I don’t know what the laws are in the US, but over here in Germany this would be a really stupid idea. Speeding might cost you 800€ and a suspended license for a few months. (“Normal” speeding, that is. Street races or actually endangering/hurting someone is a crime)
But meddling with your licence plate is considered falsification of official documents and would put you in prison for up to five years. I wonder if such a law doesn’t exist in the US.
Also, as I read in the other comments about cops ignoring that. But that would be another criminal offence on behalf of the cop (prevention of punishment by an official) which is also punishable with up to 5 years behind bars (and obviously would cause them to lose their jobs and pensions).
I’m on vacation in the US atm and traffic is wild.
The worst drivers in Europe would be better than the best drivers here.
Everyone is constantly going 10-20 mph over the speed limit. You constantly get cut off and sometimes even pushed out of your lane. You can have your blinker on all you want, no one is ever letting you merge unlees you force your way in and yadda yadda yadda.
In the >6000 miles I’ve driven now I have seen one automated speed camera. There is a larger police presence than in the EU but they don’t seem much interested in enforcing traffic laws.
To any US citizen reading this: This is not meant to be rude, but you guys could have it way better and way more safe than it is currently.
To any US citizen reading this: This is not meant to be rude, but you guys could have it way better and way more safe than it is currently.
We know. :-(
I think you might not be considering all the European countries. I was in Spain this last spring and nothing prepared me for drivers just casually rolling through long red lights.
Very brave of you to travel to the US right now. Stay safe!
lol we don’t have oversight on our cops (I mean, technically we do. The FBI and internal affairs are supposed to be a counterbalance to cops’ power, but that is absolutely not how it works in reality). And I’d be willing to bet at least 60% of the license plates in this video belonged to cops. It’s wild. In nyc, walk but any precinct and all the personal cars you see are very likely to have some fuckery like this with their plates.
The move, especially in this city, to speed cameras and red light cams etc has allowed the cops to not have to pay attention. They get paid more than ever to do way less work. They’re sent to stand on subway platforms on their phones and hide by turnstiles trying to catch people jumping them and skipping the $2.90 fare.
I think as a German you’d be disgusted the way things actually work here
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The law exist its just up to local law enforcement to enforce it. Usually it gets caught when some one gets pulled over as a +1 on the infractions.
Nice. Each state should have a very easy photo submission site for these type of bitches. I’m guessing it’s not a popular idea because many state employees are probably guilty.
The vast majority are police personal vehicles and police family member’s vehicles
Citation?
They’re trying to avoid one, yes.
Apparently it’s true:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/nyregion/license-plate-vigilantes.html
Presumably, what was happening was that NYC cops and city employees just didn’t get tickets, but then with the automated cameras, the computer didn’t know that it was supposed to give free passes to cops, and so they started bending their plates so they could keep their above-the-law status. Which is what prevents them from getting in trouble for having a defaced plate.
Fuck the NYPD, in other words
The guy who popularized this advocacy tactic is Adam White, a semi-celebrity bike lawyer who was formerly one half of Vaccaro & White, the law firm that sponsored a lot of NYC biking events. I remember the sweet justice when NYPD tried to arrest him a few years ago for vandalism and he essentially took them to the cleaners in court.
Speaking of, I still don’t know why Vaccaro & White split up, though as far as I understand it was not on good terms.
NYPD are the biggest offenders when it comes to NY license plate obstruction.
Of course… # ACAB
Cars bring out the worst in people.
My first thought was “that might not be a bad idea the way things are going, just so the feds don’t know where I am going at all times.” My second thought is that I’m genuinely a little bit surprised that Flock cameras don’t auto-flag this stuff and send a notification for the person to be pulled over.
If you defaced your plate into another plate that was also in the DB, then maybe you’d be fine, at least for a while.
Flock’s cameras actually do detect that kind of thing. Quoting from this article:
“Instantly searchable data, including plate numbers or missing/covered plates, as well as vehicle make, model, color, alterations, and other unique identifying information.”
The problem is that randomly deploying cops to given areas to track down cars that are already long gone because their plates are obscured isn’t terribly effective or worthwhile. It’s more often used as part of a wider investigation, where someone stopped later could also be identified for having previously covered their plates, and fined accordingly on top of the fine for, say, speeding.
bruh. who is he serving with this?
People who get hit, hit and run victims, anyone else who needs the number plate if the car is witnessed being related to any other crimes (murders, shootings, dangerous driving, illegal dumping, anything).
License plates aren’t just about fines and fees, sometimes they come up in much more serious contexts.
Partial plate matches and fuzzy matches exist for this reason, I don’t think this would protect you if you were genuinely doing serious crime. I looked into the guy a little more, he’s standing up against corruption of the NYPD which is a pretty important defense of the social contract (and apparently he’s gotten cited and threatened for it, because the NYPD doesn’t feel like it should have to follow the law.)
Other tax payers and public services. No one should evade paying their tolls.
is that what they are trying to avoid?
Probably both tolls and camera tickets, yeah.
The vast majority are police personal vehicles and police family member’s vehicles
The people who would otherwise get maimed for life or brutally killed by these drivers who’ve never learned due to all the fines they’ve been evading.
The pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers in NYC who don’t get traffic calming infrastructure because these dangerous drivers aren’t getting added to the stats on the corridors where they commit their crimes.
