IPFS News Link • Philosophy: Liberalism
Driving without license OK in SF -- cyclists and pedestrians beware
• The ExaminerSan Francisco Police Chief Gascon is quoted as saying that the city is "trying to be sensitive to all of the communities we serve..."We recognize that this is a problem within the Hispanic community, where people working here can't get a driver's license because of their immigration status," Gascón said.
The police chief might want to develop some sensitivity to the 3,632 who were injured in traffic accidents in San Francisco or the five deaths and 346 motorcyclists' injuries, reported by the CHP. Traffic injuries are on the rise. Sensitivity does not allow the city or police chief to decide how to enforce the law. The law, driving with a license, is intended to protect against incompetent drivers.
Driving a 6,000-pound vehicle is not a right. It requires skill and most important for new arrivals in this country, it requires obeying traffic laws. --- Which are very different in other countries. Anyone driving the streets for Rome, Paris or Mexico City (as I have) knows that driving skills require more aggression to survive. There are less traffic lights and restrictions. There's a reason that 530,000 San Franciscans have driver's licenses and must carry a license while driving. New arrivals especially need to learn California traffic regulations and laws, including driving with a license at all times.
San Francisco County has no right to decide to suspend or modify existing state law. The board, mayor and agencies here and in the past have acted unilaterally, refusing to change state and federal laws. They just ignore or modify state and federal law at will. It's just another example of inherent symbolic gestures enacted by San Francisco to avoid 'offending' particular community----gestures, seemingly innocent, that have resulted in documented violence, death and injuries.
In this case, political correctness in San Francisco is helping to make the streets unsafe, contributing to the killing and maiming drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians. And the chief law enforcement officer in San Francisco endorses the leniency. Don't be surprise to see personal injury attorneys ready to use the new policy to charge city taxpayers millions in court settlements
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5 Comments in Response to Driving without license OK in SF -- cyclists and pedestrians beware
Wow! Look at that, it's all Obama's fault!
Agreed, Greg. However, they may not selectively apply the law. If they're only doing it for people who aren't able to get a license due to their immigration status, I think we have a problem.
Law enforcement officials (especially sheriffs) have the right to not enforce laws. If they think the laws are unconstitutional or bad for the citizenry. What they may not do, is create new laws. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiBcC8_goVg
I'm thinking this may have some use in the freedom movement. I don't think a "license" makes anyone a safe driver. It's just another tax and control mechanism. We'll see what happens when a non-hispanic gets popped for driving without one... ;-)
Licensing has nothing to do with the competency of a driver. If it did you could sue the BMV for licensing incompetent drivers.
A driver's license is a tax which converts a right (the right to travel) into a priviledge.
No one should be required to have a license to operate their vehicle on roads which they have been forced to pay for.
Might want to check out: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/travel.htm