Never happy enough with mere taxation and over burdening regulatory efforts, state officials want to remind you who is boss.

Michigan State Police are stepping up efforts to imprint their thumbs on Michigan motorists this coming holiday weekend.

Ever since the seat belt legislation was foisted upon a gullible electorate, millions of dollars have been used to cajole, threaten, and punish drivers who have threatened no one’s safety but their own. Since the inception of the law that was NEVER meant to be a primary offense, TENS OF THOUSANDS of citizens of our great lake state have been harassed by authoritative desires of some in law enforcement, and have had their 4th amendment rights violated under the guise of suspicion that they were not properly buckled in.

From the state department of propaganda today (with commentary inserted):

May 18, 2015

For the first time, federally funded seat belt enforcement efforts will take place in all 83 Michigan counties to help jump start an increase in seat belt use and reduce traffic deaths and injuries. Starting today through May 31, police departments, sheriff’s offices and the Michigan State Police will conduct stepped up seat belt enforcement as part of the annual Click It Or Ticket campaign.

According to Joshua, a personal injury lawyer in Peoria Az, the enhanced effort coincides with the 15th year since Michigan adopted a law allowing law enforcement officers to stop motorists for not being buckled up. According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, 2,659 lives have been saved since the law began in 2000 as a result of substantially higher belt use. States with primary enforcement laws have higher rates of seat belt use.

15 years of jackboot tyranny, now enhanced courtesy of an overreaching federal bureaucracy.

The estimated ‘2659 lives saved’ justifies the means right? Want to bet that a do-good Michigan legislature could save even more lives with similarly focused measures? Michigan’s secretary of State rides a motorcycle, but merely outlawing those would make for an incredible result in ‘transportation death’ count reductions, right? And even helmets were once mandated, but now are not, sooo …

“The life-saving properties of a seat belt are well established yet some motorists continue to risk more than a $65 ticket by not buckling up,” said Michael L. Prince, Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) director. “To help promote seat belt use, law enforcement officers will conduct dedicated seat belt enforcement in every corner of the state.”

See “helmets” again, and don’t ignore the subtle threat of the “$65 ticket” mention above.

Research shows when seat belts are used properly, the risk of being killed in a crash is reduced by nearly 45 percent. However the state’s seat belt use rate has fallen in recent years from a high of 98 percent in 2009 to 93 percent last year. Every 1 percent increase in belt use results in approximately 10 fewer traffic deaths and 130 fewer injuries.

So which is it?  Primary enforcement increases use, or not?

A 6% decline in use over the same 15 years with a “States with primary enforcement laws have higher rates of seat belt use.” statement presented in the earlier paragraph.  All in the same propaganda piece promoting the decade and a half jihad on the Michigan motorist. Brilliant.

But we know that liars lie.  They just need to get them straight.

During last year’s Click It or Ticket enforcement, 7,767 seat belt and car seat citations were issued. Twenty people were killed in traffic crashes during the 2014 Memorial Day holiday. Of those, seven were motorcyclists and nine were vehicle occupants, one of whom was not wearing a seat belt.

Interesting they would even use the TOTAL deaths figure.

It seems that simply saying NINE persons died in vehicles and ONE was not wearing a seat-belt would be sufficient.  When one looks at the motorcycle statistics, it seems ludicrous that we continue to allow such activity to go unchecked!  What kind of amateur nanny state would we be without complete and total bubble wrap safety for our road weary travelers?

Michigan law requires drivers, front seat passengers and passengers 15 and younger in any seating position to be buckled up. Children must be in a car seat or booster seat until they are 8 years old or 4’9″ tall, and children under 4 years old must be in the back seat.

I was an 8 year old once.

I was fortunate enough to not have to sit in a baby booster seat. In fact, if it were tried, I would have resisted unlike the wimpy sheep being raised today.  Not surprisingly, I survived.  Of course, it helped that my parents were responsible drivers and had a high degree of situational awareness. Certainly we couldn’t expect THAT from today’s degenerated skill sets and dumbed down analytical prowess.

OHSP coordinates the Click It Or Ticket effort. Grant-funded seat belt enforcement is part of Michigan’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2013.

The Office of Highway Safety Planning acts to saturate your local sheriff’s efforts with all measure of grant options.

As a county commissioner, I was one of two who objected to such funding.  It generally increases costs for local governments which accept those grants, and it forces local law enforcement to prioritize in areas it might not otherwise consider productive.  It also perpetuates the ‘looking over your shoulder’ attitude that folks have come to equate with a cruiser in your rear-view mirror.

Our country’s founders would be sickened by how eagerly we have replaced the king’s rule.

Have a wonderful upcoming memorial day weekend, right?

You Betcha! (29)Nuh Uh.(2)