Upstate New York has earned a reputation as the speeding ticket capital of the country, but even with overeager state troopers patrolling the highways, motorcyclists feel singled out by law enforcement. That’s why one rider/attorney is taking the state police, along with county and state officials to court.
According to one Mitchell Proner, the state’s institution of roadblocks exclusively for motorcyclists is unconstitutional: the motorcyclist and personal injury lawyer claims that without justifiable cause, the checkpoints infringe on riders’ First Amendment rights to freedom of assembly and association and their Fourth Amendment right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Last year, the New York State Police conducted twelve such “safety checks” near motorcycle events, including the Americade biker gathering at Lake George, the largest such event in the Northeast – and the NYSP plan on conducting fifteen more this year.
Proner claims to be filing the federal class action suite at the Federal Court for the Northern District of New York on behalf of his fellow riders. Whether he has a wheel to stand on is for the legal system to decide.
all of the above is true, the decals in your windshield are not yours, and neither are the lic plates. they are property of the government and they have the right to inspect them at any point if they so choose.
Same thing when you register a gun, you give up at least part of your rights. You have the right to bare arms until you agree with a particular state that you will agree to their rules in lieu of your inherant rights. Pretty f’ed up but, it is what it is.
Edit; I should have worded that differently but you get the idea.
No chance there. The DWI checkpoints have already been all the way to the supreme court and were ruled legal 6-3 in Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz.
Why the fuck would they harass Americade? All the toursim money that comes in from the old rich guys on their goldwings must be a fantastic boost to the local economy.
in their defense, where do you see the most Harleys? @ the bar… are they drinking Iced tea? pulled up next to quite a few so drunk they can barely hold the bikes up at a red light.
Zero sympathy. If they kept their shit legal, there would be no problems rolling through a checkpoint.
I don’t even understand how one could even possibly feel entitled to such a case? “Oh yes judge, I am suing the state because I got a ticket for breaking a reasonable and easy to follow law.”
What is the difference from modding a car with illegal go-fast parts? Keeping it legal is like saying “See that new sports car over there? DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING WITH IT”.
Fuck that shit, and this isn’t defending just sportbike riders, it’s the cruiser guys too, just like you guys mod your cars, we mod our bikes, and obviously just like all of you put parts that might not be legal, we do modifications that might not be legal either.
Fuck that.
Let’s set up Checkpoints outside the gates at any cruise night event and ticket every single car that passes through that has any aftermarket parts on it.
Do a search for “exhaust ticket” right here on nyspeed and I think you’ll see that cars get busted for illegal mods all the time too.
I’m sure these towns do this because the residents demand it after 1000’s of bikes with obnoxiously loud pipes show up in their area. Regardless of how much money a weekend trip might bring in it’s nothing compared to what the property owners kick in with their taxes.
The same thing happens with spring break towns and even Carlisle. Eventually the residents get sick of the bullshit and ask the cops to make like hard enough for the people showing up that they move on to somewhere else.