THE EDITOR, Sir:
Are the traffic police above the law? On Friday March 18, 2005 I was travelling along Highway 2000 on my way to Kingston. As I approached the Vineyards Toll Plaza, I noticed that a marked police car was going through in another queue.
Once I went through the Toll Plaza I drove a little distance behind the police car at a steady speed. I noticed that other cars passed it.
Not very long after I went through the toll plaza, the driver of the police car put on his
flashing lights, slowed down a bit and indicated to me that I should pull over and stop on the soft shoulder. I did as he bid me. A woman constable (whom I shall not name) came out of the car, told me good morning, then told me that I had exceeded the speed limit. She said I had been picked up on their car's radar.
She asked me for the documents relating to my car. I told her that I did not travel with them. She then asked me for my driver's licence and told me, among other things, that she was going to give me a ticket for exceeding the speed limit. She did give me the ticket.
The strange thing about this, Mr. Editor, is that she either did not realise, or had turned a blind eye, to the fact that if my car had exceeded the speed limit in breach of the law, then the car she was travelling in certainly had too! She had a duty to
charge the officer who had been driving her above the speed limit, but she improperly and unfairly cast her eyes upon me alone instead.
Quite apart from the law, Matthew 7 verses 1-5 is relevant.
Incidentally, I do not accept that I was travelling above the speed limit.
I am, etc.,
DEBAYO A. ADEDIPE
Attorney-at-law
Mandeville
