Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Utah Sucks (Continued)

I'm not done with my Utah bitching session...

In Salt Lake City, you had better staunchly watch the speed limit whenever you are going down a hill (or driving anywhere for that matter). Utah cops love to hide at the bottom of hills and turn victims of gravity into criminals. There is an overpass which I frequently use. I have literally seen dozens and dozens of people pulled over at the bottom of this overpass. Almost every time I drive over it, sure enough there is a cop hiding there with his little radar gun.

And if you get pulled over in Utah, you are going to get nailed to the wall. A Utah cop has absolutely no concept of a warning. I had a friend who's car was impounded just because his friend was driving it without a license. My friend was even with him and could have easily driven the car home, but no... the cops had to impound it. I spent a whole day helping my friend drive everywhere to deal with the runaround of getting the car back.

In Idaho, just north of here, it is a totally different story. I was with a friend one time and I had just gotten my drivers license. He didn't have his license yet but wanted to drive. So I let him drive. He got a little too comfortable with the speed and a cop pulled us over. My friend was caught speeding without a drivers license in an uninsured vehicle. In Utah, we would probably have ended up in jail. In Idaho, we walked away with a warning.

Further, in Utah it is an all day hastle (and sometimes even longer) to get your damn car registered. First you have to get two inspections, safety and emissions. That costs about $50. And it doesn't matter if your car is 20 years old or 5 minutes old... everyone has to get inspected.

Then you have to correct anything that did not pass inspection. Lights, windshield wipers (if your windshield has a crack longer than 12 inches, you must replace the windshield), horn, window tint can't be too dark, etc. That could end up costing any obscene amount.

Once you get your car repaired it has to be reinspected. If you pass, you are given certificates which you must have in order to register your car.

You take these certificates to the DMV where you wait for hours for your turn to talk to a representative. By the time you pay for registration, property tax (you pay property tax every year on a vehicle that is younger than 10 years), and all the other crap they tack on, you've just spend another couple hundred dollars and at least one full day, if not more depending on how long repairs took.

In Idaho, you can register a damn car frame as long as it has a VIN number. There are no stupid inspections and absurd laws that you have to conform with. You just go to the DMV, wait in line for a few minutes, pay your $25 or $30 and you're done.

The bottom line is that Utah is a state which has its eyes on your wallet.

If your car is broken into in Salt Lake City, the police will not even dust for prints to try and find out who did it. In Utah, cops only care about one thing... speeders. If you're going to rob a bank, just make sure you drive away slowly and you'll be just fine. But seriously, cops in SLC are lazy and do not care about public safety. All they want is speeders.

Oh, and catch this... if you get a speeding ticket for just 5 miles over the speed limit, your fine will be no less than $100. I got pulled over on the freeway one time for crossing a solid line of paint, something which thousands of people do every day. I got pulled over and slammed with a $100 ticket just for driving on Utah's precious paint. And the cop who pulled me over was a complete ass, like they all are.

The thing about that was I had just received an unsolicited call from some organization trying to raise money for better training for police officers (which I call revenue officers). I had made a pledge, but ended up giving the money to the state to pay the price for daring to drive on their paint. I figured that our fine SLC revenue officers are trained well enough so I never sent the pledge.

The thing is, I would support the local police 100% if they weren't so damn lazy and just interested in speeders. Our neighborhood is contantly being hit by those cowardly graffitti bastards. What are the police doing to stop them? Nothing, not a damn thing!

The only time the police are heroic is when the media is watching. Other than that, they are just lazy bastards who don't really care if your car just got broken into or stolen. We reported gun fire one time and it took them a damn half hour to show up. They just don't care. Utah is just interested in speeders because it means a quick and easy $100. Utah is a state that just wants to suck your wallet dry.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I just had a guy wave a gun at me and call me a freak while I was walking home from a gas station. He told me to hide. These people are freaking nuts...

tea twi said...

The thing about Utah is you have missionairies come to ur house or as I like to call them Mormon solicitors.I'm Buddhist and these always come to my house to talk about the "Gospel ".and every time I have told them I will never change my religion they just keep coming over and asking me to go to church like wtf I told them no so many times.plus my family was having a small get together of 4 ppl and you know having beer in our backyard. Apparently our Mormon neighbors filed a complaint that there was a noise problem.when we just having like 1 beer outside and they just kept staring from their backyard.and a cop shows up and gives us a ticket just for a fake noise complaint and he didnt even ask what was going on he just showes up with a ticket

Mormon411 said...

I feel your pain. Just this week I was at home minding my own business when suddenly there is a knock at the door. Guess who?? The Mormon missionaries. And they act like they're all excited to see me even though we've never even met. And the worst part is that they immediately being interviewing me.. Asking if I'm planning to go to church.. Who do I live with? They absolutely have no respect for people's privacy. They are complete strangers and yet they feel they have the authority to pry into my personal life right on my own front porch. And every set of missionaries that comes by does exactly the same thing. My records have been transferred to the local ward in which I reside (even thought I never asked them to be) and so I am sure I am on their list to re-activate. They stop you on the street and immediately begin prying. I have visited other churches (non-Mormon) and the people are nice and friendly. They don't care about my activity or my worthiness. They smile and say hi. They don't have an ulterior motive by being friendly.

Yes, I speak out against the church here, but do I force anyone to read it? Do I knock on their doors and try to shove my views on them with cookies and smiles?