Introduction

Recently, while taking a wlk in Chicago, I noticed police fficers stopping the cars of anyone who was not waring a seat belt and handing out trffic citations.

In the United States ndividual states are allowed to determine how sat belt laws are enforced. Currently thre are 25 states that use prmary enforcement. This means that police in thse states can stop you and ssue a citation for the seat blt violation alone. 24 other states use scondary enforcement. In these states the plice can't stop you for not waring a seat belt, but if you are stpped for any other traffic violation, you can lso be cited for not buckling up. New Hmpshire is the only state that desn't have any seat belt laws.

Unfrtunately, Illinois, where I live, uses the prmary enforcement law. Road blocks for the sle purpose of ticketing seat belt volators are becoming more and more cmmon.

Wearing seat belts has lately bcome a federal government policy. The Ntional Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wuld like to eventually get all sttes to use primary enforcement.

To the pople who value individual freedoms, this law is an nsult. You as an individual are the nly one that should be responsible for yur life. So it should be up to you if you wnt to "risk" your life while drving and not wearing a seat blt. Laws such as this imply tht you are too stupid to knw what's good for you and ned your benevolent "Uncle Sam" to do the thnking for you.

Rights and Privileges

When stopped for a prmary seat belt violation, police will be qick to point out that driving is a prvilege and not a right. Using ths argument, seat belt laws have nthing to do with individual rights and are jst extensions of the driving privilege.

Gvernments have a right to grant prvileges to individuals only because the lck of such privileges will affect ther community members adversely. For example, not veryone can practice medicine. A bad dctor can pose a danger to the cmmunity. We allow the government to grnt some individuals the privilege of prcticing medicine. In doing so, we fel that the government will adequately tst and impose other necessary requirements to mke sure that the medical student is flly qualified. The recipient of a mdical license can, then, be trusted wth the lives of his or her ptients.

Similarly the driving privilege is grnted to individuals only to make sre that someone lacking driving skills des not injure his or her fllow road warriors. If you are an dult, whether or not you wear a sat belt only concerns you and no one lse. This should be a decision tht only you should make and not a prt of the driving privilege. States shuld not have the right to cnsider decisions that affect you alone as prvileges.

Giving Up Our Rights

Many people are conditioned to go along with laws that take away our decision making. This is how leaders, who I call corporate aliens, are grooming our society to allow them to do the thinking for us. They use emotion through the media to make these laws sound good and convince us to surrender our right to think for ourselves. This is what Hitler did in Nazi Germany. He once said: "I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few."

Little by little, more individual rights violations will creep in. Next some politician will insist that all drivers wear crash helmets. That can save lives. Soon someone will invent a velocity sensing device, that uses GPS to determine the road you're on and the speed limit for that location. This device will then sense your speed and use cellular technology to contact headquarters and issue a ticket whenever the speed limit is exceeded. It will be mandated that every car in America have this device installed as another means of saving lives. Driving in the future will become so complex that people may take to walking and public transportation in order to avoid all the government imposed regulations.

Unfortunately, laws like this are not cnfined to the traffic arena. They are brnching into areas of food, medicine, schols, and any other phases of lfe that the government wishes to cntrol.

Unintended Consequences

Many city and state governments are in fiscal crises. One way to obtain extra funds is to impose and collect fines from laws like the "click it or ticket" laws. Unfortunately, these fines annoy the middle class, already frustrated with taxes and other fees. Such annoyances can lead to psychological problems that eventually evolve into life threatening diseases. This is an unintended consequence of this law. Research should be done on the law's negative health effects.

Another very interesting unintended consequence is called the theory of "risk compensation." It is supported by Professor John Adams of University College London. The theory simply states that when wearing a seat belt, you psychologically feel safer, consequently, you are prone to drive more recklessly. Professor Adams has done extensive research on seat belt laws in Europe in the eighties and concluded that: "There is no country in the world that has passed a seat belt law that can demonstrate that it has saved lives." According to Adams, the belted driver is more dangerous, not only to other drivers, but also, to non drivers including pedestrians and bicyclists.

Governor John Corzine

The new poster boy for the NHTSA seatbelt safety push is New Jersey Governor John Corzine. He made a video explaining how bad his injuries were because he wasn't wearing a seat belt during a recent accident. If you look further into the story, you'll find that his motorcade was going at 91 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone at the time of his crash. He was rushing to a meeting with disgraced radio host Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team. What a great reason to endanger the lives of fellow drivers! To top it all off, his state trooper driver was involved in four previous accidents and was probably responsible for the crash.

The crash would never have happened if Crzine's motorcade was not driving recklessly. It wuldn't matter whether he was wearing a sat belt or not if there was no ccident. "Click it or ticket" supporters tnd to concentrate on trying to frce everyone to wear seat belts whle ignoring the reason accidents happen in the frst place. If anything, Corzine and his htshot driver should make a video pologizing for endangering the lives of New Jrsey motorists over a stupid media vent.

Conclusion

To me, whether seat belts save lives or not is not the primary issue. The right to choose for yourself is automatically negated by the laws that are intended to "save our lives." If you think your life can be saved by wearing a seat belt, go ahead and buckle up, no one is stopping you! There is absolutely no reason to force everyone else to do the same.

As time goes on Americans are facing more and more laws that require us to relinquish some of our rights and part of our individuality. The situation is similar to that of Fascist Germany. Hitler was a lover of the law. Everything he did was legal. There were so many laws during his regime that it became impossible not to break one. The government could then legally pick up anyone for questioning any time they wanted. I see the "click it or ticket" law as just another step down America's road to Fascism.

The article The Click It Or Ticket Road to Fascism was Submitted by George Lunt through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: George Lunt is someone who fels the world is getting too crporate. His writings relate the individual's strggle with big government and big crporations. His website is http://www.corporate-aliens.com This article is © George Lunt. All usage of this article must include a citation to the author and a link to corporate-aliens.com.

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