Moving to Texas and looking for driving jobs.

Yup....the Dems learned that stealing an election is easy......no blow back from the media....actually encouragement. Communism is firmly entrenched in America. I hope all of you who vote democrat will be happy in the new "Utopia" you helped to create. Lets go Brandon

 

I’m on a jury in West Texas two years ago trying a guy charged with not stopping for a police officer. It was 9PM and the guy was speeding so the cop pursues with his lights and siren on. The guy doesn’t stop for a mile an a half but eventually does slow down and stops with no property damage or injury.

The guy claimed he didn’t know the cops were trying to stop him and that he was oblivious to the lights and siren because he had his radio on loud. It was a felony charge.

There were three holdouts claiming they’d never convict the guy because his claim of being oblivious to the lights/siren was credible.

I walked through the cops dash cam video, pointing out every light reflective surface. One of them was a yard with ten silver tanker trailers with DOT reflective tape on the sides. The holdouts changed their minds and we eventually convicted the guy.

What the prosecutors didn’t tell us was this was the guy’s third strike - he was in two hit-and-runs previously. In sentencing, the minimum we could give was 25 years. The guys who were the holdouts now switched entirely and wanted to give him 75 years. The rest of the jury was between 65-50 years. I was the only guy who wanted the minimum of 25. We eventually compromised and gave him 50 years. 50 years for not immediately stopping for a cop (with no property damage) - that’s more than most murderers get. Texas is not a state to screw around with.

 

That's excessive. Discipline is one thing. Bullying is completely different.

 

Hell, I was on the jury and I agree that it was excessive but you’re only one person out of twelve. It’s not a jury of one. Once you’re past conviction, holding out really isn’t an option.

I talked with the defense attorneys after the trial and they said the prosecutors offered a 20 year plea bargain before trial - an offer the guy rejected.

I’m not sure where bullying comes into this.

 

At some point there needs to be a new compact among the Citizens. We are propagandized by the media which is mostly a megaphone for powerful interests to get their way via Hegelian Dialectical means (they figure out what propaganda will elicit the response and legislation they desire and act accordingly). We do have some nut jobs in this country, but I strongly believe there is a silent majority of say 65% or better that have the same view of right & wrong. It's been muddled by the ultra liberal small hats out of NY and to a lesser extent LA by playing on people's emotions and human weakness.

The idea of a compact among citizens is that it would be best if it were "We the people" once again. Such a compact might consist of agreeing to do ones best to not harm their fellow citizen, to try to settle disputes amicably without involving the authorities if at all possible, to take serving on a jury seriously, and to show mercy to our fellow citizens, to know what Jury Nullification means and to be willing to put it into practice, to agree to understand we are all human and make mistakes, to understand that the powerful have many many means at their disposal to hoodwink us and to convince us to act in ways contrary to the compact by playing to our all to human emotions. This sort of thing.

Jury Nullification means that jurors should vote their conscience, not as the lawyers say "They are to interpret the person's guilt based on the way the law is worded". This means if a person takes exception to convicting someone because they don't think it's right, they are to stick to their guns, vote their conscience and even hang the jury if that's what ultimately occurs. I am in the process of studying the issue, but my belief is that the nations founders idea of the right to a jury of ones peers was essentially based on this premise, not the modern premise of court precedent and volumes of legalese about the legality of various human actions.

I try to live my life that way, it's thankless, but I sleep good at night. Is it right?

I had a drunk driver slam into my personal vehicle from the rear when I was almost stopped a couple years back. My wife at the time and I were not injured but the vehicle was totaled. I could tell guy was definitely drunk. I asked if he had insurance, he provided it. I called his insurance and verified it was in effect, told his carrier guy just rear ended me and totaled my car out. He told insurance he did in fact do that. I took his info and told him he needed to be more careful when drinking and driving. His insurance bought us a new car. Police were never called.

I suppose I left a lot of money on the table, could have sued, could have called ambulance, could have called police.

I hope if I'm ever that guy, I'm shown the same treatment.

 

In Texas, if the cops are called to a crime being reported by someone regarding someone else, regardless of if the person calling decides "you know what, I don't want to charge this person with a crime", if they went on the record staying that xyz event occurred, the State of Texas will pick up the charges and continue to prosecute the person they believe broke the law. It makes no difference to Texas LEO if the offended party wants to press charges or not, if they have gone on the record staying a law was broken, 9 times out of 10 the State will prosecute, even going so far as to call the offended party to the stand as a hostile witness, and if they try to backtrack, then they will likely be charged with filing a false police report.

Texas prefers anyone caught breaking a law feels the full brunt of the State.

Not sure if there are many other states that follow this policy or not. Presumably it's a huge moneymaker for the state and the lawyers and the prison industry which is a big industry in Texas.

You get situations in domestic disputes for instance where they realize the absolute stupidist move they have ever made in their relationship was calling the police one night. It can haunt people for years or even a lifetime.

 

I understand where you're coming from. I call it bullying when someone is made an example out of. Even 20 years is excessive, but it's Texas though lol. The guy definitely should have been punished but I don't look at running from the police or hit and run as the same as a rape or murder, but that's just my opinion. Our society wants to bring the hammer down on every little thing it seems.

 

Maine is the same way, once law enforcement is called, it is then a State matter, regardless if the individuals want to pursue charges or not.
I found this out the hard way.

 

I see both sides, but continue to hold out hope, perhaps naively, that we all have it in us to be reasonably good and decent people. Certainly most people I encounter on a daily basis fit this description, with the rare exception.

I personally suffer greatly from what I believe is called confirmation bias, meaning I often perceive my own beliefs to be somewhat universally held, and as I find out repeatedly this is simply not the case.

It's like the old adage nothing makes people more angry than the truth, which I have found is often true.

Denial, in my opinion, is a huge problem. Like I can totally understand that people do things they know they shouldn't. Perhaps we all do on some level. My belief is that if one knows they are doing wrong, i.e. they are not in denial about it, given sufficient time they tend to self correct their behavior. If they are in denial (lying to themselves) I think it's easier for them to continue doing the things that are wrong, because they have told themselves it isn't wrong.

I think this is true with drug abuse, alcoholism, car theft, you name it. It's just a theory, I could certainly be mistaken.

The company one keeps plays a big role as well, if a theif hangs out with a group of theives, justification for being a theif likely comes easier. The denial is easier to uphold in a company of other people in denial.

With regard to the state and carrying out charges, the example the State will give to defend this practice is the battered wife, which is a good example. They say, she feels bad later and doesn't want to charge her husband but he has beat her up repeatedly, so they are going to make him pay a price.

I think there are many other examples where they do so and it's not so clear cut that "justice" is being done so much as this is customarh and how the boss man said it is to be handled.

 

Law & Order is a catchphrase or a soundbite, not a thoroughly specific thing.

I would point to the distinct differences in the legal and criminal justice systems of Florida and Texas. They are pretty much polar opposites, yet both are "Red" states and known as conservative states. I lived in Florida for the better part of the last 20 years, whereas I am a native Texan and graduated HS there, etc.

I strongly prefer the ways of the state of Florida to the State of Texas. Much of the legislation in Florida is truly exemplary for a state that wants to do right by it's people. Texas is run by special interests (it is like a smaller version of Washington DC), not so much by legislators balancing the interests of their people and the interests of their industry.

No state is perfect, and different people want their state run in different ways, but I would coin Florida's ways as small government, conservative, southern sensibilities, pro-freedom, low tax. The one industry that has been given too much power in Florida is the lawyers, the trial lawyers and such are presently making the state a huge mess and negatively affecting the citizens at large in a number of ways, one of the biggest of which is insurance costs. The lawyers in Florida have committed so much fraud against basically all various types of insurers to the point any kind of insurance in Florida will break the bank.

Regarding criminal justice, in Texas if I'm not mistaken a third Felony potentially means life in prison. In Florida there are people on the street with 20 felonies. The difference couldn't be more stark. Truth be told Texas is definitely too strict and Florida likely too lenient, but if given a choice too lenient sounds better than too strict to me. That said in my better part of 20 years in FL, I never suffered any fate from criminals be it violence, theft, etc., with the exception of having a bicycle stolen one time when I lived 4 miles from downtown and left my garage door open. Had I been a victim of serious crime, likely I would potentially feel different.

On taxes, Florida property taxes are rather low, whereas Texas has some of the highest. Fily in Texas tells me that they must have really high property tax because they have no state income tax. However, Florida has no state income tax and their property taxes, while certainly not the lowest in the country are likely in the lower third or certainly lower half of state taxes. And Florida doesn't have a multi billion dollar petroleum industry either. Florida tourism might be equal to Texas petroleum but I doubt it. Even if they were equal, how is it Florida property taxes are less than half of Texas? But I digress.

In Florida the legislators passed "Save our Homes" which stipulates that property taxes on ones primary residence cannot rise more than 3% per year, regardless of property values. In Texas property taxes, if I'm not mistaken, rise annually along with home prices, potentially running retirees on fixed income out of their home due to taxes.

There are many things about Texas state government that are certainly not what a wise citizenry would want, but no one needs to tell the Texans that and spoil all their fun.

I could go on.

I am certainly not a huge fan of many different aspects of Texas government, but I'm not a fan of big government in general rather it be state or federal. Most Texans are unaware how big and obtrusive their state government is. But its their state and if they want to pay for big state government, and it seems they do, that's their business.