Sarasota County has lost its collective mind.

From the Sarasota Herald Tribune article :

SARASOTA — This is the most costly place in Florida to blast your stereo, with a new law that gives police the authority to impound cars if they can hear the tunes from 25 feet away.First-time offenders face a $74 fine for violating the city's noise ordinance, and a $125 towing fee to get their vehicles out of the impound yard.
End quote

Does anyone want to place a bet on how many Stepford wives who blast some Michael Bolton while driving their new Jaguars to the yacht club are going to get theirs cars impounded?
I'm going on the record with this number : none.

This bullshit law targets the young and the poor , pure and simple. How can this even be legal? I cannot begin to put into word how disgusting this is to me. Basically it boils down to the fact that a small but influential segment of the population has decided that if someone is "too loud" they deserve to have their freaking car impounded. I'm sorry, I thought this was America. I thought we believed in things like freedom and liberty and I don't know....the pursuit of happiness. I didn't realized that we have become such crybabies that if someone makes noise as they drive by our house they deserve to lose their freaking car, the car the use to get to work and support their family. They car they paid for. Are we going to start foreclosing on peoples homes if the don't mow the lawn? Since when do we make things that are merely irritating illegal?

This is nothing but legalized carjacking.

Another Quote :

Commissioner Fredd Atkins voted against the law, saying it would lead to discrimination against black residents in his north Sarasota district.

This year, police have issued 16 of 22 noise citations given citywide in the north Sarasota district that Atkins represents.

"I am trying to figure out why are we trying to impound their cars and put more financial strain on these people during the worst economic times," Atkins said. "It is excessive and punitive to the group of people already living under the strong arm of the law."
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See, he gets it, unlike this tool:


"We live in a residential neighborhood, and it's all the teenagers with their stereos turned loud," said Robert Levine, who lives near the intersection of Bahia Vista Street and McIntosh Road. "But it's the bass that is the problem. Turned all the way up: boom, boom, boom.Levine said the bumping stereos have kept him awake at night, and that the city's existing noise ordinance is not enough of a deterrent."
end quote


Seriously? What about planes that fly overhead? Motorcycles? Diesel trucks? Ambulances? Fire trucks? Kids playing outside? Birds? Frogs? (the damn frogs by me keep me up all summer) What does Robert Levine do when there is a thunderstorm ?

Once the ploice have your car, can they search it? Will they use this as excuse to pull people over who "look suspicious"? You can bet your ass they will.



This same county just announced that they will no longer hire smokers. In fact, now people have to have a drug test for nicotine when they apply. Since we are slashing the budgets of everything this added expense makes perfect sense to me. I know smokers are horrible, shifty, lazy people who probably also drive with the car radios too loud, but I would like to point out that smoking is still legal . Are employees not allowed to have a personal life anymore? How about drinkers and people with unhealthy diets? Is Sar. county going to start enforcing excercise regimens? Maybe only hire 6 foot tall blue eyed blondes? Hmmm, hasn't that been tried already?

When we are through spreading freedom and democracy everywhere else, can we have a little here?