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posted by martyb on Monday March 23 2020, @06:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the Live-to-ride,-ride-to-be-fined dept.

Off-Road Riders Fined while Riding on their Own Property:

Four teens in Hampden, Massachusetts, were fined $750 each by the Massachusetts Environmental Police while riding on their own property. The teens were riding on land owned by the parents of one of the boys, with the parents' permission, when the environmental police arrived and questioned them for two and a half hours. In the end, each teen received a $250 fine for operating an unregistered recreational vehicle, and a $500 fine for the operation of a recreational vehicle without a safety certification.

Speaking to 22News, Melanie Beck said her son and three friends were riding around her wooded yard, with her permission, when Massachusetts Environmental Police arrived and questioned the boys before handing out the fines. Beck wondered why the boys were not given a warning instead of a fine, considering the laws that they broke are apparently not well known in the area. She says other parents in the area have taken to social media to express their displeasure with the fines.

One of the teens told 22News that they were just trying to have fun, in contrast to other teens "doing drugs and vaping" instead of participating in outdoor activities.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Environmental Police, Craig Gilvarg, told 22News that safety education requirements for young riders have been in place since 2010. Additionally, the state of Massachusetts requires all recreational vehicles operated on public and private lands to be registered through the Massachusetts Environmental Police.

Earlier in February, 22News reported that ATV and dirt bike riders riding on city streets have been an ongoing issue in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts, saying that they had received multiple viewer complaints about the illegal activity. Police there have used undercover cars, motorcycles, and cameras to attempt to stop the problem, and have asked the public to keep an eye out for where the riders might be storing their vehicles.

See also: Four teens fined $750 for violating dirt bike laws in Hampden; What are the rules?

Environmental police? Huh? They're just jealous because they can't get it up, let alone up on two!


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @10:45PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @10:45PM (#974643)

    Problem is that the busybodies and pressure groups work full time to get their pet laws passed. They do this BEFORE and AFTER the election, non-stop. Do you have time and money to lobby non-stop? I don't; I work for a living and have a family to raise and even if I did have the time to lobby, I mostly just want to be left alone to live my life. This actually describes most people yet... you are on your high horse telling me it's my fault things got the way they did. Sorry, it's not. Just because we have a representative democracy doesn't mean the will of most people is what becomes law. It's a never ending war, and the firepower is not evenly distributed across the citizens. Surely you are not going to ignore the influence of $MONEY$ in politics, are you?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @11:02PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @11:02PM (#974647)

    I'll summarize my own point: voting for candidate A over candidate B is not enough to get the laws you want. First of all, is your pet issue even on the radar of one of the candidates? If not, I don't see how voting will affect anything. Secondly, and even more importantly, you may live in one of those places where a single political party has such a stranglehold on the electorate that you don't even have a choice between two candidates: the ruling party is guaranteed to win, and thus the laws that their party passed will NOT be overturned by the new politician of the same party who wins... again.

    In order to influence politics, you need to build up a coalition and fund it. A lone person's vote is no more than a drop of piss in a toilet.

    • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2020, @01:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2020, @01:31AM (#974717)

      Your summary is longer than the original post. Without "I'll summarize my own point" it is almost the same.

      #Fail
      #SystemOfContracts

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2020, @12:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2020, @12:16PM (#974919)

    Some people think laws are more important than money, others that money is more important.