Let me begin by reminding anyone reading this missive that I am pro-law enforcement, pro-public safety and pro-traffic safety.

I wish to address an absolute scam which is either orchestrated by police supervisors or village officials. I hope that this missive will generate a response.

My wife and I – especially my wife – diligently observe all traffic regulations. Further, my wife has a lifelong friend both of whose parents died at the hands of a tractor trailer because her friend’s father jumped a stop sign on a New Jersey roadway.

We – my wife and I – persistently engage in a full stop before proceeding and yet have been summonsed. Furthermore, we have spoken in local courts with many others summonsed for such alleged stop sign violations, apparently falsely made.

It is an incredible “Twilight Zone” experience to be pulled over by an officer and told that you did not stop, when you absolutely and surely did. It simply cannot be that so many taxpayers are made to show themselves at court and allegedly falsely accused.
No one is deemed “not guilty” in these local courts – not a single soul. You are told to pay a few hundred dollars to avoid license points and usually to plead to a charge which was never even made.

This is Orwellian and an abusive manner in which to fleece taxpayers – and insult the intelligence of the public.

Who is behind this charade? It seems all the court personnel are in on it. Are there a “specified number of seconds” required to constitute your having stopped? Is it not enough that you stopped and are “honked” to move by impatient drivers behind you? And those in a rush are never the persons ensnared in this farce.

I ask again – why are citizens being obviously falsely charged? I encourage strict enforcement for violators, but this apparently local farce – particularly in the local peninsula villages — must investigated.

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld

Great Neck