I knew that Alachua, Florida was developing a reputation for writing lots of unnecessary traffic tickets, but I had not had a problem with them, myself, and so I continued to spend hundreds of dollars with merchants in this city, as it is the nearest metropolitan area to my home, and it has a couple of very good restaurants, a Lowes, another locally owned farm and lumber store, two supermarkets, a public library, a Dollar General, and Family dollar, a veterinarian, a computer store or three, a Radio Shack (franchise store) a Discount Auto Parts and a NAPA store and so on. In short, you can get almost anything you want here--almost like Alice's Restaurant! I have spent hundreds of dollars every month here since I moved to a nearby rural area almost nine years ago. That is, until May 31st, when one of their officers stopped me for allegedly running a red light.
I was just leaving the library, and was headed to buy some groceries, and I was the fourth car in line approaching the light, which had just turned green. I had considered taking a side street to avoid this light, but I figured it ought to accommodate four cars on the green light. The first car had plenty of time and room to move, but still he sat there. As the light changed yellow, and all three cars in front of me were moving, I figured it was a piece of cake. I was moving faster than they were, and I was easily able to enter the intersection on the yellow, pulling up almost to the bumper of the car in front of me. He took the left lane pulling out of the intersection, and I took the right lane. I did see the light turn red, but I was well into the intersection when it did so. All of a sudden I noticed a Dodge Charger about to hit me in the rear. Had I needed to hit the brakes for any reason, there is no doubt that he would have hit me. I knew instantly it was the fastest of their unmarked police cruisers. Then he flashed the lights, and I pulled into a nearby parking lot. He said he pulled me over for running the red light. He took my license back to the cruiser, and said he would return quickly. I figured he was going to check the license for wants and warrants, and then give me a verbal warning. HAH! I should have known better. I saw him writing the ticket in my rearview mirror. When he took off, I looked at the ticket, and it showed a fine of $219.00!!!! I drive a 1995 Dodge Stratus, and my Social Security check barely covers my mortgage payment. I will have to work for the next three years until the house is paid off. I cannot afford to pay such a ticket.
Alachua is as bad as Waldo and Lawtey, trying to pay the bills by writing traffic tickets. Waldo and Lawtey gave Florida such a bad reputation, that the legislature forced them to post signs at the edge of town that speed limits are strictly enforced. Alachua is in stealth mode, here, however, as they do not enforce the speed limits so strictly, and so they do not have to have any signs posted. The do, however, hide these unmarked cruisers and motorcycle units where they can catch people who who don't slow down quickly enough at the edge of town, or in school zones. They also stop traffic on the interstate highway which goes through town for several miles. And they host events like the largest small-town 4th of July Fireworks event in the country, and the Babe Ruth League World Series, specifically to bring in tourists who they can stop for traffic violations.
I drove from where he had pulled me over, to the two stores I had been headed for, and immediately told both stores that they had lost me as a customer, due to this ticket.
I also work in retailing, so I talk to a large number of people every day. I immediately started telling people about the ticket, and ran into two retired law enforcement officers, and one guy who used to program computers for the Florida Highway Patrol. All told me that I was in the right and should fight this ticket. One told me that if my front bumper crossed the line before the light turned red, I had control of the intersection Funny, but a woman traffic court judge once told me that she did not start right up when the light turned green because she was waiting for another vehicle to clear the intersection, which would lend credence to that retired officer's statement. I also spoke with a local developer. who gave me the officer's name, which was scrawled on the ticket in an illegible manner. This developer told me he was a friend of that officer's, and that the officer had prevailed upon another cop, who had stopped the developer, to give the developer a warning instead of a ticket, which clearly shows that the officer was not interested in impartially enforcing the law.
The only way to change this kind of behavior on the part of the local government is to boycott all of the merchants in town. Don't spend any money in Alachua, don't drive through or to Alachua, and tell others to stay well away from this city. When the merchants see their income going down, because people are afraid to drive into town, they will complain to the City Commission, and this will end.
What can you do to help? For one thing, you can type any of the search terms below into your favorite search engine, and then go through the responses until you find this website listed, and click through the search engine's link to get to this website. If enough people do that enough times, this will be one of the first websites to show up when anyone searches on any of these terms. That will help a lot!
