Mind your hedges because this month the control freaks are abusing the definition of blight in Connecticut, spying on you (all of you!) as you tool around town in Los Angeles, and barring you from warning drivers about speed traps in Texas. Check out Nanny of the Month for March 2014!
Top dishonors come to us from Frisco, Texas, where ignorance of the law is no excuse, unless you're one of Police Chief John Bruce's officers. In that case, feel free to bust a man for a non-existent offense that, even if were against the law, should call for a ticket, not the whole "cuff 'em and stuff 'em" treatment.
Sure, it may not have been technically "against the law" when officers arrested Ron Martin after they spotted him standing in a center median with a sign warning drivers about officers with itchy ticket-writing fingers lying in wait up the road. Good ol' Chief Bruce can fix all that simply by leaning on his pals in the city council to pass an ordinance that makes what Martin did a fineable offense.
And sure, Chief Bruce has long been irritated by Martin who has volunteered plenty of time giving drivers a friendly heads up, but the chief's actions definitely have everything to do with safety (says so in the ordinance itself!), and absolutely nothing to do with retaliating against Martin or maintaining a strong stream of traffic-ticket revenue.
1 minute, 41 seconds.
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Nanny of the Month is written Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker) and produced by Balaker and Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Edited by Edwards. Opening graphics by Meredith Bragg.
To watch previous episodes, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2DD00E99B83A258AVisit
http://reason.com/reasontv/2014/04/02/nanny-of-the-month-mar-2014 for links and downloadable versions, and subscribe to ReasonTV's YouTube channel for notifications when new material goes live.
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