Are cops trying to get everyone to hate them?

[scottyZRX]

If your lucky they will take your bikes, 4x4's & anything else you have.

http://www.fwdvictoria.org.au/

http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/

I always check on there before we take the Jeep out.

[aardvark]

A $500 dollar fine for that kind of offence is hardly fair. $250 i feel would be far more reasonable.

I agree. I actually think they should work out roughly how much it would cost to register said vehicle on a daily basis and the fine should be double that daily amount for however many days it is unregistered. Mind you, that would be a pain in the arse to work out when someone hasn't registered their vehicle for 9 years.

[SnypR]

Speaking of crime fitting punishment, l am going to court for driving down a dirt track that was closed for seasonal closures. l did it, l'll plead guilty but the max penalty l am looking at is $5500 or 1yr jail.....or both! Had l known it was that bad, no l wouldn't have taken the risk but hindsight is 20/20 vision.

fuck really? i plan on riding on some fire trails on the holidays, bike is road legal and registered but how do you know if its closed? there are no gates or anything like, would a fire trail be the same thing?

this was in VIC and there was a closed gate, just that there was more than enough room to go around said gate

[Whickle]

A $500 dollar fine for that kind of offence is hardly fair. $250 i feel would be far more reasonable.

I agree. I actually think they should work out roughly how much it would cost to register said vehicle on a daily basis and the fine should be double that daily amount for however many days it is unregistered. Mind you, that would be a pain in the arse to work out when someone hasn't registered their vehicle for 9 years.

Farq, Thats harsh..... Maybe a max fine of $350 or something. $50 a day would be a real bastard for a bloke whos never registered a trailer in 10 years...

If i recall correctly, many fines (When created) were grouped and the fines in that group were set $$ ammounts. So some reasonably light infringements are fined well above what would be considered reasonable due to being in said group.

[Kev]

Hey Nelso, I haven't logged on for a bit so I've only just stumbled across your post until now, that certainly is a fucked way to end a good day. I wish you my mobile number so I could've helped ya out someway as I only live around the corner.

[DaBigfella]

Its a funny line of work, sorry but i agree with aardy, the police are not the ones who set the penalties, they are paid to do a job, discretion in the way you are thinking would see most people let off. I also agree that $500 is far too high a penalty for this offence, but an on the spot fine is the MINIMUM amount regarding the offence, write to your local member if you think that'll do any good, but the pollies run the show, the cops just do a hard job and get paid shit for it.....

[Gosling1]

....... $50 a day would be a real bastard for a bloke whos never registered a trailer in 10 years...

that would be me ! The box trailer that does all the yard duty, and doubles as a track-bike trailer and road-rescue trailer......has *never* been registered since my mate gave it to me about 6 years ago.

Here at Anarachy Road, the local coppers clearly have more important things to do than worry about the random unregoe'd trailer.....

I think, for once, that Victoria actually has the best rules in this instance !!!!

Here is a tip for box-trailer owners - check the big bin at your local car-tyre joint. What you want, are light-truck radials that have been taken off the front of a 4-6 tonne pantech.......these are *ace* for trailer tyres - they have really stiff sidewalls, which means they carry a load exceptionally well, and the tread *never* wears !!!

[King Nicholas]

Police are tools of the government.
Some of them are bigger tools than others.
Some are really nice guys with a bit of bastard in them required to do their job.
Some of them are stupid, have a some kind of major inadequacy, were bullied in school and now think that taking revenge on the public will make them feel better.
With the exception of being tools of the government, most segments of society are not much different.
I blame the government for the laws they allow/introduce, not the police.
In saying that, I have found that all police officers I have met off duty are not the type of people I choose to associate with and tend to have an "us and them" mentality.
That is just my experience anyway.

[Nelso]

discretion in the way you are thinking would see most people let off.

Not necessarily. It's using an intelligent analysis to determine if the crime (and the perpetrator's intent) fit the consequence that you are about to issue. More often than not I think a charge should be issued, but there are times when the law in that instance just doesn't make sense.

[DaBigfella]

No it's the penalty that makes no sense, an offence has been committed, clear cut, discretion not required....

[Nelso]

No it's the penalty that makes no sense, an offence has been committed, clear cut, discretion not required....

And that is what has kept you guys out of touch with the majority of people posting in this thread. The law is imperfect and often stupid, so we need law enforcers with the intelligence to determine whether the consequence should be issued or not. You are not just deciding if the person broke a law or not, you are deciding if a persons actions warrants being punished or not. Unfortunately, you guys don't see it that way because you have the commonsense removed from your judgement and replaced with legal requirements. The majority of society see the punishment and crime and see a miss-match, but you guys keep saying the same thing, that a law has been broken and then blame everyone else (politicians, accountants, judges, law makers) for the stupidity of the consequence. The decision whether to charge or not is entirely up to you. Everyone is counting on you guys to determine what is right and wrong in our community for the good of everyone in it. You are meant to be the link between the judges and the people on the street and it is your judgement that society trusts. By maintaining this rigid stance justifying your inability to use your brain while doing your job, it doesn't paint a very positive picture for you and doesn't exactly build confidence within us, in the job you do.

[DaBigfella]

That's cool, I hope you don't do your job as half assed as you imply law enforcement should be done, would be an interesting world then. If a bike mechanic cut corners like that then the new thread would be "don't go to this mechanic, he did a shit job" then proceed to bitch about the half rate job he did. The crux of what you are talking about is LAW ENFORCEMENT. Cops don't make the laws, but it is their JOB to enforce them, if they don't then they would not have a job. Just say one cop comes across 1 per day of trailers out of rego by 3-7 days in a week, and let's them all off, how does he justify that to his boss when he is asked why he let them off?

[Stereo]

The fines are there to discourage people from doing the same thing again.......

After a $500 fine will you be doing this again?

[Nelso]

I think the fine is there to discourage people like Gos that never register their trailer or blatantly thumb their nose at the law. Do you honestly think they had people who were a couple of days late in paying their rego fees in mind when they came up with that figure? If they did then it is pure and simple revenue raising and our government has completely lost touch with the people.

At no stage have I said I think police should be letting everyone off for everything and anything, but do you really have to defend an unjust punishment to the letter because a minor law that has no potential harm to anyone else can be established? It's like your parking running out 2 minutes before you get back to the car and you arrive just as the ranger is about to write a ticket. According to the law you should be booked but it's a low act when they can see you have every intention of obeying the law but were just running a bit late. Sure, if everyone was two minutes late in a day the city might miss out on an extra $2 of revenue but the negativity that ensues from slapping huge fines on these people is far more damaging to society than the couple of dollars the council would miss out on.

The thing to keep in mind is that there is no inspection required and the rego is just an administration fee. This is not a major crime that has potential dire repercussions for society, so to sit there and repeat over and over "it's the law, you've broken a law" is short sighted. It proves the police have lost the ability to use their judgement to establish right and wrong for themselves and now (have to?) blindly treat everything in black and white like a mindless machine.

[Nelso]

The fines are there to discourage people from doing the same thing again.......

After a $500 fine will you be doing this again?

The spiteful ones would refuse to ever pay for rego again and would end up doing things that would endanger society because of their "why should I bother" attitude. I have seen many kids enter into a life of crime because one incident unravelled a lot of good work and sent them into a downward spiral of rage and antisocial behaviour.