A DMV press release shared by the Smoky Mountain Times says:

A total of 42,290 traffic and criminal citations were issued statewide during this year’s “No Need 2 Speed” campaign, which ran March 25 to 31. . . . Officers also issued 3,157 safety belt and 587 child passenger safety violations and 1,111 drug charges. In addition, they apprehended 929 fugitives from justice and recovered 51 stolen vehicles.

I am annoyed by unjust searches and seizures. I thought liberty meant one could go from place to place, innocent until proven guilty. One of my life’s greatest pleasures is to drive the highways out west where the speed limit is 80 mph. And of course I hate government straps. When I was richer and fines were lower, I often said I wanted to paper my walls with citations. I also used to ask folks if they supposed that by not wearing my seatbelt I should fly through the windshield and land on a small child, suffocating him.

Accidents are caused by impaired driving, and the existence of legislation or excessive signage likely won’t do much to bring a temporarily-impaired mind into focus. Road blocks would seem to indicate that driving is a crime. Is pulling over a vehicle for weaving now considered profiling? When law enforcement can’t even uphold human rights protections against unjust search and seizure guaranteed in the simplicity of the US Constitution, there are too many laws.

All the good citizens are wasting time hauling kid seats and fighting with the buckles while those who fly in the face of the law have more time for productive pursuits. Little peons who try to be obedient to all the laws are snapping, as if in a game of Twister, while those who don’t follow orders remain fat and happy. Perhaps you saw the cartoon about writing 100 times on the blackboard, “Criminals don’t register guns.”

It is shocking that in a week, in a state with a population just under 10 million, cops were able to catch 929 fugitives from justice and 51 stolen vehicles. That is an indication that other big criminals are out there, and it seems society would be better served by law enforcement going after the big-time perps than by trying to fine people for not complying with laws enacted to promote the political careers of people who know how to pull heartstrings with words like “children” and “safety.”