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Once when I was riding passenger with a friend, a cop pulled him over and told him that he was getting a ticket as part of their new "zero tolerance" policy: an
by nimble 13y ago
Once when I was riding passenger with a friend, a cop pulled him over and told him that he was getting a ticket as part of their new "zero tolerance" policy: anyone caught exceeding the posted limit by more than 10 mph was going to be ticketed. I sometimes wonder if cops say stupid things just to identify the smart asses out there (I kept my mouth shut).
- DanBC 13y agoWhy is that a stupid thing to say? Before the zero tolerance policy cops had discretion whether to ticket or not. After the policy they must issue a ticket to anyone going X over the limit.
- VLM 13y agoZero tolerance would be 65.0001 in a 65 zone means ticket, but the humorous psuedo-zero tolerance is +10 so 74.9999, although nearly 15% out of tolerance, is OK
- Crito 13y agoThrow on some error bars to your speedometer and whatever it is the cop is using to track your speed (not a radar gun unless they are state police, in some states), and 10mph over is probably reasonably close to the lowest amount they can nail people for without significant false positives.
- VLM 13y agoThe philosophical point of "zero tolerance" is error bars and "reasonable" don't exist.
- Crito 13y agoConsider a draconian zero-tolerance drug policy in an office place, where they can demand a piss test at will. Does "zero tolerance" imply that they will disregard all standard laboratory procedures, disregard the margin of error on the tests, and fire you even if the lab tech points out that the test technically returned a negative since the result was below the margin of error? No, "zero tolerance" isn't, literally interpreted, a statement about how the test will be executed. It is a statement about what happens after the test returns a positive. Of course in practice "zero tolerance" means "we are going to do whatever the hell we want, and then wash our hands of responsibility". That is how "zero tolerance for guns" can turn into "nail this kid to the wall for eating a poptart".
- tomp 13y agoBecause it's a "zero tolerance" after "10 mph tolerance" policy.
- chollida1 13y ago> Because it's a "zero tolerance" after "10 mph tolerance" policy. And.... The US has a zero tolerance alcohol policy over 0.08 after a 0.08 tolerance policy. If that's your entire point its not a very compelling one.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nimble 13y agoAnd is that policy billed as a "zero tolerance for drinking and driving policy" or a "zero tolerance for drunk driving" policy? There is a law against drunk driving that mentions a 0.08 threshold. There is a law against speeding that doesn't mention 10mph leeway.
- DanBC 13y agoYes. Again, why is that stupid? Before the policy cops would have had discretion for people travelling at any speed. After the zero tolerance policy they now have zero tolerance for people travelling over 10 mph over the limit.
- nimble 13y agoYou're sort of right. If he'd said "we have zero tolerance for anyone going over 10 mph," it certainly wouldn't have been as funny. Instead, he proclaimed proudly that "we have a zero tolerance policy" and then explained it only applied to people going 10+ mph over the limit in the next sentence. There's a difference between using the phrase "zero tolerance" to describe what happens in a certain situation and using the phrase "zero tolerance" to describe your policy when it has tolerance built into it. (I un-downvoted your first post)
- Kluny 13y ago