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As my wife and I were driving home today from having breakfast we were approaching the intersection of Bass Road and Gladiolus here in Fort Myers. The light turned yellow way before we got to the intersection and of course my wife stopped for the red light. The driver behind us threw up his hands and you could tell he was pissed. He wanted us to blow through the red light so he could blow though it also. If my wife would have run the red light, by theory, if a police saw her she should be given a ticket let alone the car behind us that would have also run the red light. What I have learned in my three and a half years here in Florida I have noticed is they don’t seem to enforce many of the traffic laws. The speed limit on McGregor by my condo is 45 mph. When I am doing 55 mph I am being passed like I am holding up traffic. And turn signals? Here in Florida I don’t even see the police use turn signals. I think Florida is like a third in the country in automobile deaths in the nation only behind California and Texas.

I bring that up because I keep hearing how the Democrats are soft on crime. I live in a pretty red state that I think is pretty soft on crime. Why? Because here in Florida law and order is a political statement not a reality. Uncontrolled traffic and unenforced traffic laws are not only, not enforcing the law, but it is also costing people’s lives. I know that they are just traffic laws but where do you start enforcing the law. How serious of an infraction must it be before you start enforcing something? The main argument I always heard about legalizing marijuana was, even though marijuana wasn’t as bad as drinking it would lead to people using more dangerous drugs. Using the same type of thinking, doesn’t ignoring people breaking little laws lead them to breaking bigger laws? Who decides if it is an important law or if it isn’t an important law? What is funny is, if they would enforce the traffic laws here our taxes really would go down. The State of Florida would be rolling in the “dough”.

I came from Wisconsin and when I left that state they were still writing traffic tickets. I couldn’t believe how fast everyone drove in Southwestern Florida. In very populated areas the traffic speed is 45 mph on many areas on major roads. On major roads in the city of Kenosha the speed limit was 30 mph. Now I think that 30 was a little slow but and I liked the 45 here but if you are doing 45 in a 45 zone people are tailgating you, trying to push you to go fast or passing you and flipping you the bird. Even if you are driving 55 in the 45 zone that usually isn’t fast enough for a lot a drivers. Why is it this way? It is this way because the police are not enforcing the laws?

I have to admit about a year after we arrived Covid began to spread not only across the State of Florida but across the world. People that had jobs where they had to mingle with the masses were at greater risk. Is that when the Police stopped enforcing the traffic laws? Every traffic stop or in that manner any call that they received, where they had to interact with the public, put them at risk of getting Covid. It still does but not to the level that it was a couple of years ago. Now you put the possibility of guns in a vehicle on top of that whenever a police officer gets out of his or her car they have to feel a little on edge. I have gone through the Conceal and Carry training here but I don’t carry a gun in public anyway. Our Governor has now stated that in 2023 that he is going to make Florida a Constitutional Conceal and Carry State. That just puts our police at greater risk than what they already are in. We are already 3rd in the country with gun deaths and I believe that DeSantis is shooting to be number one. There is a record that says that I have a permit so if they would stop me they would know that I may be carrying and could ask me. Now they are probably going to have to assume that everyone is carrying. If I was a police officer I don’t think that would give me a warm a fuzzy feeling.

The one thing that we have lost in a large portion of our population is respect. Not only respect for one another but also in respect of the laws of this nation and the people that have to enforce the laws. I have a huge amount for respect for the police that were the first to arrive when I was lying on the front lawn, my heart not beating and my wife doing chest compression on me. To me they were first responders that took over from my wife until the EMTs arrived. They were there when I needed them and for that I am grateful. I have seen how many police from all over the State of Florida have come to assist us in Southwestern Florida after Ian. We owe them are thanks. That being said the Law Enforcement is also their worst enemy. The people that the police do the worse job policing are themselves. There are many great Police Officers that are made to look bad because of the rotten few. The other thing is that I don’t understand why they continually support the people that put their lives at risk. More guns just mean more deaths, not only ordinary people but Police Officers too. DeSantis just put our Police Officers lives at risk but they still support him.  Letting a pandemic run wild also puts not only the public at-risk but also every single essential worker which the Police are.

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