REVENUERS

It's the holidays. That means you're busy. That means you've got schedules and deadlines to meet. Your mind wanders around all by itself.  You can't think straight. You need to get to where you're going in a hurry. The last thing you're thinking about is a police cruiser, with its lights off, parked in a dark median alongside the highway. A cruiser with a radar gun aimed at you.

I saw a piece on the news the other night that said the Rhode Island State Police will be adding patrols on the road during the holidays to watch for drunk drivers and speeders. The last word in that sentence "speeders" will most likely to apply to you so make sure if you are speeding or think you'll be speeding to have your seat belt on or they'll hit you up for that. Speeding and not wearing are seatbelt can put a dent in your holiday shopping budget.

I understand that getting drunk and driving has been a holiday tradition since the steel wheel was invented. I could suggest to you that you don't drink and drive but is that going to change your mind?

Probably not.

Speeding, however, doesn't make you dangerous. It means you're in a hurry, probably thinking about something else, when your foot gets heavy and starts pushing down on the accelerator. Instead of 55, you're doing 80.

I sat waiting for an appointment last night and as I sat there, I saw the same cop pull over two different people for speeding. They weren't flying by, but they were doing more than the posted limit. Neither of them presented an immediate menace to anyone on a mostly empty road.

It would make sense if State Police cruisers moved in and out of traffic tracking down drunk drivers rather than hiding on the side of the road with the lights off. When I see that I see a revenuer. Someone who's there to stop you for speeding because it brings money into the state.

We're not children. We know what’s going on. It's just so obvious.The same thing happens every holiday.  So have fun sitting there in the dark, with your radar gun, watching for speeding holiday shoppers. I just wish you were out there on the road doing what you were trained to do instead of parked in the bushes just waiting for more potential state revenue to drive by.