A Seattle man was recently issued a $138 citation for reminding motorists to obey traffic laws.
Police recently cited Daniel Gehlke for standing near an intersection in the city with a container lid on which he’d written the words “Cops are ahead” and “Stop at sign and light.”
Gehlke said that he had been standing down the street from the officers for about five minutes before he was confronted by police officers who said he was breaking the law by displaying a forbidden sign.
“I’m with the Seattle Police Department, and I’m letting you know that’s against the law,” one of the police said as he pulled up to Gehlke, who had begun recording the incident.
“What specifically am I breaking?” Gehlke asked one of the officers during the confrontation.
“11.50.560,” the officer said, naming a municipal code, “which is forbidden devices or signs.”
“So I can’t hold a sign?” Gehlke responded.
“No, you can’t,” the officer said.
According to the municipal code Gehlke is accused of violating, residents of the city are prohibited from displaying any sign or device “bearing any such words as ‘danger,’ ‘stop,’ ‘slow” and other phrases on public roadways. In general, it bars signs with: “Directions likely to be construed as giving warning to or regulating traffic.”
In an interview with Seattle’s CBS 12 News, Gehlke said he believes the ticket was more about violating his free speech rights than upholding the law.
“I thought it was nonsense,” he said. “I am a believer that the Constitution; the Bill of Rights are there specifically so they can’t be modified or restricted. This clearly is not a stop sign.”
And, he noted, the municipal law isn’t written in a way that makes it obvious that his makeshift warning sign was in violation.
“I do think this is police overstepping their bounds and using, twisting laws,” he said. “(The code) doesn’t read like it’s meant for stop signs like this. It’s clearly meant for people trying to put up ‘no parking’ signs or stop sign or a yield signs on a public right-of-way. Not someone who made a sign on a Rubbermaid.”
And he’s probably right. With police all over the nation increasingly under pressure to meet ticket quotas to fill up municipal coffers, it’s exceedingly likely that his sign was more of a headache for the officers’ bottom line than it was a public safety concern.
“Police have the job of protecting and serving — in theory — and not to exploit and oppress. Ticketing people serves and protects no one,” Gehlke said.
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