Message from 2-Kewl - Assistant Legislative Officer
2-Kewl suggests writing to Georgia Governor Deal:
http://gov.georgia.gov/00/gov/contact_us/0,2657,165937316_166563415,00.html
and they could write something like:
As a motorcyclist, I understand the Georgia Department of Public Safety was awarded a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to conduct a series of motorcycle-only checkpoints (MOCs). The NHTSA Motorcycle Law Enforcement Demonstrations grant is in the amount of $70,000 and Georgia is the only state to receive this grant for Fiscal Year 2010. I request that Georgia suspend the motorcycle-only checkpoint program until questions raised by the motorcycling community have been addressed.
Specifically, how do MOCs increase the safety of motorcyclists? Where does Georgia draw their authority to conduct MOCs? Will "probable cause" be required to stop a motorcycle under the terms of this grant program? If so, what will constitute "probable cause?" What types of infractions will be recorded by law enforcement officials at these traffic stops? What criteria will be used to measure the success of the MOCs? And, do states have the jurisdiction to inspect vehicles registered in another state?
Again, please suspend this program until questions raised by the motorcycling community have been addressed.
Riders asked to oppose George motorcycle-only checkpoints
| At least two states, New York and Georgia have established motorcycle-only checkpoints. The New York law is being challenged (on the premise that it’s unconstitutional to discriminate single out motorcyclists) and may well go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Read the AMA Press Release (below) and remember that you RIGHTS and your FREEDOM are being challenged with each action taken by State and Federal Governments. Raoul |
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Riders asked to oppose Georgia motorcycle-only checkpoints
February 23, 2011
The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is urging riders nationwide to contact Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to urge him to stop the Georgia State Patrol from conducting any motorcycle-only traffic checkpoints.
Tens of thousands of motorcyclists from around the nation could be subject to Georgia motorcycle-only checkpoints if those checkpoints are in place before, during and after Daytona (Fla.) Bike Week, which runs March 4-13.
Ed Moreland, AMA senior vice president for government affairs, suggests that riders contact the governor through the AMA website at http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/rights/issueslegislation and ask that any motorcycle-only checkpoints be suspended until key questions are answered. Those questions, which have been posed by the AMA to Deal and other officials, include: How do motorcycle-only checkpoints increase the safety of motorcyclists? Where do states draw their authority to conduct motorcycle-only checkpoints? Is "probable cause" required to stop a motorcycle and, if so, what constitutes probable cause?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave Georgia a $70,000 grant to conduct one or more roadside motorcycle-only checkpoints. New York state has operated a similar program. The AMA has been tracking this disturbing development of motorcycle-only checkpoints since it first appeared in New York several years ago.
"The AMA believes that the primary source of motorcycle safety is in motorcycle crash prevention and not in arbitrarily pulling over riders and randomly subjecting them to roadside inspections," Moreland said.
"The NHTSA should focus on decreasing the likelihood of crashes from occurring in the first place," Moreland said. "No public money should be applied to promoting such a program without first addressing questions from the motorcycling community," he said.
In addition to letters submitted to the past and present governors of Georgia, the AMA has questioned the potential discriminatory and legal nature of this program and submitted a list of questions for clarification to the New York State Police concerning that agency's program.
The AMA also sent a letter to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland urging him to suspend the grant program that gives states money for motorcycle-only checkpoints until questions have been addressed. To view the AMA's letter, click here: http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/legisltn/documents/Strickland_Law_Enforcement_Grant_8-9-2010.pdf. To view Strickland's response, click here: http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/legisltn/documents/Strickland_11-15-2010.pdf.
James Holter
checkpoints georgia
New York's Motorcycle Checkpoint Program
NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Motorcyclists across the nation are awaiting a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York which they hope will declare New York's "motorcycle only" roadway checkpoints to be unconstitutional. The case Wagner et al. v. The County of Schenectady , et al. could end up in the United States Supreme Court. The checkpoints, which target well-known motorcycle events, force motorcyclists traveling to and from those events to leave the roadway, regardless of any wrongdoing, and have their vehicles and equipment inspected for safety and non-safety equipment violations and stolen VIN numbers. Motorcyclists have been detained as long as 45 minutes in makeshift stockades while undergoing the inspections. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently began Federal funding for motorcycle checkpoints nationwide in order to assess their effectiveness despite objections raised by members of Congress.
The New York lawsuit is the first to challenge the constitutionality of motorcycle checkpoints. The plaintiffs are being represented by Proner & Proner, a plaintiffs personal injury law firm with a long history of doing "pro bono" legal work on behalf of motorcyclists. The Proner firm commenced the lawsuit on behalf of four motorcyclists who were detained at two separate checkpoints.
The checkpoints are funded by a grant from the New York Governor's Traffic Safety Committee and the troopers who work them are paid overtime. Although the stated purpose of the checkpoints is to promote safety, the majority of the more than a thousand tickets which were issued during the first year of the checkpoints had nothing to do with safety and instead focused on non-safety violations such as loud pipes. The written guidelines for the checkpoints specifically state that one of the purposes of the checkpoints is to look for stolen and forged VINs and the police readily admit that they often have undercover members of their gang and auto theft units working the checkpoints looking for signs of criminal activity.
The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly made it clear that any roadway checkpoint whose primary purpose is general crime control constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment and is presumptively unconstitutional. Notwithstanding that fact, the progress reports which the police prepared on the checkpoints specifically state that the grant funds are used "for overtime for intelligence gathering and the subsequent criminal and traffic enforcement." The police admit that the checkpoints, which focus only on equipment violations and forged and stolen VINs, do not address any of the major causes of motorcycle accidents such as reckless driving, driver inattentiveness and alcohol impairment.
Lawyers for the Plaintiff Riders and Defendant State Police are both seeking summary judgment on the Fourth Amendment claims. The future of motorcyclists' rights hangs in the balance. Read More...