5.56X45mm
Milforum Mac Daddy
Note to the Brits: this is what happens when you don’t have a codified (ie. written) Bill of Rights:
Indeed, even flashing your lights at oncoming cars to warn them of a speed trap has been classified as a “freedom of speech” matter—and people can’t be fined for doing so.
Going back to our hapless shopkeepers: parking is a huge problem in some of these little English villages, most of which were built long before cars—hell, long before carts—and so there’s no provision for places to park. And yes, when people park on the sidewalks (actually, usually with just one side on the sidewalk), is can make things a bit inconvenient. But it’s an inconvenience which most Brits shrug off—I mean, when you have to get your groceries, you have to park somewhere.
The solution, of course, is for the local village council to supply parking space—either in parking garages or -lots—but then there are the notorious British zoning ordinances, which basically forbid anyone to build anything, especially in picturesque villages like Cheddar, which happen to be the places which need the structures the most.
So: unyielding zoning authority on the one hand, and unyielding traffic enforcement on the other. And the ordinary Brits are the ones caught between the rock and the hard place. It’s what happens when you cede too much power to government, without much power of recall.
A rural village shopkeeper has been threatened with arrest after warning customers of approaching traffic officials, it has emerged.
Alma Floyd, 60, was driven to despair by ‘over-zealous’ Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) ticketing shoppers for parking outside her store. The family-run grocery has no car park but shoppers have used the six metre-wide pavement without incident for over 60 years. Alma says the parking crackdown has caused a slump in trade and could spell financial ruin for her Highnam’s Dairy in Cheddar, Somerset. So she has been keeping an eye out for passing PCSOs and alerts her customers whenever they appear.
But last week a local Sergeant visited the store and warned her she risked prosecution if she continued to interfere with PCSOs “in their line of duty”.
You see, here in the much-maligned U.S. of A., we have this little thing called “freedom of speech”, codified in the First Amendment, which says that we can say what we want to each other—and that would include warning people of the Plod’s appearance. Alma Floyd, 60, was driven to despair by ‘over-zealous’ Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) ticketing shoppers for parking outside her store. The family-run grocery has no car park but shoppers have used the six metre-wide pavement without incident for over 60 years. Alma says the parking crackdown has caused a slump in trade and could spell financial ruin for her Highnam’s Dairy in Cheddar, Somerset. So she has been keeping an eye out for passing PCSOs and alerts her customers whenever they appear.
But last week a local Sergeant visited the store and warned her she risked prosecution if she continued to interfere with PCSOs “in their line of duty”.
Indeed, even flashing your lights at oncoming cars to warn them of a speed trap has been classified as a “freedom of speech” matter—and people can’t be fined for doing so.
Going back to our hapless shopkeepers: parking is a huge problem in some of these little English villages, most of which were built long before cars—hell, long before carts—and so there’s no provision for places to park. And yes, when people park on the sidewalks (actually, usually with just one side on the sidewalk), is can make things a bit inconvenient. But it’s an inconvenience which most Brits shrug off—I mean, when you have to get your groceries, you have to park somewhere.
The solution, of course, is for the local village council to supply parking space—either in parking garages or -lots—but then there are the notorious British zoning ordinances, which basically forbid anyone to build anything, especially in picturesque villages like Cheddar, which happen to be the places which need the structures the most.
So: unyielding zoning authority on the one hand, and unyielding traffic enforcement on the other. And the ordinary Brits are the ones caught between the rock and the hard place. It’s what happens when you cede too much power to government, without much power of recall.
