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Law enforcement officers tend to frown on citizens interfering with their revenue generation. This has led to a number of First Amendment lawsuits from people arrested for warning others about [check notes] the existence of police officers in the vicinity.
One citizen was told as much when he was arrested for holding up a sign reading "Cops Ahead." One cop kept on script, referring to the man's actions as "interfering with an investigation." It wasn't an investigation. It was a distracted driving sting. The cop actually hauling him to the station was more to the point, telling the man he was arresting him for "interfering with our livelihood." First Amendment violation or felony interference with a business model? Why not both?
A lawsuit was filed in 2018 seeking a declaration that honking a car's horn is protected expression. And, all the way back in 2011, a class action lawsuit was filed over citations and arrests for flashing headlights to warn drivers of unseen officers.
A federal judge has decided -- albeit not very firmly -- that at least one of these actions is protected by the First Amendment. Wisconsin Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker says flashing your headlights to warn drivers of speed traps is expressive speech -- something cops would be better off not trying to punish. (via Volokh Conspiracy)
(Score: 5, Informative) by Arik on Wednesday May 08 2019, @12:13AM
That part you got right.
Then you went nuts.
It means check yourself, that's exactly what it means. Lights on? Speed legal?
"How the heck do people expect to be able the police to do their job?"
This is where you went nuts. In what way does this interfere with police doing their job?
Their job is to keep the streets safe. Flashing other drivers to "check yourself" is *helping* with that, not hindering it.
"If morons are driving like crazy people let the police catch the suckers."
Yep, no one's doing anything to stop them from doing that.
However if you've drifted up to 6 or 7 over coming down a long grade and there's a speed trap at the bottom, you just *might* notice the good Samaritan coming up who signaled you to "check yourself" before you get done for revenue purposes. Which would demonstrate that you weren't actually some crazy driver that we want off the road after all, save you some money, and save the police to keep watching for a real crazy.
"If you think the police are in the wrong there's better ways to deal with it than this."
No, the police only become demonstrably wrong here when/if they go nuts and start trying to prevent citizens from making the road safer.
Their job is NOT to generate revenue for the city. Their job is to keep the roads safe.
If they've lost track of that and start using their police powers to effectively make the roads LESS safe, in order to increase revenue, then yes, they're in the wrong. At that point they're no longer acting as peace officers, but as highway robbers.
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