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Originally Posted by Edward
This was the point of the law. To suck dry the revenue of the citizens.
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No, Edward, sucking the revenue of the citizens is NEVER the point of any law.
Legislators enact laws, both good ones and bad ones, for the purpose of controlling behavior. If they think we citizens shouldn't do something, they make it illegal.
Human nature being what it is, if they just wrote, "Don't do that," most people would ignore the law and do "that" anyway. So they attach a monetary (and sometimes other) penalty to the action, in the
hope that people will choose to obey the law rather than risk paying the penalty. The problem is, too many of us citizens seem to like gambling. Speeding is a perfect example. Very, very few drivers actually drive within the speed limit, even
most of the time. They ALL know that speeding is against the law, yet if/when they get caught, rather than man up and pay the fine, they typically rant and rave and whine about how mean the cop was to give them a ticket for "only" driving 75 in a 50 MPH zone.
That said, there's no question that some jurisdictions take unfair advantage of some laws and treat them as modes of revenue enhancement rather than as they were intended -- deterrents to unwanted actions or behavior. Small-town speed traps fall into this category, for example.
BTW -- for the record, I am not and never have been an LEO (and I don't even agree with Conn Trooper much of the time).