/

I also did find this URL:

http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id 36&issue_idr008

It is interesting reading.

DF

 

On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:03:03 -0400, "Datesfat Chicks"


http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-ama-seeks-suspension-of-grant-program/

Seems a reasonable response considering the stats.

Google "motorcycle accidents" or "motorcycle crashes", discount the
'real' racing ones and it's easy to see why the state is concerned
about motorcycling.

 

On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:04:36 -0300, dusty wrote:


The relevant stats ought to be normalized by vehicle miles traveled
(VMT).  What you should be asking is, "Why are those stats not
quoted?"  Look at the footnotes.  The stats that are otherwise quoted
by the New York Police are the time-worn talking points of the NHTSA
and the IIHS.  Apparently there's nothing new under the sun.  This
2008 article definitely doesn't qualify.  Most who follow the stats
expect an absolute, across the board decrease when 2009 is published.
This will be the first inflection point since the mid 1990s.  Any
discussion of the epidemic proportions of motorcycle crashes going
forward will necessarily have to account for this.

"In recent years, law enforcement agencies have made significant
progress in highway safety in curtailing impaired driving, improving
occupant protection, and reducing overall fatalities. Unfortunately,
the exact opposite trend is taking place with motorcycles. The NYSP is
hopeful that this first step toward a concerted statewide effort will
help to reverse this trend in New York State."

Think about that for a minute.  You know what has helped automobiles:
better roads, lower speed limits, and better, more expensive vehicles.
The benefits of seat belts and passive restraints are not as clear
cut, but what is undeniable is that Federal influence has been brought
to bear on the several states to browbeat the public about seat belt
use.  Also, alcohol (and other intoxicant) use has effectively been
banned and its repeated use criminalized in response to the
scorched-earth tactics of MADD.  I'm not saying these are not good
things (Uenses appear to be among the people who think so.), but the
result has been to constrain travel, commerce, and entertainment by
law-abiding citizens.  Which of you, given a choice of routes, would
pick one leading to a checkpoint?

Checkpoints come, I believe, under strict Constitutional scrutiny
because they interfere with rights retained by the People.  The state
must sustain a compelling interest in using them, and cannot then
unduly burden any protected class of citizens.  Illegal aliens are not
a protected class, at least in Arizona, in spite of what Big Media
runs around telling everybody.  Motorcyclists are not a protected
class, either.  I believe the MRF's objection to motorcycle-only
checkpoints is that those represent a risky lowering of the guard rail
this side of the slippery slope leading toward a ban on single-track
vehicles.  If the law can discriminate against motorcycles to one
degree, it can to the Nth degree.  Our defense ought to be that we
require police to sustain a compelling public interest in doing that.
They will have a difficult time without better statistics than the
NHTSA and IIHS are providing them.

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